Oracle to acquire Sun for $7.4 billion. This gives Oracle, among other things, Solaris, MySQL, Java and OpenOffice, and means that Oracle is now a hardware manufacturer rather than a reseller. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Apr 20, 2009 - 60 comments

Flickr pulls the trigger on the Old Skool. The Old Skool takes the bullet badly.
posted by felix betachat on Jan 31, 2007 - 146 comments

The bizarro dot-com deals of the 90's are back, baby! eBay, the company whose business model is to monetize what people otherwise throw out or give away, is buying Skype, who gives away what everyone otherwise pays for.
posted by mkultra on Sep 12, 2005 - 33 comments

Adobe to buy Macromedia I almost choked when I saw this press release, Adobe is going to buy out Macromedia for $3.4 billion in stock. Adobe is paying about $9 over the current share price, which means the investors will make out nicely. With the two largest design software companies becoming one, the new Adobe will be a monopoly (if it isn't already with Photoshop). I just hope they remove the ability to make really annoying Flash movies...
posted by jonknee on Apr 18, 2005 - 92 comments

SBC to Acquire AT&T for $16 Billion or Death to the Deathstar    "Luke, I am your father![pdf] "    -Noooooo... oh wait, now I own you.
posted by gren on Jan 31, 2005 - 28 comments

Forget about P&G and Gilette, how 'bout Google & Firefox? Is Google developing their own browser? They appear to be hiring Firefox developers. Can Googzilla be far behind?
posted by fixedgear on Jan 29, 2005 - 25 comments

The "merger" of the Egyptian Zawahiri's Islamic Jihad and the Saudi Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda in 2001, based on the foundation of Qutb's book "Milestones", provide outlet for those who have no other way of expressing their objections to the authoritarian regimes of the countries they live in, and the reach of American power in the Middle East.
posted by semmi on Sep 17, 2002 - 19 comments

"By now, every investor recognizes that Time Warner made a very large mistake by merging with AOL in early 2001." A free-falling stock price, continued loss of customers to cable and telephone DSL and "a murky strategy for moving its customers to high-speed connections" has AOL Time Warner on the ropes. At least one analyst is suggesting a spinoff. Bigger is better? Not in this case.
posted by mediareport on Apr 21, 2002 - 18 comments

AOL to buy Red Hat? It seems like the Odd Couple of computing: the aggressively user-friendly behemoth marrying the most popular Linux distribution, united in their common hatred of Microsoft. Is Unix ready for the computer-illiterate masses? Will AOL be embraced by the geek community? The world's largest media company seems to think so. Hey, maybe they'll buy Lindows while they're at it. (See the Slashdot thread for more comments.)
posted by waxpancake on Jan 18, 2002 - 48 comments

eek! at+t broadband cable units to be bought by comcast. this means chicago cable service will shift to its third owner in two years (at+t broadband having purchased prime cable just last year, and having just gotten cable modems back online from the excite@home failure two weeks ago). anyone have any clues about the ramifications of this purchase?
posted by patricking on Dec 20, 2001 - 21 comments

ESPN teams up with MSN First the Justice Department folds, and now this: “ESPN.com’s sports content will be uniquely integrated with MSN and will carry MSN branding and links throughout the ESPN.com site.” Is it really a surprise? Will it really make a difference?
posted by kirkaracha on Sep 6, 2001 - 5 comments

HP buys Compaq for $25 Billion (NY Times link) - The resulting company would be nearly as big as IBM. "The merger ... could create a stronger competitor for Sun Microsystems and IBM in the server computer market while putting pressure on IBM, Dell and Gateway in the personal computer business... The merged company would be in a position to compete with IBM across virtually its entire product line." Now if we can just get someone to fight Microsoft.
posted by mrbula on Sep 3, 2001 - 28 comments

Scient and iXL Merge ...and I'm wondering who thinks this is a really good idea. A big part of the problem these "iBusiness" consultancies have is that they're too big. Remember all those layoffs? It's in large part because of big overhead, which is a big problem in a tight market. So what problem is being solved by making these two companies into one bigger company?
posted by peterme on Jul 31, 2001 - 14 comments

Macromedia and Alliaire to Merge.... Linking the power of Coldfusion, Homesite, along with Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Seems interesting.
posted by Cavatica on Jan 18, 2001 - 3 comments

Not as sexy as the AOL/Warner combo, but... Macromedia and Allaire to merge.
posted by gluechunk on Jan 16, 2001 - 21 comments

The FCC approves the AOL/Time-Warner merger. We're all doomed.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 11, 2001 - 36 comments

Ninga? Nintendo and Sega to form joint company. With Sony and M$ to contend with, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.
posted by john on Oct 30, 2000 - 28 comments

napster bought macster! (am i the only one who didn't know this was gonna happen?)
posted by patricking on Oct 24, 2000 - 10 comments

"Yes, I'll have the McGreenBeans and a side of McOven Roasted Chicken" , McDonald's Corporation announced today that it has completed its acquisition of the Boston Market business and has named two executive officers to lead the business, effective immediately.
posted by 120degrees on Jul 3, 2000 - 6 comments

eBay may buy Sotheby's. I can see it now: online bidding for Picassos and vintage automobiles, right next to the guy selling his old computer and the one trying to sell a kidney.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Feb 27, 2000 - 0 comments

A wonderful thing happened after the recent merger between eMachines and a company called FreePC. All 25,000 FreePC customers, taking advantage of the company's unique free-internet-and-computer-deal, were allowed to keep their computers with absolutely no strings attached. Real people benefitting from corporate business maneuvers? Gosh.
posted by sixfoot6 on Feb 4, 2000 - 1 comment