UPDATE: Samsung came out and said that they never considered acquiring RIM nor had any interest.

While Android and iPhone continue to do incredibly well, RIM has had some issues with growing their BlackBerry line of smartphones. A new report surfaced that Samsung may be interesting in acquiring the company. This announcement led to stock jumping nearly 10 percent.

Via Washington Post:

“An acquisition of RIM, whose stock fell 75 percent last year amid market-share losses, would give Samsung an operating system that would help it differentiate from competition as it seeks to stay ahead of Apple Inc. Samsung now makes phones based on Google Inc.’s Android software and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone, operating systems also used by rivals such as HTC Corp.”

As with any report, it’s not 100% fact and the sources, well, they weren’t identified by Boy Genius Report, the tech blog that originally announced the possible acquisition. The possibility is there and would be interesting to see what Samsung would do with the BlackBerry OS and line of smartphones and more recently, the PlayBook tablet.

RIM needs to make something happen this year as they’ve continued to decline. This acquisition could help with that, that is of course if they’re even willing to sell. If it doesn’t go down, that means they could potentially license out their OS and technology to Samsung.

“The company’s share of U.S. mobile-phone subscribers in the three months through November dropped to 6.5 percent from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, increased to 25.6 percent from 25.3 percent, and Apple gained 1.4 percentage point to 11.2 percent.”

Do you own a BlackBerry and if not, would you consider buying one?

Samsung May Acquire RIM, Maker Of BlackBerry Says Report is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. says he’s very interested at the prospect of acquiring internet company Yahoo, Inc.

When speaking at Standford University on Friday Alibaba’s CEO told the audience that buying Yahoo has come up on several occasions as prospective buyers have visited with Ma. At this time Alibaba is not revealing who those prospective buyers might be.

Since firing Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz the company’s board of directors have come under fire to replace themselves or sell the company to a more competent management firm. In a late September email company founder Jerry Yang told employees that a possible acquisition would take at least several months to complete if a suitable buyer was revealed.

It should be noted that Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in Alibaba and Ma in the past has made his disgust with much of the company’s management known, revealing at one point that he wanted to buy back the rest of his company from the one-time internet darling.

At this time however the search for a new CEO is still underway at Yahoo while Chief Financial Officer Time Morse plays the part of interim leader for the group.

Do you think Alibaba Group would make a good home for the content company? Given their complete lack of innovation and expansion during the Carol Bartz era I’m beginning to think that any new ownership that offers to buy the company would be a welcomed change for shareholders and Yahoo site users alike.

Alibaba CEO Says He Would Like To Buy Yahoo is a post from: The Inquisitr

Leading up to the big announcement today about Microsoft buying Skype for $8.5 Billion Steve Ballmer sent out the obligatory email to all of the company’s employees. The email first showed up on Mary Jo Foley’s blog and then over at the Seattle Times’ Pri0 blog.

Here is the email in full

“Today we announced an agreement to acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company. You can see the full details here.  Pending regulatory review, Tony Bates, CEO of Skype, will report to me as President of our newly formed Skype Division.

“This is a big step forward today for Microsoft and Skype, and one that has substantial benefits for our joint consumer and business customers. On its own, Skype is a powerful consumer brand with more than 170 million connected users, synonymous in many places around the world with voice and video communications. We will help them grow even stronger.

“By bringing together the best of Microsoft with the best of Skype, we will drive a new era in communications. We see a huge desire to do more with video, to make it easier for people to connect from multiple devices, to move from chat to phone to video and back in a way that is easy, natural, and human. We see with Kinect the power of using the biggest screen in the house – the living room TV screen – as the place where people connect with friends and families. We see with Windows Phone 7 the way communication moves from personal to professional in a blink of the eye. And we know that people want more connection and richer communication, across many devices and around the world.

