Corporate and legal

Dish said to bid $2B for Lightsquared spectrum

LightSquared's wireless spectrum could be getting a new owner, according to a new report.

According to Bloomberg, Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen made a $2 billion bid last week for LightSquared's radio frequencies, which are owned by private investment firm Harbinger Capital Partners.

Bloomberg added, based on unnamed sources said to be familiar with the deal, that LightSquared has until the end of the month to make a decision.

Dish is already bogged down by other networking and communications deals floating around -- namely a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel. The nation's third-largest mobile provider … Read more

Young and old: A side-by-side look at Tumblr, Yahoo audiences

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Yahoo has agreed to acquire 6-year-old blogging powerhouse Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The mammoth deal has sent the Internet into a tizzy, especially since most would have pegged the two companies as unlikely bedfellows just a week ago.

The simplest and most obvious reason for Yahoo's interest in Tumblr can be seen in the chart above, which highlights the dramatically differing demographic profiles for the media portal and the blogging network.

It's a tale of two audiences. Tumblr is a fountain of youth. Yahoo is practically a retirement … Read more

WordPress: 72K blog posts exited Tumblr in 1 hour over Yahoo deal

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg said his company saw a major uptick in Tumblr defections after news of the $1.1 billion acquisition by Yahoo came to light.

Writing on his personal blog Sunday evening, Mullenweg said that WordPress usually imports 400 to 600 blog posts per hour from Tumblr. After news of the deal surfaced, the number of imported posts jumped to more than 72,000 blog posts in an hour.

Mullenweg updated his own blog post on Monday morning. "Some people are reading too much into the import numbers -- I don't think there will be an … Read more

CTIA 2013 preview: Spring show quietly fades away

LAS VEGAS -- When Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Lopez are the biggest draws for a technology show, there's a problem.

The CTIA Wireless trade group's spring show officially kicks off for the last time on Tuesday. It marks an unceremonious end to the conference, which next year will merge with its sister show in the fall to better align itself with the holiday shopping season.

While CTIA still touts itself as the largest wireless show in North America, its influence and importance have waned in the last few years. CTIA has always had the misfortune of following at … Read more

Yahoo board approves $1.1B acquisition of Tumblr -- WSJ

Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging site Tumblr, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal first reported the news on Sunday via Twitter.

An imminent announcement of the acquisition had been expected. AllThingsD reported Friday that Yahoo's board was meeting this weekend to finalize a deal. Rumors about the possible tie-up first surfaced on Thursday. The deal could be announced on Monday as part of a product announcement event Yahoo is holding in New York tomorrow. According to reports, Tumblr's board of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures and Spark … Read more

How BlackBerry is fixing its once 'broken' brand

ORLANDO, Fla. -- When Frank Boulben joined BlackBerry a year ago as its chief marketing officer, he found a company whose reputation with the public was in shambles.

To make matters worse, its marketing strategy was in complete disarray. Each country or region had their own version of a BlackBerry campaign, complete with different agencies and creative processes. Even within the same region, campaigns would change from quarter to quarter with little lasting effect.

"There were a lot of broken pieces," Boulben recalled during his keynote presentation at the company's BlackBerry Live conference on Tuesday.

Getting BlackBerry'… Read more

Yahoo schedules NYC product event for Monday

Yahoo Chief Marissa Mayer will speak at a mystery product event in New York on Monday, May 20.

The event was first reported by CNBC, but Yahoo later confirmed that it has invited members of the media to an early evening press conference.

The Monday gathering is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET, and the invite reads, "Join us as we share something special." A Yahoo spokesperson said the company would also livestream the announcement, but declined to share additional information on the subject of the event.

Yahoo could use the hastily scheduled affair to announce some type … Read more

Report: Facebook and Microsoft flirting with Tumblr too

Yahoo isn't the only tech titan with eyes for blogging sensation Tumblr. The 6-year-old startup that powers nearly 108 million blogs has piqued the curiosity of both Facebook and Microsoft who seem ready to duke it out over the object of their affection, according to a new report.

The Thursday night rumor mill had Yahoo ready to commit to a Tumblr partnership, investment, or possibly even a $1 billion purchase. Now Forbes is reporting Tumblr has entertained equally serious gestures from Facebook and Microsoft.

Yahoo has a lock on negotiations, according to Forbes, which means Tumblr can't field … Read more

Sprint grabs U.S. Cellular spectrum, customers for $480m

Sprint's network will soon receive a much-needed boost in some Midwestern cities like Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri.

The wireless carrier announced on Friday that it finished inking a deal with regional service provider U.S. Cellular, which is based in the Midwest.

As part of the $480 million agreement, Sprint will gain a total of 30MHz of PCS spectrum, which Sprint says will expand its network capacity in those areas, bringing better service to customers there.

In addition, around 420,000 U.S. Cellular customers will also transfer over to the Sprint family. Sprint and its prepaid arms, … Read more

BlackBerry regains some lost market share in Canada

BlackBerry has managed to regain some lost market share in its home country of Canada.

In a research note to investors on Thursday, Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt reported that while BlackBerry's market share was just 6 percent in Canada in the fourth quarter of 2012, it jumped to 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The analyst believes that there was some excitement that cropped up around BlackBerry's latest handsets, the Z10 and Q10, which helped spur the change.

Still, BlackBerry is still far behind where it once was. According to McCourt, BlackBerry had a … Read more