acquisition Archives - Gizmochina

Apple Acquires DarwinAI, Expect Lots of Artificial Intelligence-powered Features in the Future

Anubhav — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:18:24 +0000

Apple has made a key move to progress its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities with the acquisition of Canadian startup DarwinAI, according to a Bloomberg report. This could spell big things for the trillion-dollar tech giant.

Apple has merely confirmed the acquisition, providing no information regarding future plans

Founded in 2017, DarwinAI carved a niche in the AI space with two key technologies- inspection and machine learning to generate scaled-down AI systems. Public records indicate DarwinAI received a total of $15.5 million in funding over five years, with Lockheed Martin and Intel listed as the biggest collaborators.

Following the acquisition, DarwinAI’s online presence has vanished, with their website and social media accounts deactivated. Dozens of former DarwinAI employees have reportedly transitioned to Apple’s AI division, with AI researcher Alexander Wong joining as a director.

While Apple confirmed the acquisition, there was no statement released regarding the company’s purpose or future plans. This move could be a part of a bigger-scale effort to integrate AI features across their product line, including the upcoming iOS 18 and macOS 15 operating systems. It also goes without saying that Apple is clearly making an attempt to close the gap with competitors like Microsoft and Google. The organization’s ambitions could extend to generative AI, potentially integrating it with Siri, Shortcuts, and other core applications. Rumors also suggest Apple is actively testing large language models and acquiring new patents for industry-leading designs. Hopefully, we are treated with more intelligent Apple products in the future.

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Reliance could spend billions to acquire Disney+Hotstar in India

Sean — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:05:49 +0000

Reliance is apparently planning on shelling out billions of dollars to acquire Disney+Hotstar in India. Recent rumors have hinted at Disney exiting the Indian market. For this, the company is also looking to sell its local assets and Reliance might be the buyer.

Reliance May Buy Out Disney+Hotstar

According to the previous report, Disney was in talks with Sun TV, Adani Group, and Reliance Industries for the potential acquisition. Now, the latest rumor hints that the deal could close soon with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group. The transaction would involve Reliance acquiring a major control stake in the business, although both parties are expected to be in the negotiation stage to decide the exact valuation for the deal.

While initial rumors claimed that Disney is looking to completely exit the Indian market, a Bloomberg report believes that the company only wants to sell a controlling stake rather than completely letting go of its Indian unit. The news from Bloomberg adds that Disney is near a multi-billion dollar deal with Reliance Industries. If this deal goes through, then a vast part of the Disney+Hotstar OTT platform, including its TV channels like Star Sports and Star Gold, could fall under Reliance.

Disney is reportedly asking for 10 billion US Dollars for Hotstar and Star India. However, Reliance isn’t agreeing with this evaluation, instead valuing it for around 7 to 8 billion US Dollars. Interestingly enough, the company acquiring Disney+Hotstar implies that the Ambani led group could gain control over the TV streaming rights of cricket in the Indian market. This is a big deal considering the immense popularity of the sport in the region.

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AMD acquires AI software startup Nod.AI to enhance its Open-Source AI Capabilities

Simranpal Singh — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 07:29:01 +0000

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) locked its second AI software acquisition deal to compete against Nvidia’s AI prowess. The company acquired Nod.AI which develop AI solution to optimize compiler-based automation software for startups, enterprises, and hyperscalers. AMD aims to improve its open-source AI products and systems with the new acquisition.

Must See: Samsung Rumored to End Partnership with AMD for Mobile GPUs

The technology from Nod.AI will benefit AMD’s products for its Intinct data-center accelerators, Ryzen processors, and Radeon GPUs. It will also reduce the optimizing time before deploying AI models on AMD processors. Further, “With the purchase, AMD is attempting to capitalize on the demand for generative AI technologies. Nod.ai’s tools will give its customers developer tools, libraries, and machine learning models,” the company said.

Following AMD CEO Lisa SU’s plan to enhance the company’s AI capabilities, AMD first acquired Mipsology and now Nod.AI. Further, AMD is scheduled to launch Instinct MI300 chips later this quarter.

“The acquisition of Nod.ai is expected to significantly enhance our ability to provide AI customers with open software that allows them to easily deploy highly performant AI models tuned for AMD hardware,” AMD Senior Vice President of AI, Vamsi Boppana, said.

Following the new development, AMD shares ended in green with a 1.7% increase. However, the actual details about the company’s progress will be reflected in the Q3 2023 earnings report which is set for release today.

Nod.AI was founded in 2013 by Enush Elangovan, who is a former Google employee known for his contribution to developing an Arm-based Chromebook. The startup is backed by venture capital firms like Menlo Ventures, 8Square Capital, Atlantic Bridge, Pointguard Ventures, and Walden International. “By joining forces with AMD, we will bring this expertise to a broader range of customers on a global scale,” Elangovan said in a statement.

Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard gets blocked by UK

Sean — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 14:24:15 +0000

Microsoft is apparently facing issues with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the UK. The government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has blocked this merger proposition, citing possible monopolistic effects of this deal in the gaming industry.

Microsoft faces a roadblock in Activision Blizzard acquisition in the UK

In a statement, the CMA stated that it is preventing “Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision over growing concerns the deal would alter the future of the fast growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come.” To put things simply, the agency is worried that the acquisition would allow the American tech giant to hold a monopoly in the recently growing cloud gaming market. Since Microsoft announced that it will be buying out Activision Blizzard, it has faced scrutiny from various government bodies across the globe as well as its market competitors.

An example being Sony, which claimed that the company could leverage this acquisition to offer inferior versions of its products (games) from Activision Blizzard on its popular PlayStation platform. Apart from this, it is also facing a pending lawsuit in the US by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) against Microsoft on the grounds that the brand might breach anti trust laws as well and could even establish a monopoly.

The CMA further added that “We have concluded that the merger would result in the most powerful operator in the fast-developing market for cloud gaming, with a current market share of 60-70%, acquiring a portfolio of world-leading games with the incentive to withhold those games from competitors and substantially weaken competition in this important growing market.”

Shell to Acquire Volta EV Charging Network for $169 Million

Sean — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 13:12:35 +0000

Shell is set to making a new acquisition as it expands its presence in the electric vehicle market in the US. The company is buying out Volta, which is an electric vehicle charging station for around 169 million US Dollars. So here are all the details.

The gasoline giant is aiming on closing this major deal sometime within the first half of this year. For those unaware, Volta isn’t the first of its kind deal, rather, it is the second US EV charging starting that the company has acquired. Its last acquisition of a similar firm was Greenlots, which was purchased by Royal Dutch Shell back in 2019. As of right now, Volta operates over 3,000 destination charging stations across 31 states and even has chargers in Europe.

As per official notes, the company is also planning to install another 3,400 EV charging stations. Although, the timeline for this step is currently unknown. Back in 2022, Volta was ranked second in terms of customer satisfaction for Level 2 chargers, being second only to Tesla. In other words, this acquisition will clearly help position Shell in the overall EV market. Volta also operates stations in high traffic retail parking lots as well and provides free electricity for EV owners.

