Items tagged with purchase
Many Facebook app users are likely familiar with Giphy, as the API for the animated GIF service is integrated with the website. Facebook says that 50% of Giphy's traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, with half of that traffic from Instagram alone. For those unfamiliar with Giphy, it's described as a leader in visual expression and creativity. Users will know it as the service that allows you to add gifs and short video clips as a comment on a post rather than typing a message. Facebook has now announced that it has purchased Giphy and will make it part of the Instagram team (the purchase price was a cool $400 million according to Axios). Facebook says that by putting Instagram and its...
Read more...
It has been a week of revelations when it comes to Qualcomm. The chipmaker announced during its earnings call that Apple decided against using any Qualcomm modems in its 2018 iPhone line. That is perhaps unsurprising considered the long-running and bitter legal war the two companies have waged. In other news, an acquisition deal between Qualcomm and NXP was first announced in late 2016 and at the time the price was tipped to be $47 billion. The final offer made early this year was valued at $44 billion. Qualcomm announced early this morning that it is walking away from the entire NXP Semiconductors deal. The termination of the deal between NXP and Qualcomm River Holdings B.V.,...
Read more...
Foxconn is most known for building numerous devices for other major electronics companies such as Apple; in fact, Foxconn is tipped to be building the majority of the rumored new MacBook Air models. Belkin is known as one of the major sellers of accessories and docking stations that work with Apple devices and accessories for other brands of gadgets. Foxconn Interconnect Technology Limited (FIT) has announced that it intends to purchase Belkin for $866 million in cash, which the company says will create a global consumer electronics leader. "FIT is excited to acquire Belkin and its capabilities in the premium consumer products space," said Sidney Lu, CEO, FIT. "Integrating Belkin's best-in-class...
Read more...
Many Netflix fans aren’t sure if a purchase of the streaming giant by Apple would be a good thing or not. Regardless of these mixed emotions, there is a high likelihood that Apple will buy Netflix in 2018 according to Citi analysts. These analysts put the probability of a Netflix purchase by Apple at 40 percent, with the the purchase being made possible thanks to President Trump's tax cuts. Citi reckons that Apple could repatriate about $220 billion in cash it has sitting around outside the U.S. in 2018, and that the company would only need spend about a third of that cash to gobble up Netflix. Apple is sitting on a massive $252 billion in cash with much of that loot in foreign...
Read more...
Here's an interesting idea: buying things on Twitter. And not just on Twitter, but through Twitter -- as in, Twitter is the transactional medium. It sounds like a crazy, bold idea, and it is. But, that's not stopping American Express from giving it a whirl. As many major corporations look for ideal ways to utilize social media to better service and engage clients as well as potential clients, AMEX is taking its "Sync" program to the next level. AMEX was already fairly savvy with technology. It already utilizes Sync in order to link AMEX cards to Foursquare accounts, allowing cardholders to receive occasional discounts if checking in at a location and then making a purchase with their AMEX card...
Read more...
AOL is planning to sell over 800 patents and their related applications to Microsoft in a deal that is valued at $1.056 billion in cash. AOL has said a "significant" portion of the money from the deal will go to shareholders. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of this year. AOL will keep a patent portfolio of over 300 patents and patent applications in areas such as advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, mapping, multimedia/streaming and security. In addition, AOL received a perpetual license to the patents being sold to Microsoft. The deal won't come as a big surprise to anyone who's been following AOL closely over the last few months. Last fall,...
Read more...
Not sure if you've noticed, but Linux is quietly gaining steam. Android is becoming a huge mobile OS, Ubuntu is getting more and more attention, and now Linux builds are fetching huge amounts of money from mainstays in the industry. We're talking about Phoenix Technologies, which was recently purchased by HP for a staggering $12 million. Hewlett-Packard, which has yet to close their mega-purchase of Palm, is also back on the acquisition trail. Phoenix is known mostly for their work on a Linux-based quick boot OS as well as their client virtualization assets, both of which seem to be quite valuable in HP's eyes. HP is picking up HyperSpace, which is said to be a variant of the Linux OS that enables...
