Merge -- Engadget

merge posts

DirecTV to merge with majority shareholder Liberty Entertainment

by Darren Murph posted May 4th 2009 at 9:52AM

Hmm, now isn't this interesting? Just months after Liberty Media reached out at the eleventh hour and rescued Sirius XM from imminent bankruptcy, it's now spinning off its entertainment division (Liberty Entertainment) and combining it with DirecTV (which Liberty already controls). We're told that the new Liberty Entertainment will hold 54 percent of DirecTV Group shares and 65 percent interest in the Game Show Network, not to mention three regional sports networks and a few other things not worth mentioning. The move is being made as the "John Malone-controlled vehicle looks to simplify its capital structure," and if all goes well, the paperwork should be completed by the end of the year. Oh, and so far as we can tell, DirecTV consumers won't even notice the shuffling going on behind the scenes.

T-Mobile UK apparently being pressured to merge or bust

by Donald Melanson posted May 1st 2009 at 4:39PM

There's not exactly a ton of details on this one, but it looks like Deutsche Telekom CFO Timotheus Hoettges caused a bit of a stir at the company's recently shareholder meeting, where he reportedly suggested that T-Mobile UK would likely have to merge with another carrier or face the possibility of going bust. Specifically, Hoettges said that "in our view consolidation is a means to take excess capabilities out of the market," adding somewhat ominously that "nothing is unthinkable on our side." Of course, that immediately brings up the question of which carrier T-Mobile might merge with, and MarketingWeek suggests that one of the most likely suitors would be 3, which it currently ranked fifth in the UK market right behind T-Mobile, although O2, Orange, and Vodafone would no doubt also be in the running.

[Via Electronista]

Western Digital enters SSD market via $65m SiliconSystems acquisition

by Darren Murph posted Mar 30th 2009 at 11:07AM

Man, the consolidation efforts are really heating up. Just days after Cisco forked out a small fortune to acquire Pure Digital, HDD mainstay Western Digital has penned a check for $65 million in cold, hard cash in order to acquire SiliconSystems, Inc. Said outfit is an Aliso Viejo, California-based supplier of solid-state drives for the embedded systems market, and rather than wasting any more time falling behind in the SSD realm, WD figured it prudent to just buy the technology it needed to position itself as a legitimate competitor. WD has already made clear that it hopes to sell SSDs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, and given that integration will begin "immediately," we're hoping to see some shipping products sooner rather than later.

Hitachi acquires Fabrik, looks to expand market presence

by Darren Murph posted Feb 24th 2009 at 11:44AM

We keep hearing that it's a buyer's market out there, and for anyone with any amount of cash (that'd be Hitachi, in this scenario), the getting is pretty great. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) has just announced that it has snapped up Fabrik, Inc., a privately-held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions. You may be more familiar with the said company's brands, as G-Technology and SimpleTech tend to ring bells much better than a name easily mistaken for clothing. According to Steve Milligan, President of Hitachi GST, the acquisition will soon become "the cornerstone for the next phase of Hitachi's business transformation," though he certainly didn't bother to elaborate. Who knows -- maybe one day soon we really will see Hitachi taking on the likes of Western Digital and LaCie in the external sector.

Nokia seals acquisition of Symbian Limited

by Darren Murph posted Dec 2nd 2008 at 7:48AM

Yep, it's a done deal. On the same day Nokia chose to unveil its new flagship N97, the outfit also announced that it had "completed its offer to acquire software company Symbian Limited." As of now, "all conditions to Nokia's offer to acquire Symbian Limited have been satisfied and it has received valid acceptance of greater than 99.9% of the total Symbian shares that Nokia did not already own." Nokia's not saying much else about the changeover just yet, but we are told that every last Symbian employee is expected to wear a Nokia badge come February 1, 2009.

