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Google to buy Groupon for $2.5 billion?

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Acquisitions, Rumors, Startups,

Google buys Groupon

Following a week of rumors about a Groupon buyout, it seems now that Google could be buying the small company for $2.5 billion, according to internal sources. While neither company will comment on rumors, VatorNews quotes an internal source that confirmed the news to them. This would be a big deal for the small company since it could then use Google's intensive data on maps, locations and userbase, which could allow them to expand past the current select list of cities that they cover. Also, the acquisition makes sense for Google as they've been trying to grow Google Places, and compete with the likes of Facebook.

Facebook acquires Drop.io

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Acquisitions, News, Social Media,

Late Friday afternoon, the Drop.io blog posted an announcement saying that they had sold most of their technologies and assets to Facebook. Included in the deal is the fact that the site's creator Sam Lessin will also move on to Facebook. This most likely means that Facebook is looking into easy file sharing for one of its future services. The site allowed users to create an account, and freely store data on the web where they could then share it with other users.

Of more interest to us, however, is the part where the actual Drop.io service will be shutting down on Dec 15, and all data deleted. This means everyone who used the site will need to download their data if they need it. This is a chilly reminder that any cloud-based service can shut down at any point, taking all your data with it. Just earlier this year Yahoo! shut down Geocities and they simply went ahead and deleted decades worth of user data.

As we rely more and more on web services, it's worth keeping in mind that no one cares about our files more than we do.

Gamestop Buys Kongregate

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Culture, Downloadable Content, Editorial, Internet, PC,

Kongregate, a community with a firm back bone made up of thousands upon thousands of free games, is about to get even more backing thanks to its recent fusion with gaming giant Gamestop. But will this unlikely pairing hurt the Kongregate gaming community more than it will help? And what exactly does this mean for your beloved local Gamestop?

Kongregate (or Kong for short) averages over 10 million active users with more than 23 million hours of logged game time a month, and puts forward games provided by eager young developers. Indie developers are supported by Kong not only in having a platform to present their wares to such a large community, but also by given a share in ad and transaction revenue. The owners Jim and Emily Greer wholeheartedly support this community, and do their best to give developers and gamers the best possible community for them. They also believe that Gamestop wholeheartedly support the Kong community as well.

Click to continue reading Gamestop Buys Kongregate

HP buys Palm, we want a webOS Slate

Posted by Dan Hughes Categories: Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Software,

Palm Buys HP Palm, that company that used to run the handheld business, after several attempts to solicit buyers/license its software to any bidders/play music on corners with its hat out for tips, finally has a new home. HP announced yesterday that it will purchase Palm, Inc. to the tune of $1.2 billion.

Several companies, including big-boy-in-the-market phone manufacturer HTC, took a look at Palm and passed. The webOS PDA platform that Palm has created, while beautiful and functional in its own right, just was not enticing enough to garner a lot of suitors in the smartphone market.

Click to continue reading HP buys Palm, we want a webOS Slate

Lifetime Coming to Its End

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Cable, News,

Some things can only last so long. A&E has just announced a deal to purchase the Lifetime Network—a deal which could herald yet another move for Project Runway.

The A&E acquisition will create few staffing changes at Lifetime Entertainment Services. A&E Television Networks is a partnership between Disney/ABC, Hearst Corp. and NBC Universal. The new merger changes only one thing: now, NBC Universal is part of the deal. Previously, Lifetime was a 50/50 partnership between Disney/ABC and Hearst. As a result of the new merger, A&E Network, Lifetime, the History Channel, Lifetime Movie Network, Bio, History International, Lifetime Real Women, History en Espanol, Military History and the Crime and Investigation Network will all be included in the new entity.

Facebook buys FriendFeed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Acquisitions, Social Media,

The social media Internets are all up in arms this afternoon with the news that FriendFeed has been acquired by Facebook. The full details were announced on the FriendFeed blog, and according to the press release, “all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.”

A lot of the recent Facebook feature additions have been borrowed from, or inspired by, FriendFeed, so the move only makes sense. It brings Facebook directly into the real-time web scene, as they take aim for Twitter.

There is a lot of speculation right now as to what exactly will become of the FriendFeed product, since there is quite a bit of overlap between what FriendFeed does and what Facebook does. Fans of FriendFeed fear that all the features will be rolled into Facebook, while FriendFeed ceases to exist. All we know for now is that “FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team.” Kind of ominous, I know.

Still, if handled right, Facebook may become the standard for both connecting and real-time sharable status updates. Full press release after the cut.

Click to continue reading Facebook buys FriendFeed

Amazon acquires Zappos

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: News,

It has just been announced that Amazon has purchased the vastly popular Internet shoe retailer Zappos for $850 million. The sale, confirmed in a letter sent from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to his employees, was for $807 million in Amazon stock, plus $40 million in cash and restricted stock.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has also given some feedback on the acquisition as part of a video that he put out today, embedded above.

You can check out the full press release, after the break.

Click to continue reading Amazon acquires Zappos

Amazon to acquire Netflix to form digital movie powerhouse?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies, Rumors,

Amazon acquire Netflix Netflix stock is surging today due to a hot rumor that the company may be acquired by Amazon.

To the average Amazon consumer, this may be an odd pairing at first glance. However, as broadband penetration becomes more widespread throughout the US, digital movie download services will slowly drive a nail through physical disk media rental services. Both Amazon and Netflix offer movie streaming services right now. Many users of the Netflix service have complained about the lack of newer content being available. Amazon however, offers new movies for rent and download. Together, though, you have one hell of an offering.

A Netflix acquisition for Amazon would mean up airing of these two services, which in the eyes of many a digital downloader would be perfection.

Of course this is all rumor, and we won’t know for sure until something official comes out of either camp. However, looking at the stock surge, there certainly seems to be something up at Netflix. Do note, however, a similar rumor cropped up about two years ago, and nothing ever came of it.

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