Great news if you can’t tell the difference Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee, two of the major tuna brands that you’re likely to see on the shelf at your local grocery store. Pending regulator approval, the two brands will combine into one as the owner of Chicken of the Sea, Thai Union Frozen Products PCL, recently announced that it plans to acquire Bumble Bee [More]
acquisitions
Sale Of Motorola Mobility From Google To Lenovo Is Finalized
By 10.30.14
Earlier this year, Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion in cash and stock. Just three years ago, Google bought the company for $12.5 billion, but this isn’t as terrible a business deal as it might appear: while Lenovo gets the phone business, Google gets to keep the company’s valuable library of patents. [More]
This HSBC Customer Is Left Out Of The Changeover
By 5.18.12 — Updated: 5.21.14
Last year, HSBC unloaded its credit card division on Capital One, and most of its retail bank branches in the Northeast to upstate New York’s First Niagara Bank. They’ve also been selling off their retail banking operations in other countries. Regular people just aren’t as profitable as we used to be. The thing is, while those branches and all of their customers have been sold, not all of their customers are making the change. George, who lives near a branch but had opened his HSBC accounts online for the sake of convenience, didn’t know this. He’s not associated with a branch, so his account stays with HSBC. He just won’t have a branch to go to. [More]
AT&T To Purchase T-Mobile USA For $39 Billion, 1000 Rollover Minutes
By 3.20.11
AT&T Wireless has made its next move in the race against Verizon for nationwide mobile phone domination: it’s acquiring fellow GSM carrier T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for a combination of cash and AT&T stock currently valued at $39 billion. DT will then have an 8% stake in AT&T, and AT&T will gain 33.7 million current T-Mobile USA customers. [More]
GameStop Buys Pre-Owned Website Kongregate
By 7.28.10
If you play games on the website Kongregate–its founders say 10 million players stop by every month–then congratulations, you’re about to become GameStop’s new BFF. There’s no word yet on how this will affect the Kongregate community; the site lets people play online games for free, and GameStop says that the its founders will continue to run things for now. If we start seeing offers to pre-order an upcoming online free game, I guess we’ll know the takeover is complete. [More]
Walgreens Completes Total Domination Of NYC With Duane Reade Deal
By 4.10.10
Hear that sound? It’s the combined sobs of New Yorkers as the deal to turn all 258 Duane Reade drugstores in the metropolitan area, as well as two distribution centers and Duane Reade headquarters, into Walgreens has now been made official. [More]
Apple Buys Lala
By 12.7.09
Lala, the music streaming/backup service that’s also a reasonably priced mp3 store, has been purchased by Apple. Does this mean Apple may introduce some sort of streaming service in the future? On Lala, you can pay 10 cents per song to stream it as much as you want, or $.99-1.29 to own it outright. At any rate, if you buy from Lala now, you’re buying from Apple. [More]
Why A Comcast/NBC Merger Is Bad News
By 12.3.09
As the Comcast/NBC mergepocalypse draws near, we wanted to remind readers of the ways that this is going to harm consumers (beyond the obvious things like 30 Rock being promised to come on between 6 and 10 pm and actually airing at 11:30). Join us for a sad look into the future. [More]
Comcast May Buy Controlling Stake Of NBC Universal
By 10.2.09
Hey, are you ready for Comcast to take more control over your entertainment? Then great news for you! Yesterday a rumor leaked that the cable giant is negotiating to buy 51% of NBC Universal, which includes the movie studio Universal, Universal theme parks, the NBC network, and shows like 30 Rock and SNL.
Everything Retailer Amazon Buys Shoe Retailer Zappos
By 7.22.09
Amazon has purchased Zappos for $807 million. Reaction around Consumerist’s (virtual) newsroom: “Oh, no.” Then we started locking up our shoes in case our right to own them is revoked. No, no, we kid. Maybe.
The Pirate Bay Bought For $7.7 Million, Plans To Evolve Into Legitimate P2P Service
By 6.30.09
The Swedish gaming company Global Gaming Factory X AB has purchased The Pirate Bay for $7.7 million, and plans to transform the embattled file sharing site into a legitimate peer-to-peer service. “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site,” the buyers said in an ambiguous statement. The Pirate Bay’s current administrators did offer up one undeniable truth to comfort the site’s fans…
By 10.3.08
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Surprise! Wells Fargo is buying Wachovia, even though Citibank said at the beginning of the week that it was going to. (Check out the full post here.) Unlike Citibank, Wells Fargo will absorb all parts of Wachovia, including its securities and retail brokerage biz, in a “$15.1 billion all-stock merger.” [DealBook] (Thanks to Stephen!)
Best Buy Gobbles Up Speakeasy
By 3.27.07
Best Buy today agreed to purchase leading independent DSL provider Speakeasy, starting Q1 2008.
