Internet, Acquisition | featured news

Content has become a large initiative on LinkedIn’s web property, but it hasn’t translated as well to its mobile apps. More users are shifting to mobile, and as the Pulse team was mostly focused on mobile, they can contribute to LinkedIn’s content efforts specifically on mobile platforms.

After last years' talk of Facebook wanting to acquire WhatsApp, a new report states that Google is interested in buying the popular messenger service. According to DigitalTrends, which is quoting inside sources, WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google. The report states that the deal started four or five weeks ago and adds that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest online retailer that got its start in bookselling, has agreed to buy book recommendations site Goodreads. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

An app created by a UK teenager has been acquired by web giant Yahoo in a deal the BBC understands to be worth "dozens of millions" of pounds. Seventeen-year-old Nick D'Aloisio's Summly app summarises news stories from popular media companies.

Yahoo is in talks to buy a controlling stake in online-video site Dailymotion, in what would be Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's first major acquisition.

Zillow has agreed to acquire rental and real estate search startup HotPads for $16 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The deal is the online real estate company’s first acquisition of a consumer-facing and its sixth acquisition overall in the past two years.

Priceline is buying Kayak in a $1.8 billion cash-and-stock deal, adding a travel search site that went public earlier this year.

Yahoo (YHOO) announced its first acquisition under CEO Marissa Mayer on Thursday, a New York-based mobile startup named Stamped that was founded by two former Google (GOOG) employees and received financing from celebrities including Justin Bieber.

The New York Times Company has agreed to sell the About Group, which includes the About.com network of topic sites, to Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp for about $300 million in cash, the company said on Sunday.

The New York Times Company has a letter of intent to sell the online resource guide to Answers.com, an online question-and-answer site, for $270 million, according to an executive familiar with the negotiations.