While rumors have been swirling for days, Yahoo finally confirmed this morning that it has acquired popular blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion. Notably, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises Yahoo won’t ruin the Tumblr experience.

“We promise not to screw it up,” Mayer said in a blog post today. “Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same, as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo will help Tumblr get even better, faster.”

Tumblr is a huge platform for blogging and sharing content. The service hosts 105 million blogs, and 900 new posts go up per second. It has 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups each day.

The big weakness for Tumblr is actually making money. It only pulled in $13 million in revenue in 2012. But that’s where Yahoo can come in and help the company find more ways to make cash through advertising.

“The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience,” Mayer wrote.

Tumblr CEO Karp has previously been vocally resistent to advertising, but Yahoo plans to find ways for advertising to find its way into the platform. All signs point to Yahoo adding opt-in advertising so bloggers can enable ads and potentially get a slice of revenue for ads on said blogs.

Yahoo will pay approximately $1.1 billion for Tumblr — all in cash. Prior to today, New York City-based Tumblr had raised $125 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Spark Capital, and CrunchFund.

Karp describes the deal as “awesome” and insists that Tumblr won’t change much. “We’re not turning purple,” Karp wrote in a blog post. “Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing.”

Marissa Mayer photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Security heavyweight McAfee has agreed to acquire network firewall business Stonesoft for $389 million in cash, the company announced today.

Helsinki, Finland-based Stonesoft offers a portfolio of firewalls, SSL VPN solutions, and prevention systems that are suitable to help both small and large businesses. It has more than 6,500 customers worldwide.

McAfee is most interested in Stonesoft’s next-gen firewall technology, and it’s saying that combining Stonesoft’s offerings with its own cloud-based Global Threat Intelligence service will give its customers even better network security.

“With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology,” McAfee President Michael DeCesare said in a statement. “These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape. … We plan to integrate Stonesoft’s offerings with other McAfee products to realize the power of McAfee’s Security Connected strategy.”

Pile of money via HamsterMan/Shutterstock

Streaming music powerhouse Spotify has acquired playlist and song discovery application Tunigo, which will help Spotify bring in more employees that can improve discovery.

Tunigo offers several music discovery features and playlists for any activity you might want to do. It has its own Spotify app, which has been in the top 10 app list since the Spotify app platform launched. It also has iPhone and Android apps.

“Tunigo helps users find great music for every moment, and we’ve been working very closely with Spotify over the past few years,” Tunigo CEO Nick Holmstén said in a statement. “This is the perfect match from a music discovery perspective. We’re passionate about music and technology and looking forward to further innovating within the music discovery space.”

The terms of the acquisition were not revealed, although Tunigo had reportedly raised about $3 million in funding. Spotify told us that Tunigo’s app will remain inside Spotify and that its team will move to Spotify’s offices in Stockholm and New York.

Photo via Tunigo

After many rumors and reports, news summarization app Wavii has officially been acquired by Google and the app has been shut down.

The Wavii team in Seattle will move to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. to work on “natural language research.” Wavii used semantic analysis to break down news into data to give users better customized feeds, so the move makes sense.

Wavii CEO Adrian Aoun writes in a statement on its homepage:

You probably know us best for our app that takes the deluge of information streaming across the web and condenses it into fast, fun updates. While we won’t continue to offer this particular service, we’ll be using our natural language research at Google in ways that may be useful to millions of people around the world.

To all of our loyal Wavii users, we owe you a big thanks for all of your feedback and involvement throughout this journey. We look forward to taking our technology to the next level and delighting you with what we come up with next!

Before being acquired, Wavii had raised $2 million in funding from investors including Max Levchin, Dave Morin, SV Angel, Felicis Ventures, Mitch Kapor, Fritz Lanman, Max Ventilla, Shawn Fanning, Rick Marini, and CrunchFund.

Earlier reports say Google paid more than $30 million for Wavii.

Photo via Wavii

Enterprise app business Software AG has acquired cloud platform vendor LongJump, the company announced today.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based LongJump offers a platform-as-a-service (Paas) that allows enterprise app developers to build software with less effort. The company also offers an on-premise PaaS solution with the ability to move apps between LongJump instances.

Software AG said LongJumps’s cloud platform will help it better address small and medium sized enterprise companies that rely on self-service app development. It also indicated that LongJump’s software will be complementary to its already established ARIS, Terracotta, and WebMethods product suites.

LongJump founder and CEO Pankaj Malviya believes his company will be able to take advantage of Software AG’s resources and reach to attract more attention.

“More people across the organization can now participate in processes of innovation and differentiation,” Malviya said in a canned statement. “LongJump can now leverage Software AG’s strength in enterprise connectivity and business process to provide business users and IT departments with more agility to respond to changing business requirements, automate their situational processes, improve team data sharing, and integrate with systems of record.”

