Tag Archives: BuyOuts

Samsung aims to become key player in digital content distribution through company buyouts

Posted on by

Samsung aims to become key player in digital content distribution through company buyouts

The writing has been on the wall ever since Samsung's acquisition of mSpot, but the Korean firm today confirmed to Reuters that it plans to join the ranks of Apple, Google and Amazon in the world of digital content distribution. Most importantly, it plans to do so through buyouts. Samsung executive Kang Tae-jin offered a rather frank overview of the company's ambitions, saying that it will grow Music Hub into one of the top four services in terms of revenue and subscribers within the next three years. According to Kang, the push isn't so much to tap a new source of revenue, but rather to drive hardware sales -- perhaps it sees Apple's rumored move into music streaming as a bit of a threat. That said, the announcement also dovetails with rumblings of Samsung's efforts to build a more self-sufficient software ecosystem. Whatever the true reason, we'd imagine that the folks at Pandora, Spotify and the like are now watching the phone a bit more intently. Wouldn't you?

Filed under: , ,

Samsung aims to become key player in digital content distribution through company buyouts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Techmeme  |  sourceReuters  | Email this | Comments

Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bid

Posted on by

Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bidBest Buy founder Richard Schulze may have stepped down as chairman of the board, but he's certainly not out. His plan to buy the turbulent company has reached the next step -- an agreement which pre-empts the formal offer. Schulze now has access to all the private numbers he'll need to put together an investor group within the 60-day timeframe. And, if this round is unsuccessful, it'll be next January before another bid can go to the Board of Directors, followed by direct shareholder offers if the second attempt fails. Given that Schulze owns 20 percent of Best Buy, he gets two seats-worth of voting power as long as he sticks to the agreed process. So, with a new CEO taking the reigns in September and the acquisition machinery in top gear, is there fresh hope for the big box retailer?

Continue reading Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bid

Filed under:

Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bid originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Beats buyout of MOG worth $14 million, splits company not-so-neatly into two

Posted on by

MOG player

More official details are emerging from Beats Electronics' acquisition of MOG, and they paint a considerably messier picture of the deal than we saw just a day ago. HTC (which has a big stake in Beats) has confirmed that the move into streaming music was worth $14 million -- not a whole lot considering that MOG had raised $33 million through its entire independent lifetime. The low price might come as the result of Beats being very surgical with its deal. The Jimmy Iovine- and Dr. Dre-founded outfit is taking control of the core audio service as a separately-managed company, while the ad and music blog components are mostly left untouched. MOG's loss of independence is coming on a very ignominious note as a result, but it could be good news for subscribers anxious about the service's future as well as HTC phone owners wondering just where Sense UI's Beats integration might go next.

Beats buyout of MOG worth $14 million, splits company not-so-neatly into two originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Unwired View, The Next Web  |  sourceHTC  | Email this | Comments

Samsung buys Nanoradio, hints at very low-power WiFi in your next Galaxy

Posted on by

ImageSamsung hasn't had a lot of need for hardware acquisitions as of late, so it's a bit of a surprise that the company has snapped up chipset manufacturer Nanoradio. Neither side has outlined the terms of the deal or the exact plans. Nanoradio is best-known for "ultra low power" WiFi in phones and other mobile devices, however, so we'd venture that Samsung is looking to improve the performance of its own wireless-laden smartphones and tablets. Don't be surprised, then, if your next Galaxy S or Galaxy Tab is a little gentler on the battery while you're on the local coffee house hotspot.

Samsung buys Nanoradio, hints at very low-power WiFi in your next Galaxy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop  |  sourceNanoradio (PDF)  | Email this | Comments

China clears Google acquisition of Motorola, eliminates last barrier to Googorola bliss (update)

Posted on by

Google-Motorola

The final significant roadblock to Google's buyout of Motorola has been cleared, as Chinese regulators have just given their rubber stamp. Their approval follows a few months after the simultaneous American and European clearances, and virtually all that's left now is to formally close the deal and start integrating the two mobile giants. It might still come too late for the combined entity to present a united front at Google I/O, but at least they won't have any awkward glances at each other across the room. We're just trying to decide on whether or not Googorola is the best pet name for the loving, $12.5 billion-dollar Android union.

Update: Google has since told the AP that the deal will likely wrap up early next week, so Motorola should be part of the family well in advance of Google I/O. Also, Google has to keep Android freely usable by anyone for at least five years, although no one was expecting that to change anytime soon.

China clears Google acquisition of Motorola, eliminates last barrier to Googorola bliss (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 May 2012 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWSJ  | Email this | Comments

Facebook snaps up mobile photo sharing firm Lightbox, decides Instagram isn’t enough

Posted on by

Facebook

We get the impression that Facebook is on a big mobile photo sharing kick: just weeks after it bought Instagram for a cool billion, the social network has just hired the staff behind Lightbox. The two-man team of Nilesh Patel and Thai Tran is bringing its mostly Android- and HTML5-focused knowledge over to Facebook, where it's hoping to reach many, many more people. You'll have to wait awhile to see what the Lightbox team brings to Facebook's ever more mobile platform, but you'll also want to hurry if you want to keep anything hosted on Lightbox: the service shuts down on June 15th. As a consolation for the shutdown, the startup's code is being posted to GitHub so that the fruits of its efforts live on in open-sourced form.

Facebook snaps up mobile photo sharing firm Lightbox, decides Instagram isn't enough originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 13:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceLightbox, GitHub  | Email this | Comments

Samsung snaps up mSpot, teases a boost to media cloud efforts

Posted on by

Image

Talk of a Samsung cloud service might not have panned out at the Galaxy S III event, but that doesn't mean the Korean electronics giant isn't interested in the space. Samsung has just acquired mSpot, best known for its cloud music storage and its earlier movie streaming tie-ins with carriers. The exact intentions aren't exactly clear -- Samsung is only promising that mSpot's technology will represent a "key integrated offering" on new mobile hardware. Still, the deal suggests that the Music Hub and Media Hub may get that much more cloud-savvy in the future. When asked for comment, Dropbox coyly stated: "It's cool. Being single is the new black."

Continue reading Samsung snaps up mSpot, teases a boost to media cloud efforts

Samsung snaps up mSpot, teases a boost to media cloud efforts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Fujitsu buys out Toshiba’s stake in mobile joint venture, division now called Fujitsu Mobile Communications

Posted on by
April 2, 2012: a great day to officially wash your hands of an unprofitable business. On the heels of Philips stuffing its TV biz into a joint venture, Fujitsu announced it has bought out Toshiba's stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications (just like we knew it would). Fujitsu already had a controlling 80.1 percent interest in the company, so this doesn't exactly mark a seismic change in management. Still, with that final 19.9 percent it's now a fully owned subsidiary of the Fujitsu Group, and has been rechristened Fujitsu Mobile Communications. We've got the PR below, but unless you want to know how much capital the division has (¥450 million, to be exact), we think we've got you covered on the facts.

Continue reading Fujitsu buys out Toshiba's stake in mobile joint venture, division now called Fujitsu Mobile Communications

Fujitsu buys out Toshiba's stake in mobile joint venture, division now called Fujitsu Mobile Communications originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments