Wednesday: January 2, 2013
Avis acquires Zipcar for a mere $500 million.Avis says it expects to generate $50 to $70 million in ‘annual synergies’ as a result of the deal. FYI: The company booked $7.3 billion in revenue for the full year 2012, and employs roughly 29,000 employees today. The transaction is expected to close in the spring of 2013.
Wednesday: August 3, 2011
Push Pop Press is the latest acquisition in Facebook's growing design talent roster.Mike Matas, one of the co-founders of Push Pop Press, is one of the designers behind some of the most familiar iPhone and iPad user interfaces that you've come to know and love. This kind of talent acquisition doesn't come along simply to tweak the look of an iPhone app. They must be working on something big. On a sadder note, Push Pop Press has announced that they have abandoned their planned publishing platform. However, their one offering is still available in the App Store - search for Al Gore's 'Our World'.
Monday: April 12, 2010
Google decides to acquire Plink, a visual search company.The four month-old start-up provided visual search results based on artwork photography submitted to their PlinkArt application on your Android handset. The principle is simple: take a shot of a painting, run it through the Plink art database and get the details on the artwork and its author.
Monday: April 5, 2010
Google acquires Episodic, will be folded into YouTube in the near future.Episodic, a San Francisco-based start-up founded by Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich, describes itself as a 'comprehensive platform for broadcasting live and on-demand video to the web or any web-enabled device.' Episodic announced the acquisition in a blog post Friday.
Tuesday: January 26, 2010
AOL decides to acquire an Internet video firm for $36.5 million.AOL is looking to do a stronger nationwide video push across their numerous web properties. I guess they are banking on this video thing really taking off on the Interwebs. Anything is possible right?
Tuesday: January 5, 2010
Apple to acquire Quattro Wireless Ad Company for a mere $275 million.The news comes after Google announced plans in November to buy AdMob, another mobile ad provider, for $750 million. Both Quattro and AdMob focus on in-application and other types of mobile ads...
Thursday: December 24, 2009
Twitter decides to up and acquire a geo-location firm.The example used was a tweet saying 'Earthquake!'. This would be a lot more useful and informative if it came with some information about where the bleeding earthquake was.
FTC decides to take a better look at Google's aqcuisition of AdMob.The FTC's decision to take more time digging into the AdMob deal means Google probably won't be able to take over the company for several more months, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast wrote in a Wednesday research note.
Tuesday: November 24, 2009
Twitter would like you to know that they will start to make money in 2010.Revenue through non-traditional advertising will be key in 2010 according to Twitter founder, Biz Stone. Oh, and there may be some more acquisitions on the horizon as well.
Google decides to acquire yet another advertising company.Teracent claims to be able to tweak adverts according to computer analysis of early reaction to different elements of the banner. It also offers analytics software to crunch the numbers produced by the ads.
Wednesday: November 11, 2009
Google acquires AdMob to further dominate advertising on mobile devices.The purchase of AdMob compliments Google's full-steam-ahead push into mobile phones, namely by growing the number of phones that use its Android open operating system platform.
Monday: September 28, 2009
Xerox decides to acquire Affiliated Computer for a mere $6.4 billion.Earlier this month Xerox said it would begin selling digital printers for packaging and labels, aiming to tap a new market. Xerox had $1.22 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of last quarter, with about $6.7 billion in long-term debt.
Thursday: September 24, 2009
Microsoft would like you to know that they are not buying Electronic Arts.'We have no plans to acquire EA,' Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. 'They remain a very important partner to us. No acquisitions.'
Monday: September 21, 2009
Is Best Buy about to acquire Gamestop?By buying Gamestop, Best Buy would become one of the premium video game retailers in the U.S., causing even more foot traffic to creep inside its brick-and-mortar locations. This has been a rumor in the past, but it makes sense now more than ever.
Tuesday: July 28, 2009
IBM buys analytics firm SPSS for a mere $1.2 billion.Chicago-based SPSS develops statistical software for survey and scientific research along with marketing, government and educational purposes. The all-cash offer is $50 a share, a 42% premium to SPSS's closing price Monday. The deal is expected to close by year-end.