Hasta La Gadget!

Alltel’s retail shops, 585,000 customers and the chunks of the 700MHz, 900MHz and 1900MHz bands it operates will soon be part of the AT&T family. Pending an FCC review, of course. This morning the former Ma Bell announced that it would be purchasing the American assets of Atlantic Tele-Network, which uses the Alltel brand here in the US, for $780 million. While the additional customer revenue will surely be welcome, it’s clear that AT&T is primarily after the spectrum here, which it calls “largely complimentary” to its current holdings. The smaller carrier is particularly popular in the rural areas of Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina — places that the nation’s second largest mobile network could use a boost in.

Besides regulatory approval, which shouldn’t prove to be a major obstacle, the company also faces challenges integrating Alltel’s existing infrastructure with its own. Currently the smaller carrier operates a CDMA network on its frequency bands, which must be retooled to work with AT&T’s GSM, HSPA and LTE technologies. Customers will also need to be migrated from their current handsets to AT&T compatible ones. So, while rural customers could see a significant improvement in coverage, we wouldn’t expect the deal to bear fruit immediately. For more, check out the PR after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, AT&T

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Via: The Next Web

If you ran Dish, how would you get extra leverage when fighting Sprint for control of Clearwire? Try to put SoftBank’s acquisition of Sprint on ice, that’s how. The satellite TV provider has asked the FCC to pause its review process over “unresolved contingencies” with Sprint’s proposed buyout of Clearwire. Among the concerns, Dish warns that Sprint might not get full control of Clearwire or its spectrum, skewing the final value of the takeover, and that approval of the SoftBank-Sprint union might give the combined entity an unfair edge. Dish also makes a case for preserving wireless competition, but the company is still fairly conspicuous in its ultimate aims — it wants a better shot at buying Clearwire, or at least to eke some LTE-friendly spectrum out of Sprint before SoftBank can move in. Just filing a request isn’t a guarantee of action, however, and it’s likely that Sprint will push back against any attempts to derail what’s likely its deal of the decade.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: FCC (PDF)

The rumorsphere is alight with speculation that Apple is in advanced acquisition talks with Waze, with sources saying that Apple is trying to talk the company’s price down to somewhere in the half-billion dollar range. Apple already uses Waze as a data partner with its monumentally flawed Maps application. Waze is unique in that it provides social traffic data gathered from drivers.

Initially, the rumors stated simply that Apple was in talks with Waze, with neither company offering any comment on the claims. Soon after, however, a new source appeared stating that negotiations are revolving around price, with Waze asking for $750 million, and Apple trying to talk it down to $400 million with an addition $100 million in incentives. Waze’s revenue primarily comes via advertisements, and fell short of the $1 million mark last year.

One of Waze’s biggest advantages is that the data is gathered via actual vehicles navigating the roads. Thus far, Apple Maps has proven to be a large failure, with the platform sending drivers to incorrect locations, including bodies of water and the sides of buildings. In its worst mistake to date, the system was sending drivers into the middle of a desert-like national park, stranding them in conditions that can be fatal.

The fiasco was compounded by the elimination of Google Maps from iOS 6, something that has since been remedied by the release of the Google Maps for iOS app in late 2012. For now, the negotiation remain in the realm of speculation, but the move wouldn’t be surprising. Given the details that have surfaced, however, the back and forth between Apple and Waze might not come to an end any time soon.

Update: New sources “close to the situation” have stepped up to say that the deal is not taking place, though information beyond that is scant. Were Waze and Apple ever in talks? Nobody knows. With neither company willing to comment on the speculation, this one gets filed away into the Rumors folder.

[via Tech Crunch]

Apple rumored to be in acquisition negotiations with Waze [UPDATE] is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HP acquired Autonomy for $11.1 billion, only to take an $8.8 billion writedown due to alleged fraud on Autonomy’s part. HP states that Autonomy is guilty of “serious accounting improprieties,” and that it fraudulently inflated its apparent worth to make HP bid accordingly. Now the U.S. Department of Justice has gotten involved, opening an investigation in the matter.

The issue picked up speed fast, with HP getting slapped by a lawsuit via its shareholders. Both the auditing firms – Deloitte and KPMG – were listed as defendants for failing to notice red flags hinting at Autonomy’s skewed accounting. Also listed was HP’s executives, officers, and board of directors for negligence and breach of duty.

Rumors that Autonomy was up to no good were circling before HP acquired the company, and according to inside sources, HP wanted out of the deal. The company failed to find any evidence of fraud on Autonomy’s part, however, giving it no legitimate excuse to back out. HP is said to have been aware of the allegations about Autonomy’s “creative accounting” methods.

As for the DOJ investigation, HP both confirmed it and stated that it would fully cooperate. Meanwhile, Autonomy’s founder Mike Lynch has created a website where he counters HP’s claims, stating that HP has failed to substantiate its allegations, among other things. Lynch has also stated that Autonomy would cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation.

[via ZDnet]

Department of Justice opens investigation of the HP and Autonomy acquisition is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week it’s been tipped that the man behind Google’s Mergers & Acquisitions group, David Lawee, will be moved to a new investment group inside the company while his position is filled by one Don Harrison. This information comes from an anonymous source speaking with Rueters where they’ve received the information on agreement that this unauthorized source not be revealed. The corporate development group that Lawee currently resides over inside Google will have a new face in Harrison after a number of years with the same man keeping the boss seat warm.

It would appear that Google is not quite ready to comment on this situation, though with two high-ranking names such as these being re-arranged, we expect some word sooner than later. The man known as Don Harrison has been with Google for more than five years and has been responsible for more than 70 deals at the company. The group known as Google Ventures is where Harrison currently stakes his place in the tech giant’s family, and again, his move has not yet been confirmed.

Meanwhile Lawee has been reported to be moving to a group within Google that would oversee late-stage investments completely separate from Google Ventures. It’s not yet known what this group will operate as or what it will invest in specifically, but it’s likely to be a significant entity within the company.

Google has made a number of high-level acquisitions over the past year and will continue to be a name that smaller companies will have a hard time turning down when their cash comes a-calling. It’s not often that Google makes a giant deal of the companies and technologies it purchases outright, but when it does, it makes waves. Have a peek at the app Snapseed right this minute to see the last big splash Google made this Autumn.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see a rather wild cross-section of Google acquisitions over the past few years, including such hits as Motorola and YouTube.

Google replacing Mergers and Acquisitions chief is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.