acquisitions

I just got off the conference call on Google's $625 million cash acquisition of security firm Postini, which executives said is expected to close in the third quarter.

Basically, the move will enable Google to flesh out its Google Apps hosted applications, which include e-mail, calendar, instant messaging, Docs & Spreadsheets and Web page creation, with the security and government regulation compliance services that businesses need.

There wasn't much detail revealed on how the companies will integrate their products, but Google execs made it clear that Postini will continue to offer its services to other e-mail and IM … Read more

Google has just announced the much-rumored acquisition of communications service GrandCentral. TechCrunch broke the news about the acquisition last week and is now reporting the deal is rumored to be somewhere in the range of $50 million. Details about final price and terms are confidential.

This is Google's latest move into the telecommunications market and one of their biggest. For current GrandCentral customers, service will go uninterrupted. For users interested in signing up, GrandCentral is now limiting sign-ups to invitation only.

The other big change in place as of today is GrandCentral's RingShare service. Previously, users were able … Read more

Google is in talks to buy GrandCentral, which offers a way to merge all phone calls into one number, according to TechCrunch.

"We have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price," writes TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, who speculates that Google could use the technology with its Gmail and Google Talk applications.

Google representatives said they do not comment on rumor or speculation and GrandCentral did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Getty Images, which made a name for itself as a stock photography clearinghouse, announced Wednesday it has purchased Pump Audio, which licenses independent music to advertising and media clients. The price of the acquisition, according to a release from Getty, was $42 million.

This is the most recent in a series of moves on Getty's part to expand beyond photography and into the digital media sector. Last month, it launched a new division in the company to license video footage and other multimedia content, and over the past few months has chalked up a string of acquisitions, from amateur photography site Scoopt … Read more

Here's a rumor we didn't see coming. The U.K.'s The Times is reporting that News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-helmed company that purchased MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, may be willing to trade it. According to Times writer Dan Sabbagh's article, News Corp. is mulling a swap of MySpace to Yahoo in exchange for a 25 percent stake in the dot-com.

Interestingly enough, The Times is itself owned by News Corp. The parent company is allegedly "interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the … Read more

It must be buying season in the security industry, because there seems to be a new acquisition announced each day. Two recent purchases grabbed my attention. Last week, IBM bought application firewall vendor Watchfire, adding the company to its Rational Software division. Not to be outdone, Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday grabbed application vulnerability tools vendor SPI Dynamics, adding value to another recent addition, Mercury. Why all the activity in the application security space?

1. Web applications are the binary equivalent of Swiss cheese. Many are written rapidly by developers who are paid to add new business logic and meet deadlines. Security … Read more

TechCrunch reported late on Friday about a hot new rumor in the social media space. The Germany-based business networking site Xing, according to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, may be in talks to acquire online address book management company Plaxo. The deal is rumored to be in the $250 million range--a significant buy indeed.

Plaxo, for some background, was founded in 2002 by Napster co-founder Sean Parker. Since then, the company claims to have hit 15 million members (as of September 2006). It synchronizes primarily with Microsoft Outlook address books, but has also formed deals with companies like Yahoo and AOL'… Read more

Microsoft on Thursday said it has acquired privately held Stratature, a company that specializes in so-called master data management software.

Through the acquisition of the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company, Microsoft will build master data management tools into its Office System line. The move complements the company's strategy to bulk up the business intelligence tools in Office and SQL Server.

Master data management describes a way to store information according to certain attributes so it's easier to retrieve and work with. For example, information from various sources can be aggregated relating to customer, product or partner.

The idea is … Read more

It could be said that GotFrag, a news and social networking site for fans of competitive video gaming, just got pwned--but in a good way. New York-based professional gaming league Major League Gaming announced Wednesday that it has purchased GotFrag for an unspecified amount.

Through the acquisition, Major League Gaming hopes to boost the visibility of professional gaming, especially in the United States, where it's far more under-the-radar than it is in European and Asian countries. This has been an ongoing goal for the professional league, which inked a deal with the USA Network last year to have … Read more