Google closes deal to acquire Motorola Mobility

Google announced today that it has finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which was first announced in August of 2011. The deal, worth $12.5 billion, required approval from the European Commission, United States, and China (among other countries) before being finalized.

As part of the deal, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha will be stepping down from his position and will be replaced by Dennis Woodside.

Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Spotify launches in Australia and New Zealand

Popular music streaming service Spotify launched in two new locations today - Australia and New Zealand. The service, which launched in the United States back in the summer of last year, is available in Australia and New Zealand beginning today. It allows users to stream music (over 16 million tracks) for free. Subscription plans are available for users looking to ditch the periodic ads and limits on music streaming per month.

Facebook announces IPO share price of $38

Today, Facebook announced that the share price of its initial public offering that will be launching on the NASDAQ tomorrow morning will be $38. As a result, the company will be placed at a $104 billion valuation and will raise around $16 billion, both of these numbers are significantly higher than expected. Facebook will be offering a total of 421,233,615 shares of common stock. This IPO will be the largest in technology history.

The full press release follows:

Facebook Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol “FB.” Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

In addition, Facebook and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 63,185,042 additional shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Allen & Company LLC, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book runners for the offering. RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are serving as active co-managers.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 718 1649; e-mail: prospectus(at)morganstanley.com); J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, (Tel: +1 866 803 9204); or Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 471 2526, e-mail: prospectus-ny(at)ny.email.gs.com).

A registration statement related to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Google introduces “Knowledge Graph”

Today, Google introduced a new feature to its search engine that is dubbed "Knowledge Graph." The technology takes user input as a whole, rather than separate words and strings like it has been in the past. Knowledge Graph will allow users to narrow their search results down to exactly what they're looking for, get a summary of information on the right-hand side of the page, and pick out small details related to search queries.

The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.

Google has already begun rolling out Knowledge Graph to users, and it will soon be available on mobile devices as well.

Facebook readjusts IPO with $34-$38 share pricing; confirms delay in Instagram acquisition

Earlier today, the SEC released Facebook's seventh (7) amendment to its initial public offering filing. In the new filing, Facebook readjusted the projected share price from the previous $28-$35 to $34-$38, bringing the company's valuation well above the prior projected value of $100 billion. In addition, Facebook has upped the amount of shares it will be trading to 337 million.

In addition, Facebook has confirmed previous rumors that its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram has been delayed. The social network was planning to complete the deal sometime in the second quarter of this year, but the new documents point to the deal closing sometime in 2012.

Facebook's stock will appear on the NASDAQ under the ticker "FB." The company's IPO is expected to launch this Friday, May 18, 2012.

Scott Thompson steps down as CEO of Yahoo amidst resume controversy

Yahoo has just announced that it will be naming Ross Levinsohn as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company following word earlier this morning that Scott Thompson had stepped down from the position. Thompson was accused earlier this month of lying on his resume when he was hired as Yahoo CEO in January of this year. In addition, Yahoo has named Fred Amoroso as Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Roy Bostock.

As a part of the settlement agreement, Third Point, which owns an aggregate of 70,545,400 shares, or 5.8% of Yahoo! common stock, has agreed to withdraw its previous Board nominations for consideration at the annual meeting and vote its shares in support of Yahoo!'s nominees. Yahoo!'s slate of director nominees for election or re-election at the 2012 annual meeting of stockholders will now include Fred Amoroso, John Hayes, Peter Liguori, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Sue James, David Kenny, Brad Smith, Daniel S. Loeb, Harry J. Wilson and Michael J. Wolf.

As interim CEO, Mr. Levinsohn will manage the Company's day-to-day operations with assistance from Yahoo!'s existing senior leadership team.