Clouds photo via Flickr

Database vendor Actian has acquired “big data” and analytics startup ParAccel, the two companies announced today.

ParAccel caught our eye last year as one of 10 startups leading the way in big data. We specifically liked ParAccel’s leadership in the high-performance analytics space and its work in “pre-crime,” where it helps predict criminal activity before it happens. ParAccel customers include Amazon, The Royal Bank of Scotland, OfficeMax, and MicroStrategy.

Actian believes the acquisition of ParAccel will complement its position as a strong infrastructure player and bring more customers into the fold. Bloor Group chief analyst and co-founder Robin Bloor agrees.

“Actian is building a modern, highly innovative end-to-end database, integration, and analytics solution aimed squarely at solving today’s growing data challenges,” Bloor said in a statement. “With the ability to capture, ingest, analyze, and take action on data at scale, Actian is now very powerfully positioned in the big data and data analytics markets.”

ParAccel told us back in October that it intended to remain an independent company. That said, the decision to be acquired makes some sense because major competitors Vertica and Netezza were purchased by HP and IBM, and that sort of backing helped strengthen their services.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Prior to acquisition, ParAccel had raised more than $90 million in funding from investors including Amazon, Menlo Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Bay Partners, Walden International, Tao Venture Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank.

Top photo via ParAccel

IBM has acquired software delivery startup UrbanCode to better help businesses push out updates of mobile, cloud, social, and big data applications, the company announced today.

Cleveland-based UrbanCode claims to reduce the time it takes to move new apps or updates of apps onto the market. The company offers up its DevOps platform, which includes apps like uDeploy, uBuild, uProvision, and uRelease. These serve to help companies push out updates, take in feedback, and improve quality of apps faster.

Ideally, it will help IBM better connect with social, cloud, and big data app makers that rely on rapid software development and releases.

“Companies that master effective software development and delivery in rapidly changing environments such as cloud, mobile, and social will have a significant competitive advantage,” Kristof Kloeckner, general manager of IBM Rational Software, said in a statement. “With the acquisition of UrbanCode, IBM is uniquely positioned to help businesses from every industry accelerate delivery of their products and services to better meet client demands.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. IBM said it plans to continue supporting UrbanCode clients.

Payments giant PayPal has acquired Palo Alto startup Iron Pearl to help it grow past 123 million customers, the company announced today in a blog post.

Iron Pearl offered customer acquisition and engagement software to help companies understand the best ways to grow using predictive modeling. Ideally, that skill set will now go toward helping PayPal grow its user base.

PayPal president David Marcus writes:

More than 5 million people joined PayPal in the last three months of 2012—the most in a quarter in over 8 years. We now serve more than 123 million active PayPal customers around the world.

But we can do more. And grow faster. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce that we just acquired Iron Pearl, a Palo Alto startup that is at the forefront of the science of customer acquisition and engagement. Iron Pearl has developed groundbreaking tools, methodologies and intellectual property, built on a new understanding of the social and cultural factors that drive the viral spread of products, combined with new approaches to data analysis and predictive modeling.

Iron Pearl founders Stan Chudnovsky and James Currier will take on roles at PayPal. Chudnovsky will take on the role of Vice President of Growth, while Currier will serve as a “Growth Advisor” to the business.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PayPal photo via Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Popular travel advice and booking site TripAdvisor has acquired luxury travel site Jetsetter from Gilt Groupe, the companies announced today.

TripAdvisor did not reveal the price, but Gilt has been reportedly shopping around Jetsetter for $30 million to $50 million since late last year. Gilt Groupe struggled a bit in 2012 and eventually hired Citigroup executive Michelle Peluso to lead the company last December to help get back on track. One of her moves apparently was to finish selling off Jetsetter.

“In a short span of time, Jetsetter has emerged as a premier player in the travel space, and we are proud of what the team has accomplished,” Peluso said in a statement.

TripAdvisor cofounder and CEO Steve Kaufer said Jetsetter will help the company reach out to customers interested in a members-only private-sale experience.

“Jetsetter is an outstanding brand, and I am absolutely delighted to welcome the Jetsetter team to the TripAdvisor family,” Kaufer said in a statement. “With Jetsetter and our own SniqueAway brand, we now have two leading travel private-sale sites under one roof. We are excited by the opportunities this provides to continually help drive amazing value for our travelers staying at some of the world’s most highly-rated hotels.”

Airplane sitting on mouse via Kinetic Imagery/Shutterstock

Networking giant Cisco has agreed to acquire femtocell and small cell manufacturer Ubiquisys for $310 million in a nearly all-cash deal, the company announced today.