“Together, Microsoft and Skype will deliver that kind of communication and connection. In the future, Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and we will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live, Messenger and other communities. I want to call out the success we have had with the introduction of Lync specifically and the value of connecting that to a consumer community of Skype.  And we’ll continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

“Today’s announcement underscores who we are as a company.  We are ambitious and forward looking. We have big goals and aspirations. And when we look into the world and see opportunities to do more with technology, we’ll drive toward them and keep pushing. Sometimes we’ll build ourselves, as we’ve done most recently with Bing and Kinect.

“Sometimes we’ll partner or form an alliance to seize the moment, as we’ve done with Yahoo! and Nokia.  And other times we’ll make an acquisition, as we’ve announced today – one that plays to both company’s strengths and opens new opportunities not available otherwise.

“Exciting times!
“Steve”

Not all employees were excited about the announcement as evidenced by the post by Mini-Microsoftwho would love nothing better to hear every Microsoft’s board members reasoning as to why this is a good idea. Mini-Microsoft basically equate the purchase and just another way to obliterate shareholder dollars.

Also, because, you know, the aQuantive acquisition didn’t destroy enough shareholder money.

We’re bringing Skype to the Windows Phone. Just like how it’s on the iPhone and Android and appears it will continue to be.

Okay, so we’re bringing Skype to the Xbox. Because, you know, we don’t already have video chat on the Xbox. Oh, wait… crap. Why do we need this? Other than the brand and the user base, and that’s not worth 8.5 billion dollars.

Having a read through the comments on Mini-Microsoft’s posts show that naysayers of the deal abound but as Paul O’Flaherty and I discuss the acquisition on today’s Daily Brief there are a lot of nuances to this purchase that will come to light as we move forward.

I don’t think this is as bad as Mini-Microsoft makes it out to be but there is no denying that we will definitely be talking about this deal for some time to come.

originally posted at WinExtra and reposted here with permission

Some employees not so happy over Microsoft’s Skype purchase is a post from: The Inquisitr

The news is out all over the tech blogosphere – Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL took the stage of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference today to announce that AOL has bought Techcrunch, and all its media properties.

Of course we are getting the typical this is a strategic move for both companies and everything will stay the same moving forward. Ya. Okay.

Anyway there has been no disclosure of who got how much money or if there will be and end of the slaughter of movie analogies but suffice to say Michael Arrington just got himself a nice payday.

Courtesy of The Next Web we have video of the announcement:

The one thing I would be concerned about though is if I worked for CrunchGear since Engadget is a premier AOL property. Chances are some folks are going to be looking for a new job.

NO MORE RUMOR: AOL buys TechCrunch [VIDEO] is a post from: The Inquisitr

This just flashed up on GigaOM and must be placed strongly in the rumor column but Om Malik, who I have a great respect for, is reporting that while still at a delicate stage the deal that would see AOL acquire TechCrunch could see an announcement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference happening in San Francisco right now.

The deal is at a sensitive stage and might fall apart, but I don’t think so. Sources familiar to both entities say that the announcement is likely to happen onstage at Disrupt, TechCrunch’s flagship conference currently under way in San Francisco.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is likely to make an appearance at the conference, and perhaps that is when the announcement is likely to be made. Michael Arrington was unreachable for comment. AOL has not returned my calls. I still don’t know the terms of the deal, but I will update the post accordingly.

Wow .. wouldn’t that be a hellva way to close out a conference, not to mention a nice pay day.

HOT RUMOR: AOL to buy TechCrunch – in late stages is a post from: The Inquisitr

I ran across this interesting post by Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher where he puts forward the idea that Oracle could possibly be making a play to acquire HP. Now given how right on Tom was with his prediction that Oracle would hire HP’s ex-CEO Mark Hurd; and with some of the information coming out today about a pending lawsuit from HP to stop Hurd’s hiring, one has to take a look at an acquisition scenario a little more seriously.

Now I would like to point out as well that Mark Hurd being hired by Oracle could also be the worst case situation for any of Oracle’s open source products that they picked up as part of the Sun acquisition. Given that HP’s R&D projects met more than one ax being wielded by Hurd during his tenure as CEO and that he is being hired as a move to improve Oracle’s bottom line this could spell bad times ahead for Oracle’s open source projects.

