Deals

Google isn't the only entity taking an interest in Twitter's tweets. That most venerable of government institutions, the Library of Congress, announced Wednesday it will archive every single "what's happening?" update broadcast on the short message service since it opened for business in 2006. Grant...

The cocreators of the blockbuster "Call of Duty" series are back in the game. Jason West and Vince Zampella, who formed Infinity Ward in 2002, are launching a new development studio, Respawn Entertainment, and the duo signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Electronic Arts, which will distribu...

Now that rumors of Palm putting itself up for sale are being substantiated left and right, speculation turns to suitors. Which companies would most enliven the smartphone market by purchasing the company that nearly single-handedly developed the PDA space lo those many years ago? Prospective acquire...

Twitter has made a number of moves in the past few days that have jangled the nerves of third-party developers who fear the micro-blogging site is about to make a big push into their territory. For starters, Twitter has acquired Atebits, the maker of Tweetie, a Twitter client for the iPhone. Twitter...

Angel investing groups are still going strong despite the economic downturn. Although private equity financing dates back to the Sumerians, the current incarnation really began after World War II. The trend has accelerated since the first whirlwind of dot-com businesses in the 1990s sought private f...

Palm's share prices rallied Friday, boosted by rumors that the troubled handset maker was being pursued by prospective buyers. At press time, its shares stood at $5.16, up almost 11 percent over the previous day's close of $4.65. Palm's shares have been on the uptick all week due to buyout rumors, w...

Egged on by the chairman of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, the Federal Trade Commission may be considering an effort to block Google's $750 million purchase of mobile advertising firm AdMob. The FTC reportedly is assembling a team of attorneys to h...

Google's proposed $750 million acquisition of the mobile ad network AdMob may be subjected to a protracted period of regulatory scrutiny. The FTC reportedly is seeking sworn declarations from at least two of Google's competitors. Google announced its intent to buy AdMob in November 2009, in a stock ...

Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, announced on Wednesday the acquisition of Paglo, a remote support service provider. The purchase signals Citrix Online's entrance into the IT management sector. Citrix Online has relaunched the Paglo service as GoToManage. That service is an integrated We...

With its purchase of Vudu, an online service that delivers video to Internet-ready TVs and Blu-ray disc players, Walmart is hoping its sequel turns out better than its previous attempts to enter the online movie distribution business. The deal will put Walmart back in competion with the likes of Net...

If competition for Google is still "just a click away" -- as its executives kept saying last summer to anybody who would listen -- then the U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission made that click easier with their decisions this week to bless the Microsoft-Yahoo search technology merger....

Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance for their search agreement from both the DoJ and the EC, the companies jointly announced Thursday, and they will soon begin implementing their plans. The process will involve porting Yahoo's algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft and making Yah...

Just as Skype devotees use the Voice over Internet Protocol service to talk to friends and family anywhere in the world, Verizon Wireless used Skype Tuesday to send a loud message of its own to Apple, AT&T and the rest of the competition: We can play the VoIP game too. Beginning in March, Verizo...

A newly formed international consortium has claimed it can be the glue that unites a fragmented mobile applications market. However, if the Wholesale Applications Community can't deliver on its promise of an open platform that will let developers write apps for all devices -- save perhaps Apple's iP...

Google plunged further into the social media waters on Thursday by acquiring social search site Aardvark. Though it has not yet been formally announced, officials from both companies have confirmed the acquisition is in progress. The deal reportedly is worth $50 million. Formerly known as "Mechanica...