Ubiquisys sells various femtocells and small cells that help boost 3G and LTE reception in residential and business buildings, so it will help Cisco make further inroads with mobile carriers, consumers, and enterprises. The company believes that the Ubiquisys buy will complement its recent purchases of mobile-focused startups BroadHop and Intucell.

“Cisco is ‘doubling down’ on its small cell business to accelerate strong momentum and growth in the mobility market,” Cisco SVP Kelly Ahuja said in a statement. “By acquiring Ubiquisys, we are expanding on our current mobility leadership and our end-to-end product portfolio, which includes integrated, licensed, and unlicensed small cell solutions that are tightly coupled with SON, backhaul, and the mobile packet core. For service providers, Ubiquisys supports cost effective coverage and capacity that delivers a differentiated customer experience.”

The company will offer retention-based incentives to acquire Ubiquisys’ employees and operations. Ubiquisys employees will be integrated into the Cisco Service Provider Mobility unit.

Cisco expects the deal will close in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2013.

Top photo via Ubiquisys

Apparently today is a good day to buy. Following acquisitions announcements by Yahoo and Oracle, Cisco is announcing that it has agreed to buy cloud services management business SolveDirect, the company said today.

Cisco has said it considers acquisitions a big part of its strategy to innovate, and in January it plunked down $475 million to buy self-optimizing network startup Intucell. SolveDirect will help with Cisco’s goal of giving enterprise companies tools to streamline data and workflows across unified networks.

“SolveDirect’s cloud-based solutions offer enterprises and service providers a flexible way to integrate with service partners and automate sharing of processes, data, and workflows in real-time by eliminating manual practices and bottlenecks, driving significant operational efficiencies,” Hilton Romanski, head of corporate business development at Cisco, said in a blog post announcing the deal. “SolveDirect’s capabilities will enable Cisco to extend our portfolio of smart and connected IT services to our global ecosystem of customers, partners, and resellers.”

The Vienna, Austria-based SolveDirect team will join the Cisco Services group, which is led by Cisco SVP Mala Anand.

Cisco did not reveal the price it has agreed to pay for SolveDirect, and it expects the deal will close in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2013.

Cloud services photo via Stokkete/Shutterstock

Showing its intent to get cozy with wireless carriers, Oracle has agreed to acquire Tekelec, a provider of network signaling, subscriber data management, and policy control, the company announced today.

Tekelec’s software is used to better control wireless network devices and to manage customer data. It is in use by 300 service providers in over 100 countries. Oracle believes Tekelec’s offerings will enhance its “support systems, service delivery platforms, and business support systems.”

Oracle expects to add Tekelec’s services to the capabilities of networking technology company Acme Packet — which it agreed to acquire in February for $2.1 billion — and it will join the Oracle Communications unit of Oracle.

“As connected devices and applications become ubiquitous, intelligent network and service control technologies are required to enable service providers to efficiently deploy all-IP networks, and deliver and monetize innovative communication services,” Bhaskar Gorti, SVP and GM of Oracle Communications, said in a statement. “The combination of Oracle and Tekelec will provide service providers with the most complete solution to manage their businesses across customer engagement, business and network operations, service delivery, and end-user applications.”

The Tekelec deal is part of an aggressive acquisition spree that Oracle has pursued for the past year and a half. Two weeks ago, Oracle agreed to buy cloud management software business Nimbula. In February, Oracle announced its intent to buy Acme Packet for $2.1 billion. And in 2012, Oracle announced agreements to purchase 11 companies, including high-profile buys of Taleo, Eloqua, Vitrue, and Skire.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison photo via Oracle PR/Flickr

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Enterprise behemoths EMC and IBM are taking a close look at buying major infrastructure-as-a-service provider SoftLayer in a deal that could be worth more than $2 billion, Reuters reports.

Dallas-based SoftLayer closely competes with Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Microsoft Azure, and others to help companies with their IaaS needs. In the cloud space, SoftLayer’s name doesn’t get thrown around like Amazon and Rackspace, but it is a popular choice for IaaS and has more than 25,000 small-to-huge customers, including AT&T, SendGrid, Citrix, and Path. It has 13 data centers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and has raised $30 million in venture capital to date.

The fact that both EMC and IBM are showing interest in buying SoftLayer shows that the company has been successful in recruiting customers to use its public cloud over so many other choices.

IBM especially is interesting since it already offers its own cloud infrastructure products. Perhaps this means IBM wants SoftLayer’s data centers and tech to bolster its efforts.

Storage giant EMC, however, could be looking at SoftLayer to combine with the efforts of cloud services giant VMware, which it owns a majority stake of. EMC’s latest big move is a joint spin-off with VMware called The Pivotal Initiative, which focuses on “big data” and data processing services.