But back to Tom Foremski’s analysis around the the idea that Oracle could make a move to snap up HP his three points to support the idea are:

- HP remains leaderless and that makes it vulnerable to be acquired.

- HP would provide Oracle with enormous and highly profitable consolidation opportunities with its Sun Microsystems acquisition.

- An Oracle/Sun/HP plus the 45 plus other acquisitions over the past 10 years, would make a company capable of competing against all of IBM. It would create a West coast versus East coast tech rivalry that would span the globe.

One other piece of news that is just hitting the web that could also make this scenario a little more interesting is that HP is launching a lawsuit to stop Oracle from hiring Hurd. According to Business Insider

In the lawsuit against Hurd, HP says Hurd puts, “HP’s most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril,” by accepting the job of President at Oracle.

On its company blog, HP says, “Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information. HP intends to enforce those agreements.”

This tech ménage à trois is just getting interesting.

Could Oracle make a play for HP? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier I shared the news that Amazon had decided to expand its portfolio of subsidiary companies by acquiring woot! Now as interesting, or not, as that news might have been nothing beats being told the same thing by a rapping monkey.

This has to be one of the best acquisition video I have seen and is definitely going to raise the bar on future efforts by other companies wanting to spread their good fortune.

thanks to @chrisbrogan for pointing me to the video.

Now this is how acquisition videos should be done is a post from: The Inquisitr

For those of you who don’t know who or what woot! is then you’ve been missing one of the best sites on t he web to get daily deals on just about anything. The premise of the company is that they put up one item per day at incredible sale prices for you to grab – if you are quick enough. For example today’s woot deal is a 8GB 5th Generation iPod Nano for $99.

On top of that every once in a while they will have a woot! off sale which is basically an adult mystery grab bag of goodies once again at ridiculously low prices.

Well it appears that Amazon has gotten the woot! bug except they’ve gone one better by buying the whole company. This just appeared on the woot! blog

Holy crap! Woot has signed an agreement with Amazon – yes, the Amazon – to become an independent subsidiary of the ecommerce colossus. Woot HQ will remain in Carrollton, Texas, and will operate as autonomously as other Amazon companies like Zappos and Audible. More details forthcoming after we pick our eyeballs up off of the floor. Anybody see where Lefty rolled off to?

And this is the email that Matt Rutledge sent out to all woot! employees

Date: Weds,  30 June  2010
From: Matt Rutledge (CEO – Woot.com)
To: All Woot Employees
Subject: Woot and Amazon

I know I say this every time I find a picture of an adorable kitten, but please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. Today is a big day in Woot history. This morning, I woke up to find Jeff Bezos the Mighty had seized our magic sword. Using the Arthurian model as a corporate structure was something our CFO had warned against from the very beginning, but now that’s water under the bridge. What is important is that our company is on the verge of becoming a part of the Amazon.com dynasty. And our plans for Grail.Woot are on indefinite hold.

Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say “Matt Rutledge revealed to be monstrous pseudo-human creation of Jeff Bezos.” You might even see this photo making the rounds. Rest assured that these rumors have nothing to do with our final decision. We think now is the right time to join with Amazon because, quite simply, every company that becomes a subsidiary gets two free downloads until the end of July, and we very much need that new thing with Trent Reznor’s wife on our iPods.

Other than that, we plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture. Nevertheless, don’t worry that our culture will suddenly take a leap forward and become cutting-edge. We’re still going to be the same old bottom-feeders our customers and readers have come to know and love, and each and every one of their pre-written insult macros will still be just as valid in a week, two weeks, or even next year. For Woot, our vision remains the same: somehow earning a living on snarky commentary and junk.

