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Microsoft and Yahoo! restart talks
Yes -- they're at it again. Please for the love of all that is sacred, let somebody buy something... quick. From the horse's mouth;"In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!"[Via Emiliano]
Rumor: EA eyeing Ubisoft takeover next?
Take this one with some mountainous mounds of salt, but a suspicious web site registration has some buzzing that EA might be considering a Take Two-style takeover bid for Ubisoft as its next potential expansion move. A poster over at Gamecyte noticed that a proxy registration for eaubisoft.com was set up by the same company on the same day as the registration for eatake2.com, the lobbying site created to convince Take Two shareholders to accept the company's unsolicited takeover bid (it did not succeed).Of course, with proxy registration, it's impossible to know whether it was EA that actually registered the second site or if it's just the act of an overzealous domain camper. Still, given the close proximity of the registrations and the fact that EA already owns close to 25 percent of the voting shares in Ubisoft , the circumstantial evidence that EA was at least considering a move is significant (it wouldn't be the first such takeover attempt, either).Ubisoft for its part, is focusing on license acquisition to spur its own growth in light of the Take Two offer. You know what they say ... when a bear like EA is chasing you, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the guy you're running with.
Google questions Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!
It shouldn't come as a surprise to readers that the folks over at Google might not be totally stoked on the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo!. If you weren't sure where the company stood on the issue, you can now get clued in thanks to a post on the official Google Blog earlier today. David Drummond, senior VP of corporate development (and the company's chief legal officer) says that he worries the acquisition of the internet portal by a company that has "frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies" could "extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet." His concern centers around the possibility that the combination of the two monoliths could "unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services." Sure, Google has more than a little stake in seeing fair play on the net (gotta keep those ad revenues up), but this is serious food for thought nonetheless.Update: It looks like the war of words is really starting to heat up. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, has issued his own little statement here, telling us that Google holds far more marketshare when it comes to internet searching than a combined Microsoft and Yahoo! possibly could, and then going on to explain that the Redmond giant is "committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy." Uh, whatever you say Brad.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
You knew it was coming: Smash Bros. Brawl hits eBay
Japan may not have had the Brawl room blitz riots we were expecting due to game shortages, but that doesn't mean demand for the Nintendo fighter isn't extremely high. Then there's also the rest of the world to think of. While most of us probably don't own Japanese Wiis or modded systems, those who do probably can't wait to get their grubby little hands on the most coveted game of this year. If you live in Japan, selling your copy of Brawl on eBay seems like the smart thing to do (if you can part with it, that is). The high bid for this auction is currently $242.50, which means it's almost as expensive as a Wii, and the bidding doesn't even end for another two days. That's madness.If the Wii wasn't region locked, how much would playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl early be worth to you?[Thanks, TheFireStorm!]
Garmin withdraws $3.3 billion offer for Tele Atlas, sticks with NAVTEQ
The title pretty much says it all on this one, folks. We suppose the thought of countering TomTom's recently raised $4.22 billion offer for mapmaker Tele Atlas weighed too heavy on Garmin's soul (or just seemed too expensive), but whatever the case, its $3.3 billion offer has officially been rescinded. Also of note, the AP claims that the outfit has struck a deal with NAVTEQ (or is that Nokia?), which guarantees it access to those maps through 2015. Currently, there's been no word on whether TomTom will move forward with its apparent plans to snap up Tele Atlas, but it's safe to say the biggest obstacle has been (voluntarily) removed.
MetroPCS' bid for Leap Wireless officially bites the dust
It really doesn't come as a surprise following Leap's less-than-enthusiastic response, but yeah, it's official: MetroPCS' offer is no more. The statement MetroPCS issued regarding the whole ordeal is actually kinda sad, revealing that the company "has not been able to engage Leap in meaningful negotiations" -- in other words, it got the cold shoulder. "Talk to the hand," if you will. For its part, though, Metro insists it's still in great shape, touting its recent Los Angeles launch with several more markets in store for '08 and '09. Still has to smart a little, though.
Garmin challenges TomTom with $3.3 billion bid for Tele Atlas
Man, it must feel mighty fantastic to be Tele Atlas right about now. Not even a month after TomTom finalized a whopping $2.5 billion offer to take the map maker over, Garmin -- which currently relies on NAVTEQ maps -- has come out swinging with a staggering $3.3 billion bid of its own. As expected, Tele Atlas is now taking a good hard look at both offers and examining its options, and some analysts are even suggesting that a bidding war could take the figure even higher. 'Course, such a conjecture is easy to make when TomTom has already proclaimed that it would reply in some way "in the near future." Bust out the blank checks -- this one could get ugly (or very pretty, if you're a Tele Atlas shareholder).
