M&A | Internet Marketing Blog

Will designers get a gold rush of their own?

There's arguably never been a better time to be a developer.

Looking for a full-time job? If you have the chops, they are plentiful, and if you're in a hot market, salaries are high. Not interested in the nine-to-five routine? Freelance opportunities abound and investors are still pouring big bucks into startups, with many focusing on backing entrepreneurial engineers who can turn their ideas into code.

But if all success on the web and mobile internet required was a few hundred thousand lines of awesome Ruby code, a few NoSQL databases here and there and a clever Amazon AWS-based architecture, there would be a lot more Facebooks out there.

What's missing for many companies? One word: design.

by Patricio Robles 02 October 2012 20:23pm 4 comments

FTC clears Facebook's Instagram acquisition

It may not be the $1bn deal it was when it was announced in April, but Facebook's acquisition of popular mobile photo sharing service Instagram is a done deal.

Last week, the UK's Office Of Fair Trading gave the nod to the purchase and yesterday, the last regulator standing, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), cleared the deal too.

by Patricio Robles 23 August 2012 17:28pm 0 comments

Huh? Autodesk buys mobile video startup Socialcam for $60m

Investors are pouring big bucks into startups, and when it comes to their mobile investments, photos and videos are where it's at. And for an obvious reason: following Facebook's still-pending purchase of Instagram for $1bn, investors are hoping they can fund the next big acquisition target.

But predicting who will be acquired, and by whom, can be a tricky exercise. Case in point: today, Autodesk announced that it is acquiring mobile video startup Socialcam for $60m.

by Patricio Robles 17 July 2012 14:21pm 2 comments

Yahoo's new CEO: Google's Marissa Mayer

Just two weeks ago, sources close to Yahoo's search for a new CEO indicated that the ailing internet giant's board of directors was set to put the company's future in the hands of either interim CEO Ross Levinsohn or current Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.

Both prospective CEOs have strong media pedigrees, which suggesed that Yahoo's board was prepared to guide the company down a familiar and not-always-successful ad and content-driven path.

by Patricio Robles 17 July 2012 10:55am 1 comment

Oracle continues social shopping spree with Involver acquisition

Many businesses may have little idea what their social media marketing and ad campaigns are producing in the way of ROI, but by and large companies continue to up their investments in social.

That has created a booming business for firms that popped up to help companies manage and track their social campaigns. A booming business that caught the attention of some of the biggest names in tech.

by Patricio Robles 10 July 2012 18:38pm 1 comment

Face.com, third party APIs and little white lies

When Face.com announced it was being acquired by Facebook last month for a reported $80 to $100m, you can be sure that it was happy day for Face.com's founders, employees and investors.

But it wasn't necessarily a day worth celebrating for developers relying on Face.com's facial recognition API. The reason: Face.com had just been acquired by one of tech's biggest names and as we've seen time and time again, that often means big changes ahead.

by Patricio Robles 09 July 2012 14:01pm 0 comments

Microsoft buys Yammer, bets $1.2bn on enterprise social networking

Social networking's impact on the consumer internet is well-established and one need look no further than Facebook's current valuation to see that, despite healthy skepticism, social networking will continue to play a large role on the web.

But what about enterprise social networking?

by Patricio Robles 26 June 2012 18:25pm 1 comment

Facebook acquires Face.com

After nearly a month of rumors, it's official: Facebook.com is buying facial recognition company Face.com.

While terms of the deal weren't announced, previous reports indicated that the price for the Israeli company would be somewhere in the range of $80m to $100m.

by Patricio Robles 18 June 2012 21:22pm 0 comments

Tesco buys music service We7

Earlier this week, Sainsbury's purchased a majority stake in ebook retailer Anobii from HMV for £1 in what was the latest example of a major retailer trying to extend its footprint into the world of digital content.

Yesterday, we saw another example of this same trend as Tesco purchased UK-based music streaming service We7 for £10.8m.

by Patricio Robles 15 June 2012 22:22pm 1 comment

Sainsbury's buys stake in ebook retailer Anobii from HMV for £1

Fueled by the availability of affordable ereader and tablet devices, the market for ebooks is taking off far faster than many predicted just years ago.