Well, that's that! Microsoft has officially pulled its bid for Yahoo! -- inflated for good measure this weekend by another $5 billion -- after the company did "not move toward accepting [the] offer", asking again for even more, another $4 bil (totaling $9b more than the original offer). In a letter from Ballmer to Yang, he states that Microsoft also won't be looking at its option for a hostile takeover, stating that Yahoo! likely "would take steps that would make [it] undesirable as an acquisition"; Ballmer then goes on to make a few backhanded criticisms of Yahoo's possible new partnerships with Google (which is no surprise). Good night, Microhoo, the monstrous, hamstrung, lumbering mega-merger that might have been.

Update: Yahoo! makes its public response here. Yang sums it up: "With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus..." etc. Alright then.

Over the years our pals at Deutsche Telekom haven't exactly played the most aggressive game in the States, but finally we have word about the first possible suitor for the ailing Sprint. Although the rumor originates from German paper Der Spiegel and doesn't cite sources, word has it Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA are making the possibility of snagging Sprint (and all its heavy baggage, read: Nextel) a "top priority" in a bid to take a competitor out of the game and pick up the number three spot. Supposedly formal negotiations haven't even begun yet, but if you thought the integration between Sprint and Nextel was messy, just watch what happens when you bring a third carrier into the mix -- and did we mention the infrastructure would be GSM with AWS, PCS CDMA, and iDEN, all competing for spectrum and handset allocation? Good luck guys.

[Thanks, Khattab]

Details are fuzzy right now -- and what details there are have been officially denied -- but the Japanese press is having a bit of a field day over the possibility of a Sanyo selloff to Matsushita / Panasonic. Apparently Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo, and Daiwa own some 67% of Sanyo's equity, and as Japanese paper Yomiuri reports, are looking at the possibility of transferring said equity to or otherwise forming a partnership with Matsushita. Again, both Matsu and Sanyo are denying the report as of now, so it's all still up in the air as the salarymen figure out whether to combine both companies to make a corporate entity larger than even Hitachi (which currently sits at the top of Japan's heap).

Update: Panasonic (aka, Matsushita Electric Industrial) just issued the following statement: "These reports are not based on any official announcement by MEI, and there is no fact that MEI is considering on the alliance." Not exactly a denial is it?

[Via Engadget Japanese, thanks Theirry]

Apple loves 'em some Intel right? Sure, it was the Intel power-per-watt roadmap which Jobs cited as the reason to ditch IBM's PowerPC platform. Analysts have since been tripping over themselves with speculation about future generation iPhones and iPod touches going Intel -- especially since the arrival of Atom. So what will analysts make of Apple's $278 million in cash purchase of the 150 person P.A. Semi microprocessor design company? The company was founded by Dan Dobberpuhl, lead designer of DEC's doomed Alpha and StrongArm processors, and responsible for the introduction of a 2GHz, 64-bit dual-core microprocessor which in February 2007 was said to be 300% more efficient than comparable chips running at 5 to 13 watts. Forbes speculates that Apple will wrap its ARMs around the company's boutique processor in a bid for exclusivity -- a move meant to differentiate itself from competition using Intel and other off-the-shelf processors. Interestingly, after a long courtship with P.A. Semi, the acquisition discussions only began in the last few weeks. Say what you want about Jobs, but he's nothing if not a man who knows what he wants and makes damn sure he gets it.

Update: Oh shazam! We just remembered that P.A. Semi and Apple had been this close to a deal just prior (as in minutes) to the announced Intel switch in 2006. Interesting, very interesting. Why now Apple?

Read -- P.A. Semi PWRficient processor announcement
Read -- Forbes

You remember Gracenote, right? They're the company that some years back kinda sorta misled everybody that populated the CDDB with data by selling the whole thing and closing off the platform. Well, they're laughing all the way to the bank once again: Sony just bought 'em up for $260m, with the deal set to close in late May.

Huh? Blockbuster just made public its February 17th offer to purchase Circuit City for $6 to $8 per share. As of this morning, Circuit city has not provided the requested due diligence necessary to move the deal forward. As such, Blockbuster is pulling a Microsoft and making the proposal public in hopes of inciting shareholders. They've even gone so far as to publish an open letter from Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes to Phil Schoonover, CEO of Circuit City. Really, is this how all corporate affairs will be conducted in the future guys? What really boggles the mind though is Blockbuster's quest for even more brick-and-mortar as digital downloads begin to take off. Hit the read link for the full contents of the letter.

[Via I4U]

Not even a month after we heard that Iomega was warming to a revised takeover bid from EMC, the two lovebirds have finally let their true feelings be known. Announced today, EMC is acquiring the famed Zip Drive manufacturer for $213 million. The final figure is nearly $7 million higher than the one proposed in March, and the all-cash agreement worked out to $3.85-per share -- 5.8-percent higher than Iomega's Tuesday closing price of $3.64. Also of note, Iomega will be picking up the tab on a $7.5 million termination fee to the shareholders for a canceled deal involving China's ExcelStor Group, and EMC stated that it didn't expect the acquisition to "have any material impact on its full-year earnings."

[Thanks, Khattab]

Just a week ago, Iomega turned up its nose at an offer from EMC to buyout the firm for $3.25 per share. Now, however, it's singing a somewhat different tune as EMC has struck back with an entirely more succulent offer of $3.75 per share. Said bid puts a $205.5 million value on Iomega -- based on the 54.8 million shares it has outstanding -- and now it's being reported that "Iomega will enter into discussions with EMC that could lead to a definitive acquisition proposal." Go on you two, don't hold back on those feelings any longer.

We've heard nothing since January when the first rumors broke of a Logitech buyout by Microsoft. In fact, the rumor mill has been so quiet that we nearly forgot about the prospect. Now Logitech CEO, Guerrino De Luca, told an Italian newspaper over the weekend that a Microsoft takeover would be "an operation without sense." Kind of like a MicroHoo after all the engineers quit to join Google, eh Geurrino? He says that, "without competition Logitech would lose the great pressure to innovate. Moreover there would be problems from antitrust authorities seeing as the two companies together would have a virtual global monopoly in mice and keyboards." Come to think of it, that sounds more like a warning to Microsoft to think twice about making a hostile takeover bid than it does a flat denial of rumors. As usual, having officially commented on the rumor only serves to perpetuate speculation.

[Via GamesIndustry]

It's barely been a month since Acer dropped a big chunk of cash to buy up 75% of Packard Bell, but it looks like the company still had plenty of money left to throw around, as it's now parted with a hefty $290 million to buy up 100% of Glofiish smartphone-maker E-Ten. According to Acer itself, the boards of both E-Ten and Acer approved the deal unanimously, and they expect the acquisition to close sometime during the third quarter of this year. Any other details, however, are expectedly light, including any word on how future devices would be branded, with Acer chairmen J.T. Wang only saying that the "acquisition of E-TEN increases Acer's global footprint by giving us a strong and highly credible presence in the mobility segment." No word on any future moves by Acer just yet but, given its recent spending spree, we wouldn't be surprised if it tried to expand that "global footprint" even further.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Reuters is reporting that the European Commission, apparently having completed is inquiry into the $4.2b acquisition offer TomTom made Tele Atlas last year, is issuing a "statement of objections." It's not a flat-out rejection / do not pass go / do not collect $200, but now TomTom supposedly has until May 5th to work on resolving the issues the EU's presented before it can get the thumbs up to make its big buy.

Well, it looks like the aggressively priced unlimited action really didn't come a moment too soon. We're no economists here, but it doesn't take rocket science, a Ph.D., collegiate level maths, or even a fancy calculator to crunch the cold, hard numbers coming out of Sprint Nextel's fourth quarter earnings call. For starters, the number three carrier in the US reported a net loss of nearly $29.5 billion, which -- get this -- is more than the combined value of its outstanding stock. Let us reiterate for emphasis and drama value: Sprint lost more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the company is worth. Wow. If it's any consolation, the staggering figure is largely due to a $29.7 billion write-down of Nextel's value, which as the Wall Street Journal lays out, makes the 2005 merger officially a "Deal From Hell." With postpaid subscribers continuing to migrate to other carriers, there's no telling how to stop the hemorrhaging -- especially if the fresh $99 unlimited plan doesn't end up doing the trick -- but something tells us the move to Kansas isn't going to magically patch it all up.

In the oddball acquisition of the day, Dell just swept up email services provider MessageOne in a $155 million cash deal. How odd? Get this, MessageOne was co-founded by Michael Dell's brother Adam who now manages investment funds -- the very funds with partial ownership of MessageOne which Michael and his genetic crew are investors in. As such, Michael, his wife, and kids will receive $12M from the deal, Adam about $970k, and their parents about $450k. For Michael's part, Dell says that he will donate his family's proceeds direct to charity and was excluded from negotiating the acquisition. Still, we can't help but question the merits of such an acquisition when the only comparison that comes readily to mind is Apple's dot Mac service -- a service Apple is rumored to be shifting to Google in order to focus on core business. Don't get us wrong, we get Dell's whole Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business strategy, but do they really expect to compete directly with Google and MicroHoo while staying true to their PC roots?

[Via New York Times]