Adobe officially releases Creative Suite 6 with Creative Cloud coming later this week

Just a few weeks after its initial unveiling, Adobe today announced that the Creative Suite 6 is now available for purchase, with the Creative Cloud software coming May 11, 2012. CS6 includes the following products: Photoshop, InDesign, lllustrator, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Flash Professional. It comes in four different configurations, each ranging in price from $1,299 to $2,599: Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium; Creative Suite 6 Design Standard; Creative Suite 6 Production Premium; and Creative Suite 6 Master Collection.

Jury: Google infringed upon some copyrighted content owned by Oracle

According to a report from Reuters, a jury ruled today that Google has infringed upon some of the copyrighted content owned by Oracle regarding the Java programming language. The ruling comes as part of a high-profile lawsuit filed by Oracle that claims Google illegally used Java code in its Android mobile operating system.

The jury, however, was unable to decide whether Google had fair use of the copyrighted content. Google lawyers are moving toward a mistrial at this time, according to the report.

Oracle, which initially filed the lawsuit back in 2010, is seeking roughly $1 billion in damages from Google.

Samsung Galaxy S III officially revealed: 4.7-inch HD display with 8-megapixel camera

Today, Samsung officially announced the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, sporting a 4.7-inch HD display, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of up to 1080p HD video recording, 1 GB of RAM, and 4G LTE connectivity. The phone comes in a package that is a mere 8.6  The Galaxy S III will be launching in Europe on May 29, 2012, and other countries internationally in the coming months. It will be launching in the United States sometime this Summer.

A video walkthrough of the Galaxy S II is included below:

Facebook confirms $28-$35 per share price for IPO

In its fifth amendment filing with the SEC, Facebook today announced the price of its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) at $28 to $35 per share. At that price range, Facebook should have a valuation between $85 billion and $95 billion, beating the previous technology record currently held by Google at $23 billion. The world's largest social network plans to offer 157,415,352 shares of Class A common stock at a later date.

Facebook released the following statement:

Facebook, Inc. is offering 180,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 157,415,352 shares of Class A common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. This is our initial public offering and no public market currently exists for our shares of Class A common stock. We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $28.00 and $35.00 per share.

[UPDATE] Official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 reveal trailer released

As expected, Activision this evening released the first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which will be the next title in the Call of Duty video game series. The trailer will be airing officially within the next few hours during the NBA Playoffs on TNT. We've included the video below for early viewing.

From the trailer, gamers can see that combat will take place across the globe, including locations in the United States. The reveal focuses around showing how technology has advanced since the last Call of Duty game. New weapons and guns were also briefly shown in the trailer.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is expected to hit store shelves on November 13, 2012.

UPDATE: Treyarch, the developers behind Black Ops 2, have confirmed that the trailer coming during tonight's NBA Playoffs game will have exclusives not included in the video below.

Research in Motion teases BlackBerry 10 OS features in new video

Today marks the beginning of Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry World developer conference in Orlando, Florida. As expected, a major topic for day one of the conference was the company's upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS platform, which RIM hopes will take it out of recent struggles with competitors such as Apple and Google.

As part of the keynote, RIM released the following video that shows several different concepts that will be included in the next BlackBerry OS. The video shows off display mirroring to TVs, the on-screen keyboard with an interesting auto-complete feature, calendar, email, and more.

The first BlackBerry 10 OS devices are expected to launch sometime late this year.

Microsoft invests $300 million into Barnes and Noble partnership

Microsoft and Barnes and Noble announced today that Microsoft will be investing $300 million in a new Barnes and Noble subsidiary, dubbed "Newco" for the time being. The subsidiary will be focused around Barnes and Noble's Nook e-reader and college business, and as a result of the investment, Microsoft will receive a 17.6% stake in the partnership.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced the formation of a strategic partnership in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which will build upon the history of strong innovation in digital reading technologies from both companies. The partnership will accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content.

The new subsidiary, referred to in this release as Newco, will bring together the digital and College businesses of Barnes & Noble. Microsoft will make a $300 million investment in Newco at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion in exchange for an approximately 17.6% equity stake. Barnes & Noble will own approximately 82.4% of the new subsidiary, which will have an ongoing relationship with the company’s retail stores. Barnes & Noble has not yet decided on the name of Newco.