Read more...
Sony Pictures Television, like every branch of the Sony world, always seems to be swimming around in a pool of twenties. They arrive late, bring money, and buy whatever they like. They apparently like the semi-snarky vlog news site Rocketboom.com a lot; they've acquired the rights to distribute it in all media platforms. They plan on plopping it into their existing Crackle site, which has a large network and is no doubt hungry for things to show to web-savvy hipsters. But seriously; seven figures for Rocketboom? Andrew Baron, owner of Rocketboom, explains: Upon becoming free to make a move, we signed up with Creative Artists, and engaged in months of talks about possible partnerships with traditional...
Read more...
If you're like us here at HotHardware, you use the Internet for everything. But according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the one thing we're not doing much is letting the Internet make up our minds about what we want to buy. Those decisions seem to be more heavily and directly influenced by offline channels like "friends and sales personnel." Only about 10 percent of real estate and cell phone buyers and 7 percent of music purchasers credit the Internet with having a major impact on their decision. And only a small portion — 22 percent of the music buyers and 12 percent of cell phone purchasers — ultimately bought their product over the Internet."People do cast their information...
Read more...
The Consumerist featured a story a year ago about a woman that wasn't allowed to buy an Apple computer because she wanted to purchase it solely using Apple-issued giftcards. Stung by negative publicity, Apple relented and she got her computer. But instead of liberalizing their giftcard policy, Apple simply gave the one customer a computer paid for with giftcards and then changed their giftcard FAQ. Others shut out in Apple's giftcard eligibility maze want a computer too. Or maybe their money back. I have 7 gift cards totaling $1250. Apple refuses to sell me a computer despite having $1250 upfront.As soon as I found I could not enter more than half my gift cards on the Apple website, I used their...
Read more...
As with all rumors, take the following story with a grain of salt until we can receive official confirmation or denial from either AMD or IBM.Whenever AMD shares are low enough the buyout rumors begin. The name IBM is often tossed around as a potential buyer, but it seems unlikely considering their focus on software over hardware recently. Still, the rumors persist based on IBM's manufacturing capacity and a few joint-venture research projects.“IBM of Armonk, New York, has had a research and development expense-sharing agreement with AMD, and analysts have speculated that AMD might want to use IBM's East Fishkill, New York, chip-fabrication plant to build microprocessors.”If IBM does...
Read more...
Let's all calm down, shall we? There are a lot of news reports about the RIAA suing Jeffery Howell for ripping copies of his legally purchased music CDs for his own use. But according to engadget, that's not the case at all; he's being sued for the plain old-fashioned crime of participating in illegal downloading.As we're all unfortunately aware, that's pretty standard stuff; the big change from previous downloading cases is the RIAA's newfound aggressiveness in calling MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs "unauthorized copies" -- something it's been doing quietly for a while, but now it looks like the gloves are off. While there's a pretty good argument for the legality of ripping under...
Read more...
According to an article posted on the CustomPC website which quotes AMD’s head of developer relations, Richard Huddy, AMD has contemplated the purchase of AGEIA, multiple times. There is no discussion regarding what AMD's plans for AGEIA's technology would be, i.e. would it be incorporated into an ATI GPU or a CPU, but the potential for a purchase is real - especially since Intel bought rival Havok."AMD has admitted that it’s considering buying Ageia, if the price is right. AMD’s head of developer relations, Richard Huddy, told Custom PC that ‘we’ve had that discussion, yes. It’s a discussion that goes round every three months – someone turns to me and says ‘why don’t we buy Ageia?’...
Read more...
Cash? Nope, you can't buy an iPhone with cash any longer. Nor can you buy more than two, as Apple has instituted new policies to prevent reselling of the devices.The new policy started Thursday, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. Before then, there was no cash restriction and the purchase limit was five per person. "Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift," Kerris said. "We're requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers."Reselling? As we know from when the iPhone debuted,...