We are excited about doing this for all sorts of reasons. One, our business model is so vague that there’s no way Amazon can possibly change what it is we’re truly doing: preparing the way for the rise of the Lava Men in 2012. Also, our deal means that Jason Toon will finally be released from that Mexican jail owned by Zappos honcho Tony Hsieh. No, don’t lie, Tony, we’ve seen the paperwork. And we need a powerful ally in case Steve Jobs finally breaks down and comes after us for all our Apple jokes over the years. Don’t think of it as a buyout; think of it as NATO!

I will go through each of the above points in more detail later, but first, let me get to the top 5 burning questions that I’m guessing many of you will have.

TOP 5 BURNING QUESTIONS:

Q: F1RST!!!!
A: Okay, that’s not a question, but it is a good place to mention that our forums will still be policed by a team of moderators, as before. And also, Woot’s previous and always-in-effect privacy policy will still be just as always-in-effect, so don’t worry, there are no plans to suddenly give up or merge your forum data.

Q: Is Snapster leaving?
A: Are you kidding? He’s out the door about ten seconds after that check clea- that is to say, Snapster will continue as Woot.com CEO, just like before, and the rest of our staff’s not going anywhere either. Woot and all our various sites will continue to be an independently operated company full of horrible, useless products and an untalented jerkface writing staff, same as it ever was.

Q: Will the Woot culture change?
A: Amazon is interested in us because they recognize the value of our people, our brand, and our unique style of deep-tissue, toxin-releasing massage. And they don’t want to start changing things now. Amazon’s hoping our nutty Woot steez continues to grow and develop (and perhaps even rubs off on them a little). They’re not looking to have their folks come in and run Woot unless we ask them to, which incidentally you can do by turning off the bathroom lights and saying the word “Kindle” three times; a helpful Amazon employee will appear in the mirror. That said, Amazon clearly knows what they’re doing in a lot of areas, so we’re geeked about the opportunities to tap into that knowledge and those resources, especially on the technology side. This is about making the Woot brand, culture, and business even stronger than it is today, and we expect that any changes will be for the better or we wouldn’t bother with this endless paperwork.

Q: Where can I get one of those vuvuzelas?
A: Are you even paying attention?

Several months ago, when we were all sitting on Jeff Bezos’s bumper drinking orange Mad Dog and trying not to be noticed, we heard a voice in the distance yelling “You kids better not scratch my Mercedes or I’m calling the cops!” We ran. It was later that night when Amazon came by the house and said they liked our style and also wanted to get that money we owed them for messing up the chrome. We like to think that our relationship with Amazon will continue at this level for many, many, many years to come.

But we here at Woot are still a thoughtful company, so, at the end of the day, I watched the sunset, and its golden-hued glory made me think about two questions:

1) Is there really a universal deity?

2) Does such a thing preclude free will or are we humans in control of our own destiny?

After spending a lot of time falling asleep at the library while facing the philosophy books, I determined that the concept of destiny is a construct that allows man a gentle release from facing the terror of his existence, and that a Hyundai full of twenties would pretty much offer the same benefits. And so, I ultimately said YES!

This is definitely an emotional day for me. The feelings I’m experiencing are similar to what I felt in college on graduation day: excitement about getting a check from my folks combined with nausea from a hellacious bender the night before. I remember fondly that time when an RA turned on the lights and yelled “WHO OWNS THESE PANTS?” Except this time, the pants are a company, and the RA is you, and the sixty five hours of community service is a deal that will ensure the Woot.com experience can continue to grow for years and years and years, like a black mold behind the Gold Box. Join us, because together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son. Also, there will be six muffins waiting in the company break room, courtesy of the nice folks at Amazon.com. Welcome to the family!

Matt Rutledge
CEO, Woot

First zappos and now woot!. You’d almost think that Amazon was looking to morph into a cool company.

BREAKING: woot gets snapped up by Amazon is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well it looks like the question as to the fate of Palm has been answered if the news just posted by The New York Times is any indication.

It is being reported by DealBook that Hewlitt-Packard has entered into an agreement to buy the beleaguered cell phone company for $1.2 Billion – in cash.