So, its main source of revenue is its ad displays that are used by advertising clients. Interestingly enough, the latest purchase from Shell is also quite notable since it isn’t common for oil and gas companies to acquire EV charging networks. But now, the acquisition of Volta along with Greenlots will have Shell own a total of more than 57,000 charging stations. These stations will also be renamed as Shell Recharge Solutions.

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ZMI denies rumors of mass lay offs and ceasing its operations

Sean — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 09:09:49 +0000

ZMI has just offered an official statement to clarify the ongoing rumors that have claimed that it will be ceasing its operations. The company denied these rumors and said that it will continue to operate under the ZMI brand.

Looking at the official statement, the Chinese brand has stated that the ZMI brand will continue to exist and develop new products. Furthermore, it said that any remarks or rumors that hint at the brand suspending its operations is false. The company also added that it will continue to provide all of its loyal customers with high value and high quality products along with long term stable after sales services.

This statement was shared on Weibo (a Chinese microblogging website) where it thanked its fans for their concern and hoped that future rumors will not be believed. For those unaware, there were some rumors online that were being shared that claimed that the company has seen a massive restructuring following an acquisition. Reportedly, the brand had been purchased by Xiaomi Corp and the turn over had ZMI lay off around 80 percent of its staff.

The rumor also claimed that there were only some technicians left who were then merged into Xiaomi’s smart wearable department while others were incorporated into the various other departments in the Chinese tech giant. So stick around for more as we will be providing updates when additional information is available regarding this matter.

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Elon Musk tries to rehire some Twitter employees after firing them

Sean — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 04:36:04 +0000

Elon Musk has just recently acquired Twitter, but in a short span of time, he brought a number of changes in the company. One of these changes was the massive scale of restructuring, which saw a large number of employees being laid off. But now, the company has apparently began trying to rehire some of these fired workers.

For those unaware, Musk began the firing spree with great numbers, including top executives, the marketing department, and others. The billionaire had also given the reason for this move. Apparently, Twitter was losing around 4 million US Dollars a day, and the multi billion dollar deal meant that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO had to scale down in terms of employees. But it appears that some of these lay offs were a mistake and the popular microblogging platform is looking to rehire them.

The news arrives from a Bloomberg report, which claimed that some people “were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions.” In other words, this could also mean that the company found that it had laid off too many employees, which began affecting its core operations. Although, based on how sudden the major lay offs were, we can assume that there will be plenty that stay away from the unstable Twitter workspace.

Furthermore, it appears that some of these former Twitter employees have also been approached by rival tech giants like Meta and Google. Similarly, there are also reports of new tech based startups with venture capital funding eyeing these ex Twitter workers. It will take sometime for the dust to settle around the Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk, so stick around for more updates.

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition is finally confirmed

Sean — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 12:14:07 +0000

Over the last couple of months, the news regarding Twitter being bought up by known billionaire Elon Musk has been on and off. However, it seems like the massive multi billion dollar deal has finally been confirmed.

For those unaware, Musk had first announced the 44 billion US Dollars acquisition deal earlier this year. However, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla had soon backed out of the deal owing to complications related to transparency in business operations. This then led to lawsuits being filed against the billionaire. But recently, it seemed that things finally worked out and the deal was back on track. Now, Elon Musk has officially confirmed this deal.

But according to a Bloomberg report, CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett were some of the executives that were laid off following this acquisition. Furthermore, Edgett was reportedly escorted from Twitter’s head office. In other words, it might seem that Musk still has friction over the legal actions that were tanked against him months prior.

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

Musk even took to Twitter to officially confirm this announcement with a short video of him entering the Twitter headquarters. He stated that “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

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Spotify acquires Dublin-based startup Kinzen to detect harmful content in podcasts

Jeet — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 06:20:48 +0000

Spotify, one of the leading music streaming platforms, has been trying to establish itself as a leading platform for podcasts as well, and for that, the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars so far.

In the latest development, Spotify has announced that the company is acquiring Kinzen, a Dublin-based start-up that offers content moderation service, for an undisclosed amount. The entire team of Kinzen, including its leadership, will now join Spotify.

Spotify has been working in partnership with Kinzen since 2020, and now the start-up has been acquired by the music streaming platform. The technology will be used to better moderate podcasts and other audio using machine learning as well as human expertise.

Kinzen was founded in 2017 by Áine Kerr, Mark Little, and Paul Watson with a mission to focus on protecting public conversations from dangerous misinformation and harmful content. It offers tools that help platforms plan ahead by getting early warnings about evolving narratives and trends that could become misinformation risks.

The analysis includes a broad range of areas, like medical misinformation, antisemitism, hateful content, climate misinformation, violent extremism, and other dangerous misinformation across multiple markets and languages.

Spotify also adds that Kinzen is especially valuable because of its capability to analyze content in hundreds of languages and dialects, which will help the company detect emerging threats across markets.

It appears that the acquisition is a part of the company’s efforts to deal with harmful content on its service after it faced backlash earlier this year over “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where he was accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

Elon Musk changes his mind about the Twitter acquisition

Sean — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 09:05:56 +0000

Elon Musk has apparently had a change in heart regarding his original plans of acquiring Twitter. The billionaire had backed out of the deal a while ago, but now, it appears that Musk is planning on buying the platform again.

For those unaware, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO offered to buy Twitter for 44 billion US Dollars back in April 2022. However, the deal was soon put on hold over disputed regarding the number of fake and spam accounts that Twitter claimed to have on their platform. The social media giant claimed that the percentage was less than 5 percent, but Musk decided to pull out of the deal. He claimed that the microblogging website did not comply with his contractual obligations.

Thus, Musk backed out of the deal back in July 2022 as he claimed that the company failed to provide him with relevant business information. In response to this, the social media company filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk to force the billionaire to make the original purchase. The company accused Musk of disrupting its operations and even destroying their stockholder value.

However now, Musk’s changing his mind about the buyout arrives before the trial, which was set to begin in October 17. Since Elon is set to acquire Twitter again, the trial should fall through unless he has another change of heart. So stick around for more, as we will be providing updates when additional information is available regarding this matter.

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Elon Musk aims to block Twitter’s fast track trial request

Sean — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 07:08:38 +0000

Elon Musk has filed a new motion last week that aims on blocking Twitter‘s attempts at a fast track trial. This trial follows after the social media platform sued the billionaire for terminating the 44 billion US Dollar deal.

The Tesla CEO’s lawyers have filed papers with the Delaware Chancery Court. These documents stated that Twitter has made an “unjustifiable request” for an expedited trial after it turned a rushed merger into a trial in just two months. For those unaware, Elon Musk pulled out of the multi billion dollar merger deal after he claimed that Twitter lied about the “spam bot” issue as well as failed to provide accurate data regarding this matter.

Following this move from Musk, the popular microblogging website filed a lawsuit claiming that Elon violated the deal for the acquisition. Thus, the social media giant is now requesting the trial to begin in September since the merger agreement is set to terminate officially on October 25. In the filing, Musk stated that “Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad defendants into closing.”

