Technology, Mergers & Acquisitions | featured news

News Corp. isn’t ready to pull the plug on MySpace just yet, but it is prepared to cut the cord. CEO Mike Jones told employees yesterday that the media conglomerate is “exploring strategic options” for the past-its-prime social network. That could mean a sale, a merger (Yahoo could be a candidate) or a spinoff. The last scenario is the most likely, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Yahoo's inability to snap out of a financial funk may be about to turn the Internet company into a takeover target for the second time in less than three years.

Amazon.com has reached an agreement to buy the Spanish internet retailer BuyVip for around $96.5 million, a person close to the matter said.

AOL has been in talks to acquire technology blog TechCrunch, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Video ad network VideoEgg has announced that it has agreed to acquire blogging pioneer Six Apart, the company behind TypePad and Movable Type. As part of the acquisition, both companies will drop their names and be renamed SAY Media.

Dell on Thursday withdrew from the bidding for 3Par, which agreed to be acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $33 per share.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is bidding $1.5 billion for data storage provider 3Par Inc., offering 33 percent more than what rival Dell Inc. agreed to pay for the company just a week earlier.

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy struggling smart-phone maker Palm for nearly $1 billion in cash. HP said Palm's webOS operating system will help it compete in the smart-phone market.

Apple has purchased chip start-up Intrinsity whose technology analysts say was behind the chip used in the new iPad.

Google has acquired DocVerse, a technology start-up that allows people to collaborate on Microsoft Office files online, for about $25 million.