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre,” Jon Rubenstein, Palm’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS.”

Hewlitt-Packard has issued a press release on the deal which says in part

“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”

Under the terms of the agreement Palm shareholders will get $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. It is also stated that current Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein will remain with the company once the merger is completed.

BREAKING NEWS: HP purchase Palm for $1.2 Billion is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier today the big Twitter news was the fact that the new official Twitter app for the Blackberry had been written by Twitter itself which was contrary to the belief that Blackberry had created it.

Then came the news just now that Twitter has reached an agreement to buy Tweetie, long consider the premier iPhone Twitter app. Word is that Twitter will be renaming it to Twitter for the iPhone and re-releasing in the iPhone App Store for free. I wonder how all the people who paid for Tweetie are going to feel about this?

So twice in one day Twitter has for the most part told all the Twitter client developers thanks for all the help for getting us to this point but we think we’ll take over from here. It might not have been such the case with just the Blackberry Twitter app but to pour salt on an open wound by announcing the purchase of Tweetie – well it doesn’t take too many brains to read those tea leaves.

Just as Fred Wilson suggested in his blog post earlier this week Twitter is filling in its holes and this is happening at the expense of the Twitter client developers. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if in the next month we see one of the AIR apps go to Twitter and then at some point one of the Windows Twitter clients will become the official Twitter for Windows app.

As well we should also expect some other of the more web type services that live on top of Twitter to get snapped up and become a part of the Twitter family. The rest of you Twitter developers .. well .. I hope you are enjoying your hobby because that is all your Twitter love is going to end up being – a hobby. If you really thought you were going to make any kind of serious business out of it today’s events had better be your wake up call.

I’ve been saying for sometime that thinking one could create a viable longterm business by hooking yourself up to some other companies API stream was a fool’s dream. At some point regardless of protestations to the opposite it is only a matter of time until your host will get tired of you living off of them and either duplicate what you are doing, buy you or a competitor, or change the rules of the games. Hell, they might do all three and that wouldn’t surprise me in the least with any of these ‘social’ companies.

Today the whole Twitter ecosphere changed. I just hope that not too many developers had any real dreams of success tied up with their efforts but maybe the next time they’ll think longer about invest too much of their time and talent into companies that will end up screwing them.

Twitter buys Tweetie making line in the sand to developers even bigger is a post from: The Inquisitr

When Seesmic first started out so many Internet years ago it was a video version of Twitter and Facebook. Loic LeMeur believed back then that there would be a market for a video based social network the problem is that it wasn’t too long before he realized that wasn’t going to be his road to fame and money.

Sure the future was being involved in the social media world somehow just not using video. At that point the first purchase of a Twitter related business happened when Loic snapped up Twhirl. From that point it has been a slow and steady climb up the ranks of Twitter; and social media, clients. Twhirl was rebranded as Seesmic Desktop and the march was started.

With today’s announcement of Seesmic’s purchase of Ping.fm the once lonely Twitter client is headed to being an all encompassing Social Media client especially once Ping.fm is integrated. As noted by Louis Gray in his post about the purchase Seesmic this is just another move in trying to cover all of Social Media rather than concentrating on just one service.

Today, Seesmic, the well-known microblogging client, which to date has focused on Twitter and Facebook, acquired the service, extending the product’s reach. In combination with Seesmic’s recent inroads to a native Windows client and an Android application, alongside their Web interface and AIR application, the service looks to become ubiquitous, updating any site from anywhere.

While there is always the danger of user interface overload as more services are supported it is a smart move as people are increasingly using a wide variety of social media services. So rather than having to run a multitude of clients, desktop and/or web-based, Seesmic is providing a one-stop shop in an effort to blend all the social media services into one platform.

Seesmic to be your one-stop Social Media client is a post from: The Inquisitr

I guess all that money is starting to burn a hole in Google’s pockets because not only do we get word today that they’ve snapped up reCaptcha but they may have also set their sights on Brightcove.