According to a Reuters report, “Musk’s lawyers argued the dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value and extremely fact- and expert-intensive.” Furthermore, they have also claimed that it would also take a long while for discovery and requested that the trial take place sometime around or after February 13 of next year.

Geely’s Xingji Times acquires Meizu, flagship phone planned for 2023

Sean — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 08:16:28 +0000

Earlier today (4th July 2022), it was announced that Meizu has officially been acquired. The company is now owned by Geely‘s Xingji Times that has taken over majority shares of the brand, with the announcement also shared some other interesting future plans.

As of right now, Xingji Times has a 79.09 percent controlling stake in Meizu Technology. Following the acquisition, the top management for the Chinese smartphone maker will be more or less the same. Although, Shen Ziyu, the vice chairman of Xingji Times, will now also serve as the chairman of Meizu Technology. On the other hand, Huang Zhipan is still the CEO of the brand. Notably, the acquisition is in line with our previous report regarding Geely having plans to buy stake into the smartphone maker.

Huang had joined the company back in 2004 and has been held various important positions related to the supply chain, overseas business, and others. Despite the acquisition by Xingji times, both parties have agreed to see this as a strategic investment and that Meizu will still operate as an independent brand. Thus, the top management was left untouched and remains stable, while Huang Zhang will also be a strategic consultant for the brands products.

Interestingly, Shen Ziyu the new chairman of Meizu, revealed that the brand will retain and independent team. He further added that the company is also planning on launching a new flagship smartphone next year. Although, no other finer details were shared regarding this matter.

Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion

Sean — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 06:12:02 +0000

Twitter has finally agreed to Elon Musk‘s offer. So now, the Tesla CEO is the sole owner of the company. In a recent press release, the social media giant announced that Elon Musk has bought the company for a sizeable sum of 44 billion US Dollars.

As per the press release, the microblogging website stated that the Tesla and SpaceX Founder has bought the company at 54.20 US Dollars a share. In other words, this is the same as the initial offer that Musk had offered earlier this month. Through this purchase, Twitter will now become a privately held company by the time the acquisition is completed. At the moment, the deal is expected to close in 2022 and is subject to approval from Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, and more.

After the announcement, Elon even tweeted out saying that “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

Notably, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal addressed his employees, stating that no layoffs were planned “at this time.” Although, some of the employees have expressed their discontentment with Musk buying the platform. Agrawal told his employees that “There is indeed uncertainty about what will happen after the deal closes.” Earlier this month, the Tesla CEO owned 9.2 percent of the company, but just a few weeks after, this number jumped to 100 percent.

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Netflix buys another game studio, acquires Boss Fight Entertainment

Sean — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 08:05:23 +0000

Netflix has just brought another gaming studio under its wing. The company has now bought Boss Fight Entertainment, which is its third game studio. This acquisition was completed just earlier this week.

With this new takeover, the popular video streaming platform has expanded its portfolio of game studios as it seeks to increase its footprint within the gaming segment. For those unaware, the company has been buying game studios to offer smaller mini games from its platform that is built within its Netflix app itself. Through this acquisition, it is clear that the brand is going ahead to expand this mobile games store.

According to Amir Rahimi in a post, Vice President of Game Studios at the company, “We’re still in the early days of building great game experiences as part of your Netflix membership. Through partnerships with developers around the world, hiring top talent, and acquisitions like this, we hope to build a world class games studio capable of bringing a wide variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games – with no ads or in app purchases – to our hundreds of millions of members around the world.”

Previously, Netflix had added three new titles to its collection of mobile games, which now brings the total number of titles to 17. All of these can be played through the mobile app as of right now. At the moment, the latest games include This Is A True Story, Shatter Remastered, and Into The Dead 2: Unleashed. These games are bundled with the existing subscription pack and there is no pack dedicated for games alone.

Sony acquires Haven Studios, a new Canada-based independent game developer

Jeet — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 02:50:07 +0000

Sony has announced that the company has signed an agreement for the acquisition of Haven Studios but financial details about the transaction remain unknown.

The development comes after Haven Studios and Sony had been in a partnership for over a year and after the acquisition, Haven will be one of the first for PlayStation Studios.

Haven Studios was founded by Jade Raymond, co-creator of Assassin’s Creed and former head of Stadia Games and Entertainment. This new gaming studio was founded by Raymond in March last year.

Although it was an independent company, it was backed by Sony, and the first project was said to be a new IP for PlayStation. Details about that first game remain undisclosed but Jade Raymond says that the team has “made amazing progress.”

Commenting about the acquisition, Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, said: “We began working with Jade and her team in early 2021 when they were on the brink of announcing the formation of Haven Studios. From their first pitch, we were inspired by Haven’s vision for creating a modern multiplayer experience that brings gamers together in positive and meaningful ways. We were confident in their creative and technical expertise to deliver on such an ambitious project and were thrilled to invest in their journey developing a new, original IP for PlayStation.”

The acquisition of Haven Studios also means that Sony now has a team of game developers in Canada. For those who are unaware, Canada is one of the biggest producers of AAA games in the world and most major games companies have a presence in the country.

Sennheiser is now officially part of Sonova Holding AG group

Sudhanshu — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 16:49:34 +0000

Sennheiser, the German audio company best known for its enthusiast-grade consumer audio products is now officially a part of the Sonova Holdings AG group.

The announcement came at the Sennheiser Consumer Innovation press event where the new owner of the brand was made public. The change in ownership will not affect the branding or products of the Sennheiser, however, Sonova Holdings AG group will now be using Sennheiser’s name for their future products.

For those unaware, Sonova Holding AG group is a Swiss multinational company headquartered in Stäfa that specializes in hearing care solutions. It is one of the largest providers in the sector worldwide. The group operates through its core business brands Phonak, Unitron, Hansaton, Advanced Bionics, and AudioNova.

“Sennheiser and Sonova share many values and will leverage various complementary strengths,” says Martin Grieder, Sonova GVP Consumer Hearing. “Both brands have a passion and dedication to high-quality audio with innovation at the heart of the business,” he added.

Premium headphones, audiophiles, enhanced hearing, and soundbars are going to be the four key product segments for the new venture. Sonova Consumer Hearing has announced that the company has plans to launch new products in all four of its categories in 2022, including new products in its flagship MOMENTUM range.

The Swiss hearing care solutions company also plans on leveraging Sennheiser’s expertise in the TWS segment, as it believes the technology behind true wireless headphones and hearing aids is also converging to create a rapidly growing enhanced hearing segment.

Spotify acquires two podcast analytics firms Chartable and Podsights

Jeet — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 03:38:10 +0000

Spotify, one of the leading music streaming platforms has been actively trying to expand its business and is focusing more on podcasts. In line with that, the company has announced that it is acquiring two podcast-related companies — Chartable and Podsights.

The company has revealed financial details related to these acquisitions but it marks the first major acquisition this year in the audio-related business.

Podsights’ team of around 40 full-time employees will join Spotify and the company says that it has no plans to adjust that team at this time. On the other hand, Chartable will be added to Spotify’s Megaphone.

