acquisition

Social media manager Hootsuite has acquired its one-time rival Seesmic, and it hopes Seesmic's customers are ready to come on board.

The Seesmic brand will eventually fade away as Hootsuite decides which of the social media client's features best fit Hootsuite's goals, the company revealed today. That means Seesmic users will have to switch over to Hootsuite in order to access their Seesmic accounts.

"We've always been big fans of Ryan Holmes and the HootSuite team, since the days we were all pioneering the Social Media landscape," Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur said in a statement. &… Read more

Threadsy, a social aggregator that was pronounced dead earlier this year, is being acquired by Facebook.

Swaylo, a service run by Threadsy, revealed today that once the deal goes through, the general public will no longer have access to Swaylo's free services. Swaylo's ranking system lets people see how influential they are when they post or share information on social networks.

Facebook confirmed the acquisition to CNET but would not comment further.

"This is incredibly exciting for us," CEO Rob Goldman wrote in a blog post. "We built Swaylo because we believe Facebook and other … Read more

Barry Diller, one of the premiere dealmakers in media, has bid $300 million for struggling About.com, The New York Times' information Web site, according to Reuters.

The offer from Diller's holding company, IAC/Interactivecorp, is about $30 million higher than a rival bid from Answers.com, Reuters reported.

The Times announced on August 8 that it was in discussions about selling its About Group but didn't identify the interested parties. Answers.com President Peter Horan is the former head of About.com.

About.com is designed to be a guide for Internet users and offers tips, advice, … Read more

Drawing upon a little-known California law, Facebook is reportedly looking to hasten the payout of its Instagram purchase.

Typically with deals like this companies have to first register with the Securities and Exchange Commission but if the social network is able to use the California law it could save the company time and money. Only six states, including California, allow for this SEC exemption.

According to the Financial Times (subscription required), Facebook has scheduled an August 29 "fairness hearing" with the California Department of Corporations in San Francisco to discuss the terms and conditions of the proposed payout.… Read more

Global alternative asset manager Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire control of Getty Images for $3.3 billion.

According to Carlyle Group, the acquisition will not give it 100 percent ownership in the company. Instead, the asset manager has bought out Getty Images' major owner, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, giving it a "controlling stake" in the company.

Getty Images co-founder and chairman Mark Getty, along with his family and co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein, have rolled "substantially all" of their equity into the transaction, effectively making them Carlyle's partners.

Getty Images has been … Read more

Google is once again investing in the travel space.

The search giant is acquiring travel guide provider Frommer's from John Wiley & Sons. It's not immediately clear what Google might have planned for Frommer's, and a purchase price has not been divulged.

Wiley announced earlier this year that it would put Frommer's, which includes everything from travel guides to hotel ratings, on the purchasing block, though the company did not have any potential suitors in mind.

It's not all that surprising that Google has jumped in to swipe Frommer's. The company has been making … Read more

Best Buy founder and ousted chairman Richard Schulze has, as expected, submitted a proposal to acquire the brick-and-mortar retailer.

Under the terms of the deal, Schulze, who owns about 20 percent of Best Buy already, would pay between $24 and $26 per share in cash to the company to acquire the outstanding shares he doesn't own. If Best Buy were to accept the offer, the company would score a premium of 36 percent to 47 percent on its Friday closing price of $17.64.

If Schulze gets his way, he'll take Best Buy from the stock market and … Read more

Rumors swirled recently, suggesting that Lenovo was considering acquiring Nokia. But a Lenovo executive has tossed some cold water on those reports.

Speaking to Reuters, Lenovo's chief for Europe, Mideast, and Africa, Gianfranco Lanci, said that the rumors "must be a joke," adding that "there's nothing ongoing" with his company and Nokia.

A marriage between Nokia and Lenovo would seem rather odd, to say the least. The companies don't necessarily appeal to the same market -- Lenovo does well in the enterprise, after all -- and there's no compelling reason for a … Read more

TiVo is attempting to expand its knowledge of its customers with the purchase of a television advertising-effectiveness firm.

The DVR maker announced today that it has agreed to acquire TRA, a company that has developed a database to link the ads people watch in the home to what they actually buy. According to TiVo, TRA currently works with 45 brands and 27 television networks to track advertising effectiveness. TRA's service is matching customer transactions to ads in 1.5 million homes.

"With this new level of unique audience insights and analytics, TiVo will be able to provide insights … Read more