Merger Archive

  • Fujitsu, Toshiba lock up handset division merger

    Fujitsu, Toshiba lock up handset division merger

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
    The I's have been dotted, the T's have been crossed, and two of Japan's mobile giants -- Fujitsu and Toshiba -- have apparently brought their handset division merger talks to a fruitful conclusion. Fujitsu will take a majority stake in the joint venture, which should become Japan's number two domestic market phone supplier behind Sharp; together, they'll still have virtually no significance on the global stage, but this might be an interesting opportunity for phones like the TG01 and its successors to get a little more play around the world. For its part, Toshiba is looking at the deal to step back from an unprofitable business; margins on phones in the Japanese domestic market are razor-thin, and other players like Mitusbishi have already bowed out entirely. Best of luck, you lovebirds.

    Fujitsu, Toshiba lock up handset division merger originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international

    Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
    We reported last week that two of Japan's top cell phone makers, Fujitsu and Toshiba, were in talks to merge their cell phone businesses. And today, we have the rumor confirmed. Under the agreement, Toshiba will spin off its handset unit and Fujitsu is expected to take the majority stake in the joint venture (between a whopping 70 and 80%, according to reports in Japanese media). Read the rest on MobileCrunch.

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  • Confirmed: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international

    Confirmed: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international

    Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
    We reported last week that two of Japan's top cell phone makers, Fujitsu and Toshiba, were in talks to merge their cell phone businesses. And today, we have the rumor confirmed. Under the agreement, Toshiba will spin off its handset unit and Fujitsu is expected to take the majority stake in the joint venture (between a whopping 70 and 80%, according to reports in Japanese media).

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  • Fujitsu, Toshiba in talks to merge mobile units

    Fujitsu, Toshiba in talks to merge mobile units

    Posted on June 11, 2010 | No Comments
    The domestic Japanese phone market has been in a state of contraction for some time, most notably evidenced by Mitsubishi's decision to exit the game altogether and the Sanyo-Kyocera tie-up from a couple years back. Fujitsu and Toshiba are the next two giants looking to combine their resources in the mobile space, a move that would create Japan's number two phone manufacturing venture behind Sharp and reduce to six the total number of firms making handsets there (down from ten in 2007). Though technologically years ahead of the rest of the world, Japan also suffers from deeper market saturation than perhaps anywhere else -- and the opportunities for product differentiation are sharply reduced by carrier RFPs that emphasize conformity to a standard spec sheet. Fujitsu is said to likely hold the majority stake if the deal goes down, but for what it's worth, nothing's been finalized yet. If a deal improves the odds of bringing hardware to North America by even the smallest of fractions, we're all for it.

    Fujitsu, Toshiba in talks to merge mobile units originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Report: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone operations

    Report: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone operations

    Posted on June 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Big news from the Japanese cell phone industry today: Two of Japan's top handset makers, namely Fujitsu and Toshiba, are in talks to merge their cell phone operations within this year. According to the Nikkei ("Japan's Wall Street Journal" and usually a reliable source), negotiations already reached the "final stage". The joint venture, if it happens, will create Japan's second largest cell phone maker (with a combined 18.7% domestic market share), following Sharp (26.1%). Fujitsu (the current No. 3 among Japan's handset makers with over 5 million handsets shipped in 2009) is expected to become the main stakeholder in the joint venture. Toshiba is the eighth biggest (1.28 million units).

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  • HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war

    HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war

    Posted on May 16, 2010 | No Comments
    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/HP_bought_Palm_after_a_five_company_bidding_war_Engadget'; Palm and HP seem like the happiest of corporate couples right now, but theirs was a heated courtship: according to Palm's latest statement to shareholders, a total of 16 companies were contacted about a deal, and HP was the winner of a month-long bidding war that involved serious offers from five companies -- a bidding war that involved Jon Rubinstein personally warning HP that it had to "significantly and immediately" increase its offer to remain in the game. What's more, HP's winning bid came in at just 20 cents a share more than its primary rival. Yeah, it's juicy -- read on for the full blow-by-blow.

    Continue reading HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war

    HP bought Palm after a five-company bidding war originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 May 2010 16:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Sprint wraps up iPCS acquisition, Nextel merger drama may finally be over

    Sprint wraps up iPCS acquisition, Nextel merger drama may finally be over

    Posted on December 7, 2009 | No Comments
    It's been eons since Sprint bought Nextel, but regional iDEN affiliate iPCS had managed to keep the fallout from the deal tied up in courts for years -- a side-effect of its claim that the merger violated Sprint's agreement to stay off iPCS' turf. After a few court losses, Sprint ultimately decided to bite the bullet and buy iPCS outright, and now, that deal's finalized to the tune of $831 million including Sprint's assumption of $405 million in debt. Though iPCS customers now become Sprint customers as a result of the acquisition, they'll effectively notice no difference -- the regional was already offering Sprint service exclusively under the Sprint brand, so this whole deal is little more than an escape hatch for the head office to tie off these legal wranglings once and for all.

