TechBooky

It is now confirmed, Microsoft say is buying code-repository platform, GitHub for $7.5b (about the same amount it paid for Nokia’s mobile business four years ago. GitHub was valued at $2b three years ago). Well this is not by any way the biggest Microsoft acquisition so far, you’ll recall that Microsoft had to fork out $26.2b to buy social professional networking site LinkedIn two years ago. Like I said in my last article , it makes sense for Microsoft to be buying GitHub at the this time from business to technology reasons but for starters, GitHub is probably the largest code repository and has big companies including Google and Microsoft hosting some projects on it including documentation. The platform reportedly has 85 million repositories with 28 million developers contributing hence the tag; the nerdy Facebook or Facebook for developers. Under the new arrangement, GitHub gets a new CEO in the person of Nat Friedman, the founder of Xamarin who will in turn report to M...

Just last night, Bloomberg broke the news that Microsoft was buying coding platform GitHub . The formal declaration is expected later today though. According to the report, “GitHub preferred selling the company to going public and chose Microsoft partially because it was impressed by Nadella, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Terms of the agreement weren’t known on Sunday. GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in 2015.” That said, it is also reported that developers did not take the news well as some have threatened to switch to a rival, GitLab. As much as the developers may not be happy with the deal which could mean integration of more Microsoft tools and platforms but be that as it may, Microsoft is the biggest software maker in the world and it only makes sense that it would be one to acquire it. Azure is the certainly the big price here for Microsoft which will further bring the compete ion to AWS. By a...

PayPal just clinched its biggest takeover ever. PayPal, a U.S based electronic payment company just acquired a small Swedish business commerce startup iZettle , — the Stockholm-based payments provider commonly referred to as the “Square of Europe”. A European startup that sells mobile credit card readers and other payment platforms, for $2.2 billion as announced in a blog post. iZettle was launched back in 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson in Stockholm. The startup was created with the aim of helping small businesses, and so far, it has reached out and empowered about half a million of merchants across 11 countries. Stockholm-based iZettle is one of Europe’s best known fintech companies. Serving nine countries in Western Europe, as well as Brazil and Mexico, iZettle offers financial products for small businesses, including payments through smartphones. The acquisition (the largest in PayPal’s history) comes only two weeks after iZettle announced its...

With so much deliberation, plans and confirmation by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the sale of one of the largest telecommunication service (9 mobile) in Nigeria, the plans came to a halt when Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja stopped the sale of 9mobile because stakeholders of the company are not part of the acquisition process. This ruling came after the preferred bidder, Teleology Holdings, made a down payment of $50 million being the 10% non-refundable fee for the acquisition of 9mobile and which comes with a 90-day deadline to complete the payment as confirmed by The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). According to Vanguard , Justice Nyako gave the order to stop the sale of the telecommunication firm while ruling on an ex parte motion brought by the aggrieved shareholders of 9mobile that took the matter to court , complaining of being left out in the telecommunications company’s decision-making process. The plaintiffs — Afdin...

  Jump bikes has a new owner; Uber. Uber, the ride hailing giants made its first acquisition under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Jump Bikes, a startup that rents out electric dockless bikes in San Francisco and Washington DC. The New York City-based e-bike startup has been working with Uber for two months on a pilot to integrate bike-sharing options into Uber’s app. Apparently that trial went well because now Jump will become a subsidiary of Uber, and the ride-hailing company will take a leap into a brand new industry, with a different set of challenges and pitfalls. The bike-sharing company Jump, launched in 2011 as a Social Bicycles that runs GPS-enabled programs in twelve cities all over the world, including Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona. In San Francisco, where it has 250 bikes, and Washington and about 100 Jump employees will be joining Uber. Jump’s offerings are both electric and dockless—twin cycling innovations that helped kick off a nationwide (and glo...

Zinox recently acquired e-commerce site Konga following claims of a supposed restructuring or perhaps, a shortage of financial backup to keep the company moving. The country has experienced a phase of economic instability which has affected entirely of some firms, including Etisalat and OLX. It, therefore, doesn"t come as a surprise that the new Konga and Yudala have merged or are proposing a merger (since there"s yet to be an official statement). Punch Nigeria reported that that the merger was part of a strategy to build a stronger and better brand to ward off their biggest competitor, Jumia. With both infrastructures combined, they can attain market leadership in the e-commerce industry. A merger between both firms will be a game changer for the e-commerce industry in Nigeria. After the departure of OLX and former Konga, Jumia has been without competition. Moreover, following complaints from some unsatisfied online shoppers who allege that the site sells counterfeit produc...

How often do you use GIF? It could be a way of expressing a feeling, a gesture or a remark. GIF is one of the basic tools most people add to their messages via social media platforms to help spice up their conversations. Google has added the GIF platform Tenor among it"s list of acquisitions owned by the company. Tenor, a four-year-old startup that attracts about 300 million people per month to its GIF search tool, where more than 12 billion search requests are made per month. It will continue to run under the Tenor brand within Google. Google stated that the startup will help Google Images and other products that use GIFs such as Gboard chat to help the search giant show users “the right GIFs in the moment” that matches the users mood. Google’s director of engineering Cathy Edwards said in a blog post. “Most people now use Google Images to find more information about a topic, and to help them communicate and express themselves— case in point, we see millio...

The search giant and world"s second most valuable company by market capitalisation pulled out $2.4 billion to buy New York"s famous Chelsea Market . The deal started earlier this year but was just concluded with the seller “ Jamestown ” a real estate investment and management company based in Atlanta and Cologne, Germany. In 2010, Google had paid $1.7 billion for the building facing the market which has 275,000 square meters of office floor space which is at 111 Eighth Ave and was bought from Jamestown real estate firm. And in 1913, they acquired an office in the Chelsea Market building which was built by Architect Albert G. Zimmerman, which serves as an office for the Google-owned online Company YouTube. Google already occupied a large space of the 1.2 million-square-foot complex, which is best known for its ground floor hall filled with restaurants and shops that are visited by a half million New Yorkers and tourists from all over the world. The real estate transaction be...

US President Donald Trump blocks Broadcom buyout of Qualcomm Looks like the big competition to Intel may not be happening after all as its shares jumped over 4%, hitting a record high of $53.76, Tuesday morning after US President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom’s proposed $117 billion buyout of Qualcomm . The arrangement would have made a noteworthy competitor for the chip maker. Intel, which generally has not been a noteworthy player in mobile chips, has been attempting to develop its essence in the fragment and even considered entering a contending offer for Qualcomm to fight off the risk of expanded rivalry. Citing national security concerns, President Donald Trump on Monday blocked a Singapore-based company from buying the American Qualcomm even as some accuse him of pushing his "protectionist" agenda forward in spite of concerns such moves could attract a retaliation from other countries.  In a White House website post , the US President said “There is credible evide...

Apple has acquired a digital magazine company Texture that’s best described as a Netflix for magazines. This means that a fixed subscription fee monthly, you get access to different publications monthly. While the terms of the deal have not yet been made public, reports have it that the iPhone maker intends to pay Texture investors as part of the deal and going by that, it means investors who have put in an estimated $50m will be getting their money back. Apple says the acquisition is an indication that it is committed to quality journalism. Unlike its News aggregation app which publishes news from partner publishers and is available as a free service, the intention here might be beyond just “quality journalism” and could be an investment decision that could see Apple add to a list of applications contributing to its services. You see Apple has been promoting its services such as Apple Pay, Beats products, Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store and iTunes among others. I...