Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, for $750 million. This is a big win for the company’s early investors, which include Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners (this is a huge day for Accel — they were also investors in Playfish, which was just acquired by EA). More recent investors include DFJ and Northgate Capital.
AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be …

Last month Skype was in talks to acquire VoIP startup Gizmo5. It was a perfect backup plan in case all that IP litigation didn’t work out. – Gizmo5’s SIP infrastructure could theoretically replace Skype’s proprietary P2P back end.
After the Skype settlement, though, Gizmo5’s strategic value to Skype sort of plummeted. In the meantime, Google bought them, say multiple sources with knowledge of the deal, for around $30 million in cash. The deal is done, say our sources, and will be announced shortly.
Read more at: Tech Crunch
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In our October 8 post on the state of the Skype sale and litigation, we ended with a prediction: “The likely outcome of all of this remains the same – Joltid will get a stake of some size in Skype. But given the players involved, anything could still happen.” If GigaOm and the NYTimes are right, that’s exactly what’s happening. Even the “anything could still happen” part.
The old Skype founders will now have a stake in Skype according to unnamed sources. That makes sense. It was what eBay was …

Google on Wednesday said it will acquire On2 Technologies, a video compression company, for $106.5 million.
Under the terms of the stock swap, each share of On2 will be exchanged for $0.60 worth of Google common stock.
Google just made a few penny stock investors very happy. On2 shares closed at 38 cents a share on Tuesday.
Read more at: ZDNet
Related Links:

On2 Technology official Web Site
AMEX (ONT)

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A legal battle raging between eBay and Skype’s founders over key software used by the Internet phone service could force Skype to devise an alternative

Skype is trying to develop new peer-to-peer technology to replace the code it currently uses, due to an ongoing legal battle with the founders of the popular internet telephony service.
Skype’s owner, eBay (EBAY), revealed the software-development initiative in a filing on Tuesday last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but warned that it may not be successful.
eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in …

Amazon.com is trying the shoe retailer Zappos.com on for size.
The companies announced on Wednesday that Amazon was acquiring Zappos, based in Henderson, Nev., for 10 million shares of Amazon stock, worth nearly $900 million at its current level.
Amazon also said it would give Zappos employees an additional $40 million in cash and stock.
The acquisition is the largest in Amazon’s history.
Online shoe sales hit $4.3 billion in 2008, up from $3.3 billion in 2007, according to Forrester Research.
Zappos, a 10-year-old private company that has won fans with perks like free …

I can live all day inside the Internet. I can talk to my friends, listen to music, watch TV, trade stocks, play games, do work – all on the Internet. From 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. every day I can spend on the Internet and it would be a day well spent.
But run for the hills when it comes to advising clients to invest in the Internet.
The days of infinite margins, 1,000% productivity gains, and growth of market throughout the universe are long over. Internet companies now should be …

Employees who took the risk and joined Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg’s social network startup Facebook back when it wasn’t so big and helped turn it into something huge are finally cashing in.
According to reports, Digital Sky Technologies has begun buying $100 million worth of stock from current and former Facebook employees at a $6.5 billion valuation.
Facebook’s current executive team is not selling any of its stock.
Employees have 20 days to decide whether or not to take the offer.
Employes aren’t going to be able to sell all their stock, so …

“It’s a hard environment to do a deal,” but two things are almost certain to occur at Herb Allen’s media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho this week, according to Michael Wolff, founder of Newser.com:

Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone will be “looking to see what deals might be available.”
All other media executives will be “looking to see how amendable Twitter is to a deal.”

To be sure, Williams and Stone have publicly stated they are not interested in selling Twitter anytime soon, and Marc Andreessen tells Tech Ticker he …

Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker run by Fiat SpA, will sell four models of the Italian carmaker’s 500 subcompact in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said.
Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy on June 10, will eventually sell a convertible, wagon and sporty version called the “Abarth” in addition to the four-seat subcompact in the U.S., Marchionne said in an interview on June 30. While the base 500 will go on sale next year, he didn’t say when the other models will be available.
“All of those cars will …

