acquisition

The Alibaba Group is working on securing billions of dollars to aid the company in acquiring all or part of Yahoo, a new report claims.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg is reporting today that China's Alibaba is planning to take out a $3 billion loan for its Yahoo bid. Initially, the publication's sources says, the company was planning on a $4 billion loan.

For months now, rumors have suggested Alibaba is planning to make an acquisition bid for Yahoo. In September, the company's CEO, Jack Ma, told an audience at Stanford University that … Read more

Corel, a longtime maker of image-editing software, has acquired Bibble Labs and will introduce new software at CES based on Bibble's technology for processing raw photos from higher-end cameras.

Bibble President Jeff Stephens announced the acquisition and new software plan in a blog post Friday. Bibble Labs' latest product, Bibble 5.2.3, will be the last, and Stephens now is leading development of the new photo "workflow" software at Corel, he added.

Further details of the software aren't yet clear, but it sounds an awful lot like Adobe Systems' Lightroom and Apple's Aperture. Both … Read more

As Microsoft and Nokia were working out their Windows Phone 7 plans earlier this year, the companies were also considering a joint bid for Research In Motion, a new report claims.

Citing anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Microsoft and Nokia neared a joint bid for RIM "in recent months" before deciding against it. The Journal's sources also said that while RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis won't necessarily turn their backs on any buyout offers, the executives are waiting until next year's launch of the company's new mobile … Read more

Apple has acquired Israel-based flash memory startup Anobit, a report claims.

The deal, according to Israel's Calcalist business news site (Google Translate), is in the $400 million to $500 million range. Earlier today, Anobit apparently informed its employees that Apple had made an offer that it had accepted and that they were on their way to being employed by the iPhone maker.

Today's report follows a claim made by Calcalist last week, saying that Apple and Anobit were nearing a deal.

Anobit's flash memory technology is found in Apple's iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. The startup … Read more

Here's an upbeat tidbit to end the year: 2011 is on track to the biggest year in venture capital deals in a decade.

Big years make for daring bets, and for this year I've chose a dozen influential investors to single out for their role in fueling startups of all sorts.

If the final quarter shapes up as it looks like it will, venture capital deals will total $30 billion for the year, a 25-percent jump from 2010, according to Anand Sanwal, whose firm, CB Insights, tracks investment activity among VCs and some big angel investors.

"I … Read more

Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research has agreed to acquire rival Novellus Systems in an all-stock deal worth $3.3 billion, the companies announced today.

The combined venture is expected to benefit from the individual companies' complementary product capabilities, with Novellus' thin-film application technology aligning with Lam's business of etching the film to create features that define a chip's final use and function.

Under the agreement's terms Novellus stockholders will get 1.125 shares of Lam common stock for each Novellus share, a premium of about 28 percent higher than Novellus' $34.70 closing price Wednesday. When the … Read more

Yahoo's board has been wooing potential suitors for months, but now that it has some offers, it wants more from would-be investors, a new report claims.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, Yahoo's board has several minority-stake investment proposals in play, but has gone back to suitors, requesting a higher premium on its stock price or more attractive terms.

Silver Lake Partners, which has been rumored to have offered $16.60 per share for about a 20 percent stake in Yahoo, has been one of the firms hit with rebuttals from Yahoo, according to the … Read more

As Yahoo's board and executive team consider a growing number of acquisition bids, the company's employees are considering other opportunities, a new report claims.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in a story published today, several unnamed Yahoo employees say that morale is on the decline at the company, causing many folks to think seriously about going elsewhere.

"If you're not growing, if you're not giving people challenging things to work on, if you're not holding out the promise of creating some personal wealth during one of the frothiest technology markets in modern history, … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice has given Google the go-ahead to complete its $400 million acquisition of AdMeld.

"The Antitrust Division obtained extensive information from Google, Admeld and a wide range of market participants in connection with its merger investigation of the proposed transaction," the Justice Department said in a statement today. "After a thorough review of the evidence, the division concluded that the transaction is not likely to substantially lessen competition in the sale of display advertising."

Google announced plans to acquire Admeld in June. The search giant said at the time that the … Read more