WebProNews

Microsoft Sells Fast Search & Transfer Businesses

Perhaps Yahoo has started a trend.  Yesterday, we learned that the company will shut down part of a business it bought two and a half years ago.  Today, there's word that Microsoft's sold some things it picked up while acquiring Fast Search & Transfer in early 2008.

GE/Comcast NBC Universal Deal Said to Be Complete

CNBC reports that the deal between GE and Comcast over a majority stake in NBC Universal is complete, and will likely be announced officially Thursday morning. This comes from what CNBC attributes as a "source close to the merger". According to the report, GE and Comcast are waiting on Vivendi to sign an agreement, selling its 20% stake, which is worth about $5.8 billion. CNBC's David Faber outlines the deal:

Australia, Canada Approve Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

We'll admit it: so far, most conversations concerning the Microsoft-Yahoo deal and antitrust issues have related to the U.S. and Europe.  Still, two potential roadblocks were eliminated yesterday when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau signaled their intent not to oppose the partnership.

Twitter Cofounder Talks Again About Acquisitions

There's no need to start refreshing the Twitter Blog every five seconds; it doesn't sound like any pens are poised over paper at the moment.  However, Biz Stone has made some statements concerning acquisitions that point to more of them taking place in the future.

Google Obtains Access To TiVo Data

Google TV Ads is about to become a significantly more powerful marketing system.  A new pact with TiVo will allow Google to gather (and then pass on) very precise data about which commercials are being viewed, and even (to a lesser degree) who is doing the watching.

Google Gets a New Real-Time Infrastructure for Display Ads

Google just announced that it is acquiring Teracent, a provider of "intelligent dynamic display advertising." The company considers itself a pioneer in dynamic ad serving and optimization solutions. Google appears to agree.

eBay Completes Skype Sale

It looks like the eBay-Skype spectacle has finally come to a close.  Despite all of the arguments (legal and otherwise) that cropped up at one point or another, representatives of both companies announced last night that the sale of Skype to an investor group is complete.

MySpace Picks Up Imeem

Imeem, which was able to declare itself "the first and only social networking service to secure licenses from all four major music companies" about two years ago, now appears to be folding.  Reports indicate that MySpace is set to acquire the business for a rather piddling amount. Imeem was once a fairly successful organization.  In addition to sealing the music company deals, it'd earned the backing of Sequoia Capital (which funded Apple, Yahoo, Google, and YouTube over the years), and was attracting around 25 million visitors per month.

Yahoo and Microsoft May Be Close to Signing

Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal.

YouTube, Univision Announce Partnership

YouTube's struck another content-sharing partnership, and it's a big one.  Univision, which is the top Spanish-language broadcast network in America, has agreed to supply the video-sharing site with both short clips and full shows.