Both the companies — Chartable and Podsights operate in the space of podcast marketing and ad attribution. They allow podcasters and networks to include tags in the shows to track details like who listened to the tracks, if they heard the ad or if they took any action upon hearing the advertisement, etc.

Talking more about the acquisition of Podsight, Spotify says that it will use the technology outside podcasting and bring it to the “full scope of the Spotify platform, including audio ads within music, video ads, and display ads.”

As for the Chartable, Spotify plans to focus more on the podcasters instead of advertisers. It will be integrating its audience insights and its promotional tools, SmartLinks and SmartPromos with Megaphone so podcasters can grow their business.

The development comes at a time when Spotify is facing backlash because of Joe Rogan’s podcast which critics say is spreading misinformation related to COVID-19. It has also led to several artists leaving the platform in protest.

Nvidia’s $66 billion deal to acquire Arm has collapsed: Report

Sean — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:16:23 +0000

Nvidia was set to acquire Arm from the SoftBank Group for a whopping sum of 66 billion US Dollars. However, this deal saw scrutiny from various regulators and has apparently collapsed as of right now.

According to sources close the matter (Via ArsTechnica), Team Green’s deal with the Japanese multinational conglomerate has collapsed due to regulators in the US, UK, and EU raised various concerns regarding the possible market effects it will have on rivals within the semiconductor industry. Some of these concerns included anti competitiveness and even national security risks, while the known graphics card maker also faced a lawsuit by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) last year.

For those unaware, this deal was expected to be the largest ever in the chip industry and would have had Nvidia acquire the company behind ARM’s technology that powers most smartphones across the globe. While companies like MediaTek and others supported the acquisition, others including Qualcomm and Microsoft had objected to the purchase. The report further added that SoftBank will be receiving a fee of up to 1.25 billion US Dollars despite the deal collapsing and is now planning on putting up Arm on an initial public offering.

This will reportedly take place before the end of this year as per one of the people close to the matter. SoftBank might now list Arm in New York as Nvidia reportedly abandoned this deal earlier this week on Monday. This is still an unconfirmed report so take it with a pinch of salt for now, and stay tuned for more updates.

Chinese carmaker Geely plans to acquire smartphone brand Meizu: Report

Sean — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 08:55:54 +0000

A new report has suggested that known Chinese automaker Geely is planning on acquiring a local smartphone brand. Sources close to the matter have revealed that the phonemaker in question is Meizu.

According to a 36kr report, multiple independent sources have suggested that the Geely group is currently in talks with Meizu over the possible acquisition. Apparently, “the transaction is still in progress.” In other words, finer details regarding this deal like the total price of the buyout is still unknown as of right now. Notably, this move is somewhat in line with our previous report. We had covered that the automobile manufacturer is planning on launching a smartphone brand.

This move is also completely the opposite of the current market trend, with smartphone brands like Xiaomi and Apple working on cars while the Geely is entering the handset market. As per our previous reports, the company’s chairman and founder had started this bold plan, which will have handsets launching in the year 2023. Furthermore, it was also revealed at the moment that the initial capital investment was around 10 billion Yuan (roughly 1.55 billion US dollars) for the project, with a targeted revenue of about 1.5 billion US dollars within the first year of operations.

With the first handsets launching within just a year, it makes sense that an acquisition of an existing brand will buy the company time over starting from scratch. Meizu already has a dedicated team for its smartphone operations as well. Although, Meizu has seen a decline in recent times, so the acquisition may also bring changes that revitalize its market share. Keep in mind that this is still an unconfirmed report, so take it with a pinch of salt and stay tuned for more updates.

Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in an all-cash deal

Jeet — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 04:00:35 +0000

Microsoft has announced that the company is acquiring Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal that is worth $68.7 billion. This is by far the highest bid from Microsoft for the acquisition of any company. For instance, it acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016.

The company says that once the deal goes through, it will be the third-largest gaming company by revenue, just behind the giants Tencent and Sony. Microsoft is paying $95 per share, which is about 45 percent above his company’s stock price.

Microsoft expects this acquisition deal to close in fiscal year 2023” which means that there’s still a long wait of several months. The longer wait could be because of the number of markets for operations, making regulatory approval more complicated.

This acquisition is yet another example of the rapid consolidation happening in the game industry and the reason behind seems to be the race for having a catalogue of exclusive content. Companies, including Microsoft, sometimes makes the games it owns available only on its own gaming consoles and not available for competitive products.

Once the deal closes, Microsoft will be adding Activision’s games to Xbox Game Pass which includes titles like Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush. Phile Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, said, “Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog.”

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard comes at a time when the company faces accusations senior executives having ignored sexual harassment and discrimination. Its shares fell 27 percent since California sued the company in July over the claims.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard will stay in his role and will be reporting to Phil Spencer who is leading Microsoft Gaming. Reports indicate that soon after the transition period, Mr. Kotick could step down or continue in an advisory role.

Microsoft is focusing a lot on the gaming for the past few years and seems like the pandemic has helped the company as more people stay home and using gaming systems. In January 2021, on the heels of massive demand for its Xbox gaming consoles, Microsoft’s gaming revenue surpassed $5 billion for the first time.

Tencent to acquire Black Shark, as it seeks to step into the Metaverse: Report

Sean — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 07:45:13 +0000

A new report has just revealed that Tencent Group is planning on buying the Black Shark brand and integrating it with its own Content Business Group. The move from the company arrives as it apparently plans to step into the Metaverse.

The news arrives from 36Kr and multiple independent sources who stated that the Chinese tech giant aims on acquiring the gaming smartphone maker. It adds that the gaming smartphone making company will also undergo a business transformation after the acquisition process is complete. In other words, Black Shark as a brand would likely see an expansion once the transaction is completed.

This diversification process will reportedly grow to include VR (Virtual Reality) based technologies and devices. So, the software content for VR will be provided by Tencent while Black Shark manufactures the hardware. For those unaware, the gaming smartphone brand is a relatively young company that was established back in 2017 and was backed by another Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi. As of right now, Xiaomi is the majority shareholder, holding around 46.4 percent stake in Black Shark. Unfortunately, Tencent has yet to official comment on this news at the moment.

Although, with tech companies moving towards the AR/VR field, especially after the introduction of the Metaverse, it was only a matter of time before the Chinese company would also make its move. Back in Q3 2021, the brand had even filed for a number of trademarks for technologies for the Metaverse. While the company has yet to confirm this news, it makes sense that the group would seek out an experienced brand that has its own facilities for R&D and manufacturing to build a platform through which its content can be accessed.

This isn’t something new either, since Facebook had previously acquired Oculus in the past to fill up the hardware gap in its plans to provide both VR content along with the devices that allows you to access the VR world. Another source added that Tencent was likely in contact with all AR/VR related projects on the market, such as HTC. But since the group is known for a number of its popular gaming titles in the market, it isn’t odd that it chose Black Shark. Both brands have also previously partnered up for the latter’s gaming smartphones as well.