Securities regulators are investigating potential insider trading of Global Gaming Factory before it announced its planned purchase of The Pirate Bay for $7.7 million, exchange AktieTorget told Swedish media.
AktieTorget, a Swedish exchange listing some 116 public companies, suspended trading in Global Gaming a week before the announcement as trading volume and share prices jumped without public news to account for it. (Read more at: Wired)
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New Guidelines Result from Attorney General’s Investigation of Exorbitant Hannah Montana Ticket Prices

Chicago – Attorney General Lisa Madigan today reached an agreement with a Ticketmaster subsidiary, TicketsNow, to curb deceptive tactics used by TicketsNow. The agreement is the result of Madigan’s investigation into TicketsNow’s marketing practices after receiving dozens of complaints about the high prices ticket brokers charged for Hannah Montana and Bruce Springsteen concerts and other popular events. Madigan’s investigation revealed that TicketsNow’s brokers were in the practice of creating customized Web sites where they resold tickets they …

Reports are now coming in that Microsoft, giant that it is from Redmond, has no need of its digital agency Razorfish. Of course Razorfish was part of an acquisition back in 2007 of company aQuantive. Seems that Microsoft got a package deal and now wants get rid of the extra item. Not that it needs the cash, but perhaps with the looming Windows 7 launch, MSFT is trying to shore up and build the reserves, right before a real outpouring of the coffers.
If Microsoft was willing to spend $80-100 …

Ford and Volvo haven’t made any official announcements, but the Chinese media and Britain’s Autocar are reporting that automaker Geely has agreed to purchase Volvo Car Corporation.
The deal has been in the works for some time, as Ford auctions off its formerly vast empire. In the past two years, Ford has sold off Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and a chunk of its stake in Mazda.
The report says Geely will invest about $10 billion in Volvo and will produce a new vehicle with a Volvo badge in China. (Read …

This time, there were no acrobats and fireworks. This time, no ice cream on the front lawn of Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. No video featuring best wishes from celebrities. This time — Chrysler’s third takeover in 11 years — the mood was government green. There was no public display Wednesday to celebrate the birth of Chrysler Group, now run by Italy’s Fiat Group and not in bankruptcy court.
“It’s really not the time for celebration,” says Brad Coulter, a turnaround expert at O’Keefe & Associates. “If anything, it’s …

Times, buyer talk as Guild seeks stake in paper

The Boston Globe’s biggest union called for an equity stake in the paper yesterday as Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. confirmed it has been in talks for weeks to buy the beleaguered broadsheet and its prime property along the Southeast Expressway.
“Intercontinental is interested in any good investment that offers superior returns for our investors, as well as opportunities for job preservation, and even job growth, for our union investors,” said a top executive for Boston-based Intercontinental, which manages real estate and some …

Twitter would have to consider selling itself, if it is best for the company, co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey told DailyFinance.
“We have to put the product and the service that we’re building first,” Dorsey said in an exclusive interview with DailyFinance today after he spoke at New York University. “If it’s better in the hands of another organization that can add support, then, yes, I mean, that’s something I’d consider.” (Read more at: Daily Finance)
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Signs emerged on Friday that Canada’s Magna could face challenges to its deal for GM’s European unit Opel as Fiat SpA said it was still interested and Germany invited rival bidders to improve their offers.
Fiat, the Italian automaker, lost out last week to the Canadian car parts maker Magna in bidding for General Motors Corp’s Germany-based Opel and British brand Vauxhall, but Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said the deal was not yet sealed.
“The interest is still there, it doesn’t depend on us,” he told reporters on the margins …

Indiana pension fund’s objections are put aside by appeals court. Troubled automaker moves closer to deal with Italian company.

An appeals court Friday upheld Chrysler LLC’s plan to exit bankruptcy.
The new company will be owned jointly by the U.S. government, an autoworker’s union retiree fund and the Italian Automaker Fiat.
The deal will go through on Monday afternoon unless the Supreme Court intervenes, Chrysler attorney Corinne Ball told CNN.
Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock had appealed the ruling of a federal bankruptcy court on May 31 allowing Chrysler to sell its best-performing assets, …

Roger Penske, the racecar driver turned business tycoon, will buy the Saturn brand and dealer network from GM. The deal will save 350-plus dealerships and some 13,000 jobs if it goes through, the bankrupt parent company said in confirming the tentative agreement. The price is between $100 million and $200 million, a source told Bloomberg. (Read more at: newser)
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