Fans of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer say she shouldn’t be blamed for the company’s history of failed acquisitions — but there are plenty of other reasons to be skeptical about Yahoo’s $1.1-billion Tumblr deal. Read more »
Sprint has given into shareholder pressure and raised its bid for Clearwire by 14 percent. Clearwire immediately canceled today shareholder vote, rescheduling for next week. Read more »
Fans of the social-blogging network might not like the idea much, but a $1-billion acquisition of Tumblr would arguably solve a number of problems for Yahoo — and do the same for Tumblr CEO David Karp. Read more »
News reports out of Israel say Facebook is in talks to acquire traffic-information service Waze for as much as $1 billion, but Google will be making a big mistake if it doesn’t try to top that offer. Read more »
Mendeley, an open collaboration platform for scientific research, has promised that it won’t become less open after being acquired by journal publisher Elsevier, but some prominent users aren’t waiting around. Read more at paidContent »
Although some might expect a 17-year-old startup founder to take his windfall from a Yahoo acquisition and run, Summly CEO Nick D’Aloisio says he wants to stick around and help Yahoo figure out how mobile content works. Read more »
Oracle is loading up on telecom vendors that specialize in controlling and managing data and VoIP traffic as it traverses the network. Read more »
Comcast’s purchase of the 49 percent of NBCUniversal that it didn’t already own was expected to take several years, but the cable provider said Tuesday it has bought the rest of the company for $16.7 billion. Read more at paidContent »
In a filing with the SEC, Clearwire is making every indication it wants to be acquired by Sprint, but it also isn’t taking Dish Network’s counteroffer off the table. Read more »
Which companies and sectors were the biggest winners in tech acquisitions for 2012? A new report from CB Insights breaks down where trends in M&A for 2012 among private tech companies acquired during the year. Read more »
The Justice Department is raising security questions over the Sprint-Softbank deal, and has asked the FCC to defer any action on the deal until it and other government agencies complete their review. Read more »
Sierra is exiting the mobile hotspot and dongle business so it can concentrate on the growing machine-to-machine market and embedded connectivity. Read more »
The 39 licenses will cost AT&T $1.9 billion, but it will finally be able to deploy full-capacity networks in key markets like Chicago and Los Angeles. Verizon’s wheeling is dealing in 700 MHz is now over. Read more »
Cisco’s love affair with the home networking market appears to over. In March it will sell Linksys to Belkin and the two companies will partner to attack the home networking space together. Read more »
In just two years, Israeli infrastructure startup Intucell has gone from a $6 million Series A to a nearly half-billion-dollar acquisition. Read more »
AT&T is buying up the remaining piece of Alltel still in operation for $780 million. Though the deal gives AT&T 585,000 new subscribers, judging by the price Ma Bell seems more interested in its airwaves. Read more »
Dish Network isn’t taking Sprint’s takeover of Clearwire lying down. The company has submitted a bid to acquire all or part of Clearwire at a price 11 percent higher than Sprint is offering. Are we witnessing a bidding war or two telecom giants posturing? Read more »
If Sprint really wants to buy Clearwire, why did it low-ball its offer, and why is Softbank reportedly choking off Sprint’s bargaining power? Analyst Tim Farrar thinks there is more to this deal, and many other related ones, than meet the eye. Read more »
NSN is selling its business support systems (BSS) unit to Redknee for $52 million. NSN has coughed up its wireline, software and support equipment businesses over the last year in its effort to reshape itself as an LTE infrastructure specialist. Read more »
Financial details remain under wraps, but in-app push messaging specialist Urban Airship will gain Tello’s PassTools, which can automatically generate and manage passes, coupons and loyalty cards for Apple’s Passbook. For Airship it’s a means of moving beyond messaging and beyond the smartphone app. Read more »
AT&T isn’t against Softbank taking over Sprint. Ma Bell just wants to get something out of the deal, according to Public Knowledge’s Harold Feld. Also Sprint’s buying a majority stake in Clearwire doesn’t give it the direct control of the 4G operator that we thought. Read more »
Apparently after four years of letting Clearwire flounder, Sprint is now interested in taking control of the struggling WiMAX operator. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint is set to take over the Clearwire board to ease the way for its own acquisition by Softbank. Read more »
