A the BlackBerry Security Summit event taking place today BlackBerry announced it will acquire Secusmart GmbH, a German company that focuses on voice and data encryption and anti-eavesdropping solutions for government organizations, enterprises and telecommunications service providers. Already a BlackBerry partner, the company notably works with the German government and supplies Secusmart-equipped BlackBerry smartphones to almost all German government ministries and […]
Mergers and acquisitions
Lenovo expects to close Motorola acquisition by end of year
Google announced back in January that Lenovo would acquire its Motorola Mobillity subsidiary for US$2.91 billion. The deal has since been winding its way through the necessary regulatory requirements and closing conditions. Speaking at the Lenovo annual general meeting in Hong Kong, CEO Yang Yuanqing said that he expects both the Motorola acquisition and another for IBM’s low-end server business to […]
Google acquires Songza music streaming service
It may be Canada Day here but it’s business as usual in the U.S. today. Google today announced that it had acquired Songza, a music service that focused on “contextual expert-curated playlists to give you the right music at the right time.” Little information about the transaction has been provided but both companies promise that there will be no “immediate […]
Sprint ever closer to buying T-Mobile in US$32 billion deal
Hints and rumours that Sprint Wireless and T-Mobile USA could merge have been floating about for some time. Such a deal appears closer than it’s ever been as the two companies (via their parent companies SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom respectively) have now agreed “on the broad outlines of a merger” that would see Sprint acquire T-Mobile for US$32 billion. “People […]
Apple acquires Beats Music and Beats Electronics for US$3 billion
It took a bit longer than expected but Apple today announced that it will acquire both Beats Music, the recently launched music streaming service, and Beats Electronics, makers of music accessories such as the well-known Beats headphones and speakers. The deal is worth US$3 billion, US$2.6 billion in cash and US$400 million in stock that will vest over an unspecified period of […]
TELUS drops bid to acquire Mobilicity
It appears that TELUS has thrown in the towel in its protracted bid to acquire beleaguered carrier Mobilicity. Citing an unnamed source, The Globe and Mail reports that TELUS told Mobilicity of its decision yesterday. It explained that it was doing so because conditions of the sale had not been met. It’s not clear which conditions these were but it’s […]
Apple looking to buy Beats Electronics for US$3.2 billion
A deal that could see Apple buy Beat Electronics is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations. If the last details can be worked out, the deal could be announced as early as next week. According to The Financial Times, Apple would spend US3.2 billion to acquire the premium headphones and music streaming service company founded by music producer Jimmy […]
TELUS to be excluded from 2500MHz spectrum auction over Mobilicity acquisition attempts?
Mobilicity, the beleaguered Canadian carrier looking to sell itself, last week announced that it had found a buyer through an auction it ran in December 2013. It turned out that the knight in shining armour was none other than TELUS which had already tried to buy it out twice before. Both previous attempts had been rebuffed by Industry Canada over […]