Google still likely to bid in 700MHz spectrum auction
We know, the 700MHz soap opera is wearing a bit on us too, but just in case you were worried that the latest FCC shakeups would deter Google from coughing up $4.6+ billion when the time was right, fret not. Reportedly, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt "told a conference of regulatory and industry leaders in Aspen that his company would 'probably' move ahead with plans to bid for wireless spectrum freed up once broadcast television networks switch to digital from analog in 2009." When asked by T-Mobile USA's government relations chief Thomas Sugrue "whether Google planned to take part in the auctions for wireless broadband networks," the exec simply stated that placing a bid or two would likely be "the way to answer that." So, there you have it -- until next episode...
Vodafone denies interest in bidding for Verizon Communications
Poor Vodafone, it just can't seem to escape the vicious rumor mill these days. Hot on the heels of a plethora of iPhone talk, now the firm is being forced to deny rumors that it was considering a $160 billion offer for Verizon Communications. Previously, it was suggested that Vodafone was interested in "consolidating ownership of its wireless joint venture," as it currently holds just a 45-percent stake in the wireless division (Verizon Wireless, obviously) of the firm. Notably, Verizon officials declined to comment on the recent activity, but Vodafone spokespersons didn't hesitate to state that "it had no plans to make such an offer." Man, what a killjoy.
Charitable iPhone auctioned off for $100000
And you thought forking out five grand for the very first Nokia E90 Communicator was impressive. In the name of charity, "Keep A Child Alive" to be precise, an anonymous bidder pledged a whopping $100,000 in order to acquire the "first iPhone sold" (at least the first one at Apple's SoHo location), two Jawbone Bluetooth headsets, and a pair of round-trip airplane tickets and VIP passes to the Black Ball in New York City later this year. Reportedly, the pricey handset will be "personalized with a voice mail greeting and presented by Alicia Keys" to the generous winner on October 25th, but we wonder if the bidder would be willing to shell out a few more Benjamins to eliminate the excruciating wait.
World's "only" PowerFest '94 SNES cartridge up for auction
We have to admit, we've seen some pretty zany stuff in the Nintendo realm this month, but this one probably takes top honors. For the fanboys and girls, the words "PowerFest '94" and "Nintendo World Championships II" immediately incite fits of giddiness, and for those sulking in the uninformed camp, here's the skinny: just 32 of these brutally ugly and oversized cartridges were ever manufactured, and after the round of tournaments played with them in 1994, all but one was reportedly "given back to Nintendo and reused for parts." The cart itself housed Level 1-1 of Super Mario Lost Levels, five laps around the first track on Super Mario Kart, and a home run derby from Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Run, all of which were set to a timer and channeled out to other systems to monitor the scores of everyone involved. Needless to say, owning this prized possession could indeed fetch a pretty penny, and if you've ever wondered just how much a one of a kind SNES cart would run you, we'll give you 25,000 or so guesses. Click on through for a few more snapshots.[Thanks, Casey]
Wii auctions outpacing PS3 on eBay
Cruising around eBay the other day for a deal on every single NES game, we stumbled across eBay Pop, a great little feature that lets you easily monitor the popularity and average selling price of various game consoles (and other products) on the world's most popular internet auction marketplace. Looking at the results for the past two weeks (above) we can see the Wii is the undisputed auction leader, selling over twice as many units as the PS3. That doesn't mean the Wii's dominance will last, though -- the number of PS3 auctions has shot up nearly 50 percent over the past two weeks, outpacing the Wii's increase by a good 20 percent. The Wii is also in the lead for price inflation, with auctions finishing at an average of 151 percent of the retail price. PS3 auctions average around 127 percent of retail (though this might be slightly higher when accounting for lower priced 20GB units) and, surprisingly, Xbox 360 premium auctions are selling at an average slightly less than the system's $399 retail price. Also surprisingly, more people seem to want the original NES than the 360 core system. Guess people really want that hard drive. While these stats aren't indicative of the entirety of internet auctions, or even directly relatable to actual in-store sales of the systems, the regularly updated numbers provide some good data for those of us who thrive on the horse race aspects of the console transition.
Alltel subject of possible bidding war
Wouldn't it be great if Verizon Wireless or Sprint had features like Inner Circle? Don't get your hopes up just yet as neither are going to start marketing Alltel's ingenious plan, however some insiders (not this one either) think that Alltel might be the subject of a possible bidding war between the second and third largest carriers. If this were to happen and Verizon were to come out on top of everything, that would make them the largest CDMA carrier with close to 70 million customers. Just imagine, all those customers and they still can't manage to get the dead zone around our office cleared up
