Buyout

Apple has acquired Burstly, the company behind iOS testing platform TestFlight

Cody Lee ∙ February 21, 2014

TechCrunch is reporting that Apple has acquired Burstly, the company behind the popular iOS testing platform TestFlight. There's no word on the details, or pricing, but the company has confirmed the acquisition and its employees are already working in Cupertino.

For those unfamiliar with the service, TestFlight allows developers to distribute its apps to beta testers before pushing them to the App Store for release. It's similar to HockeyApp, and several developers create their own testing platforms via Apple's enterprise program...

Verizon completes purchase of Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 21, 2014

Verizon last September announced that it has reached an agreement with Vodafone to buyout its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless in one of the largest corporate acquisitions in history.

In December, the Big Red carrier won necessary approvals from the Federal Communications Commission and today the company announced that the acquisition has been completed - Verizon now owns 100 percent of the "industry-leading U.S. wireless carrier"...

Google reportedly tried to buy WhatsApp for $10 billion

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

The entire Internet is abuzz right now with this whole Facebook and WhatsApp deal. For the few that haven't heard yet, the social network announced yesterday afternoon that it has agreed to acquire the cross-platform messaging giant for a staggering $16 billion.

Since the announcement, details of the buyout negotiations between the two companies have begun to slowly trickle in, and as you might expect, some of them are rather interesting. Fortune, for example, is reporting that Google actually offered to buy WhatsApp first...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms talks with Apple, but says sale unlikely

Cody Lee ∙ Updated September 24, 2017

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, in an interview Bloomberg today confirmed speculation that his Palo Alto-based electric car company has held talks with Apple. He wouldn't comment on what the conversations revolved around, but noted that an acquisition was "very unlikely."

Musk's comments follow a report by The San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week that suggested the two were in buyout discussions. The paper claimed that the meeting took place in Cupertino between Musk, Tim Cook and Apple’s chief of mergers and acquisitions Adrian Perica...

Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $16 billion

Cody Lee ∙ February 19, 2014

Facebook has announced this afternoon that it has reached a deal to acquire WhatsApp, the makers of the popular cross-platform messaging app, for a staggering $16 billion. That's $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion in Facebook shares.

The social network says that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently after the acquisition, but claims the deal with WhatsApp—who has nearly 500 million users—"accelerates Facebook’s ability to bring connectivity and utility to the world."

Apple among companies interested in buying health tracker maker Basis

Cody Lee ∙ Updated November 22, 2017

TechCrunch is reporting this evening that Basis, the company behind the Basis Health fitness tracker, has put itself up on the auction block. And, as usual, there are a number of high-profile tech companies interested in buying it including Microsoft, Google, Samsung and yes, Apple.

To be more specific, Basis makes a smartwatch-like device that it calls the "world's most advanced health tracker." It has built-in sensors capable of capturing heart rate patterns, tracking multiple sleep stages and calorie expenditure by activity, and even monitoring skin temperature...

Apple said to have considered buying Tesla, working on tech to predict heart attacks

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

As Apple continues to seek growth outside of smartphone and tablet markets, we've heard various rumors speculating on what areas the company could enter next. Automotive and medical industries have been popular answers as of late, and today a report added weight to those theories.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting today that Apple has been exploring both cars and medical devices to reignite growth, and the scoop is filled with interesting tidbits. For example, the outlet claims Apple execs met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year to discuss a potential buyout...

Viber acquired by e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 24, 2017

This is kind of interesting. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that the popular voice call app Viber has agreed to a deal to be acquired by Rakuten for $900 million. For those unfamiliar with the e-commerce giant, it's essentially Japan's version of Amazon.

Viber is available on all major mobile and desktop platforms, and is one of Skype's biggest competitors with over 300 million users worldwide. It was one of the first apps to allow 3G VoIP on the iPhone and it now supports land-line calls, messages and even push-to-talk...

Lenovo CEO: Motorola purchase part of mission to surpass Samsung, Apple

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

When news hit earlier this week that Google had agreed to sell its Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, it surprised a lot of people. Not only was the sale price some $10 billion below what Google paid for Motorola 3 years ago, but Lenovo? Where'd that come from?

According to a recent Fortune interview with Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yan, that was the plan all along. Yan says that his company has been eyeing Motorola since before Google came along , and it has major plans for it. Lenovo wants to become the #1 smartphone-maker in the world...

Zynga acquires Clumsy Ninja developer NaturalMotion for $527 million

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 19, 2018

Zynga has reached a deal to acquire NaturalMotion, the UK-based gaming company behind Clumsy Ninja and other titles, for half a billion dollars. The announcement came this afternoon, alongside the sad news that Zynga would be laying off 15% of its work force.

The deal is interesting for a few reasons. The first is the price tag: $527 million in cash and Zynga stock. That makes this the company's largest acquisition to date—more than twice its OMGPOP buyout. And two, it signals a change of direction for the game-maker...

Google selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2014

Well this is an interesting turn of events. It appears that Google has decided to sell its Motorola Mobility arm to electronics giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion. The deal is said to include the entire Motorola division and some 10,000 of its 17,000 patents.

If the deal gets approved, Google would be selling Motorola for far less than the $12.5 billion it paid for it back in 2011. It looks like it's holding on to some of Motorola's IP though, and retaining licenses to its other patents, so it wouldn't be a total loss...

Apple reportedly acquires burst photo app-maker SnappyLabs

Cody Lee ∙ January 5, 2014

Apple has reportedly acquired app developer SnappyLabs, the one-man photo technology startup behind the app SnappyCam. For those unfamiliar with the title, it was a popular camera app that allowed users to take full-resolution pictures at 20 to 30 frames per second.

SnappyCam mysteriously disappeared from the App Store, shortly after founder John Papandriopoulos announced that he had achieved a breakthrough with “discrete cosine transform JPG science.” He essentially reinvented the JPG image format, and word has it Apple wanted in…