Microsoft had a chance to close out its final CES keynote with a bang. Balmer could have hit attendees with a bombshell by announcing plans to acquire Finnish handset maker Nokia, followed by lots of exaggerated rhetoric, storming about the stage, and obligatory sweating. There's only one problem with that scenario -- Microsoft isn't acquiring Nokia, no matter what you may have heard or read.
The joint LCD venture between Sony and Samsung is undergoing some changes with respect to ownership and who's responsible for what. Under terms of a new agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony's shares of S-LCD Corporation, the companies' joint manufacturing venture. Samsung will pay Sony 1.08 trillion South Korean won, or around $940 million, for the share transfer, and the two companies will continue their cooperative engineering efforts focused on LCD panel technology, Sony announced.
Seagate on Monday officially closed the deal to acquire the hard disk drive (HDD) business of Samsung for $1.4 billion, a transaction that was first announced in April 2011. Under terms of the agreement, Seagate gains select elements of Samsung's HDD division, including assets, infrastructure, and employees. Among the assets is Samsung's M8 product line of high-capacity, 2.5-inch HDDs.
Netflix shareholders haven't been thrilled with Netflix's direction the past few months. After announcing a spin-off of its DVD-by-mail rental business and higher prices for streaming and DVD services combined, subscribers raged until Netflix reversed course on severing its DVD arm, but the company didn't relent on recent price hikes. It's been paying a price in subscriber losses ever since. Enter unhappy investors, though talk of Verizon taking over the streaming service has them smiling once again.
Tis the season to shop around, and while you're out there buying gifts, sometimes you have to splurge on yourself. That's what IBM is doing, which announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DemandTec, a cloud-based analytics company, for around $440 million in an all-cash transaction. IBM is hoping the acquisition will extend its Smarter Commerce initiative by adding cloud-based price, promotion, and other merchandising and marketing analytics to its portfolio.
German enterprise software maker SAP announced that its subsidiary, SAP America, has entered into a definitive agreement to scoop up SuccessFactors, a provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions. Under terms of the agreement, SAP will acquire all outstanding shares of common stock of SuccessFactors for $40 per share, valuing the deal at a staggering $3.4 billion.
Facebook has had its own version of a Foursquare style check in system for ages now, but given that just about everyone including myself still calls it a “Foursquare style check in system” suggests they’ve failed somehow. Given how many users the social networking giant hosts each month one would have suspected the in-house solution would have picked up critical mass by now, but somehow it seems to have stumbled. Now according to reports, Facebook has acquired Foursquare competitor 
AT&T is reportedly taking a $4 billion charge as a precautionary measure in case its attempted merger with T-Mobile fails to win anti-trust approval. By taking the charge, analysts believe it's a clear sign the telecom has lost confidence in the deal going through, and on top of it all, AT&T is said to have withdrawn its application to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The European Union is notorious for being sticklers when it comes to how companies do business and is ever watchful for what it perceives to be a potential monopoly. Concerns aside, the EU just granted approval to Western Digital, the world's second largest hard drive maker, to purchase Hitachi's HDD business for $4.3 billion, with Hitach being the third biggest player in the HDD market.
Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. announced that its stockholders voted to approve Google's proposed $12.5 billion merger. The vote took place at a special meeting for stockholders, during which time an "overwhelming" 99 percent of the shares voting were in favor of welcoming their new overlord, which represented 74 percent of Motorola Mobility's total outstanding shares of common stock.
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