Amazon reports better than expected financial results in Q1 2012

Today, Amazon reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, announcing a revenue of $13.18 billion, which beats analyst expectations by about $0.32 billion.

Operating cash flow increased 1% to $3.05 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.03 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2011. Free cash flow decreased 39% to $1.15 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.90 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2011.

Apple reports Q1 2012 financial results: $39.2 billion in revenue

Apple has just reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, announcing a revenue of $39.2 billion and a net profit of $11.6 billion. Gross margin was up in this quarter (47.4%) when compared year-over-year, while international sales accounted for 64% of Apple's overall revenue in the quarter. Revenues and profit were both records for the Cupertino-based company for the quarter.

Sales numbers break down as follows:

• 35.1 million iPhones shipped (up 88% year-over-year)
• 11.8 million iPads shipped (up 151% year-over-year)
• 4 million Macs shipped (up 7% year-over-year)
• 7.7 million iPods shipped (down 15% year-over-year)

"We're thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver."

Google officially introduces online storage service dubbed “Google Drive”

Following months of rumors, Google today officially unveiled its own cloud storage service, which is dubbed "Google Drive." Google Drive will give users 5 GB of storage space for free, allowing them to store any files they'd like on the cloud and access them on a wide variety of platforms, including:

• Windows and Mac OS X
• Android
• iOS app coming soon
• Web

• Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.
• Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just... there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices. You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. We’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices. And regardless of platform, blind users can access Drive with a screen reader.
• Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.

Other storage option plans include:

• 25GB for $2.49/month
• 100GB for $4.99/month
• 1TB for $49.99/month

Google Drive has also been integrated directly into several Google products, including Google+. Gmail integration will be coming soon.

Facebook and Microsoft agree to $550 million patent acquisition

Microsoft and Facebook jointly announced today that the software giant will be selling 650 patents that it recently acquired from AOL to the world's largest social network in a deal worth $550 million. Microsoft will be licensing the 650 patents, and will continue to hold control of the remaining 275 that came from the original deal with AOL.

“Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction,” said Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel, Microsoft. “As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio.”

“Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook,” said Ted Ullyot, general counsel, Facebook. “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term.”

Facebook reveals Q1 2012 financial results: $1.06 billion in revenue

Today, Facebook filed with the SEC an updated version of its S-1 that includes the company's financial results for the first quarter of this year. According to the documents released to the public, Facebook had a $1.06 billion revenue in the quarter and a net income of $205 million. In addition, Facebook revealed that it now sees 532 million active daily users on the social network and that 901 million people are currently registered. Finally, the social network announced that users usually upload around 300 million photos per day (average), creating around 3.2 billion likes and comments per day.

Sprint to launch Samsung Galaxy Nexus on April 22

Sprint announced earlier today that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE smartphone will be launching on its network on April 22, 2012. The phone, which will cost $199.99 with a new two-year contract, can be pre-ordered from Sprint's website beginning today.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has the following features:

• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED
• Android OS 4.0 (a.k.a. "Ice Cream Sandwich")
• 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• Google Wallet support

Google reports Q1 2012 financial earnings – $10.65 billion revenue

Today, Google reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, announcing a revenue of $10.65 billion, beating analyst expectations by a wide margin. As far as profit goes, Google reported a solid $8.14 billion in that category, right in target with previous expectations.

In addition, the web giant also unveiled plans to create a non-voting capital stock that will essentially create a 2-for-1 split. The new stock, class C, will also be traded under a separate ticker on NASDAQ.

“Google had another great quarter with revenues up 24% year on year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google.  “We also saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we’ve made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube. We are still at the very early stages of what technology can do to improve people’s lives and we have enormous opportunities ahead.  It is a very exciting time to be at Google.”