Another big acquisition for Silicon Valley. Hewlett-Packard said Thursday said it would acquire networking gear outfit 3Com for $2.7 billion, or $7.90 a share. The acquisition, which has been approved by both companies’ boards, will bolster HP’s Ethernet switching offerings and, thanks to 3Com’s routing business, intensify competition with rival Cisco.
Perhaps Palm really does have the “special sauce” needed to attain smart phone leadership, as RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky recently claimed. Reporting first-quarter results this afternoon, the company posted a narrower-than-expected loss, said it shipped 823,000 smart phones during the quarter and announced plans for a common stock offering of 16 million shares.
Google’s acquisitive appetite has returned. This morning the company said it will acquire On2 Technologies, which develops video compression technology, for $106.5 million. A stock-for-stock transaction, the deal will see each share of On2 exchanged for 60 cents worth of Google class A common stock.
Well, this is unexpected. Amazon has agreed to purchase online shoe retailer Zappos.com in a deal valued at about $850 million. Under its terms, the retailer will acquire all outstanding Zappos shares in exchange for roughly 10 million shares of Amazon common stock, valued at about $807 million, and some $40 million in cash and restricted stock. If the shoe fits, right?
The shareholders of Sun Microsystems have given the thumbs-up to the company’s merger agreement with Oracle. At a special meeting Thursday, a 62 percent majority of Sun’s common stock owners–not including CEO Jonathan Schwartz and board chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy, who, oddly, did not attend–approved the deal.
Palm’s decision to increase the size of its previously announced public offering of common stock to about 23.125 million shares from 18.5 million shares turned out to be a wise one. The value of the company’s stock rose sharply this morning, topping out at around $6.85–an increase of well over 13 percent.
So much for “growth over profits,” or should I say “growth over as-of-yet-unrevealed meaningful profits”? Word on the street has it that Facebook is considering a program that would allow employees to sell up to 20 percent of their vested shares.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