FTC sues Nvidia to block $40 billion acquisition of ARM

Jeet — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 08:52:35 +0000

Ever since Nvidia announced the acquisition of ARM, the deal has been facing lots of obstacles and now it has run into another massive hurdle. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it is suing to block the merger from going through.

The commission is concerned that the combined entity would “stifle competing next-generation technologies.” The lawsuit comes after FTC investigated the deal after receiving complaints from Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm.

In a statement, FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova said: “The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies. This proposed deal would distort Arm’s incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia’s rivals.”

Responding to the news, Nvidia spokesperson said: “As we move into this next step in the FTC process, we will continue to work to demonstrate that this transaction will benefit the industry and promote competition.”

The FTC notes that Nvidia already uses Arm-based products for several areas, including high-level advanced driver systems for vehicles, CPUs for cloud computing, and DPU SmartNICs. By acquiring Arm, Nvidia would gain an unfair advantage in those markets.

It has also raised concerns that Nvidia would gain access to sensitive information from Arm licensees who already compete with Nvidia, in addition to de-incentivizing Arm from working on new products and designs that would conflict with Nvidia’s own interests.

Nvidia has promised that it would keep Arm’s existing open licensing model to provide semiconductor designs to companies, including Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, Amazon, and more. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that the company has no intention to ‘throttle’ or ‘deny’ Arm’s supply to any customer.

Apart from FTC, the European Union has also opened a formal investigation into the deal while the UK’s Competition and Market Authority is looking more in-depth for the potential national security risks and competition concerns.

For the uninitiated, Nvidia announced its plans to acquire the UK-based Arm from SoftBank in September 2020 in a deal that is valued at $40 billion. The deal has faced criticism from both international regulators and industry heavyweights.

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Nvidia’s Arm acquisition deal now faces formal investigation by the European Union

Jeet — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 06:48:56 +0000

Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM has been facing obstacles ever since the company announced the deal and in the latest setback, the European Union antitrust regulators have now opened a full-scale investigation into the acquisition of ARM, a deal worth $54 billion.

The antitrust regulator will be looking into the concerns about the deal leading to higher prices, fewer options to choose from, and reduced innovation. The Commission said that it would make a decision about the deal by March 15, 2022.

This full-scale investigation comes after a preliminary review during which Nvidia reportedly offered concessions that were viewed as insufficient by the European Commission.

Nvidia has not disclosed what these concessions are but it has previously said it would maintain ARM as a neutral technology supplier to soothe concerns from customers such as Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Apple, among others.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said: “Whilst Arm and Nvidia do not directly compete, Arm’s IP is an important input in products competing with those of Nvidia, for example in datacentres, automotive and in the Internet of Things. Our analysis shows that the acquisition of Arm by Nvidia could lead to restricted or degraded access to Arm’s IP, with distortive effects in many markets where semiconductors are used.”

Commenting on this, Nvidia spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the European Commission through the regulatory process. We look forward to the opportunity to address their initial concerns and continue demonstrating that the transaction will help to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation, including in the EU.”

A couple of months ago, the UK regulator found that the acquisition of ARM by Nvidia could damage competition and weaken rivals, and required a further lengthy investigation.

For the uninitiated, NVIDIA, the world’s biggest graphics card, and AI chips maker announced the acquisition of ARM last year. SoftBank had acquired ARM back in 2016 for 31.4 billion US Dollars. ARM is a known chip designer with its architecture being one of the most popular designs used in most smartphone chips.

Facebook fined $70 million for deliberate breach during Giphy acquisition probe

Jeet — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 04:45:35 +0000

Social media giant Facebook has been fined £50 million ($70 million USD) by the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK for purposely concealing information about its Giphy acquisition. The company’s dealings with Giphy were called out by the UK regulators, leading to CMA launching an antitrust probe.

The Competition and Markets Authority had issued an initial enforcement order to Facebook in June last year as it began its investigation into the acquisition deal. The order was aimed to ensure that companies continue to compete as they would in the absence of a merger and it prevents them from integrating further.

As a part of the order, Facebook is legally required to provide regular updates to show that it is complying with the order. But, CMA says that Facebook “significantly limited the scope of those updates” despite repeated warnings.

The regulator also noted that this is the first time a company has been found to have breached an IEO by “consciously refusing” to report all the required information. Further, it added that Facebook’s failure to comply was “deliberate” as the social media company was given multiple warnings.

Joel Bamford, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said: “We warned Facebook that its refusal to provide us with important information was a breach of the order but, even after losing its appeal in two separate courts, Facebook continued to disregard its legal obligations. This should serve as a warning to any company that thinks it is above the law.”

Separately, the CMA has fined Facebook £500,000 for changing its Chief Compliance Officer on two separate occasions without seeking consent first.

A couple of months ago, the CMA said it had provisionally found Facebook’s purchase of Giphy would harm competition between social media platforms and remove a potential challenger in the display advertising market. It also said that Facebook could be required to unwind the deal, which is reportedly worth $400 million, and sell off Giphy if its concerns are ultimately confirmed.

PayPal reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Pinterest for $45 billion

Jeet — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 02:41:09 +0000

PayPal, one of the leading and well-known online payments platforms, is in advanced talks to acquire digital pinboard platform Pinterest for $45 billion. The development was first reported by Bloomberg, citing people aware of the matter but didn’t want to be identified.

If the deal goes through, then it will mark the biggest acquisition of a social media company so far. Currently, Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in the year 2016 is the biggest transaction in this category.

A source aware of the development has said that PayPal is offering $70 per share for the acquisition of Pinterest, mostly in stock. If everything goes as expected for the online payments provider, then the deal could be announced early next month when PayPal reports its quarterly earnings.

However, do note that the deal isn’t certain yet and the terms associated with it could get changed. As the news surfaced online, the shares of PayPal fell while Pinterest saw a surge in its shares.

With the acquisition of Pinterest, PayPal would be able to capture more of the e-commerce growth as online shoppers are following influencers on platforms. It will also help the company diversify its income with advertising revenue.

Pinterest was valued at about $13 billion when it went public in 2019 and since then, the company saw a huge spike in users looking for crafts and DIY project ideas because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has warned about slowing user growth, especially in the US, as lockdowns eased.

The price offered by PayPal for the acquisition of Pinterest, founded in 2010, is 62 times the social media company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization over the last 12 months.

PayPal has turned towards acquisition to boost its e-commerce offerings. In 2019, the company purchased Honey Science for $4 billion, and earlier this year, it acquired Japan-based Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) firm Paidy for $2.7 billion. It has also acquired return-service provider Happy Returns in May this year.

In related news, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp announced last week that he would step down as the company’s chief creative officer to join LoveFrom, a firm led by Jony Ive, known for designing many Apple products.

Qualcomm acquires automotive tech company Veoneer for $4.5 billion

Jeet — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 09:03:34 +0000

Qualcomm, along with an investment firm SSW Partners, has agreed to purchase Veoneer, a Swedish automotive tech company in an all-cash deal worth around $4.5 billion as the company is paying $37 per share.

