OtterBox announces acquisition of waterproof case-maker LifeProof

By Cody Lee on May 22, 2013

This is pretty interesting. It appears that OtterBox, a well-known maker of heavy-duty smartphone and tablet cases, has announced this afternoon that it will be acquiring LifeProof. The San Diego-based startup makes durable cases for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

OtterBox, the brand, has become synonymous with device protection in recent years, thanks to hit cases like Armor and Defender. The company claims that it is the #1 selling smartphone case in the US, and that it controls over 20% of the global case market… Read More

 

Dish puts $25B on table towards snagging Sprint from Japan’s Softbank

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 15, 2013

Dish Network has launched a $25.5 billion cash and stock bid to snag carrier Sprint from Japan’s communications giant Softbank, according to reports Monday morning. Should Sprint accept the offer and regulators approve the deal, consumers will get a new service that could combine mobile, broadband and television.

Dish is the nation’s second-largest direct-broadcast satellite service provider which serves just over fourteen million Americans. Sprint Nextel with its 47.5 million subscribers files as the third-largest wireless carrier in the United States. The proposed merger comes at an interesting time, just as Softbank’s proposed acquisition of 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion is nearing its completion in the second quarter of 2013… Read More

 

Google ostensibly close to buying WhatsApp for $1 billion

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 7, 2013

WhatsApp, the cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones, is rumored to be close to negotiating a landmark acquisition deal with Google. Sources reportedly close to the negotiations claim the Internet giant is considering dropping a whopping one billion dollars on the popular service that as of March 2013 had a cool 200 million users, a hundred million ones on Android alone.

The report ties nicely with talk of a new instant messaging brand from Google called Babble, and even more so given Facebook with its new Home UI layer for select Android devices is basically encouraging its one billion users to use its Messenger service right from their Lock screen or from whichever app they happen to be using at any give moment… Read More

 

Eyeing the world’s #1 telco crown, AT&T signs up Verizon for joint Vodafone bid

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 2, 2013

AT&T and Verizon, the two leading U.S. wireless carriers by subscribers and revenue, have reportedly joined forces in a massive bid to acquire London-headquartered Vodafone, a multinational telco which operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. The transaction would easily dwarf the monumental AOL/Time Warner merger as Vodafone already is a huge corporation: it’s the world’s second-largest wireless carrier after China Mobile and commands 403 million subscribers worldwide.

This compares to AT&T’s 107 million subscribers, Verizon’s 116 million customers and China Mobile’s 703 million subscribers. What’s really interesting is Vodafone’s existing U.S. partnership with Verizon Wireless: the nation’s leading telco is actually a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone where the former holds 55 percent ownership and the latter controls the remaining 45 percent ownership of the joint venture.

As Europe has traditionally been Vodafone’s stronghold, the deal would give AT&T a long-rumored entree into the European market while Verizon would get to control its own destiny without oversight from Vodafone… Read More

 

Yahoo to buy mobile news start-up Summly for $30 million

By Cody Lee on Mar 25, 2013

Yahoo! announced today that it will be acquiring mobile news start-up Summly. The deal, said to be worth around $30 million, is for both the app and the team, and is expected to close sometime in the next few months.

For those unfamiliar with the company, Summly created and maintains the popular news-summarizing iPhone app of the same name. It uses special algorithms to deliver ‘snapshots’ of stories that match a users’ interests… Read More

 

Apple acquires indoor GPS company WiFiSLAM for $20 million

By Cody Lee on Mar 23, 2013

Big news out of Cupertino this evening. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has acquired indoor mobile location positioning firm WiFiSLAM, in a deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million.

Apple has confirmed the acquisition of the company, which possesses proprietary technology that allows mobile apps to detect a smartphone user’s location inside of buildings using preexisting ambient Wi-Fi signals… Read More

 

T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal has passed all necessary regulatory approvals

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 21, 2013

On March 12, the United States Federal Communications Commission has approved T-Mobile’s merger with MetroPCS, following the March 6 approval by the Department of Justice. Today, Richardson, Texas-headquartered MetroPCS issued an update informing us that the two partners are announcing receipt of all required regulatory approvals, clearing the way for the merger.

