Acquisition | featured news

Drugstore operator Walgreen Co. says it will spend about $429 million to buy online retailer drugstore.com in a deal that gives it access to 3 million online customers.

AT&T announced on Sunday that it agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom, in a $39 billion deal that will reshape the cellular telephone industry. The merger — one of the largest since the onset of the financial crisis — would combine the second and fourth largest cellular carriers in the nation, bringing together AT&T’s 95.5 million wireless subscribers with T-Mobile’s 33.7 million customers.

Google (GOOG) has acquired Green Parrot Pictures, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of digital video.

Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to acquire the specialty chemical company Lubrizol for $9 billion in cash in one of the largest acquisitions in the conglomerate's history.

Google has broken new ground in the personal finance realm with the purchase of UK price comparison website BeatThatQuote for $61.5 million (£37.7 million GBP).

Google's mergers and acquisitions chief said he plans to be aggressive this year, despite challenges that include soaring valuations for some Web start-ups.

Disney (DIS) has acquired Rocket Pack, a Helsinki-based start up producing HTML5 video games, TechCrunch reports. Terms weren’t disclosed, but TechCrunch says one source said the deal was valued at between $10 million and $20 million. The story adds that the company’s software allows the creation of games that run in Web browsers, with no plug-in or Flash required.

The deal is widely seen as an effort by the News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch to bring his daughter Elisabeth back into his media empire.

Google is in final-stage discussions to acquire online video site Next New Networks, people familiar with the matter said.

The deal would give AOL a major presence in journalism, demonstrating the company’s intention to rely more heavily on online advertising.