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Not being satisfied of its monopoly in the system software market, Microsoft wants to establish its hegemony in the online services sector also. Despite spending heavily on building its own search engine and advertising technology and even acquiring the online advertising specialist aQuantive for a whopping $6 billion, Microsoft’s online services has not been able to reduce the monopoly of Google. While Google retained 77% of the online services market pie Microsoft had a paltry 3.7% of the market share. To expand its market share the international giant has decided to work out policies of mergers and acquisitions and that with none other than another big name in the sector - Yahoo.

On Friday, Microsoft had announced that it is willing to offer $44.6 billion in cash and stock to Yahoo in what is being termed as the biggest ever acquisition by Microsoft. With Yahoo’s share prices closing at $19.18 on Thursday, the offer gives a 62% premium at $31 per share. Microsoft believes that the acquisition will increase their combined efficiency at reduced cost and saving $1 billion annually.

JP Morgan Chase & Co is in talks with Bear Stearns to quintuple its offer to buy Bear Stearns Cos to $10 per share in an effort to pacify angry Bear shareholders. JP Morgan raised its takeover offer for Bear Stearns Cos yesterday to about 5 times what it had originally quoted. A deal therefore was struck and JP Morgan is set to buy about 40% of the bank.

It seems that the tale of the tub has finally ended with Yahoo rejecting Microsoft’s offer of $44.6 billion at the end of the humongous affair that carried on for the past couple of weeks. The unsolicited bid was finally turned down by Yahoo and the status quo has again been preserved with Yahoo continuing to pose as a dominant competitor in the market of networking business.

The speculation concerning the fate of competition in view of the Yahoo and Microsoft’s merger has been mollified by this as it has again become evident that Yahoo is not willing to bend down on its knees in the face of adversity even if its is concerning a temptation of billions of dollars.

The Thomson Corporation, a preeminent provider of information solutions to business and professional customers globally has announced that its shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the proposed acquisition of Reuters Group PLC at a special meeting held on March 26, 08 in Toronto. 99% votes went in favor of the deal and cleared the way for winding up the deal on April 17, 08.

Reuters said that its shareholders approved the transaction by 92.6% at a meeting in London. This too is the biggest that happened in the history of the Canadian-based specialized data company. If the deal approves, then the new formation will be known as Thomson Reuters Corporation and their share of the world market for financial data will be one third, in competition against Bloomberg LP.

The first quarter results of the worlds most popular online search engine reveal that even the slowing US economy does not have an adverse effect on its revenue. Google was up by a 30% in the first quarter compared to last year as its first quarter profits rose to $1.31bn.

In the share market business, there’s no telling when things might go wrong. The latest news is the fall of global stocks along with the downfall of Goldman Sachs. The profit percentage went down by as much as 7%! Currently, it projected about $15bn in losses.

Along with the Goldman, shares throughout the world took a nose dive. The Dow Jones average dropped about 217.86 points. The Nasdaq went down about 1.33%. So, the situation in the global stocks and shares is critical. Further on, the London FTSE lost 170.4 points. So, it is clear that the fall of Goldman Sachs led to the previously mentioned losses.

Abu Dhabi’s government has taken an 8% stake in the chipmaker company, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). AMD has been struggling to control costs while trying to refocus on its research and development efforts, have received $622 million worth of investment from the Mubadala Development Company.

The Mubadala Development Company has received 49 million newly issued shares at $12.70 a share, the closing price of AMD share on Thursday. As a part of the deal, Mubadala will also get a seat in the AMD board.

The news had little effect on AMD stocks, which had already declined to a 52-week low from $23 in December, last year. These days AMD is striving to maintain its market share gains while it is facing a tough competition from the world’s leading chipmaker Intel. Intel is busy reorganizing and reworking the fundamental design of its chips. AMD claims that it currently controls a fifth of the market for chips used to power personal computers with Intel controlling the rest.

Whether the new investment will provide any long time relief to AMD is yet to be seen. According to analysts, though AMD’s sale of personal computers is strong but its expenses continue to be high.

Source:New York Times
Image:cnet

The assumption held by experts regarding Indian business’s latest fad for ‘joint ventures’ following TATA’s example has once again been proved. Praj Industries following latest mantra of various business honchos has tied up with Brazil’s Jaragua Equipments Industries resulting in a new joint venture company named Praj Jaragua Bioenergia S.A.

54 per cent stake of the venture will be with Praj while the rest with Jaragua. According to industry experts, the venture will offer a smooth entry to Praj into an otherwise growing market of ethanol.

Praj’s Chairman Pramod Chaudhari, while talking to reporters stated that the formation of new company shows the commitment on their part to Brazil’s ethanol market. He added further that the company would be looking for a long haul in Brazil. He affirmed that the new formed company would continue to work closely with Brazilian customers with the aim set in enhancement of performance of various plants as well as return on investments.

Source:

The blogging software and services company, Six Apart has sold its topic-based blogging communities network LiveJournal Inc. to SUP, a Russian based international media company. The deal comes expected as the two firms have been working together for quite some time now.

Almost a year back, ‘Six Apart’ allowed SUP to manage Live Journal in Russia under a licensing agreement. This acquisition will allow SUP to gain on a global scale. Under SUP, Live Journal has scaled new heights in Russia. The details of deal haven’t been disclosed yet.

However, from an investment point Six Apart will remain involved with LiveJournal for at least next 12 months. SUP plans to hold a new advisory board. Meanwhile, Six apart plans to focus and improve its other blogging tools!

Source: Mashable

Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, and European satellite leader Astrium has signed a deal for to make Alphasat I-XL satellite. This is being seen as the world’s largest telecommunications satellite.
Through this satellite Inmarsat expects to start its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service.
Over the event of deal signing, Andrew Sukawaty, CEO Inmarsat said,

Alphasat will enable us to offer improved services through greater capacity, better quality communications and faster download times to existing and future Inmarsat customers.

Evert Dudok, CEO of Astrium said,

Astrium is proud to be have been chosen to implement this ambitious satellite programme that will demonstrate a large number of innovations, both at platform and payload level, and position Astrium firmly as a world leader for mobile satellite communications technology.

The satellite Alphasat I-XL, will support a new generation of mobile technologies and enable communications across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Via: BBC