Clouds photo via Flickr

Enterprise software titan Oracle has agreed to acquire Nimbula — a cloud infrastructure management software startup that was founded by former Amazon Web Services gurus — for an undisclosed amount.

Nimbula dubs itself the “Cloud Operating System company” and lets corporate customers manage their cloud assets (private, public, and hybrid) from one dashboard. It was started by Amazon EC2 veterans Chris Pinkham and Willem van Biljon.

Pinkham spoke at both of CloudBeat events, in 2011 and 2012, where we showcase emerging disruptive cloud technology. VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall interviewed Pinkham two years ago. It was already clear then the executive was ambitious, targeting what he saw as a $4 billion market, and cutting out “middlemen” like VMware, Citrix and EMC.

“Nimbula’s technology helps companies manage infrastructure resources to deliver service, quality, and availability, as well as workloads in private and hybrid cloud environments,” Oracle said in a small announcement. “Nimbula’s product is complementary to Oracle and is expected to be integrated with Oracle’s cloud offerings.”

Oracle expects the Nimbula transaction to close in the first half of 2013. Other details including the price tag on the deal were not disclosed.

Today’s deal adds to the many acquisitions Oracle has sought in the past year. A month ago, Oracle announced its intent to buy networking technology company Acme Packet for $2.1 billion. And in 2012, Oracle announced agreements to purchase 11 companies, including high-profile buys of Taleo, Eloqua, Vitrue, and Skire.

Oracle HQ photo via Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Metro Mobile, here we come. The FCC has approved the $1.5 billion merger between MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA, which would create a more powerful fourth-place wireless carrier in the United States.

T-Mobile confirmed its intent to merge with MetroPCS back in October, with a price of about $1.5 billion. The deal will help T-Mobile allocate new resources and fight off Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile is the fourth place carrier, and MetroPCS is in fifth place.

But the deal isn’t done quite yet due to regulatory approval and a vote among prospective shareholder. Now the FCC is out of the way, with chairman Julius Genachowski issuing the following statement:

With today’s approval, America’s mobile market continues to strengthen, moving toward robust competition and revitalized competitors. We are seeing billions more in network investment, while the courts have upheld key FCC decisions to accelerate broadband build-out, promote competition, and benefit consumers, including our broadband data roaming and pole attachment rules. Today’s action will benefit millions of American consumers and help the U.S maintain the global leadership in mobile it has regained in recent years.

Mobile broadband is a key engine of economic growth, with U.S. annual wireless capital investment up 40% over the last four years, the largest increase in the world, and few sectors having more potential to create jobs. In this fast-moving space, of course challenges remain, including the need to unleash even more spectrum for mobile broadband and continuing to promote competition and protect consumers. The Commission will stay focused on these vital goals.

Alongside the FCC approval, MetroPCS mailed a letter today pushing for its stockholders to approve the deal.

“After a multiyear, thorough review of MetroPCS’s options, with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisers, the MetroPCS board has unanimously concluded that the proposed combination with T-Mobile is the best strategic alternative for our stockholders,” the letter reads. “The immediate cash payment you will receive and the significant ownership interest you will hold in the combined company represent a substantial premium to MetroPCS’s standalone value.”

As long as that vote goes well, look for the merger to officially close soon.

Photo via T-Mobile

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has indicated that she would focus more efforts on mobile and wouldn’t hesitate to acquire companies to help with that aim. Yahoo acquired Snip.it in January and acquired the team behind video platform OnTheAir in December. Yahoo has also boosted its mail apps on mobile with new iPhone, Android, and Windows 8 apps.

Alike offered consumers ways to find nearby places that your friends also like and that you might like based on your interests. It will shut down its iPhone and web applications and join Yahoo’s mobile team.

The Alike team writes about the acquisition on its now-defunct home page:

At Alike, we’ve spent the last couple of years working hard to build amazing mobile experiences to delight our customers, which is why we’re thrilled to announce some big news: we’re joining Yahoo! Mobile. We’ve always been passionate about the growing power of intelligent mobile experiences. We believe that distilled information, deeply personalized and made accessible anytime and anywhere, is what makes mobile experiences a part of our customers’ daily lives. In Yahoo! we’ve found a team as excited about this vision as we are, and who are serious about making it real. We’re super excited to join Yahoo!’s mobile team, where we can march toward that vision faster than ever. As of today, we will no longer support the Alike Nearby iPhone and Web apps. Thank you to all our customers, partners, investors, and advisors who’ve supported us from day one! We’ve taken a big step on our journey, and we could not have done it without your support.

