Deals

Virus protection giant McAfee is expanding its security empire with the acquisition of Secure Computing. The company announced plans for the purchase Monday morning. It'll pay $465 million, or $5.75 per share, in the merger. The move will no doubt help expand McAfee's suite of security-related produ...

"Monetize." This dry semantic substitute for figuring out ways to make money stood out as the Word of the Day for the companies displaying their social media Web sites and Software as a Service offerings at the VentureNet 2008 Conference, produced by the Torrance-based Technology Council of Southern...

Rumors began bubbling up Tuesday that Google plans to acquire game maker Valve, developer of the "Half-Life" series and the Steam content distribution platform. The speculation began after a report cited "well-placed sources" claiming Google would very soon purchase Valve. The Internet search giant ...

The din of protest against the proposed Google and Yahoo ad partnership, announced earlier this summer, is getting louder every day. World Association of Newspapers, a Paris-based organization that represents about 18,000 newspapers and 77 newspaper associations around the world, is asking the Antit...

Takeover talks between Electronic Arts and Take-Two have come to an end, the two video game software companies announced Sunday. The news comes some seven months after EA made its initial unsolicited offer to purchase the "Grand Theft Auto" developer for $26 per share, a deal that would have brought...

Gannett has increased its stake in CareerBuilder, acquiring another 10 percent of the Web site from the Tribune Company for $135 million. Gannett now has a 50.8 percent controlling interest in the site. Other stakeholders are the Tribune, now with 30.8 percent, The McClatchy Company, with 14.4 perce...

In a move that's left some observers scratching their heads, Microsoft has acquired a German comparison shopping site, Ciao, for $486 million in cash. Ciao, which is owned by Wilton, Conn.-based Greenfield Online, provides consumer reviews and ratings as well as comparative prices from e-commerce co...

Chipmaker Broadcom has agreed to acquire Advanced Micro Devices' digital television chip business for $192.8 million. About 530 AMD employees will join Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom after the transaction closes, which is expected to take place sometime during the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. AMD i...

What's the deal with those new Windows ads? In what looks to be another shot at saving Vista's troubled reputation, Microsoft has brought comedian Jerry Seinfeld aboard as a spokesperson for the struggling software. Seinfeld will star in a series of ads launching early next month, the Wall Street Jo...

The dance between two of the biggest players in the video games sector continues, and it's taking on a new tone. Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive Software held discussions over the weekend regarding EA's attempt to acquire Take-Two. EA is best known for sports titles such as the "Madden NFL"...

eBay is looking to expand its overseas reach with plans to acquire a minority stake in the South Korean online e-commerce market Gmarket. The company has issued a statement that it is in discussions about a possible acquisition of Inter Park and Ki Hyung Lee's interests in the company. Inter Park, a...

Sony has acquired German media giant Bertelsmann's 50 percent stake in Sony BMG Music for $900 million. Bertelsmann gets another $300 million for its share of the cash on Sony BMG's books. Filings with the SEC show that Sony BMG will buy back part of Bertelsmann's stake for $600 million, with anothe...

The two giants of satellite radio are about to become one. The FCC has approved the merger of XM and Sirius, ending a year-and-a-half struggle to finalize the deal. The move will give the newly combined company unprecedented power in the world of satellite communications; however, it will come wit...

Microsoft is forging ahead with plan B, now that its proposed merger with Yahoo is all but dead. It is expanding its relationship with Facebook to broaden exposure of its Windows Live Search as well as increase its own search ad business. This latter goal, of course, had been the point behind the fa...

Things are looking rocky for Yahoo after the latest round in its back-and-forth battle with Microsoft. The war of words took an ugly turn when Yahoo announced over the weekend that it had received and rejected a new Microsoft offer for a search-only purchase. Now, Microsoft is telling its side of th...