Oculus acquisition complete
Regulators approve Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in March 2014, but it takes time for state and local anti-trust teams to approve the acquisition. The companies release a joint statement:
We’re looking forward to an exciting future together building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate.
Acquires RayV
Yahoo buys the video streaming platform RayV for an undisclosed amount. The company focuses on developing technology for delivering high quality broadcasts to a large number of people at once. An announcement is posted on the RayV website:
Our RayV adventure now comes to a pivot, and we couldn’t be more excited. We believe Yahoo will be a perfect fit for our people and capabilities, as Video and Mobile offerings are a central part of Yahoo’s vision.
Acquires LiveRail
Facebook acquires LiveRail, an advertising technology company that creates video ads for websites and apps. LiveRail customers include companies such as Major League Baseball, Gannett, DailyMotion and ABC Family.
We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month.
Acquires Songza
Google acquires Songza, a service that creates soundtracks tailored to people’s changing moods, and plans to blend Songza’s technology into its own music streaming service. This service will cost $10 per month. Financial terms of the deal are not disclosed. Songza:
We can’t think of a better company to join in our quest to provide the perfect soundtrack for everything you do.
Acquires SnappyTV
Twitter announces its acquisition of SnappyTV, a platform for clipping and editing small segments of TV shows. This allows Twitter users to easily share TV clips with their followers:
As Twitter has grown as the companion to live events and broadcast media, SnappyTV will help partners and brands bring the best videos into the conversation, when it matters most.
Acquires Vine
Twitter acquires Vine, a service that allows users to upload video clips up to six seconds long, before its official launch. The company spends $30,000,000 on the site. The three developers of Vine, Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll, are all able to keep their positions at the company. Hofmann says:
Our companies share similar values and goals; like Twitter, we want to make it easier for people to come together to share and discover what’s happening in the world. We also believe constraint inspires creativity, whether it’s through a 140-character Tweet or a six-second video.
HootSuite acquires Seesmic
The companies don’t disclose valuation. Seesmic’s latest incarnation, as a social media cross-posting tool, is in line with HootSuite’s business. VentureBeat reports that Seesmic has 30,000-40,000 uniques a month and may be treated as a new product by HootSuite. HootSuite CEO Holmes:
I have always had a lot of respect for Seesmic’s CEO, Loïc Le Meur, and the role Seesmic has played in advancing social business. We are thrilled to welcome Seesmic’s users into the HootSuite family.
Dogster acquisition
Say Media buys the company. Financial terms aren’t disclosed. Say Media:
This acquisition marks an important milestone in the evolution of our company
Karpeles buys Mt. Gox
Karpeles buys Mt. Gox from an unemployed software hacker named Jed McCaleb. Before the site started trading in Bitcoins, it was an online marketplace where people could buy and sell cards for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. Mt. Gox is short for “Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange” McCaleb, nervous about regulatory scrutiny on bitcoin, wanted rid of the exchange and sold it to Karpeles in for no upfront fee, people with knowledge of the deal said. Karpeles told others he had later paid McCaleb a small fee, calling it “a very good deal”.
AOL acquires TechCrunch
The company annouces the acquisition along with the purchases of instructional video site 5min and Thing Labs Inc. People familiar with the deal say it paid around $30 million for TechCrunch. Arrington is retained on a multi-year deal. AOL chief executive Armstrong:
The one thing that doesn’t change is people’s consumption of content.
Intel buys McAfee Associates for $7.7 billion
Intel pays $7.68 billion to acquire McAfee Associates. Intel hopes the purchase will separate its products from those of its rivals and accelerate its move into smartphones and consumer electronics. According to the research firm IDC, McAfee has 17.7 percent of the market for securing computing devices, trailing the market leader Symantec, which has 36.2 percent.
Skype purchase
Ebay sells Skype at a value of $2.75 billion to Silver Lake Partners, which includes Joltid, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Andreessen Horowitz. SLP acquires a 70 percent stake in the Internet communication company. Andreesen notes:
Skype is gigantic and yet still a relatively small percentage of international call volume. This is, and ought to be, one of the most important companies on the Internet.
Japan Today sold
The Devlins sell Japan Today to GPlus Media, a Tokyo-based publishing company known for Real Estate Japan and GaijinPot, a community site for foreigners in Japan.
Metropolis sale
After publishing over 700 issues, the Devlins sell Metropolis to Lloyd, a New Zealand and Australian dual national, based in Japan. Over 14 years the magazine has grown to over 80 full-color pages every week made by a team of 35 staff from all over the world. The magazine has annual sales of ¥360 million and 20% profit, from hundreds of display and commercial classified advertisers and is, by far, Japan’s No 1 English magazine. A brief history of Metropolis is here.
Amazon buys TextPayMe
The deal is worth a rumored $3 million as Amazon branches out its payments strategy, allowing users to text money to each other by SMS.
Reddit bought by Condé Nast
Condé Nast Publications acquires Reddit for a reported $20 million. All four Reddit employees relocate from Boston to Wired’s San Francisco office and become part of Wired Digital, which the company bought three months previously. Conde Naste:
Our goal will be to build Reddit as an independent company by collaborating with Wired through the integration of its core technology, and by offering partnerships to allow other companies to do the same.
At this time the site has 70,000 daily unique visitors and approximately 700,000 or so page views.
Google buys YouTube
Google has recently purchased a majority (more than 50%) of YouTube for $1.65 billion. All 67 of YouTube’s employees kept their positions. Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, says:
I’m confident that with this partnership we will have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide.
Acquired by Google
0 0 lesley lesley2014-06-25 00:58:072015-02-06 09:50:52Acquired by GoogleErving Wonder acquired by Sanctuary
Erving Wonder is acquired by Sanctuary Group Inc., which manages some of the world’s biggest artists. Carter and Erving are appointed as Executive Vice Presidents of Sanctuary Urban. Sanctuary CEO Mercuriadis:
Erving Wonder has made a tremendous impact in both the music and the film world having developed an impressive roster of multi-talented, commercially viable and important artists. Troy and J’s strategic business sense, relationships with the smartest executives in the industry and their ability to brand artists and entertainers made them our number one choice for the development of Sanctuary Urban.
Carter:
Our goal is to take artists to an unheard of level in the U.S. and internationally. The Erving Wonder/Sanctuary collaboration will create more opportunities to help artists transcend music genres, TV/Film, and establish unique branding options.
Sells Tribal Voices
McAfee sells Tribal Voices for about $17 million. He purchases properties in Arizona, Hawaii, Texas, and New Mexico and takes up Aerotrekking.