Yahoo sign photo via Flickr

U.S. cable giant Liberty Global has agreed to purchase hot U.K. cable and broadband provider Virgin Media in a $23.3 billion cash-and-stock deal, the two companies announced this morning.

The consolidation of these two companies, if approved by regulators, will create a company with 25 million customers across 14 countries. That would make it the largest cable and broadband company in the world outside of China.

Liberty Global expects that the new entity will become a powerhouse in offering digital TV, broadband and telephone services to homes and businesses. However, Virgin Media will keep its name and brand.

“Adding Virgin Media to our large and growing European operations is a natural extension of the value creation strategy we’ve been successfully using for over seven years,” Mike Fries, President and CEO of Liberty Global, said in a statement. “After the deal, roughly 80% of Liberty Global’s revenue will come from just five attractive and strong countries — the UK, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.”

The deal is so big that Liberty Global will “relocate” from Delaware to the U.K., but it will still retain its U.S. headquarters. Liberty Global will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange but it might also add a listing to a European exchange too.

Under the agreement, Virgin Media shareholders will get $17.50 in cash, 0.2582 Liberty Global Series A shares, and 0.1928 Liberty Global Series C shares for each Virgin Media share they hold.

Enterprise software titan Oracle has agreed to acquire networking technology company Acme Packet for $2.1 billion, the company announced today.

Oracle announced agreements to purchase 11 companies in 2012, including high-profile buys of Taleo, Eloqua, Vitrue, and Skire. Now, a month into 2013, Oracle yet again shows its willingness to buy tech rather than create it.

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle will pay $29.25 a share for Acme Packet, which is 22 percent above its closing price Friday. The fully diluted equity value of the deal is $2.1 billion, while Oracle says the “enterprise value” is $1.7 billion.

Acme Packet claims to enable the “first-class delivery of next-generation voice, data, and unified communications services and applications across IP networks.” So it should help Oracle deliver those solutions in its products for enterprises, according to Oracle President Mark Hurd.

“The addition of Acme Packet to Oracle’s leading communications portfolio will enable service providers and enterprises to deliver innovative solutions that will change the way we interact, conduct commerce, deliver healthcare, secure our homes, and much more,” Hurd said in a statement.

While the deal is still pending, some are questioning whether Acme Packet got the best possible deal for its shareholders. The law firm Ademi & O’Reilly announced today that it is “investigating the Board of Directors of Acme Packet, Inc. for possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law in connection with the sale of Acme to Oracle Corporation.”

Pile of money image via Shutterstock

News that Avis Budget Group plans to buy car sharing network Zipcar for $500 million opened some eyes this morning. But this could have trouble going through, with a law firm announcing it is investigating whether Zipcar didn’t get the best deal possible.

Former SEC attorney Willie Briscoe and the securities litigation firm Powers Taylor will investigate whether Zipcar’s shareholders won’t get enough cash in the transaction.

Avis said it will pay $12.25 per share for Zipcar, a premium of about 50 percent over Zipcar’s share price on Dec. 31. But the investigating party says the Zipcar board may not have obtained the highest price it could have.

“Due to the proposed sale price, the size of the deal and other factors, we believe this transaction may undervalue Zipcar’s stock,” Briscoe said in a statement. “Our proposed lawsuit will seek to obtain the highest share price for all shareholders.”

Briscoe and Powers Taylor pointed out that one Yahoo Finance analyst estimated Zipcar’s shares to be worth up to $13 apiece. It’s also notable that Zipcar’s 52-week high on the stock market was $16.25 per share.

Avis said it expected the Zipcar deal to close in the second quarter of 2013, so we will see what happens.

Car crash image via Lee O’Dell / Shutterstock.com

Enterprise storage and security business Imation has agreed to buy smaller storage provider Nexsan for $120 million in cash and stock, it announced today.

Imation has struggled over the past six years to dominate in the enterprise storage market and has had five years in a row of net losses. (We expect 2012 will also be another year of losses.) Its acquisition of Nexsan could help reinvigorate the company, with new storage and security products targeting medium and small businesses.

“Imation’s acquisition of Nexsan is an exciting next step in our strategic transformation, which includes investing in growth platforms in data storage and security solutions, where we are targeting markets with strong growth rates,” Imation CEO Mark Lucas said in a statement. “Our strategy includes focusing on the underserved SMB market with purpose-built storage systems and appliances. This is a market that Nexsan knows well. Nexsan’s management team has grown this business from startup to more than $80 million, with strong gross margins.”

The deal is worth $105 million in cash and 3,319,324 common shares worth about $15 million. Nexsan has 200 employees and generated about $82 million in revenue in 2011, with gross margins around 40 percent.

Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Nexsan will continue to operate under the same management, with Nexsan CEO Philip Black becoming an Imation employee.

Storage concept image via Kletr/Shutterstock

Rental car giant Avis Budget Group has agreed to buy car-sharing network Zipcar for $500 million in cash, the two companies announced today.

Avis will pay $12.25 per share for Zipcar, a premium of about 50 percent over Zipcar’s share price on Dec. 31. The deal will help Avis get an immediate handle on the quickly growing car-sharing marketplace.

“By combining with Zipcar, we will significantly increase our growth potential, both in the United States and internationally, and will position our company to better serve a greater variety of consumer and commercial transportation needs,” Avis Budget Group CEO Ronald Nelson said in a statement. “We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company.”

Once the deal is completed, Zipcar will operate as a subsidiary of Avis. Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith and COO Mark Norman will likely continue to run the day-to-day operations of Zipcar.

Avis said it expects “to generate $50 to $70 million in annual synergies” in relation to the deal. Avis sees serious opportunities to increase Zipcar’s weekend fleet availability, which it will boost using Avis cars.

Avis also said it expects its full-year 2012 revenue will be about $7.3 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2011.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Open-source cloud software provider Red Hat has agreed to acquire cloud management startup ManageIQ for $104 million in cash, the company announced today in conjunction with its quarterly earnings.

ManageIQ provides enterprise customers all kinds of management solutions to deploy and optimize private, public, and hybrid clouds. That makes it a great fit with Red Hat, which has seen promising traction with its open-source cloud software solutions for the enterprise. Red Hat recently launched its OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service for enterprise customers.

“For enterprise cloud initiatives, effective cloud management is critical,” Paul Cormier, president of products and technologies at Red Hat, said in a statement. “ManageIQ offers robust features, including orchestration, policy, workflow, monitoring, and chargeback, that deepen Red Hat’s cloud management capabilities and bring the promise of open hybrid cloud a step closer for the industry.”

For Red Hat’s earnings, the company reported third-quarter revenue of $343.6 million, which is up 18 percent year-over-year. Red Hat’s net income for the quarter totaled $34.8 million, or $0.18 per diluted share.

Woman in red hat via refleXtions/Shutterstock

Cloud storage titan Dropbox has agreed to acquire photo-focused startup Snapjoy, a move that could help Dropbox own the photo organization and backup space.

Snapjoy, a young company that graduated from the Y Combinator program in summer 2011, offered consumers an online photo library that uploaded your photos and organized them into categories like who, what, when, and where.

The move will likely help Dropbox expand beyond the idea of a photo backup and make it more of a place to organize your memories. The acquisition comes just a week after Dropbox agreed to buy Audiogalaxy, which could help Dropbox users with music backup and streaming from the cloud.

Snapjoy co-founders Michael Dwan and JP Ren wrote in a blog post today:

As a fellow Y Combinator company, we’ve always admired Dropbox and loved their product. From the moment we met the founders, it was clear we shared a common goal. By combining forces with their amazing team, we can leverage the technology and scale of their platform and focus on what matters — delivering an incredible photo experience to over 100 million people.

So what happens next? First and foremost, don’t worry — your photos are safe! Though we won’t be accepting new signups, existing users can continue to use Snapjoy to share and enjoy photos just as you do now. We’ll be in touch with more information over the coming weeks.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Photographer silhouette via Dominic Alves/Flickr

Nielsen has agreed to purchase radio measurement firm Arbitron for a massive $1.26 billion, the company announced today.

The announcement comes on the heels of yesterday’s big news that Nielsen would offer a new form of television ratings based on the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter. Now Nielsen is taking a major step toward owning radio ratings with its Arbitron buy.

“U.S. consumers spend almost two hours a day with radio. It is and will continue to be a vibrant and important advertising medium,” Nielsen CEO David Calhoun said in a statement. “Arbitron will help Nielsen better solve for unmeasured areas of media consumption, including streaming audio and out-of-home. The high level of engagement with radio and TV among rapidly growing multicultural audiences makes this central to Nielsen’s priorities.”

The Arbitron deal — if it passes regulators — is worth $1.26 billion, or $48 per share. That’s a premium of about 26 percent over Arbitron’s closing price on Monday. The two companies combined do about $6 billion in revenue each year.

With terrestrial radio, TV, and new social TV ratings taken care of, perhaps Nielsen will take a step toward better digital radio measurement or break new ground in web measurement, an area that’s mostly dominated by comScore.

Radio station photo via MDGovpics/Flickr

Groupon’s shares soared about 23 percent today on a sketchy rumor that Google was interested in buying it, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The rumor, which has no sourcing, is interesting when you consider that Google reportedly wanted to buy Groupon two years ago for $6 billion. Now Groupon’s market cap is $2.5 billion. Google, in theory, could buy Groupon for its users and move them over to Google Offers.

