Mar 05
How do you woo one of the world’s biggest messaging apps? Flirty emails, whisky and billions of dollars, as it turns out.
     |
Feb 13
Following rumors last night
| |
Apr 26
There was an odd level of uncertainty surrounding Google’s reported buyout of Wavii: where Google usually mentions acquisitions in short order, mum’s been the word for much of the past week. Thankfully, we won’t be left hanging over the weekend — Wavii has stepped forward to confirm the deal is happening. Neither side has discussed the terms involved, but Wavii chief Adrian Aoun made it clear the acquisition is for the technology first and foremost. Wavii’s info summarization service will be shutting down, while the company’s expertise in natural language processing should find its way into future Google projects. It’s sad to see another independent service absorbed by a much larger company, but we’re at least likely to see the fruits of Wavii’s labor through some very public channels.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Wavii
Feb 05
Some British cable subscribers will soon have a new master: international telecom giant Liberty Global has just acquired Virgin Media for $23.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal gives Liberty an even larger stake in Europe than it had before and, if you believe the new partners, creates one of the bigger broadband companies on the planet at 47 million homes covered across 14 countries. Liberty also sees Virgin as good at tackling the business and mobile spaces that have been its relative weak points. How this will affect the UK isn’t immediately apparent, although Virgin Media will continue to run under its existing name — that moebius logo isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. We’ll at least have some room to ponder the consequences when the buyout isn’t poised to close until sometime in the second quarter.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Liberty Global (PDF)
Feb 05
Jawbone has been making real progress on the software for its tentative steps into wearable technology like the Up bracelet, but it’s safe to say there’s some room to grow. The company might just feel the same way in the wake of two key acquisitions centered on app interfaces and design. It just bought Massive Health, best known for its crowdsourced food app The Eatery, and Visere, a design house recognized for its work on both hardware and software. While Jawbone hasn’t yet outlined its plans beyond scooping up the “best talent” for app development, Massive Health expects to maintain its namesake focus — it doesn’t see much work on Bluetooth audio in its future. However things shake out, it’s clear software is about to play a larger role for our ears, wrists and beyond.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: GigaOM
Feb 03
You may not be very familiar with mFoundry’s name, but you’ll probably know its work if you’re reading this site: it’s part of a deal with MasterCard for NFC-based mobile payments, powers many banking apps and wrote the earliest mobile app code for Starbucks. As such, it’s no small deal that payment giant FIS just bought full control of mFoundry for $120 million. FIS isn’t shy about its aims and sees mFoundry as the ticket to covering a mobile banking space that’s growing quicker than other fields. Not that mFoundry will necessarily feel like a pawn — its audience potentially grows to the 14,000 banks that FIS has for customers. We’ll just need to wait until after the deal closes later in the current quarter to see what the union will bring.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Source: TechCrunch
Oct 15
Softbank has officially announced that it is buying a 70 percent stake in US mobile carrier Sprint. The Japanese company is ponying up a total of $20.1 billion for the privilege. More »
Oct 13
Just precisely how the T-Mobile / MetroPCS merger will pan out still seems yet to be decided. What is clear, however, is that majority share-holder, Deutsche Telekom, hope to have the deal done and dusted between April and June next year. CFO for the German giant, Timotheus Hoettges, told Boersenzeitung that we’ll have to wait until the second quarter of 2013 before one of the parties will have to start ordering new stationary and corporate polo shirts. In the meantime he was keen to point out that not all current financial arrangements should feel ause for concern, noting shareholders wouldn’t have their remuneration policy affected by the merger, thanks to the spiffy financial year it’s had.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, T-Mobile
Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile / MetroPCS merger to be completed by June 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
Reuters | Email this | Comments
Sep 19
Dice Holdings, the unimaginatively named owner of technology jobs site Dice.com has purchased Geeknet’s media business for a cool $20 million. The deal hands over control of the world-famous Slashdot, Freecode and SourceForge to the careers company, commencing the careers site’s push into tech content. It leaves Geeknet with one remaining property, ThinkGeek, which will now be getting all of that company’s attention — hopefully to produce products that are even more lust inducing than Cave Johnson’s portrait.
Continue reading Dice Holdings buys Slashdot, Freecode and SourceForge for $20 million
Filed under: Internet
Dice Holdings buys Slashdot, Freecode and SourceForge for $20 million originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Slashdot | | Email this | Comments
Sep 17
Google buys Snapseed developer Nik Software, raises the eyebrows of Instagram shutterbugs
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Google makes a lot of acquisitions, some of them more important than others. Its latest purchase might skew towards the grander side, as it just bought imaging app developer Nik Software. While the company is known for pro photography apps like Capture NX and its Efex Pro series, the real prize might be Snapseed, Nik’s simpler image tool for desktop and iOS users. Both Nik and Google’s Senior Engineering VP Vic Gundotra are silent on the exact plans, but it doesn’t take much to imagine a parallel between Facebook’s buyout of Instagram and what Google is doing here: there’s no direct, Google-run equivalent to Instagram’s social photo service in Android or for Google+ users, and Nik’s technology might bridge the gap. Whether or not Googlegram becomes a reality, the deal is likely to create waves among photographers of all kinds — including those who’ve never bought a dedicated camera.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile
Google buys Snapseed developer Nik Software, raises the eyebrows of Instagram shutterbugs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink The Verge | Nik Software, Vic Gundotra (Google+) | Email this | Comments
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.