Salesforce.com and Twitter didn't comment Friday about news reports that Salesforce.com is in the early stages of mounting a takeover bid for Twitter. A tweet from Salesforce Chief Digital Evangelist Vala Afshar posed reasons why Twitter is an attractive target for purchase. Afshar later clarified that his tweet reflected his personal views rather than Salesforce's official position. Twitter stock closed Friday up 21 percent to $22.62.
Gannett invested in and partnered with Digg, a web-content and news curator. Gannett said it led the company's Series C investment round "to provide USA TODAY NETWORK access to Digg’s industry-leading data." Digg gets access to the network for personalization and geo-targeting content, Gannett said in a Tuesday news release, and its executive is joining the privately held Digg's board (see 1609130022).
Rovi renamed itself TiVo, following the completion of its acquisition of the DVR innovator for $1.1 billion in cash and stock (see 1604290044), the company said in a Thursday announcement. “Consumers face a fragmented media landscape when it comes to devices and platforms, and content owners and service providers want to understand their audiences better and help their customers navigate an ever-increasing set of content choices,” said CEO Tom Carson. The newly combined TiVo is “uniquely positioned” to address that landscape, Carson said.
Intel and TPG agreed to form a jointly owned, independent cybersecurity company with the McAfee name, the companies said in a Wednesday news release. McAfee is an Intel subsidiary, but after the proposed $4.2 billion deal, TPG will own 51 percent of McAfee and Intel the rest, they said. TPG agreed to make a $1.1 billion equity investment. Intel Security general manager Chris Young will be CEO of the new McAfee, the companies said. The transaction is expected to close in Q2, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, they said.
Comcast's $3.8 billion takeover of DreamWorks Animation is complete, with DreamWorks now part of Comcast's Universal Filmed Entertainment Group that also includes Universal Pictures, Fandango and NBCUniversal Brand Development, Comcast said in a news release Tuesday. NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke has said the deal moves forward NBCU's TV animation plans and will help create consumer products and theme park properties (see 1606130022).
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on a petition for declaratory ruling to allow Corvex Master Fund to own up to 14.99 percent of Pandora, which itself was the beneficiary of a foreign-ownership declaratory ruling, said a public notice Friday. Corvex is “organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands and is ultimately controlled by Keith Meister, a U.S. citizen, through a series of intervening entities that are organized under Delaware law and owned and controlled by U.S. citizens,” the PN said. Pandora's declaratory ruling included a condition that the FCC must grant approval for foreign entities that want to acquire more than 5 percent of the company. Corvex wants to buy 9.99 percent but wants the FCC to preapprove up to 14.99 percent. The PN said Corvex contends granting the request will “facilitate investment” in Pandora and “facilitate the efficient operation of the secondary markets for trading stocks of a publicly traded company.” Comments are due Sept. 12, replies Sept. 27.
Viacom continues to hope to ink a major subscription VOD deal as soon as this quarter, CEO Philippe Dauman said Thursday in a quarterly conference call. Dauman said those SVOD talks have slowed due to uncertainty about Viacom's leadership legal battles "coupled with our evaluation of various new distribution opportunities." The family of controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone plus Dauman and others on the board are engaged in a protracted legal battle over whether Redstone can remove them from their jobs. Many players from traditional distributors to over-the-top providers, are creating virtual multichannel video programming distributor products, he said. "We just want to make sure that we maximize our overall value," Dauman said. "We are having fruitful discussions." He said that during the most recent quarter, the programmer signed long-term affiliation agreements with Dish Network and Cox Communications, "both with solid annual rate increases." The company previously said the SVOD holdup would affect quarterly results (see 1606170013). For the quarter over the year-ago period, Viacom said in a news release, revenue grew 2 percent to $3.1 billion, with license fees up 39 percent from licensing some titles for SVOD services and from revenue from Paramount TV production, but profit fell 27 percent to $432 million. Dauman also said Viacom had winnowed down "to a handful of prospects" in its bid of selling a 49 percent interest in Paramount.
Verizon agreed to pay $2.4 billion to acquire Dublin-based Fleetmatics, a fleet and mobile workforce management company serving small and medium-sized businesses, the telco said in a news release Monday. Friday Verizon closed an acquisition of Telogis (see 1606210069), another fleet management software-as-a-service company, it said. The combination of Verizon Telematics, Fleetmatics and Telogis “will position the combined companies to become a leading provider of fleet and mobile workforce management solutions globally," said Verizon Telematics CEO Andrés Irlando. Fleetmatics has 37,000 customers, 737,000 subscribers and 1,200 employees, Verizon said. The Fleetmatics acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, including shareholder approval and the sanction by the Irish High Court of the arrangement by which Verizon will buy Fleetmatics. Verizon expects the deal to close in Q4, it said.
Nokia finished its takeover of Gainspeed, a California startup with a virtual converged cable access platform (CCAP) line, in a bid to broaden its cable access product portfolio and give it a broader footprint there, it said in a news release Monday. Gainspeed will be part of its Fixed Networks business group, Nokia said. Financial terms of the deal announced in June weren't made public. Nokia previously said virtual CCAP is intended to help cable operators increase the capacity of their existing hybrid fiber coaxial infrastructure while cutting headend space and power requirements.
As part of Lionsgate's planned $4.4 billion buy of Starz (see 1606300069), the acquirer is asking for FCC approval of transfer control of Starz's Starz Entertainment subsidiary, which holds its transmit/receive earth station authorizations to Orion Arm Holding, a Lionsgate subsidiary. In an FCC International Bureau filing Friday, the company said Orion Arm Holding will merge with Starz as part of the deal, with Starz continuing as the surviving entity, thus making Starz and Starz Entertainment indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. Lionsgate said it expects to close the deal by year's end.