“Where the stock is currently trading, it’s a takeout candidate,” Telsey Advisory Group analyst Tom Forte told Bloomberg. “If Google was interested at $6 billion, I think it’s a possibility.”

However, Groupon is in extremely messy shape right now. CEO Andrew Mason (pictured) has been repeatedly called out by Wall Street for letting Groupon sink to a share price of less than $5 from its IPO price of $20. A recent Evercore Partners report put a $3 price target on Groupon and recommended to sell.

“It would be weird if the board wasn’t discussing whether I was the right guy for the job,” Mason said in late November. “If I ever felt that I wasn’t the right person to do the job, I’d fire myself.”

With all these issues, it would be strange for Google to be interested in buying Groupon. That is, unless Google is waiting for the company to drop to some staggering new low and attempt to buy it for cheap.

Groupon closed the day at $ 4.69, an increase of about 23 percent. In after-hours trading, Groupon has fallen about 3 percent, but the day still looks quite good for the company.

Groupon spokesperson Paul Taaffe declined to comment on the speculation.

Andrew Mason photo via DEMO/Flickr

Credit bureau Equifax has agreed to buy the credit-services unit of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) for $1 billion in cash, the companies announced today.

CSC’s unit has credit files on people in 15 U.S. states and has been the largest Equifax affiliate for longer than 20 years. Its services include selling access to credit info to banks, mortgage companies, retail businesses, the auto industry, and the medical industry. With this in mind, the deal makes a lot of sense.

Equifax CEO Richard Smith said CSC’s credit-services unit should generate around $115 million in revenue a year. He said in a lengthy statement:

“We are extremely pleased to announce the signing of the agreement to acquire the CSC credit services assets. We have a long working history with CSC and believe the acquisition of these assets will be a catalyst for the long-term growth of our USCIS business unit. We anticipate that the transaction will generate incremental net operating revenue to Equifax in the range of $115 million to $125 million and EBITDA of $105 million to $110 million. The pending transaction is also expected to be solidly accretive to Equifax’s adjusted earnings per share in 2013. We will use a portion of any increased earnings for additional investments in growth initiatives and infrastructure across our businesses.”

Investors in CSC and Equifax cheered the news. Both Equifax and CSC are trading up more than 3 percent today.

Woman holding money via Shutterstock

TV loyalty service Viggle has agreed to acquire social TV app GetGlue for $25 million and 48.3 million shares in stock, the companies announced today.

“With this deal, we are combining very experienced and creative product, engineering, and management teams that will continue to build great user experiences and provide industry leading platforms for consumers, networks, and advertisers,” Viggle CEO Robert Sillerman said in a statement. “We will also be vastly increasing the Viggle user base and quadrupling our network partnerships.

New York City-based GetGlue was founded in 2007 and lets its 3.2 million registered users “check-in” to TV shows or movies they are watching and stay better connected to their favorite programs. Viggle, which was only launched in January, lets users get rewards like iTunes and Amazon credit for watching TV programs. Viggle has 1.2 million registered users.

GetGlue’s 34 employees will be brought over to Viggle, including GetGlue CEO Alex Iskold, who will take a senior executive position and a slot on Viggle’s board of directors.

“GetGlue has built a social TV product that people love, and Viggle has become their favorite loyalty program for TV,” Iskold said in a statement. “Together we are positioned to deliver the next generation second screen experiences that delight and benefit users, networks, and major brands.”

GetGlue previously raised $24 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures and Rho Capital Partners, so this deal isn’t much of an exit. But there’s also the matter of the 48.3 million shares, which could have pushed the deal over the edge. Investors and Iskold may have simply found that consolidating teams and users of Viggle and GetGlue made the most sense to keep GetGlue growing.

Couple watching TV with tablet photo via Goodluz/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Deutsche Telekom has confirmed that its American wireless carrier T-Mobile is in talks to team up with MetroPCS to create a single company.

“Deutsche Telekom is holding talks with the listed company MetroPCS with the aim of operating its subsidiary T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS within one company in which Deutsche Telekom would hold the majority of shares,” the carrier said in a widely circulated statement. “The talks are at a stage where significant issues have not yet been finalized, contracts have not yet been signed, and the conclusion of the transaction is still not certain.”

The move would mildly shake up the U.S. wireless industry, which is currently dominated by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile is currently in fourth place by subscribers with 33.2 million as of June. MetroPCS has 9.3 million prepaid customers, which would add to T-Mobile’s numbers, for a total of 42.5 million.