    Sprint wraps up iPCS acquisition, Nextel merger drama may finally be over originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • SoftBank prepping bid for Willcom?

    SoftBank prepping bid for Willcom?

    Posted on November 27, 2009 | No Comments
    PHS is in a bit of a pickle right now -- the niche wireless standard has no path for technological growth, has just a handful of supporting carriers around the world, and frankly, was never intended for wide-area deployment to boot. That leaves Japan's PHS-powered network, Willcom, in the lurch, which explains why they've recently hooked up with HSPA giant NTT DoCoMo to launch modern data devices. Mooching off someone else's network isn't a long-term strategy for survival, though, so what's next? Reports are flying in Japan today that rival SoftBank may look at scooping up Willcom's assets in exchange for its debtors waiving some percentage of its $1 billion in IOUs; what SoftBank would ultimately do with that extra spectrum is unclear, but presumably they'd continue to run PHS for some predetermined period of time before transitioning it to HSPA or LTE. Of course, Willcom has a rep for releasing wild devices that avoid the beaten path set by its larger rivals, so here's a preliminary word to the wise, SoftBank: if you make this happen, keep the product people on board.

    SoftBank prepping bid for Willcom? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce

    Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce

    Posted on November 24, 2009 | No Comments
    It's hard to say if these guys were just looking to get this whole thing finalized before the holiday break, but either way, all the requisite i's have been dotted and t's crossed. As of today, Sprint Nextel has acquired Virgin Mobile USA -- a process that began back in late July -- and frankly, there's nothing you can do about it. The move will obviously position Sprint as a bigger player in the prepaid space, but outside of that presumably true assumption, it's tough to say what else the newfound lovers will do together. So, will the Facebook statuses be updated soon as well? Hello?

    Sprint finalizes Virgin Mobile USA acquisition, rushes out to snag some cranberry sauce originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Nokia rumored to be eyeing Palm buy yet again

    Nokia rumored to be eyeing Palm buy yet again

    Posted on November 13, 2009 | No Comments

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    We've been around this rumor pretty much since Palm started looking competitive again, so take it for what you will -- but a bunch of fat cats down on Wall Street have been going ape today over renewed "chatter" that Nokia might be taking an interest in acquiring Palm. Palm's share prices are up well over 5 percent on the day, though we wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was some behind-the-scenes manipulation going on here -- an acquisition would make less sense now than ever with suitors on the hook for $2 billion or more, a hefty sum even for a giant like Nokia, never mind the fact that they've still got two smartphone platforms of their own in the mix. Licensing webOS is being floated as a possible alternative to an outright Palm purchase -- but we're having such an exceedingly difficult time picturing a 5800 running webOS that we'll put this one on ice until we get the joint press release.

    Nokia rumored to be eyeing Palm buy yet again originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Finally: Panasonic to convert Sanyo into 100% subsidiary next month

    Finally: Panasonic to convert Sanyo into 100% subsidiary next month

    Posted on November 6, 2009 | No Comments
    The deal has been in the making for months now, but yesterday Panasonic finally announced a tender offer for Sanyo Electric, paving the way to convert Sanyo into a wholly owned subsidiary as early as the middle of next month.

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  • NEC, Casio and Hitachi make cell phone op merger official, announce international plans

    NEC, Casio and Hitachi make cell phone op merger official, announce international plans

    Posted on September 15, 2009 | No Comments
    The first rumors started spreading about two weeks ago, and it was officially announced yesterday: Major Japanese cell phone makers Hitachi, NEC and Casio are merging their mobile phone operations to become Japan's No. 2 maker (following Sharp). The name of the new venture will be "NEC Casio Mobile Communications".

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  • NEC, Casio and Hitachi make cell phone op merger official, want to go international

    NEC, Casio and Hitachi make cell phone op merger official, want to go international

    Posted on September 15, 2009 | No Comments
    The first rumors started spreading about two weeks ago, and it was officially announced yesterday: Major Japanese cell phone makers Hitachi, NEC and Casio are merging their mobile phone operations to become Japan's No. 2 maker (following Sharp). The name of the new venture will be "NEC Casio Mobile Communications".

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  • Birth of a new mobile phone company? NEC, Hitachi and Casio to merge cell phone businesses

    Birth of a new mobile phone company? NEC, Hitachi and Casio to merge cell phone businesses

    Posted on August 28, 2009 | No Comments
    Big news from Japan's mobile phone industry today (Friday afternoon Japanese time). Various Japanese media are reporting that NEC, Hitachi and Casio are in talks to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan's second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp. Reportedly, NEC plans to integrate its cell phone business into a tie-up that already exists between Hitachi and Casio. According to rumors, NEC wants to take a majority stake in the new entity, which would then control about 20% of the Japanese cell phone market.

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