Deals

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt defended his company's actions regarding Java and Android as he took the witness stand Tuesday during Google's ongoing trial, in which the company stands accused of misusing Java programming code in the development of its mobile operating system. Oracle, which ...

Just two weeks after forking over more than $1 billion to AOL for hundreds of patents and patent applications, Microsoft resold 650 of them to Facebook on Monday. Each party in this latest transaction will retain licenses to the intellectual property the other will hold when the deal is completed. T...

LightSquared made an outstanding payment to Inmarsat Friday for Phase 1 of its spectrum agreement. It received an additional two years to seek federal approval before it must pay for the second phase of the deal. Previously, Inmarsat had said it wasn't certain it would receive any more payments fro...

The European Commission's competition authority has given an investment group led by Sony the go-ahead to acquire EMI Group's music-publishing division for US$2.2 billion. The commission's approval is conditioned on Sony, which is partnering with ATV in this transaction, selling certain music assets...

Facebook will make its public trading debut on Nasdaq on May 17, according to a TechCrunch report citing multiple anonymous sources. The much-anticipated IPO reportedly will value the company at $100 billion. The date jibes with separate reports and rumors from other sources; for some time, it has b...

Verizon reported a strong first quarter of 2012, it revealed Thursday, thanks in part to new FiOS and wireless subscribers. Verizon took in $1.69 billion in profit, or 59 cents per share, an increase from the 51 cents per share it reported from the same time last year. The company's operating revenu...

Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility has been characterized, so far, by a few simple and overarching story lines: Will it be approved by U.S. and European regulatory authorities? Ditto for other countries' legal infrastructure, such as China. Will complaints from competitors such ...

Facebook has snagged the highly popular photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It is among the biggest acquisitions in the social media space, second only to Google's $1.65 billion stock-for-stock purchase of YouTube in 2006. The deal, both in size and intent, is very ...

Microsoft has agreed to buy more than 800 patents from AOL for over $1 billion. The deal gives AOL a cross-license to the patents it's selling to Microsoft, a source close to Microsoft confirmed. Further, Microsoft will get a non-exclusive license for the remaining 300+ patents and patent applicatio...

Microsoft continued to expand its television offerings for members of its Xbox Live Gold service Monday by adding HBO Go, Major League Baseball video and Comcast's on-demand video service. Comcast Xfinity TV allows Xbox Gold members to access the cable carrier's expansive library of entertainment pr...

Facebook has reportedly purchased 750 patents from IBM in an effort to build its portfolio for better defense against patent suits. The social network giant, which plans to kick off an IPO in a matter of weeks, is in an especially vulnerable position against intellectual property suits. Earlier in t...

Executives from Verizon and Comcast went before a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee Wednesday to defend Verizon's plan to purchase $3.6 billion worth of spectrum from cable industry joint venture SpectrumCo. They were met with opposition from other wireless providers and consumer advocacy groups. V...

Zynga has inked a deal to acquire OMGPOP, maker of the wildly popular "Draw Something," as well as 35 other social games. When it joins the Zynga fold, OMGPOP will focus on building new mobile products for Zynga. The purchase price is estimated at $200-$250 million. Based on what is known about OMGP...

Amazon has moved to acquire Kiva Systems, a maker of robotic equipment that services warehouses. The purchase will be Amazon's biggest since it bought Zappos.com in 2009. Amazon agreed to pay $775 million for Kiva, which creates equipment, handling technology and software that helps large-scale vend...

Sprint has canceled the 15-year agreement it inked with LightSquared last July to build out and license a 4G network. LightSquared was to have used this network, together with its own infrastructure, to launch its service. The agreement would have been beneficial to Sprint as well, as it had hoped t...