Although the deal is still pending an approval by MetroPCS shareholders, which are scheduled to vote on the merger next month, the transaction has now received a stamp of approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment… Read More

 

Foxconn boss cancels talks with Sharp over Samsung investment

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 19, 2013

Earlier this month we told you that Apple’s frenemy Samsung confirmed a plan to pour a cool $112 million into buying a three percent stake in Sharp. Making matters complicated, Sharp, an Apple supplier, has been trying to negotiate another investment from Apple’s favorite manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry, known in the Western world as Foxconn. Last year, as you know, Foxconn was trying to acquire an eleven percent stake in Sharp.

There have been indications that Foxconn wanted to re-negotiate after Sharp’s share price tumbled, but most recent reports assert the deal has all but fallen apart. We’re now hearing that Foxconn CEO Terry Gou has cancelled talks with Sharp after learning that his potential partner has gone to bed with Samsung, even more so now that Sharp is expected to supply more LCD panels to Samsung than to Apple… Read More

 

ARM won’t sell off to Apple, CEO says

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 19, 2013

You’d be forgiven for being oblivious to ARM Holdings. After all, the UK-based company “only” supplies Apple – along with three hundred other device makers – with blueprints for dull computational engines that crunch numbers and run your sexy iPhone apps.

In all seriousness, ARM’s new CEO today acknowledged the company isn’t for sale, not to Apple, not to Microsoft, not to anyone. The right course of action, he argues, is to stay independent rather than side with one of its biggest clients and risk loosing others who “rely on the neutrality of our position.” This includes Apple, arguably the most well-known ARM licensee… Read More

 

Dropbox acquires email startup Mailbox

By Cody Lee on Mar 15, 2013

That didn’t take long. It’s only been a few months since we first heard about Mailbox, the fresh new iPhone email client. And it’s only been about about a month since it actually launched. But it looks like they’re going to be bought out.

Dropbox has announced this morning that it will be acquiring the Mailbox team. There’s no word on price yet, but it looks like all 13 team members will be joining Dropbox, and Mailbox will continue to operate as a standalone app… Read More

 

LinkedIn reportedly buying Pulse for up to $100 million

By Cody Lee on Mar 12, 2013

When word started spreading around yesterday that Pulse was about to be acquired by a “major platform” company, I would have guessed it was either Yahoo or Microsoft. The popular news reader app seems like it would be a great fit for either firm.

But according to the latest reports, the buyer is actually the social networking site for business professionals LinkedIn. The company has allegedly already sealed a deal with Alphonso Labs, the maker of Pulse, worth between $50-$100 million… Read More

 

LG buys WebOS from HP to use in future smart TVs

By Cody Lee on Feb 25, 2013

The 2013 Mobile World Congress (MWC) officially kicked off in Barcelona this weekend, meaning you should prepare for an onslaught of device announcements and other mobile news over the next few days.

In fact, LG has kicked things off already by dropping a bombshell today. The South Korea-based electronics giant has apparently purchased WebOS from Hewlett Packard, and plans to use it in future products… Read More

 

Opera buys Skyfire browser that brought Flash video to iOS

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 15, 2013

Back in March 2011, when Adobe’s proprietary Flash plug-in was still predominantly used for web video, a new paid-for iPhone browser, Skyfire, made headlines. It helped alleviate the situation by detecting Flash-encoded clips on web pages and then tapping a cloud computing platform to translate Flash video into an iPad-friendly format, on the fly.

Since then, Skyfire has seen over 20 million downloads across iOS and Android devices and developers claim it now converts over 200,000 web sites with Flash video into an iOS-friendly format. While most of web video is delivered via HTML5 these days, the Skyfire iOS app has seen several major updates that over time brought social features, even built-in extensions, to the table.

