merger

SAP America is looking to develop "the business network of the future" with the acquisition of cloud-based business commerce network Ariba at the price of $45 per share. That rounds out to roughly approximately $4.3 billion.

Each party brings something significant to the table here. Ariba already has the buyer-seller collaboration network, which is intended to compliment SAP's existing customer base as well as its B2B solutions. Thus, this really gives SAP a big push in the cloud space.

SAP will also be bringing its own resources to boost Ariba. For example, SAP is integrating its … Read more

All eyes will be on Google, as it takes a sudden plunge into the hardware business, courtesy of Motorola.

The $12.5 billion deal, which closed today, netted Google a healthy stockpile of patents for legal defense and offense, along with a historic technology brand and a multibillion-dollar handset and TV set-top box business.

It's pretty obvious what Google will do with the patents, given the increasingly litigious environment in which the technology world finds itself. Motorola's last few years of losses also bring a clear tax benefit to Google in the near term. But what is less … Read more

Senator Al Franken says Comcast may be violating Net neutrality rules by exempting its own video service from a usage cap on its broadband network.

The Minnesota Democrat today sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice asking the agencies to take a closer look at a new service Comcast announced in March that will stream Xfinity on-demand content to Microsoft Xbox consoles.

The content that is streamed directly to the Xbox console will not be counted against subscribers' total bandwidth usage caps.Comcast now imposes a 250GB monthly data cap on its subscribers.

This … Read more

AT&T is using T-Mobile's recent layoffs as an excuse to bash the FCC and its rejection of AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

On Friday AT&T's head of legislative affairs Jim Cicconi issued a statement offering a big fat "I told you so," to the FCC. T-Mobile recently announced it was laying off 1,900 workers in seven call centers around the country.

Cicconi said in his statement that AT&T had planned to keep those very same call centers open if it had been allowed … Read more

The beating of breasts could surely be heard even by penguins on melting ice caps.

Perhaps the two most important names in contemporary business were, this week, being criticized by their employees for losing their ethos, for sacrificing their soul, for, dare one utter it, selling out.

When Google's James Whittaker and Goldman Sachs' Greg Smith penned their respective lack-of-respect farewells, strange shivers wafted about the world of business.

Had these people lost their minds? Were they both experiencing some form of cranial trauma brought on by excessive stress? Had their lovers recently left them for, well, impoverished sculptors?… Read more

I can't match the sultry tones of Julie London, but if I could I'd croon for AT&T to cry me a river.

You see, America's favorite carrier is a bit peeved at the Federal Communications Commission for squashing its $39 billion dream of acquiring T-Mobile. Not only did the carrier lose its chance to pick over the corpse of a competitor for more wireless spectrum, but also it had to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion breakup fee, which partially contributed to a massive $6.7 billion loss in the last quarter.

If I were a … Read more

T-Mobile and AT&T formally asked the Federal Communications Commission today to approve the transfer of $1 billion in wireless spectrum due to T-Mobile following following the failed merger between the two carriers.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Tom Sugrue, T-Mobile's senior vice president for government affairs, said that the additional spectrum will help the carrier meet the growing demand for wireless broadband services. "We hope the FCC will move swiftly to approve the license assignments," he wrote.

Late last month, T-Mobile announced that it was set to receive AWS wireless spectrum in … Read more

European regulators said Thursday that they have set a new deadline of February 13 to decide the fate of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Reuters reported.

Regulators for the European Union originally said they'd make a decision on the merger by January 10. But in December, the EU Commission delayed the deadline stating that it wanted to review additional documents that Google had submitted to support its case.

Google announced its plans to buy Motorola in August for $12.5 billion. Google, which makes the mobile operating system, Android, said it plans to run Motorola as a separate … Read more

LightSquared today appointed Marc Montagner, a veteran of major telecommunications deals, to the role of chief financial officer.

Montagner's appointment may signal LightSquared's willingness to strike a deal or partnership. One of Montagner's prior roles was the head of merger-and-acquisition activities for Sprint, helping to usher in the $70 billion merger with Nextel back in 2005. He was also co-head of Banc of America Securities' telecom, media and technology merger group.

Montagner had been executive vice president of sales, marketing, and strategy at SkyTerra, which was absorbed by LightSquared in 2010. LightSquared plans to take advantage of … Read more