Hasta La Gadget!

While it may not be as big of an acquisition between T-Mobile and MetroPCS, Verizon announced today that its acquisition with regional carrier Mohave Wireless is now complete. The Mohave, Arizona-based wireless carrier (hence the name), is now in the hands of Verizon, and Big Red now has 100% control and ownership of the smaller carrier, buying them from Frontier Communications and Rio Virgin.

The acquisition will expand Verizon’s coverage in northwest Arizona, a region of the US that doesn’t get much coverage in the first place (because, you know, it’s out in the desert). Mohave’s operations cover a population of just over 200,000. 3G data will be available, with Verizon’s blazingly-fast 4G LTE rolling out sometime in the near future.

For the time being, Mohave customers won’t be affected until the Verizon network transformation is complete in early 2014. At that point, Verizon will begin to transfer Mohave customers over the Verizon’s network. Again, this only affects those in northeast Arizona who are currently with Mohave Wireless.

It turns out that Verizon has already invested over $80 billion since the company began to increase the coverage of its network around the US, and it looks like it’s paying off. Big Red has the largest 4G LTE network in the US right now, with 486 markets that have Verizon’s LTE, and it covers almost 90% of the US population, according to Verizon.

Verizon completes acquisition of Mohave Wireless is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Social reading website Goodreads has been providing book recommendations for quite some time now, but it seems that an even bigger force in the book industry is taking over. Amazon announced today that they have acquired Goodreads for an undisclosed amount of money, but the deal should close by the end of Q2 2013.

Goodreads launched in early 2007 and it raised almost $3 million in funding since then, so it’s definitely been a successful ride for the founders of the service. Goodreads currently has over 16 million members who have added over 230 million books to the Goodreads database, with more than 30,000 book clubs. The service allows you to find your friends and share book recommendations with one another.

This type of social integration will only strengthen Amazon’s lead in the book and e-book market, where Apple has also been trying to leverage the industry with its own iBooks offering. With the acquisition, Amazon could easily implement Goodreads’ features into its Kindle lineup to give Kindle users better recommendations, and to even let users find their friends on Amazon’s network.

However, Goodreads CEO and co-founder Otis Chandler assures users that the service will not be going away or changing. With that said, it’ll be interesting to see how Amazon will integrate itself into Goodreads, and how Goodreads will integrate into Amazon’s ecosystem. Details on that front are scarce, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about Amazon’s plans for the service in the near future.

Amazon acquires social reading site Goodreads is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Blockbuster’s UK brand entered administration at the start of the year, there were concerns that it would ultimately prove just another casualty of the inexorable move toward online video. Not quite: Gordon Brothers Europe, a private equity firm known for rescuing troubled companies, has bought Blockbuster’s British assets. The acquirer isn’t disclosing the cash involved, but it plans to keep 2,000 workers and 264 stores in full swing while it plots a turnaround. That recovery is only described in vague terms at this stage, however — Gordon Brothers plans to bring “new products” and “new technologies” to the bruised retail chain. While we’re glad to see a one-time cornerstone of video rentals get a second chance, we hope that its bounce-back strategy involves a more futureproof selection than aisles full of plastic discs.

[Thanks, Steven]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Via: Sky News

Source: Gordon Brothers Europe

Back in January, we reported that Belkin was gearing up to acquire Linksys. That day has finally come, with the company announcing earlier today that the acquisition is complete. Linksys products will still be offered under that name, and not much will change for customers, but this marks a big day for Belkin.

Belkin said in its announcement that it has several announcements planned for this spring, and that consumers will be seeing new Linksys-branded products rolling out this year. By acquiring the latter company, Belkin plans to reach more customers, and to also position itself as the “premier ecosystem” for smart homes.

Belkin’s CEO Chet Pipkin had this to say: “Linksys has a rich heritage, a passionate customer base and a wide product line, all of which fueled our decision to acquire the company and our plan to maintain the Linksys brand. The Linksys portfolio will continue to exist and evolve to include even richer user experiences and network management functionality. Smart Wi-Fi is an innovative and easy way for consumers to stay connected to their home network and we look to continue investing in it by adding more features and products.”

Belkin’s CEO goes on to say that the company is honored to take on and continue with the Linksys brand. Current customers don’t need to worry – their warranties will continue to be honored, as well as future Linksys warranties. In addition, Linksys will continue to offer support via its existing infrastructure and website support pages.

[via Belkin]

Belkin completes Linksys acquistition is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dropbox announced they receive one billion uploads every day a few weeks ago at MWC, which obviously means they have a ton of users uploading their files onto the service on a regular basis. They’re always looking to expand their features, which is why they previously acquired Audiogalaxy and Snapjoy. Today, Dropbox is announcing another acquisition that may make them a major player in the world of email clients.

Dropbox has announced they have acquired a newly popular iPhone email application, Mailbox. “Like many of you, when we discovered Mailbox we fell in love,” wrote Dropbox co-founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in a recently published blog post. “It was simple, delightful, and beautifully engineered.”

Mailbox’s acquisition doesn’t mean the service will suddenly become a part of Dropbox and be used as an added service. Dropbox plans to keep Mailbox as a separate entity and will help push it forward to add more email providers and mobile devices, as well as additional features. All 14 employees of Mailbox will keep their positions and continue their work on the application.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More Nokia Lumia 928 Samples Leaked?, Sony Xperia ZL Gets New Firmware,