According to Dan Frommer at BusinessInsider, who is following the breadcrumb trail of a Twitter message by PBS MediaShift editor Mark Glasser, Google is looking at a possible sticker price of $500 million to $700 million to buy the Web video provider.

Of course Google is staying mum with the typical “no comment” response to the news

Google rumor mill – Brightcove next target is a post from: The Inquisitr

As summer slowly heads into fall so to will Friendfeed slowly disappear into the bowels of Facebook and for all the people who invested so much of their rime and energy into making Friendfeed the perfect acquisition target they are left with …. nothing. Even though Friendfeed is still around and people are still adding to its massive database of information that we have no idea of what will happen to, one has to wonder why we are even bothering.

It isn’t like there is going to be any pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when the day comes and the door is finally closed on every Friendfeed room. Sure they announced the cool feature of users being able to design and save their own themes – but really who cares?

And what about the mess that they have made out of more than one bloggers Feedburner numbers when they got the bright idea to throw them out whack by adding in Friendfeed subscriber counts. Are they going to stay screwed up or will they return to the normal numbers that they should be?

What happens to the great effort put forth by people like Johnny Worthington and his crew of FFundercats podcasters? What will happen to all the promotional work they did to make Friendfeed what it became – an acquisition.

These aren’t the kind of questions for early adopter’s to worry about because like Robert Scoble they’re already gone and unaffected by any repercussions. These are the questions being asked tough by people who are still there, making Friendfeed their home on the web. Except that home has been sold out from under them for $50 million (cash and stock) making a couple of rich guys a little richer.

P.T. Barnum is probably tipping his hat to them.

Friendfeed and some unanswered questions is a post from: The Inquisitr

I first heard about the Amazon acquisition of Zappos, the web’s favorite online shoe store, through Twitter and the exclamations that went along with it. One’s like “Wow!”, or “Didn’t see that one coming” that have gone on to be retweeting fodder.

So I started flagging posts about the acquisition as they appeared in my feed reader – which didn’t take very long, natch. Among all the posts was the letter from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, on the company blog to company employees letting them all in on what had been a completely secret backroom deal. It was at this point that my bullshit meter started going off.

As Michael Mesnick noted in his post much of Hsieh had to say was an almost painful effort to make sure everyone got the right story about the deal – it wasn’t an acquisition. No folks it was the joining of two divergent corporate cultures in such a way that Amazon would remain as Amazon and Zappos would remain as Zappos. Just ignore that Amazon would be the only shareholder.

Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say "Amazon acquires Zappos" or "Zappos sells to Amazon". While those headlines are technically correct, they don’t really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)

We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos — continuing to do what we believe is best for our brand, our culture, and our business. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are switching out our current shareholders and board of directors for a new one, even though the technical legal structure may be different.

Uhm … who is Hsieh trying to kid here?

Look when one company buys up all the shares and other sundry goodies of another company that folks is an acquisition. I don’t care how high up in the tree Hsieh wants Amazon and Zappos to be sitting it doesn’t change the fact that Amazon is Zappos’ new overlord. you know … much like this line in the letter

As mentioned above, we plan to continue to run Zappos as an independent entity. In legal terminology, Zappos will be a "wholly-owned subsidiary" of Amazon.

The other line that got me in the letter was this one

We realized that we are both very customer-focused companies — we just focus on different ways of making our customers happy.

Amazon, a customer focused company?

You mean the company that believes in proprietary hardware and have no compunction about deleting books you bought just because a publisher changed their minds. You mean the company with some of the worst customer service on the web.

Are we talking about the same company here?

But, the big thing for me was the whole WTF! about the acquisition (or is that playing house in the trees like Tarzan and Jane?) was that these are two companies with totally divergent cultures. You know – sort of like the whole Microsoft and Yahoo thing.