For this deal, the chipset maker has managed to outbid Magna International. In July this year, Veoneer had agreed to sell itself to Magna in a bid worth $31.25 per share, but Qualcomm submitted its bid for $800 million, or 18% more.

Magna, having a market capitalization of $25.3 billion compared to Qualcomm’s $164.8 billion, did not even submit a counterbid. Veoneer will pay Magna a “breakup fee” of $110 million. The deal is expected to close next year.

SSW Partners said that it would sell Veoneer’s Arriver tech, which is an advanced driver assistance system stack that includes sensors and software, to Qualcomm and retain the Swedish company’s other Tier 1 supplier businesses.

This isn’t the first major acquisition for Qualcomm this year. In January, Qualcomm agreed to acquire high-performance computing startup Nuvia for $1.4 billion to establish itself in the markets beyond telecoms.

Qualcomm, which is known for making chipsets for smartphones, is seeking new avenues for profit beyond phone-related chips. With the advancement in automotive technology and rise in demand, this seems like a primary target for the company.

It already supplies chips that power in-car communications and infotainment systems and is now aiming to extend its reach in driver-assistance technology. Last year, Qualcomm had partnered with Veoneer to form Arriver and began developing driving technology targeted to hit the road in 2024.

Foxconn acquires Lordstown Motors’ Ohio EV factory in a deal worth $230 million

Jeet — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 17:23:50 +0000

Foxconn, the company known for manufacturing Apple iPhones, is buying an automotive factory from EV maker Lordstown Motors for around $230 million.

As per the deal, Foxconn will be building Lordstown Motors’ electric pickup truck at the plant. Further, the EV maker will remain a tenant there and has also agreed to “provide Foxconn with certain rights with respect to future vehicle programs.”

Additionally, Foxconn is also buying $50 million worth of Lordstown Motors shares. The startup has been struggling and had talked about the need to raise money quickly in order to survive, despite going public last year.

With this deal, Foxconn has now entered the automotive factory space and now has a significant presence in the United States. It seems that the Taiwan-based company will now try to establish itself as a global electric vehicle manufacturer.

The companies hope to complete a purchase agreement by 31st October and complete the deal by April 30. Foxconn has said that as part of the deal, Fisker Inc. will be allowed to make vehicles with the Taiwanese conglomerate in the Ohio factory.

Lordstown Motors had purchased a 6.2-million-square-foot facility from General Motors in 2019. Recently, it was planning to rent out space at the factory in an effort to make money amid a serious cash crunch.

The EV maker is facing lots of trouble. Its CEO was forced out after he was caught exaggerating pre-orders for its electric truck. The company has now lowered its initial production goals. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched probes into Lordstown Motors, and the company is going through financial crises, with only have enough money to survive through mid-2022.

Netflix acquires video game creator Night School Studio to boost its gaming service

Jeet — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 06:42:37 +0000

Earlier this year, in July, media streaming giant Netflix announced plans for adding game streaming services to its platform. Last month, Netflix Gaming made its debut in Poland with two Stranger Things mobile games.

Today, Netflix has announced the acquisition of video game creator Night School Studio, marking the first purchase of a gaming studio for the streaming giant.

Along with the acquisition, the company has also rolled out five mobile gaming titles in select European markets. Night School Studio is best known for its debut game, Oxenfree, a supernatural teen thriller with an eerie soundtrack.

The studio’s games — available on Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PCs — will be the first non-mobile titles in Netflix’s video game portfolio.

The news about this acquisition comes at a time when Netflix is looking to diversify its revenue sources as the competition in the online streaming space is increased day by day and new platforms keep coming up.

In a statement, Night School Studio said: “Netflix gives film, TV, and now game makers an unprecedented canvas to create and deliver excellent entertainment to millions of people. Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix’s track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing.”

Netflix has already confirmed that it won’t be offering a separate subscription for this new gaming service as it is ”a one-product company.” This means that a subscription to the streaming platform offers movies, TV shows, documentaries, and games.

NVIDIA seeks EU approval for ARM acquisition deal; ruling set for next month

Jeet — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 03:47:16 +0000

NVIDIA has sought European Union antitrust approval for the $40 billion acquisition of chip designing company ARM. This could kickstart an antitrust probe which may become an obstacle for the company’s plan to close the deal by early 2022.

According to the European Commission filing, the initial deadline to rule on the transaction has a deadline of 13th October. The regulators are likely to echo worries similar to those voiced by the UK watchdog last month.

The competition watchdog of the United Kingdom has warned that the deal could damage competition and weaken rivals, and required a further lengthy investigation. The acquisition also needs approval from the U.S. and China.

The deal must be completed by September of next year, or NVIDIA would have to pay SoftBank $1.25 billion.

In a statement related to this, NVIDIA said, “We are working through the regulatory process and we look forward to engaging with the European Commission to address any concerns they may have. This transaction will be beneficial to Arm, its licensees, competition, and the industry.”

With criticism surrounding the deal, the EU is likely to extend its review by at least another four months to examine potential competition concerns. The company had originally planned to complete the deal by March 2022, when the acquisition was announced.

For the uninitiated, NVIDIA, the world’s biggest graphics card and AI chips maker announced the acquisition of ARM last year. As a part of the deal, NVIDIA will be paying 12 billion US Dollars in cash, which includes 2 billion US Dollars payable at signing and giving out 21.5 billion US Dollars worth of NVIDIA’s stock to SoftBank.

SoftBank had acquired ARM back in 2016 for 31.4 billion US Dollars. ARM is a known chip designer with its architecture being one of the most popular designs used in most smartphone chips from companies like Qualcomm, Apple, and even certain Intel chips.

Companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple are opposing the acquisition while some other companies, including Broadcom, MediaTek, and Marvell are in support of the deal.

To ensure that the deal gets approval, NVIDIA has promised that it will maintain open licensing and that the deal will help ARM, its licensees, and the industry. Antitrust officials rarely approve “behavioral commitments” without a more careful review due to the difficulty of checking how a company will keep its promises.

Xiaomi might acquire stake in China Evergrande’s Electric Vehicle unit: Report

Sean — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:37:04 +0000

The China Evergrande Group, a Chinese property developer, is in talks with Xiaomi and Shenzhen state backed investment firms to sell a part of its stake in its electric vehicle unit.

According to a Reuters report, Evergrande is looking to sell part of its 65 percent stake in the Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (NEV) Group as per sources close to the matter. As of right now, the NEV has a market capitalization of 12.5 billion US Dollars and a source stated that the Chinese tech giant and investment firms are looking to buy a significant minority stake in the business. Unfortunately, Evergrande, Xiaomi, and the state asset regulators have yet to offer any comments regarding this matter.

As per the sources, the talks regarding the acquisition of stakes is apparently still at the early stages and might undergo changes as well. Earlier this month, Evergrande stated that it was in discussions with several independent third party investors for the proposed sale of certain assets, which included the stakes of its New Energy Vehicle unit. This move is an effort to reduce its debts.

For those unaware, Xiaomi has recently been raising its investment into the electric vehicle based firms and technology ever since it revealed its 10 billion US Dollar plan for entering the EV market. This had also followed closely after it was revealed that even Apple and Huawei were eyeing the electric vehicle industry as well. So, the new acquisition would give Xiaomi EV production facilities for its own automobile business.