Panasonic and Sanyo change status to "it's complicated"

by Darren Murph posted Nov 1st 2008 at 11:46AM

You know you've heard it from two lovebirds in junior high: "we're not going out, we're just talking." In a completely bizarre way, that's about the best way we can sum up what's apparently going on between Panasonic and Sanyo Electric. According to an unnamed company official "familiar with the negotiations," Panny is already in talks with Goldman Sachs, Daiwa Securities SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking about snapping up a "controlling stake in its smaller rival." Reportedly, these "talks" are at the so-called preliminary stage, and dialog regarding dollars and cents (and yen, probably) has yet to officially occur. Still, the insider asserts that a formal acquisition proposal will be submitted soon, potentially enabling Panasonic to quickly grab a "world-class" (wait, really?) battery operation and give it a leg-up in the exploding solar energy market. Stay tuned for more -- you know the unpredictable always happens on Saturday nights.

[Via Bloomberg]

TomTom / Tele Atlas a done deal, Nokia / NAVTEQ moving in that direction

by Darren Murph posted Jun 5th 2008 at 9:26AM

Coincidence is a funny beast, is it not? On the very same day, releases have been put out touching on both of the major navigation deals that have long since been pending. To kick things off, we've got TomTom and Tele Atlas in quite the celebratory mood, as TomTom intends for Tele Atlas' listing on Euronext Amsterdam and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange "to be terminated as soon as legally possible." Can't blame a brother for wanting what's his, right? Moving on, we're hearing that Nokia will receive clearance from EU regulators "to buy digital map supplier NAVTEQ, as no formal charges are to be levied against the deal." It's also noted that the time for sending a statement of objections has passed, so from the outside looking in, it seems the two can at least move forward with their plans.

[Via Washington Post]

Read - TomTom / Tele Atlas deal
Read - Nokia / NAVTEQ deal

Verizon "in talks" to buy Alltel for $27 billion

by Darren Murph posted Jun 4th 2008 at 4:01PM

Verizon has certainly courted Alltel before, but this time, the two could finally be rounding third base. According to a breaking report at CNBC, Verizon is "in deep in talks to acquire Alltel," which of course is America's fifth largest wireless carrier. It's no secret that Alltel has been riding fairly high of late, and unless your memory is totally shot, you'll likely recall that it was just recently "taken private by TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in a $27.5 billion deal." Not surprisingly, officials at both outfits refused to comment on the rumblings, but if this does indeed go down, analysts are expecting Verizon to pay around 8x Alltel's current EBITDA, whereas TPG / Goldman Sachs paid 9.2x. We'll keep you posted on any developments.

Update: The talks have been confirmed by Vodafone which owns a 45% stake in VZW.

China to issue 3G licenses, calls for Unicom / Netcom merger

by Darren Murph posted May 25th 2008 at 4:52AM

This just in: don't believe anything you hear regarding an official 3G rollout date in China. After quite a bit of rigmarole, the Chinese government has finally announced that it will issue a trio of 3G licenses. Notably, the announcement comes with a bit of baggage -- it's also calling for a merger between China Unicom and Netcom, two of its four biggest telecommunications providers. Furthermore, it stated that it would call on China Telecom, the nation's largest fixed-line carrier, to "purchase Unicom's CDMA network," all leading to a massive shuffle that should position three of the nation's telecom juggernauts to eventually offer high-speed wireless to a staggering 1.3 billion people. Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly), there's no time frame given for implementation, but some analysts are asserting that "a full launch of 3G services is [still] years away." Baby steps are better than no steps, we reckon.

[Thanks, James]

HP wants to buy EDS, assure acronym superiority over IBM (update: it's official)

by Nilay Patel posted May 13th 2008 at 5:25AM

We're not usually too down with enterprise-services action, but it's hard not to notice HP's $12-13B bid to buy out rival Electronic Data Systems. EDS is best remembered for that "Herding Cats" Super Bowl commercial, but things have been rough lately -- the company just posted 62 percent decline in first-quarter profits. Still, EDS remains a leader in technology outsourcing, and HP seems to think that it'll be better able to take down Big Blue's powerhouse services and consulting group if they merge. The deal isn't done yet, but we should know how things go soon.

