Even the most Internet-savvy shoppers need to venture to retail stores once in a while. Whether for a last-minute gift, an item you just can’t bear to wait for in the mail, or a device you need to see in person, brick-and-mortar outlets continue to offer a handful of indisputable advantages over Internet buying.
Tag Archive: deal
Will Google Try To Stop The Microsoft-Yahoo Deal?
Now the search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has been signed, the fallout begins.
In a conference call that also featured Yahoo head Carol Bartz, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer warned that Google is likely to try and block the partnership as the deal is scrutinized by lawmakers. He said:
"We suspect we will face opposition from the competitor [Google]. The case of us coming together will provide more competition, not less. [However] we expect our competitor to be aggressive."
Investor Carl Icahn Backs Microsoft-Yahoo Deal
Last year, when that $47 billion deal between Microsoft and Yahoo came to nothing, it was Carl Icahn, the investor whose company controls around 5% of Yahoo’s stock, who tried to forge a new deal. That never happened.
Now he’s back the new deal which will see Microsoft buy Yahoo’s search advertising for a reported $3 billion upfront, with much more to come. All Things Digital has called the new agreement “imminent” – but we’re all waiting for the signatures on the dotted line.
Icahn wouldn’t comment on how negotiation were progressing, but he did tell Reuters he was a "strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft."
Microsoft, Yahoo Search Deal Reportedly Close
Remember February last year when Microsoft offer $44.8 billion for Yahoo and was turned down? Since then there’s been endless speculation of some kind of deal between the two companies, often denied, but the rumors never quite stopped.
Now they seem to be coming to a boil, as All Things Digital has reported that several Microsoft bigwigs have flow to Yahoo HQ "to iron out the remaining issues."
While details are sketchy, the deal is reputedly for several billion ($3 billion upfront was one figure bandied around) for Microsoft to take over Yahoo’s search advertising business, and in return pay Yahoo a guaranteed amount every year. Yahoo will handle the display advertising for both companies.
Visto Takes Good Technology Off Motorola’s Hands
Mobile email provider Visto has made a deal with Motorola to take enterprise messaging outfit Good Technologies off their hands. The deal gives Visto a leg up in its efforts to compete with Canada’s Research in Motion in the enterprise and government communications sector; Good Technology makes solutions for wireless messaging, mobile VPN connectivity, along with handheld device security and management. Visto isn’t saying how much it’s paying fro Good Technologies, but Motorola paid over $400 million for them back in 2007. The deal will roughly double Visto’s employee base to more than 400 people.
Warner Pulls Music Videos from YouTube
Way back in the dark days of 2006, video sharing service YouTube inked its first commercial video deal with Warner Music Group, which agreed to offer music videos, interviews, and other original programming via the service. The deal enabled Warner to receive royalties and advertising revenue from Warner Music Group Videos on the site—even those uploaded in violation of copyright, if Warner chose to authorize them—and individual artists would be able to opt out of the deal if they chose. The deal was a major coup for YouTube…and shortly thereafter Google swept in and bought the company for $1.6 billion.
Take 2 Locks Up GTA Creators Through 2012
Take 2 Interactive has inked a new deal with Grand Theft Auto creators Rockstar Studios that will keep the studio in Take 2’s fold through January 31, 2012. Although precise terms of the arrangement weren’t revealed, the new deal is “primarily” a profit-sharing agreement, which means if future Grand Theft Auto games sell well, Rockstar will reap the rewards. The deal also locks key members of the Rockstar creative team (including Sam Houser, Dan Houser and Leslie Benzies) into long-term employment agreements, and Take 2 will find a new company, controlled by Rockstar, to develop new games and franchises that will be published exclusively by Take 2 Interactive.
RIM Chalks Up Another Acquisition
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has announced a deal to buy Chalk Media, along with the company’s Chalk Mobile dashboard mobile content delivery platform in a deal worth about $18 million. As part of the arrangement, RIM will float Chalk $2 million to take care of operational expenses until the deal does through.
Chalk Mobile enables content providers—like businesses and enterprises—to put together “pushcasts” of text, graphics, audio, and even video, that get pushed out to the organization’s BlackBerry-using customer or user base. Pushcast creators can encrypt the content and prevent it from being forwarded or copied by end users, as well as track how the pushcasts are used.
OLPC Joins With Amazon
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization has signed a deal with Amazon to sell its low-cost laptops under the Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) program from November through the end of the year, the BBC reports.
OLPC had run the program, under which people pay for two laptops at a total cost of $398, receiving one with the other going to a schoolchild in a developing nation, but it had run into problems with production delays, which it hopes the partnership with Amazon will overcome.
Google To Buy Digg?
Technology blog TechCrunch has reported that Google is close to a deal to purchase news aggregator Digg for a whopping $200 million. Or it may not, as Microsoft might step in.
According to the blog, the deal might be almost done, or it might fall through, or Microsoft might come in with a bid. But at present a Google deal seems likely, if maybe still a couple of weeks from closing.
Founded in 2004, Digg has become possibly the best-known of the news aggregators, a successful example of Web 2.0 – and it has a healthy ad deal with Microsoft.