Zoom acquires cloud call center firm Five9 in an all-cash deal worth $14.7 billion

Jeet — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 04:37:42 +0000

Zoom has announced that the company has agreed to acquire Five9 which provides cloud contact center software. This all-stock deal, which is valued at $14.7 billion, marks the first billion-dollar acquisition for Zoom.

It is also the second-biggest tech deal in the United States this year, just behind Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Nuance Communications for $16 billion. After the deal closes, Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom.

Zoom said Five9 stockholders will receive 0.5533 shares of Zoom Video Communications for every Five9 share. That values Five9 at $200.28 a share, which is a 13 percent premium and represents about 14 percent of Zoom’s market cap of close to $107 billion.

Both the companies have said that the deal is expected to get closed in the first half of next year. With this acquisition, Zoom will be entering the market for contact centers. Five9 has over 2,000 customers of Five9, including firms like Citrix and Under Armour, and processes more than 7 billion minutes of calls annually.

In a statement, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said: “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to our customers.”

Zoom was one of the biggest beneficiaries in terms of business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the company increased its revenue by 326 percent but it is now facing a natural slowdown, and offices around the world and opening up.

While the company has launched some new products to reckon with coming changes to its business, but it is unlikely to satisfy Wall Street. Also, with increasing competition from tech giants like Microsoft Teams, Zoom needs additional revenue sources and thus, the company acquired Five9.

Chinese owned Nexperia to acquire UK’s largest chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab: Report

Sean — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 12:44:14 +0000

Nexperia, the Dutch semiconductor based company that is a subsidiary of China based firm Wingtech Technology, is apparently planning on buying Newport Wafer Fab, which is the largest chip maker in the US.

According to a SCMP report, Nexperia is planning on acquiring the UK chip maker for a 63 million Pounds (roughly 87 US Dollars). The report arrives from anonymous sources close to the matter last week. The news of the deal arrives amid Beijing’s push for technological self reliance. This move has led to the Chinese government pouring resources into the development of local semiconductor industry. The effort is primarily driven by US sanctions that have disrupted the supply chains of Chinese companies.

At the moment, experts in the UK have expressed their concerns regarding security about the Nexperia-Newport deal. A Nexperia spokesperson said the company is still in talks with the Newport Wafer Fab and the Welsh government but has declined to further comment on the matter. Notably, Wingtech had purchased stakes worth 4.14 billion US Dollars into Nexperia, acquiring 80 percent stake in the Dutch firm. This share has now increased to 98.2 percent last year, with the Chinese firm buying out stakes in Nexperia to expand into semiconductor technology.

Qualcomm seeks to invest in Arm if the $40 billion NVIDIA deal fails

Sean — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 11:43:37 +0000

Qualcomm has recently stated that it is ready to invest in Arm if the 40 billion US Dollars NVIDIA deal fails. This statement arrives as the takeover of the British chipmaker might be blocked by regulators.

According to a Telegraph report, the US Chipmaking giant’s chief executive Cristiano Amon said that Qualcomm would be ready to buy stake in Arm along with other industry players. At the moment, the NVIDIA deal to acquire Arm is currently under investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Similarly, concerns have also risen from other nations like the US and Japan, with Arm being under the ownership of Japan’s Softbank Group.

Amon stated that “If it moves out of Softbank and it goes into a process of becoming a publicly traded company, [with] a consortium of companies that invest, including many of its customers, I think those are great possibilities. We will definitely be open to it, and we have had discussions with other companies that feel the same way.” These other companies reportedly includes the likes of E-retailing giant Amazon, and even electric car maker Tesla.

Furthermore, the multi billion US Dollar from NVIDIA has been under scrutiny from various rival firms and regulators. Previously, we had also reported on Google and Microsoft raising their own concerns, citing that the takeover could potentially hamper competition in the market. So stay tuned for more, as we will be providing updates when additional information is available or any notable developments surface in the future.

Twitter acquires news startup Scroll to beef up its subscription offering

Jeet — Wed, 05 May 2021 08:14:48 +0000

Twitter has announced that it is acquiring Scroll, a subscription service that offers an ad-free news reading experience to its users. The development comes at a time when Twitter is planning to build its own subscription offerings.

The company has not revealed the financial terms related to this deal but Twitter has confirmed that it will be bringing the entire Scroll team, which consists of 13 people.

The upcoming premium subscription offering from Twitter will include access to Scroll, newsletter service Revue that it acquired a couple of months ago, as well as some other services from the company itself.

Commenting on this acquisition, Tony Haile, CEO of Scroll said in a blog post: “Twitter exists to serve the public conversation. Journalism is the mitochondria of that conversation. It initiates, energizes and informs. It converts and confounds perspectives. At its best, it helps us stand in one another’s shoes and understand each other’s common humanity.”

With this acquisition, Scroll will no longer accept new sign-ups but the service will continue to work as usual for the existing users. However, the company’s other offering, Nuzeel, which sends daily emails of top stories shared by people in user’s Twitter feed, is shutting down on 6th May. Twitter says that it will bring the core elements of Nuzzel directly to Twitter but the timeline for that is not yet revealed.

When subscribers use Scroll through Twitter, a portion of their subscription revenue will go to support the publishers and the writers creating the content, explains Twitter in an announcement. The service of scroll currently works across several sites, including The Atlantic, The Verge, USA Today, The Sacramento Bee, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Daily Beast, among others.

Earlier this year, Twitter revealed its plans to offer subscriptions to diversify its revenue stream. The upcoming offering, named “Super Follow” is a creator-focused subscription that would give paid subscribers access to an expanded array of perks, like exclusive content, subscriber-only newsletters, deals, badges, paywalled media, and more. With this offering, it plans to double its revenue from $3.7 billion in 2020 to $7.5 million in 2023.

Huawei seeks to take control of small Chinese automaker’s electric unit: Report

Sean — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 09:54:02 +0000

Huawei Technologies is apparently in talks to take control of the electric unit of a small automaker that is based in China. This would imply that the company is diving deeper into the electric vehicle market.

According to a Reuters report, the Chinese tech giant is in talks with Chongqing Sokon to acquire a controlling stake in the automobile maker’s Chongqing Jinkang New Energy Automobile, as per sources close to the matter. In other words, this move will enable the consumer electronics maker and telecom equipment maker to make smart cars that are branded with its own name. Notably, Jinkang counts US electric vehicle producer Seres as its primary asset.

Acquiring controlling stake would also allow Huawei to look beyond just offering more than just self driving softwares and related hardware technology. Meaning, this could also allow the company to have an end to end presence in the electric cars market. Unfortunately, both Huawei and Sokon did not offer any statements regarding this matter. If the news is true, then this would mark a major shift for the company and its business focus in the EV market.