Read more...
In a recent Web 2.0 conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer declared that the company wasn't changing their acquisition strategy. The Redmond Giant will continue making smaller purchases in the $50 million to $1 billion range instead of larger, multi-billion dollar purchases.“The CEO of the world's largest software maker said it is logical for people to speculate that main rivals would join forces to take on an industry leader. In this case, Ballmer was referring to dominant Web search leader Google.Microsoft historically has shunned costly acquisitions, opting to purchase lots of less expensive companies. But company watchers saw this year's $US6 billion acquisition of digital advertising...
Read more...
About a year ago we decided our living room furniture was on its last legs. It had been a cheap sectional set, and it was badly in need of replacement. We had never tried buying furniture online before, except for small items such as TV stands or footstools. With the trend toward lower prices on the Internet, and looking at a retail price of $4000 or so for a decent set, we decided to try the Web. A little searching found something that really suited us, with delivery and assembly for reasonable prices, and satisfaction guaranteed as well. They even sent swatches for free.Well, the sectional not only met our expectations, it surpassed them. In fact, it didn't need assembly at all except...
Read more...
Due to popular demand, Dell is once again offering the OS that customers can't seem to get enough of: Windows XP. Dell received over 10,000 votes on their IdeaStorm website, enough to continue offering XP on selected models. Microsoft countered that Dell's move was in response to a "small minority of customers" with a "specific request." Michael Burk, a product manager for Microsoft's Windows Client group, said in an e-mailed statement, "The vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology, and that includes Windows Vista." Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director of JupiterResearch, said many consumers continue to buy XP because it's...
Read more...
Hot off the presses from both MSNBC and Fox News, it appears that the acquisition of YouTube by Google is official. Google, in its largest purchase in its 8 year history, agreed to buy YouTube for an estimated $1.65 billion dollars. YouTube has yet to turn a profit, but no doubt they did today. Under the agreement, YouTube would retain its 67 employees and branding. Head on over to the above news services for the latest details. EDIT: CNN also has a pretty good read on the acquisition as well....
Read more...
Cortina Systems Purchases Intel's Optical-Networking Components Business SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sep. 11, 2006 - Cortina Systems Inc. and Intel Corporation today announced that they have completed the sale of product lines and associated assets of Intel's optical-networking components business to Cortina. Cortina has emerged as a leading supplier of advanced communications semiconductor solutions for the carrier infrastructure market segment. The acquisition will give Cortina a large portfolio of enterprise and infrastructure communications products and will position it to become a leading communications semiconductor company. The sale will enable Intel to focus its investments on its core...
Read more...
Intel's Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Conroe) is now available for your purchasing pleasure through Newegg. As with any hot new technology though, you'll be paying a premium to get the latest and greatest from Intel. If you've got $1,360 to burn and a thirst for new hardware, don't hesitate to get started....
Read more...
Marvell To Purchase Intel's Communications And Application Processor Business For $600 Million SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 27, 2006 - Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. and Intel Corporation today announced that they have signed an agreement for Intel to sell its communications and application processor business to Marvell for a purchase price of $600 million plus the assumption by Marvell of certain liabilities. The planned sale will give Marvell a strong presence in the growing market segment for processors used in smart handheld devices. The sale also will enable Intel to focus its investments on its core businesses, including high-performance, low-power Intel Architecture-based processors and...
Read more...
Here's a story that's bound to anger quite a few of you. Apparently, a couple brought their computer in for repair at a local Best Buy and were told their hard drive needed to be replaced. The old drive was supposed to be destroyed, but it ended up for sale at a flea market with all of the couple's personal data intact. Someone at Best Buy is getting' fired... Henry Gerbus said Best Buy assured him the computer's old hard drive -- loaded with personal information -- would be destroyed. "They said rest assured. They drill holes in it so it's useless," said Gerbus. A few months ago, Gerbus got a phone call from a man in Chicago....
Read more...