According to new reports, Clearwire isn’t part of Softbank’s US plans. Clearwire and Softbank have a lot in common when comes to 4G technology, but that doesn’t mean there’s room for the struggling mobile broadband operator in Sprint and Softbank’s marriage. Read more »
T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray says MetroPCS voice-over-LTE services will definitely be supported post merger as long as customers own VoLTE phones. But, whether the new T-Metro expands VoLTE beyond the Metro footprint, however, remains an open question dictated by demand and logistics. Read more »
A week later, Sprint is now holding off on a counter bid for MetroPCS, choosing instead to see how the Deutsche Telekom’s deal to merge T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS plays out, according to Bloomberg. Read more »
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Combining T-Mobile and MetroPCS — two carriers with completely incompatible network technologies — defies reason. According to the financial media, the deal is set to happen, but it will be a disaster in the making. Read more »
The iPhone drove Softbank’s enormous growth for years, but now Japan’s third largest carrier is looking to grow by other means. It’s bidding for smaller competitor eAccess, which would not only boost its subscribers but give it substantial 4G ammunition in the mobile broadband wars. Read more »
The Justice Department is giving Verizon clearance to close its $3.9 billion acquisition of the cable companies’ 4G airwaves. While it is imposing conditions on their joint-marketing agreements — basically non-compete pacts — to resell each others wireline and wireless services, the concessions are relatively minor. Read more »
Verizon may well gets it 4G spectrum and its co-marketing agreements from the cable operators, though it will be forced to make some minor compromises to get the deal approved. WSJ reports that regulators wants to put a five-year timeline on Verizon’s pact with cable. Read more »
After leading two international carriers, Sol Trujillo might be coming home. According to Bloomberg, Trujillo is looking to buy T-Mobile USA with the help of private equity. So far he’s hit roadblocks, but if he’s successful he would certainly shake things up at the ailing carrier. Read more »
As consumers begin chaffing at the prospect of paying for Wi-Fi in public spaces, Boingo is revamping its business model through a strategic acquisition. It’s acquiring sponsored Wi-Fi access firm Cloud Nine to help it set up ad-supported free access to hotspots around the country. Read more »
By buying NextWave, AT&T removes the biggest obstacle to its plan to convert the Wireless Communications Services band from a worthless patch of airwaves to highly valuable 4G spectrum. The deal will cost AT&T $600 million but would pay dividends in new LTE capacity. Read more »
Desktop virtualization and cloud computing vendor Citrix Systems is expanding into the mobile infrastructure market, announcing on Thursday it plans to acquire mobile traffic optimization company Bytemobile. The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but they expect it to close in the third quarter. Read more »
Google announced Monday that it has purchased Meebo, the social media and advertising company, to add a team of engineers and some publisher-friendly social tools to its Google+ efforts. Meebo’s CEO, CTO and engineers from its product team will remain with Google after the completed purchase. Read more »
Verizon’s ambition to connect more than homes and phones just zeroed in on the automotive market. It announced on Friday it is buying Hughes Telematics for $612 million in cash, gaining the company’s crop of machine-to-machine (M2M) connected car technologies and services. Read more »
The rumormongers are at it again, sticking together mobile operators willy nilly as if this the wireless industry was some giant multi-billion-dollar Mr. Potato Head. The latest report comes from Reuters, which has AT&T in talks Leap Wireless, the owner of prepaid carrier Cricket Communications. Read more »
After enduring a torrid few months, Groupon has confirmed a shakeup of its international business, bringing in a new chief to oversee operations outside America. But why has outgoing chief Marc Samwer been replaced? Read more »
Some believe that Facebook’s $1-billion purchase of Instagram makes sense, but others argue the dollar value of the deal seems almost unbelievably high. Is it another sign of a tech-startup bubble, or a smart move by Facebook to lock up a potential competitor? Read more »
Russian web incubator Fast Lane Ventures is developing a reputation for building big businesses fast, with the sale TV channel Shopping Live — its second significant exit inside a couple of months. Read more »
AT&T has proven many times in the last few months that it just can’t let its failed acquisition of T-Mobile go, but on Friday its bitterness turned to vindictiveness, delivering a big “I told you so” to its critics after T-Mobile announced 1,900 layoffs. Read more »
