Terayon is latest target for acquisitive Motorola

Motorola emerges as winner of a rough-hewn gem in Terayon, a purveyor of video processing systems. It keeps technology away from Cisco as it gains elements key to saving bandwidth in switched and broadcast video services.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 27 Apr 2007
Jim Davis

What truly makes sense for Palm?

All the noise about a Palm sale is about the 'positioning games' acquirers play to gain financial advantage as part of the group of circling vultures. More important is to look at the prospective buyers from a hard-core business perspective.

TDM/ Target IQ, 23 Mar 2007
Tony Rizzo

Microsoft takes a real leap forward as it acquires TellMe

Following Nuance's acquisition of speech vendor BeVocal several weeks ago, Microsoft opened up its M&A bag and snagged TellMe – a former dot-com highflier that has long pushed something it calls Dial Tone 2.0. It may prove an important move.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 16 Mar 2007
Tony Rizzo

BeVocal acquisition to add mobile depth to Nuance's speech capabilities

Formerly known as ScanSoft, the speech recognition and imaging software vendor has taken a $140m plunge to add new capabilities and grab a new collection of carrier customers and contacts. It doesn't hurt that BeVocal will also generate real revenue.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 2 Mar 2007
Tony Rizzo

Smith Micro does it again – picks up Insignia for mobile device management

Just last week the wireless software vendor decided to shell out $10m to buy financially beleaguered mobile VPN vendor Ecutel. Now it has found itself another bargain, getting some seemingly useful assets, including firmware-over-the-air technology.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 16 Feb 2007
Tony Rizzo

Longtime mobile VPN player Ecutel loses its independence to Smith Micro

Struggling to find its footing and land new business in an expanding market, it ends up being acquired in a virtual fire sale. NetMotion should be able to pick up a few customers. With a tightening field, will Cisco now buy into the mobile VPN space?

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 9 Feb 2007
Tony Rizzo

2007 M&A Outlook – mobile technology

As part of our end-of-year series of M&A analysis, we look at the deals that mattered in 2006 and prospects for the next 12 months in the mobile technology sector. Where will we see acquisitions in 2007, and who might be involved?

TDM/ , 22 Dec 2006
Tony Rizzo
Sara Palmbush

Mobile device and port security vendor Pointsec goes to Check Point for $586m

The firewall giant is moving into the fast-growing mobile device and data security space. Anti-data leakage starts with protecting the data on devices that go astray, so this deal makes a lot of sense, regardless of rumors that it is itself on the block.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 22 Nov 2006
Nick Selby
Brenon Daly

Seeking bigger pieces of the pie, IP PBX vendors buy up mobile VOIP players

Extending office calling features to mobile phones is one way an enterprise can cost-effectively make its workforce mobile. The big IP PBX vendors wanting to expand their positions in this market are teaming up with the key software players.

TDM/ Sector IQ, 22 Nov 2006
Sara Palmbush

Motorola M&A background, PBX/cellular integration, Google

As if the two Deal Analysis reports we have on Motorola this week weren't enough, this report will provide some background for the individual deal coverage and look at the company's overall acquisition history and capabilities. There's also been more activity in the PBX/cellular integration sector, which suddenly this year has started to be subsumed by larger players. Finally, we'll look at another purchase by a famous search company – its name starts with G – in the online productivity application area. There were 59 new deals during the seven days of November 8 through 15, worth $768m – the lowest aggregate dollar amount since the last full week of 2005. In other words, no billion-dollar transactions, and mostly tiny deals. The busiest sector was IT services, with 20 announced transactions.

TDM/ Week In Review, 17 Nov 2006
Fred Linden
Sara Palmbush

Goodbye Good – Motorola wants to play the mobile office game

The mobile communications giant has added some firepower to its plan to grab a share of the enterprise mobile market. More interesting perhaps is that Good's backers got something out of their investment, albeit not nearly as much as they had envisioned.

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 17 Nov 2006
Tony Rizzo

Sony Ericsson acquires Symbian's UIQ subsidiary – to what end?

UIQ, though technically a solid user interface, has long struggled to find acceptance under the Symbian fold. In fact, Sony Ericsson, for all practical purposes, was the only Symbian vendor making use of it. But will ownership help sell devices?

TDM/ Deal Analysis, 10 Nov 2006
Tony Rizzo