Update: The deal is done. HP confirmed that it's buying EDS for $25 per share or $12.5 billion. EDS will be rebranded, "EDS -- an HP company" in recognition of its own corporate blandness.

Virgin Mobile looking to merge with Helio?

by Nilay Patel posted May 8th 2008 at 2:56PM

Times haven't been so great at Helio, but it looks like the troubled MVNO could be snapped up by Virgin Mobile. mocoNews did a little digging after Virgin's recent Q1 conference call, and says that the two companies are currently in merger talks. Since both companies use Sprint's network, the tech would be compatible, and the deal would give SK Telecom a way to keep Helio going as it tries to gain a foothold in the US market. Nothing's set in stone yet and the two companies aren't talking, but we'll definitely keep an eye on this one.

Sprint and Clearwire merge next-gen wireless businesses, goes by Clearwire

by Darren Murph posted May 7th 2008 at 9:25AM

Well, what do you know? Sometimes even the most repetitive of rumors finally comes true. Barely 12 hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that a deal between Sprint, Clearwire (and just about everyone) else was dangerously close to going down, it seems as if the bottom lines have indeed been signed. Details are pretty light at the moment, but we definitively know that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. will be merging their "next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company." Quite simply, the new WiMAX-pushing outfit will be called Clearwire, even though Sprint will hold around 51-percent of the firm, while existing Clearwire shareholders will own 27-percent and the new investors will hold 22-percent. New investors? Ah yes, Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will collectively invest $3.2 billion in the new company, but that figure is "based on a target price of $20 a share of Clearwire's common stock, and is subject to a post-closing adjustment."

[Via CNN]

Yahoo and AOL suddenly close to merging?

by Nilay Patel posted Apr 9th 2008 at 10:46PM

Yahoo's done its best to fend off Microsoft's aggressive advances until now, but it suddenly looks like the struggling company might be getting some help -- both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that the Yahoo is "closing in" on a deal to merge with Time Warner's AOL division and partner up with Google on search advertising. Yeah, that's pretty major, and it would probably do something about those declining shares Microsoft's been making noise about. The idea is for Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo and make a large investment in the new company, which would probably be valued at around $10B. There's apparently a lot of work left to do on the deal, and it would still have to be approved by Yahoo and Time Warner shareholders, but it looks like Yahoo is no longer stuck taking Ballmer and Co. to the dance.

[Disclosure: Look up to the right. See that? Yeah, Engadget is owned by AOL -- but trust us, we have no idea what's going on.]

Read - WSJ article
Read - Reuters article

HP mulling a bid to acquire Kodak?

by Darren Murph posted Oct 15th 2007 at 5:17PM

It doesn't feel like this one has too sturdy a leg to stand on just yet, but according to Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard may be (once again) looking to acquire Kodak. Reportedly, the rationale is that combining the strengths of the two would "create a global imaging powerhouse." Additionally, it was noted that Kodak is "trimmer and in better financial shape largely because of steps taken by CEO Antonio Perez, a 25-year HP veteran recruited in 2003 and CEO since 2005." As expected, spokespeople from both outfits declined comment, but we wouldn't be surprised if this here acquisition was at least on someone's table.

Hon Hai to buy Quanta?

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 27th 2007 at 9:21PM

It's been a busy day for tech acquisitions: first, Acer ponied up to acquire Gateway, which in turn was rumored to be interested in Packard Bell, and now we're hearing rumors that Quanta and Hon Hai, two of the biggest device manufacturers around, are ready to tie the knot. The rumor's actually been floating around for a while -- long enough for Hon Hai to have denied it several times -- but Quanta's CEO, Michael Wang, resigned over the weekend, in part because he disagreed with the acquisition plan. Hon Hai (also known as FoxConn) is probably best known for manufacturing the iPod, but the company isn't particularly strong in the laptop segment, where Quanta is the clear leader. Nothing's been announced yet, but it's a dramatic time in the Asian ODM world -- stay tuned.

[Via BloggingStocks]