Tag: deal

Sun Rejects IBM Offer, Shares Nosedive

April 6th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Industry No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

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In a surprise move, Sun Microsystems turns down IBM’s offer for acquisition. IBM responded by withdrawing its offer indefinitely. This is an unexpected occurrence, as a few days ago New York Times sources reported that a Sun-IBM deal was sure to be agreed on.

After the announcement of the IBM withdrawal, Sun’s shares dropped by a whopping 23% today to $6.68 per share. It should come as a relief however to Sun stockholders that despite a 23% drop in value, Sun shares are still way above  the $4.97 per share price-point that it was trading at prior to the IBM acquisition talks.It is reported that IBM’s offer was around the $9.40 mark per share (not the $9.50 per share price expected last week), resulting in Sun Microsystems being valued at $7 billion.

Sun stated, thus far, that the deal was turned down due to the offer being undervalued, as well as licensing agreements that were far to flexible – potentially allowing IBM to walk away from any deal at any time they pleased. The Wall Street Journal has an article stating that in addition to the above disputes about the deal, the Sun board is split on a decision.

Either way, it appears as if Sun will remain independent for a time being, as the company wasn’t exactly being contested by other companies looking to increase their hold on the server market.

No Google-Twitter Deal – Biz Stone

April 4th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Internet 2 comments - Tags: , ,

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Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, denied rumours that Google is attempting to purchase Twitter.

The Google-Twitter deal rumours have become a topic of heated debate and discussion over the last couple days. And it seems that depending on who you talk to, Google is both in late stage and early stage talks with Twitter about a possible acquisition. Suspiciously the sources remain anonymous – which immediately makes the situation doubtful.

To add some clarity before a rumour like this breaks out of control, Biz Stone spoke out and denied that there are any plans in place for Google to purchase Twitter, stating repeatedly on the Twitter Blog that Twitter’s aims are to remain independent.

“Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we’re just getting started”

He also wrote on the same short blog post that Twitter regularly enters discussions with various companies, as does any business seeking to make revenue.

“It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.”

So it appears as if the much speculated deal was simply a discussion between Google and Twitter about future revenue options. Something that is indeed not surprising as Google is arguably the king of monetizing its own services, and many people seem to think that there’s definitely money to be made with the deal.

“We’ve been arguing for some time that Twitter’s real value is in search,”

says Michael Arrington, who wrote about the rumour on Techcrunch which ultimately fueled the rumour to massive proportions.

“It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the internet, and Google doesn’t even have a horse in the game.”

The cheif Executive of Google, Eric Schmidt, seemed to indicate the an acquisition wasn’t on the cards, at least not at the moment

“I’m not sure prices are at their low yet, the situation globally is pretty dire. We are certainly looking. We haven’t seen anything yet that was really exciting.”

So rather than an acquisition, Google is possibly thinking of entering a revenue sharing deal with Twitter? Nothing is sure currently.

Check back for updates, this is a developing story.