Hasta La Gadget!

For the second time in as many trading days, shares of BlackBerry were halted in advance of some big news from the company. Today’s news is no less big. BlackBerry has just announced that it’s signed a letter of intent agreement for a sale of the company valued at $4.7 billion to a consortium led by Fairfax Financial (the company’s largest shareholder). Pending due diligence that’s expected to be completed by November 4th, the deal would see BlackBerry go private, with shareholders each receiving $9 per share in cash.

In a statement, Fairfax Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa said, “we believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees,” adding, “we can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world.”

While BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has yet to offer any public comment on the news, the chair of BlackBerry’s Board of Directors, Barbara Stymiest, drew attention to that due diligence period in her statement, saying that “the go-shop process provides an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present proposal from the Fairfax consortium.” As part of the agreement, BlackBerry would have to pay a termination fee if it accepted another offer. You can find the official announcement of the deal after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: MarketWatch

Whoa. Big news from the middle of the night. According to Nokia, Microsoft will purchase “substantially” all of Nokia’s device and service arms as well as licensing the phone maker’s patents and mapping know-how. The Redmond company will pay Nokia a cool 3.79 billion euros ($4.99 billion) for the business, and 1.65 billion euros ($2.18 billion) for its patent armory.

Microsoft hopes that allying with its biggest Windows Phone manufacturer will speed up growth (and improve its smartphone market share) — the company is already promising “increased synergies.” CEO Steve Ballmer added: “It’s a bold step into the future – a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies. Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft’s share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services.”

According to the companies’ press releases, 32,000 people will transfer across Microsoft, including 4,700 people in Finland and 18,300 employees directly involved in product manufacture. If you thought it was only the Windows Phone component of the phone business, you’d be wrong: Microsoft will also take into ownership Nokia’s Asha range of feature phones. Patent-wise, Microsoft gets 10-year non-exclusive license to its Finnish partner’s library of ideas and “reciprocal rights” to use Microsoft patents within its HERE mapping services. While Microsoft will be able to use the Nokia branding on its products, the Finnish company will now focus on its mapping, infrastructure and advanced tech arms.

Update: In Microsoft’s presentation on the rationale of the acquisition, the two parties state that “we are confident about our prospects for approval by early 2014.” Just a few more months to go!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Nokia

Earlier today, several top designers at HTC were arrested in Taipei under suspicion of fraudulent expense claims, as well as stealing trade secrets ahead of leaving the company to run a new mobile design firm in both Taiwan and mainland China. Five people were interrogated, with the most notable ones being Vice President of Product Design Thomas Chien (pictured above), R&D director Wu Chien Hung and design team senior manager Justin Huang (who also personally sketched out the One’s design). Chien and Wu are taken into custody, whereas the others were released on bail (see video after the break). Their offices were also raided yesterday as part of the investigation.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: UDN (1), (2), China Times

There isn’t much we don’t know about the PlayStation 4 at this point. Sony has let the details slip out in drips and drabs, dragging out the mystery as long as possible. But now, the last remaining blank spot in our dossier — the release date — has been filled. At today’s Gamescom 2013 press event, the electronics giant revealed that the PS4 will hit shelves on November 15th in the US. On that day you’ll be able to run out and grab one for $399 and immediately start waving your yellow tentacles in Octodad or slaughter rooms full of people in Hotline Miami. Europe will follow shortly afterwards (with a €399 or £349 price point) on November 29th. In total Sony expects to launch the PS4 in 32 countries before the end of the holiday season. That’s pretty ambitious, but with 1,000,000 preorders already in the bank, we’d say the company has plenty of reason to be optimistic. Microsoft is already losing the pricing war… now we just have to wait and see if it can get the Xbox One out the door before Sony gets a head start with early adopters.

Update: Our colleagues over at Engadget Spanish have found that Latin America will see the console on November 29th as well.

Update 2: If you’re looking for a few more details about where exactly the PS4 will be launching, Sony has announces that the next-gen console will debut in Canada on November 15th alongside the US. On the 29th, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru will join the party. We’ve added the complete PR after the break.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony

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Via: Engadget Spanish

Source: Marketwatch, PlayStation Blog Latin America

Everyone was understandably excited when Windows Phone got its own native YouTube app. That is, until Google decided it violated the terms of service by blocking advertisements and promptly asked Microsoft to remove the app. The two companies kissed, made up and collaborated on a new version that would adhere to Mountain View’s developer guidelines. Unfortunately, it appears that, despite Big G’s involvement, the latest version of YouTube for Windows Phone still has some issues that can’t be overlooked. Only two days after returning, with the ability to upload video added as a bonus, Google has again begun blocking Microsoft’s efforts.

In an official statement YouTube said:

“We’re committed to providing users and creators with a great and consistent YouTube experience across devices, and we’ve been working with Microsoft to build a fully featured YouTube for Windows Phone app, based on HTML5. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made the browser upgrades necessary to enable a fully-featured YouTube experience, and has instead re-released a YouTube app that violates our Terms of Service.”

Sources tell us that, specifically, Microsoft was not on board with developing an HTML5 based app. Instead the company quietly went back to work on its own native version and reverse-engineered the ad system in order to satisfy Google’s terms of service. Unfortunately, this work-around means that Google can’t guarantee the correct ads will be served up, leading the company to revoke Redmond’s API key. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update when we hear back.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson provided us with the following: “Google is blocking our updated YouTube app for Windows Phone. We are working with them to resolve the issue.”

Update II: And now, Microsoft has issued a longer response, and it’s a doozy. We’ll let you have a gander right here.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Microsoft, Google

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Source: Microsoft