Google acquires Motorola Mobility, names new CEO
An overview of the week in deals in the Irish and global technology sector.
Google acquires Motorola Mobility, names new CEO
Google has closed its deal to purchase mobile device maker Motorola Mobility, Google CEO Larry Page announced on the company’s blog. The US$12.5bn deal is Google’s biggest acquisition to date.
Google will acquire the company for US$40 per share in cash.
As part of the acquisition that was first announced in August 2011, Google will gain access to some 17,000 patents, as well as a further 7,000 pending patents.
Google has said it intends to remain faithful to its open ecosystem mantra and will licence the patents to other technology companies.
Motorola manufactures smartphones, tablets, Bluetooth accessories and other mobile devices.
Page also introduced some leadership changes, following the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
“Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility,” he said.
HP sells webOS HTML 5 group Enyo to Google
In another indication of the botched handling of the webOS opportunity, it appears HP’s Enyo team – the group that would have looked after webOS’ HTML 5 application framework – is being moved to Google.
Having acquired Motorola Mobility and now this, Google intends to consolidate the vast advance of Android globally.
Google’s grabbing of the Enyo team can be considered strategic. HTML 5 is the future as far as mobile devices are concerned and it means Google may have stolen a march on Amazon, which is understood to have been sniffing around webOS.
Quintessentially, it means Google has gotten its hands on a talented team at a time when good developers and engineers are as rare as hen’s teeth.
Those gifted with expertise in HTML 5 applications framework can consider themselves the arms dealers of the smartphone revolution.
Bloomberg buys Irish tech firm PolarLake, rolls out new data service
Global financial news service Bloomberg has acquired Dublin-based semantic web software company PolarLake for an undisclosed sum. As a result, Bloomberg is launching a new enterprise data management (EDM) service for its customers.
PolarLake is a leader in applying semantic web and big data technologies to the data challenges of the leading financial services firms in the world. The PolarLake Platform enables these firms to acquire, manage and distribute financial and reference data with speed, agility and control never before seen with traditional approaches.
The new EDM service from Bloomberg will help companies acquire, manage and distribute data across their organisations.
EDM is the process by which a firm manages reference data through its entire supply chain: how it acquires, shares, cleanses, manages, owns and distributes data to all users.
Bloomberg’s new EDM unit, with the addition of PolarLake, will allow firms to increase their efficiency by better managing high volumes of data from multiple sources, either third parties or proprietary sources.
EMC acquires file management solutions provider Syncplicity
Data storage giant EMC has acquired Syncplicity, Inc, a privately-held, next-generation, cloud-based synch and share file management provider for an undisclosed sum.
Companies are requiring sync and share solutions as a result of the proliferation of mobile, social and cloud computing, EMC said.
Syncplicity’s solutions are designed to enable users to interact and share content on their device of choice and help organisations manage, sync, share and backup files across their extended enterprises. The Menlo, California-based company also aims to help organisations boost productivity, protect corporate data, and cut infrastructure and support costs.
Integrating Syncplicity with EMC’s Information Intelligence Group portfolio leverages EMC’s cloud storage, information governance solutions, and enterprise content management experience, EMC said.
The acquisition also extends EMC’s strategy of enabling the ‘New User’ in the post-PC era, those who want to access, share, collaborate and participate in business processes on their preferred device.
IBM completes acquisition of Varicent Software Incorporated
Technology giant IBM has finished up its acquisition of analytics software provider Varicent Software Incorporated for an undisclosed sum.
The deal will enhance IBM’s Smarter Analytics capabilities across line of business operations in all industries.
Varicent Software Incorporated’s software has a focus on compensation and sales performance management. It automates and analyses data across sales, finance, human resources and IT departments to uncover trends and improve sales performance and operations.
About 200 of its employees will join IMB’s Software Group as part of the deal with IBM.
SAP acquires cloud procurement player Ariba for US$4.3bn
German software giant SAP has agreed to buy business-to-business (B2B) procurement firm Ariba for US$4.3bn or US$45 per share.
SAP said its move into the inter-enterprise business network space accelerates its momentum in cloud.
“In our personal lives, networks are playing an increasingly important role in how we connect, share, and shop – bringing more insight and efficiency into everything we do,” said Bob Calderoni, CEO, Ariba.
“Businesses are looking for the same connectedness, insight, and efficiencies in the processes and collaboration with customers, suppliers, and partners beyond the walls of their companies.
“By combining Ariba’s open global trading network and SAP’s solutions and analytics, we are ushering in a new era of business-to-business collaboration and driving new levels of productivity,” Calderoni said.
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