For those unaware, the company has primarily been a smartphone, telecom, and consumer electronics manufacturer. But recent US sanctions have crippled its handset unit, while it faces pressures from various governments for its telecom equipment. Thus, the deeper dive in to EV market could signal a shift in its business focus as a whole. One source added that “The supply chain for the auto industry is very long and complicated. Huawei does have its strength in software and platform but its ideas can’t be realized without solid technology improvements in the supply chain.”

Discord reportedly ends acquisition talks with Microsoft

Sean — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 08:14:34 +0000

Discord has just halted talks to sell itself to potential buyers, one of which included Microsoft. As per sources close to the matter, the VoIP based audio chat startup has resumed interest in a potential initial public offering.

We had previously reported on Microsoft being in talks with the startup for a potential acquisition worth over 10 billion US Dollars. Now, these talks have apparently ended without a deal, as per a WallStreetJournal report. Although, the sources also added that the deal could be rekindled again in the future. For those unaware, the American tech giant has been seeking acquisitions that would help it reach more customers recently. Just a year ago, the company was even considering purchasing the short video sharing app, TikTok, in the US, amid growing frictions between US and China.

The people familiar with the matter also added that Discord held interest from at least three companies regarding a deal. Although, the platform is performing well, so it seems that they prefer to stay independent as of right now. The startup operates from San Francisco and offers a free online VoIP audio chat and text based platform to users. This app was initially centered around gamers, but has since grown to accommodate various other users as well.

During the pandemic, the startup saw a massive growth on the platform as many users even used it to connect with their friends and family amid the lockdown. As per official notes, Discord stated that it has doubled its monthly user base last year, reaching 140 million daily users. In terms of revenue, the startup generated around 130 million US Dollars in revenue last year, which is a significant jump from 45 million US Dollars from back in 2019.

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UK to investigate Nvidia’s ARM deal over national security concerns

Sean — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 10:31:58 +0000

The UK government is planning on investigating Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM Holdings over national security concerns. The deal between the two firms is worth over 40 billion US Dollars.

According to a Reuters report, UK Digital minister Oliver Dowden stated that he has issued an intervention notice over the sale of ARM by Japan’s SoftBank Group to Nvidia. The official further added that “As a next step and to help me gather the relevant information, the UK’s independent competition authority will now prepare a report on the implications of the transaction, which will help inform any further decisions.” On the other hand, Nvidia has said that it believes that the deal will not pose any material threat to the UK’s national security issues.

Nvidia also added that “We will continue to work closely with the British authorities, as we have done since the announcement of this deal.” For those unaware, ARM is a chip designer and a major player in the semiconductor industry. Its designs and technologies have been used in nearly every smartphone and has even powered various other forms of devices as well. These semiconductors are a critical part of a nation’s infrastructure and even tie in with departments like Defense and communications.

Thus, it is a matter of national security, which is why the UK government is stepping in to intervene. Back in September 2020, Nvidia had pledged that, regardless of the deal, ARM will remain neutral and has even offered guarantees to retain its headquarters and staff in Cambridge. However, Nvidia owning ARM also implies that a single firm controls a key supplier that offers silicon designs to other chip makers.

US Senator aims to ban all major tech mergers and acquisitions

Sean — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 08:50:19 +0000

Image Via AppleInsider

US Senator Josh Hawley introduced a proposal earlier this week that would ban companies with a market value of more than 100 billion US Dollars for going forward with acquisitions or conduct mergers.

According to an AppleInsider report, Hawley is seeking to bar mergers and buyouts for America’s top performing or big companies. This includes major tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. For those unaware, the Senator is a conservative who has been attacking Big Tech after major platforms were accused of “censoring” Republican voices. Thus, Hawley’s legislation has also been dubbed as the “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act.”

The legislation in question will also supplement existing antitrust laws with higher penalties and a lower threshold for prosecution. An example being, companies facing prosecution under federal law would be for “the protection of competition,” rather than just “consumer harm.” This would imply that the firms that lose antitrust lawsuits would be required to “forfeit all their profits resulting from monopolistic conduct” under the new regulation.

Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission or FTC would also receive a new power to regulate “dominant digital firms.” The Senator stated that “This country and this government shouldn’t be run by a few mega-corporations.” He further added that the Republican Party “has got to become the party of trust-busting once again. You know, that’s a part of our history.” Similar to Big Tech, Hawley is also taking steps against major pharmaceuticals based firms that are dominating the medical market.

Tencent $3.5 billion deal with Sogou to be cleared by China, subject to security conditions: Report

Sean — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 10:52:34 +0000

The Chinese regulator SAMR (State Administration of Market Regulation) is apparently planning on giving the green light to Tencent regarding its multi billion Dollar deal. But, the company will have to set p a special mechanism to ensure data security, as per people close to the matter.

According to a Reuters report, the regulator has no objection to the 3.5 billion US Dollar deal for the Chinese tech giant to acquire 60 percent of Sogou. The company would also be required to pay a relatively small fee of 500,000 Yuan (roughly 76,000 US Dollars) for not reporting deals properly to the appropriate authorities for an anti trust review, as per two of the sources. Notably, the news arrives weeks after we had reported on Tencent agreeing to certain conditions for its Chinese streaming platform merger deal.

The move from the Chinese regulators also signifies the government’s attempts to tighten regulations around the local tech giants, especially involving their acquisition deals and mergers. Furthermore, the approval of the deal would also arrive as a relief to other tech firms in the region that have been closely following the development of the situation. This is also likely a part of Beijing’s efforts to crack down on the growing monopoly of internet giants.

One source familiar to the matter added that “What SAMR wants is enforcement … it is not in their interest to kill or actively block a deal. They are fine with companies’ actual market-leading status as long as it doesn’t prevent new entry into the market.” At the moment, Sogou is a major player in the local market and only trails behind other giants like Baidu and Qihoo 360. So stay tuned for more updates regarding this matter.

Twitter held talks to acquire Clubhouse for a $4 billion deal: Report

Sean — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 09:34:22 +0000

Twitter Inc apparently held discussions in recent months to buy out Clubhouse. The company is planning on acquiring the audio-based social network platform for a sum of 4 billion US Dollars.

According to a Bloomberg report, the social media giant is apparently looking to acquire Clubhouse for the large sum, as per sources close to the matter. These sources added that the discussions have reportedly found a potential valuation of roughly around 4 billion US Dollars. Although, the discussions are no longer ongoing. Unfortunately, it is unknown why the talks have stalled at the moment.

The report also adds that a spokesperson from Twitter declined to comment on the matter. Similarly, a Clubhouse representative has also yet to respond to any requests for a comment. It was recently also revealed that Clubhouse was in talks to raise funding from investors worth 4 billion US Dollars. So after the talks with Twitter ended the social media network is likely to explore raising finances at a round valuation. For those unaware, Clubhouse is an app that lets users host their own online radio shows, where other listeners can tune it to hear interviews or discussions and even participate in a live chat.

Despite the platform being only a year old, it has drawn appearances from some of the biggest personalities in both business and Hollywood as well. It was quickly established as a new and upcoming platform, with other major social media giants also working on launching their own versions of Clubhouse. This includes Microsoft, LinkedIn, Slack, and even Twitter as well to work on similar features.