HP’s acquisition of Palm was expected to close July 1, after Palm’s stockholders approved the deal at a meeting on June 25, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The acquisition, announced in April, will merge the computer company with Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm WebOS mobile operating system. At the time of the initial announcement, the boards of directors of both companies approved the purchase of Palm for approximately US$1.2 billion, or $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash. According to HP, this agreement will enable the company to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing smartphone and mobile device markets, and it has plans to put Palm’s WebOS on tablets, smartphones and Web-connected PCs.
IBM has opened its largest development lab in North America. The company’s new Mass Lab, with two sites in Massachusetts, has more square footage than Boston’s Fenway Park. According to a statement, the 3,400 IBM employees will work to create software that manages some of world’s most complex process and infrastructure problems, ranging from modernization and automation of railroads, water management, food traceability and healthcare. Additionally, developers are also advancing technologies that focus on collaboration, social networking, cloud computing and analytics, as well as developing software for an increasingly global and mobile workforce.
Alcatel-Lucent has acquired ProgrammableWeb, a provider of APIs for developers creating applications for the Web, mobile devices and other connected applications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ProgrammableWeb, which owns a repository of more than 2,000 Web APIs used by a community of hundreds of thousands of developers, will continue to operate as its own entity, according to an announcement of the acquisition. The deal gives Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Enablement strategy greater strength by combining the network capabilities of service providers with the speed and creativity of Web development to give the end user a richer experience, the announcement said. John Musser, who founded ProgrammableWeb, will join Alcatel-Lucent but will continue to oversee the API repository.
IBM is to acquire Coremetrics, a provider of Web analytics software. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. According to a statement, the privately held company will expand IBM’s business analytics capabilities by enabling organizations to use a cloud-based delivery model to gain real-time insight into internal consumer interactions and gain intelligence through social media networks to develop faster, more targeted marketing campaigns. IBM will continue to support and enhance Coremetrics’ technologies and clients, and will integrate the company’s approximately 230 employees into IBM. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter depending on regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, according to a statement. Over the last five years, IBM has invested more than $11 billion in acquisitions to build out its Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organization, which includes more than 5,000 consultants and a network of analytics solution centers.