Ya, Hsieh is pushing the fact that even though Amazon is now the boss everyone can rest assured that Zappos will be maintaining it’s own culture and core values (I lost count on how many times he repeated those two things in his letter). However I just don’t see this as being a lasting thing because like Doc Searls, who is the only other person I have read so far that is questioning this deal, the two companies might be able to form some kind of synergy as Zappos gets sucked into the Bezos universe but will it last?

So I’m sure there is synergy there. But synergy alone does not a great acquisition make.

I wonder, now that (as the press release says) “Amazon will provide Zappos employees with $40 million in cash and restricted stock units” — in addition to whatever stockholding Zappos employees get in the form of Amazon stock — if Zappos’ soul and mission will survive the acquisition.

I also wonder what kind of hit the whole subject of relationship, which is so highly potentiated (read: absent, though it shouldn’t be), will take.

- Doc Searls :: From Z to A

Just to make sure that I wasn’t just being cranky about the deal for the sake of being cranky I had a quick chat with good friend Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins to see if he saw this as a working deal. I will say that while I don’t agree with him – for the reasons stated – he did at least come up with an interesting take on the whole thing (he has a post up now on SiliconAngle about the deal).

5:39 PM are you getting this Amazon/Zappos deal at all? like it makes as much sense as MS and Y!

5:41 PM Mark: yeah

actually

Zappos is going to be the customer service / social media arm of the company

5:42 PM Amazon is clueless when it comes to monitoring the web for PR purposes.

they still act like a local company.

they’re active in the Seattle media scene, but little else

5:44 PM me: well that may be the case but if it is a lot of people are piling on the separate company and separate core values bullshit thick and heavy .. nothing I have read so far even points that way .. if anything it points elsewhere ..

but I do agree that Amazon is useless that way

While the majority of posts about the deal are either just reprinting the Zappos letter or they are going on about the dollar figures of the deal very few are questioning the ‘synergy’ of the deal. I still don’t see how Zappos is going to be able in the long term to maintain the same culture and ethos that has made them famous in the social media circles. Like Michael Mesnick said

If I had a dollar for every time an acquired company insisted that the acquirer was going to keep them running exactly the same as before, I’d be a lot wealthier. And if I had to give back that dollar for every time that wasn’t true, I’d be giving all that money back. This is an acquisition, no matter how Zappos is trying to paint it.

I’d be willing to bet that within a year of the deal being finalized Zappos will either be as Mark suggests, the social media arm of Amazon, or it will be just a shell of its former self.

Amazon and Zappos – let’s see how high we can pile the crap is a post from: The Inquisitr

Before I go running screaming into night from this deluge of Twitter posts I thought I would pass this little tidbit on to you all – after all why should I suffer alone.

It appears that Splashpress Media figures there is money to be made by making fancy Twitter Follow Me buttons because they have acquired the web site slash business Twitter Buttons

Splashpress Media is proud to announce the latest addition to its network: Twitter Buttons. The site’s function and dedicated service is to provide attractive looking buttons for Twitter users to display on their websites. One would have thought, with the huge popularity of Twitter in mind, that there would be a mass of similar services out there, but it’s really not the case! And this might explain the huge success that our site is already having with the hundreds of thousands using the buttons on their sites and so many users signed up to the email subscription.

No word of the terms of the acquisition at this time.

Splashpress Media buys Twitter Buttons is a post from: The Inquisitr

The acquisition of acerno, a unique online co‐operative of shopping and purchase data for enabling more relevant online advertising, is expected to enhance Akamai’s Advertising Decision Solutions, a new service that will enable online advertising businesses to boost the performance of their online marketing investments by driving advertising decisions based on relevant audience segments.

“Akamai’s new Advertising Decision Solutions are a critical advancement in our product portfolio,
designed to stimulate the economic model of online advertising by bringing greater simplicity and
effectiveness to both ad buyers and sellers,” said Paul Sagan, President and CEO, Akamai.

Akamai acquires acerno for $95 million in cold cash is a post from: The Inquisitr