In a surprising move, Norway-based Opera Software, which makes the multi-platform Opera browser, Friday said it acquired the Skyfire team, hoping to broaden its solutions “beyond the browser”… Read More

 

Vimeo takes on Twitter’s Vine, buys iOS animated GIF-making app Echograph

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 14, 2013

Video sharing service Vimeo (which in March 2011 released an awesome, free universal iOS client) has snapped up Echograph, an animated GIF app for the iPhone and iPad by Clear-Media. Vimeo wrote in a media release that as part of the acquisition, the Echograph app, previously costing three bucks, is now a free download.

Echograph wants to be the Instagram of animated GIFs by providing easy to use tools to help make animated photography a reality. You can simply paint and touch up moving images as if they were stills and then use your creations in in Final Cut, Keynote, iBooks Author or the web, via HTML5… Read More

 

Apple (again) mentioned in a rumored Loewe takeover bid

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 13, 2013

In a déjà vu moment, Reuters this morning reported that shares of the German luxury TV maker Loewe surged 33 percent on renewed talk of a possible acquisition by Apple. The news gathering organization quotes a trader who claims Apple supposedly wants to bid 4 euros a share for Loewe, or approximately $5,28 a share, a 40 percent premium above the company’s closing price on Tuesday.

Loewe’s current market cap sits at 53 million euros, or about $71 million. With its $137 billion cash mountain, Apple could buy Loewe outright without blinking. Nearly one-third of Loewe, or 28 percent, is owned by Sharp, an Apple supplier that was involved in the Apple television rumor last summer… Read More

 

Apple buys 18 ‘axis-based user interface’ patents from Maya-Systems

By Cody Lee on Jan 31, 2013

This is kind of interesting. Maya-Systems, which describes itself as a knowledge management technology provider, announced today that a transaction took place between it and Apple in the third quarter of last year. It seems the Cupertino company acquired 18 patents from them “relating to innovative axis-based user interface technology.” Read More

 

AT&T picks up spectrum, licenses and more in Atlantic Tele-Network deal

By Cody Lee on Jan 22, 2013

AT&T announced this morning that it has reached an agreement with Atlantic Tele-Network to acquire its US retail wireless operations, operated under the Alltel brand, for $780 million. As part of the deal, AT&T will pick up wireless spectrum, licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 585,000 subscribers… Read More

 

No Apple/Waze deal happening after all

By Cody Lee on Jan 3, 2013

Yesterday, news broke that Apple was looking into buying Israeli start-up Waze Mobile, creators of the popular GPS app. Obviously, with all of the trouble Apple’s had with its own mapping software, and the fact that the two companies are partners, the deal made sense.

But according to a new report today from the well-connected MG Siegler, there is no deal. The TechCrunch columnist wrote this morning that though there have likely been several meetings between Apple and Waze due to their partnership, there’s nothing more going on… Read More

 

Microsoft beats out Apple and others to acquire R2 Studios

By Cody Lee on Jan 2, 2013

Last month, word got out that a number of high-profile companies were in possible acquisition talks with the mysterious home automation startup R2 Studios. This included the likes of Microsoft, Google, and yes, even Apple.

Well it looks like Microsoft won the day, as a new report this evening claims that the Redmond company will be the one purchasing the popular startup to help beef up its Xbox unit and increase its living room presence… Read More

 

Sprint in active talks to acquire the remaining 49 percent of Clearwire

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 11, 2012

Despite a strong opposition from AT&T, the nation’s third-largest carrier Sprint Nextel mid-October announced its intent to control Clearwire, where it had a 48 percent stake, by gain control of its board via agreements with Clearwire’s investors. A few days later, Sprint bought out one of Clearwire’s shareholders to increase its 48 percent stake to a controlling 50.8 percent stake. And now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the wireless carrier is moving to acquire the remaining 49 percent of Clearwire it doesn’t own yet… Read More