Intel agreed to buy Granulate Cloud Solutions, an Israeli developer of “real-time continuous optimization software,” said the chipmaker Thursday. The Granulate buy will help cloud and data center customers “maximize compute workload performance and reduce infrastructure and cloud costs,” said Intel. The deal will enable Intel to “rapidly scale” Granulate’s software, it said. Transaction terms weren’t disclosed.

Liberty Strategic Capital will spend about $525 million to buy Zimperium, a mobile device threat defense platform, said the buyer Tuesday. Liberty is the cybersecurity-focused private equity startup run by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who will become Zimperium’s chairman when the transaction closes in Q2. SoftBank, a Zimperium investor since 2017, will continue as a minority investor. Zimperium will be Liberty's fourth cybersecurity buy, it said.

Amazon closed on its $8.5 billion buy of MGM (see 2105260061), securing a storied catalog of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV episodes, the companies said Thursday. MGM’s team and creative partners will join Prime Video and Amazon Studios, they said. When the deal was announced in May, analysts saw it as a way for Amazon to grow Prime membership. S&P Global said then it believed Amazon will continue to invest in its entertainment offerings and delivery capability to attract new subscribers. Parks Associates analyst Steve Nason said in May that the MGM catalog “gives Amazon options" for how it wants to distribute new releases, whether direct-to-consumer, to theaters only, in a hybrid model or in a licensing deal.

AMC Entertainment, which came perilously close to running out of cash early last year amid COVID-19 pandemic-induced theater closures and audience declines (see 2101220036), will spend $27.9 million to buy 22% of Hycroft, a 71,000-acre gold and silver mine in northern Nevada, said the theater chain Tuesday. The box office strength of Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman and the strong 2022 theatrical film slate heighten AMC’s “conviction that we are on a glide path to recovery,” said CEO Adam Aron. Investing in Hycroft “is the result of our having identified a company in an unrelated industry that appears to be just like AMC of a year ago,” he said. “It, too, has rock-solid assets, but for a variety of reasons, it has been facing a severe and immediate liquidity issue.” The company said "independent third-party studies" confirm that Hycroft has about 15 million ounces of gold deposits and 600 million ounces of silver deposits. Aron said on a recent AMC earnings call that “our job is not yet done” in luring mass movie audiences back to theaters (see 2203020015).

Discovery shareholders signed off on buying AT&T's WarnerMedia, Discovery said Friday. It said the approval was one of the last big hurdles, and the deal and creation of Warner Bros. Discovery should happen in Q2. The transaction was announced in May (see 2105160003).

Google signed a definitive agreement to buy cybersecurity platform Mandiant for $5.4 billion in an all-cash deal, said the buyer Tuesday. Mandiant will join Google Cloud when the transaction closes later this year, it said. “Organizations are facing cybersecurity challenges that have accelerated in frequency, severity and diversity, creating a global security imperative,” said Google. “The cloud represents a new way to change the security paradigm by helping organizations address and protect themselves against entire classes of cyber threats.”

Netflix signed a “combination agreement” to buy Finnish mobile games developer Next Games for about 65 million euros ($72.2 million), said Netflix Wednesday. Next Games generated 2020 revenue of about 27.2 million euros ($30.2 million), 95% of it from in-game purchases, said Netflix. It described Next Games as “a core studio in a strategic region and key talent market,” and said the acquisition will expand its “internal game studio capabilities.” The transaction is expected to close in Q2. Netflix entered mobile gaming in midsummer, calling the foray an extension of its “core entertainment offering” (see 2107210022).

UL completed the acquisition of KBW, a South Korean-based provider of safety test services for consumer tech products and medical devices, said the buyer Monday: UL has been operating in South Korea more than 25 years and “continues to see this market as a key hub for technological innovation." Adding KBW enables UL to broaden its safety testing capabilities within the region, speeding customers’ time to market, it said. Transaction terms weren't disclosed.

ImOn Communications and Goldman Sachs asked for FCC approval to transfer control of the CLEC and interexchange carrier to the investor's Hawkeye Topco, in an International Bureau application Wednesday. They said the acquisition announced this month (see 2202170035) would give Iowa's ImOn access to Goldman Sachs' "extensive financial, managerial and operational experience," and ImOn in the immediate future "will continue to provide service to its customers at the same rates, terms, and conditions and without interruption." They said the deal "will not trigger any federal or state anti-slamming or bulk customer transfer rules because the certificated, customer-facing service provider will be unchanged" and won't diminish competition as GS doesn't provide telecom services.

Lease-to-own retailer Aaron’s agreed to buy BrandsMart from the Perlman family for $230 million in cash, said the buyer Wednesday. The transaction, which is expected to close in Q2, would give Aaron’s access to BrandMart’s big-box store format and to product assortments it doesn’t currently carry, plus offer BrandsMart customers new “in-house” lease-to-own payment options they didn’t previously have, it said. Aaron’s reported $1.85 billion in 2021 revenue. Privately held BrandsMart had $757 million in 2021 sales, said Aaron’s: “With this transaction, we believe that Aaron's will deliver over $3 billion in total annual revenues.” BrandsMart runs 10 stores in Florida and Georgia, plus has a "growing e-commerce channel," said Aaron's CEO Douglas Lindsay on a Thursday investor call. Its stores average $75 million in annual revenue, and have an average store size of more than 100,000 square feet, he said. "BrandsMart attracts a loyal and diverse customer base by offering hundreds of brands and thousands of products with best-in-class pricing," said Lindsay. The BrandsMart buy "broadens our customer reach and significantly expands our total addressable market," he said. "We expect to operate Aaron's and BrandsMart as separate business segments, each operating under their current brand." The transaction also yields "significant purchasing power and cost synergies," he said. Aaron's plans to open one or two new BrandsMart stores a year "in adjacent geographic areas where BrandsMart enjoys strong brand recognition," said Lindsay: "We will be disciplined in executing the BrandsMart new store-opening initiative as we explore the many markets that could support their store model."