This could be a nice boon for T-Mobile, which has struggled chiefly because it does not carry the mega-popular iPhone. Giving the company more subscribers to work with helps incentivize phone-makers to bring big products to the carrier.

MetroPCS investors cheered the news and its stock soared more than 17 percent today, closing up about $2 to $13.57.

Photo credit: Tumblr

Deal-hungry Groupon has devoured New York-based reservation and dining discount startup Savored. Price and terms of the acquisition meal are not available.

Savored is a two-year-old, venture-backed company with a presence in 11 U.S. markets, including dining destinations New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The company works with roughly 1,000 restaurants that typically dole out 15 percent to 40 percent-off deals to diners who book tables through the online and mobile reservation service.

Savored will remain operational. It plays in the field of yield management by helping restaurant fill tables by offering discounted experiences to consumers, based on market factors such as day of week and time of day. This closely aligns with Groupon Now, Groupon’s always-in-flux mobile experience that caters to consumers looking for right-here, right-now cheap meals.

“Savored’s platform nicely complements Groupon’s efforts in yield management, an area we’ve pioneered with Groupon Now,” Groupon Now vice president Dan Roarty said in a statement. “We look forward to working together to achieve a common goal — making dining out even more fun and affordable for consumers while helping restaurateurs manage inventory and grow their businesses.”

Savored raised more $3 million in funding. The startup, which made VentureBeat contributor Rocky Agrawal’s list of companies getting local right for small businesses, initially started its life as VillageVines before it relaunched as Savored last year.

Photo credit: leedav/Flickr

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

According to Salesforce.com, a crowd of 90,000 people will gather in San Francisco tomorrow morning to listen in to the keynote address from the company’s outspoken CEO, Marc Benioff. This number may be a slight exaggeration, but nonetheless it signals the company is not just a customer relationship management (CRM) giant in the eyes of the tech community.

Salesforce made five acquisitions this year as it expands its suite of tools to every corner of the enterprise, fueling an endless stream of rumors. Who will they buy next? No doubt, this will be a major talking point at the conference, alongside discussions about how the company will integrate the startups it recently acquired.

Tech conferences can be overwhelming, so we compiled talking points for you. Whether you’re planning to attend or are simply curious, here’s what to expect at Dreamforce 2012.

“Chatter” and cloud storage — Who will Salesforce.com acquire?

Salesforce‘s CEO Marc Benioff’s knows how to command the attention of a room; he dropped a bomb at Disrupt last week in San Francisco. Immediately following an enterprise panel featuring cloud service providers, Box and Okta, he announced the introduction of two competing products.

“We are not trying to snuff competitors out,” he said, shortly after making the announcement. Benioff also hinted that the company would add file-storage features to Chatter, the social enterprise tool that is similar to Microsoft-owned Yammer. The tool is called ChatterBox — a nod to potential competitor, Box?

As it typically does, Salesforce may be gearing up for an acquisition. Rumors abounded that Box would be the primary target. I hopped on the phone with Box’s CEO Aaron Levie who responded with a firm “absolutely not”. Levie told me that Salesforce might be entering into the cloud storage space, but that few companies truly understand the value of file sharing and collaboration.

Putting the rumors to bed, a spokesperson from Salesforce told me to expect news about Dropbox, Box’s primary competitor. An integration, perhaps? Expect plenty of discussion around Chatter and new file storage capabilities.

What’s next for Buddy Media? 

Salesforce’s most expensive buy was Buddy Media, which it picked up for $689 million in August. Buddy Media is one of the biggest makers of social media tools for the enterprise. The result is Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a social networking platform for marketing. This was integrated with technology gained from both Buddy Media and Radian6, a social media monitoring provider.

Marketing Cloud is expected to be officially announced Wednesday morning by Benioff during his keynote address.

Do.com is hotting up!

Do.com, Salesforce’s productivity tool that competes with Asana, recently upgraded its product with a host of new features. Do also recently graduated from being a free app to a fremium service. Led by Manymoon’s founder (a startup acquired by Salesforce last year), it recently announced its first huge customer: Google.

Sean Whiteley, Salesforce’s senior VP told VentureBeat last month that Do.com signed up several hundred thousand users with “zero dollars spent on marketing.” With skyrocketing adoption rates, the company will be looking for ways to monetize the service.

In addition, Benioff mentioned Do.com at Disrupt last week, so I expect to hear more from him on this topic at Dreamforce.

Will they revive Force.com?

Salesforce may have talked it up, but as industry analyst Ray Wang told Computer World, Force.com is not particularly intuitive or easy to use. We may not hear any announcements this year, but it’s a good conversation topic to raise with fellow conference-goers. During panels, ask questions about whether the company will invest in its development.

Marc Benioff photo: Dell/Flickr