pMicrosoft has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Yammer to acquire the enterprise social networking service for $1.2 billion. Yammer will join Microsoft’s Office division, where it will continue as a stand-alone product but will eventually be incorporated into other Microsoft Office products like SharePoint, Office 365, Dynamics, Skype and other cloud services.

Yammer was launched in 2008 and has over 5 million users spread in over 150 countries and serves more than 200,000 enterprises. “We are adding more than 250,000 users every month,” David Sacks, Yammer’s CEO said during a conference call to announce the deal. Yammer will be an organization within Microsoft’s Office division and will continue to be based in San Fransisco after the acquisition.

Samsung Electronics today announced Oh-hyun Kwon will be the company’s new CEO, taking over from Gee-sung Choi, who will be heading to a new corporate strategy position for the entire Samsung group. Choi is widely regarded as the man who turned around Samsung’s fortunes and cemented the company’s leadership in smartphone business to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor.

Prior to this announcement, Kwon was the head of Samsung’s chipset and display component biz, a fast growing area, where the company has become one of the top players. Samsung manufactures processors for Apple’s iPhone and iPad and is the world’s largest supplier of memory chips. Samsung says business will continue as usual and Kwon will continue to head the components business. However, in order to maintain the perception that the components arm of Samsung does not reveal details of rival’s plans, heads of Samsung’s finished goods units like ‘TV and Appliances’ and ‘Telecom and IT’ won’t report to Kwon.

The change of guard at Samsung also indicates the Korean giant’s ambition to control and dominate the fast growing smartphone and tablet markets. Not only does Samsung want to ensure that it sells more smartphones but also the components that go into them, even when it comes to a rival’s products. It also announced investing $1.9 billion in a new logic chip line that will manufacture processors for smartphones and tablets using 20nm and 14nm processing technology.

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Web chat service provider Meebo has been acquired by Google. The terms of the deal have not been announced but it was earlier rumored to be valued by Google for $100 million. Meebo had recently launched Meebo bar that enabled site owners to not only share more of their content and engage with users but also deliver ads.

Meebo announced the acquisition on its blog.

We are happy to announce that Meebo has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Google! For more than seven years we’ve been helping publishers find deeper relationships with their users and to make their sites more social and engaging. Together with Google, we’re super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike.

Google is looking at integrating Meebo’s team with its own Google+ team, where its experience could either be used to spread Google+ to non-Google sites beyond the +1 button or to monetize with its expertise to deliver ads along with social experiences or both. Google gave the following statement to TNW confirming Meebo’s integration with Google+.

We are always looking for better ways to help users share content and connect with others across the web, just as they do in real life. With the Meebo team’s expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team. We look forward to closing the transaction and working with the Meebo team to create more ways for users to engage online.

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Sony today announced its transformation plan under new CEO Kazuo Hirai. Some key take-away points:

• Major focus of investment and growth would be on three divisions – digital imaging, video games and mobile products. These divisions are expected to bring 70 percent of sales and 85 percent of profits for the group by 2014.
• Will integrate R&D, design engineering, marketing and sales of Sony Mobile, tablets and VIAO businesses.
• Turn-around of Television business.
• More focus on emerging markets.

Read on for the complete press release.

Tokyo – April 12, 2012 – Sony Corporation (“Sony” or “the Company”) today announced a series of strategic initiatives to be introduced under the new management team established on April 1, 2012. By implementing a rapid decision-making approach that draws on the strengths of the entire Sony Group as “One Sony”, Sony aims to revitalize and grow the electronics business to generate new value, while further strengthening the stable business foundations of the Entertainment and Financial Service businesses.

Nokia today provided a lower devices and services outlook for Q1, 2012 and also provided a grim outlook for the next quarter. The company cites competitive industry dynamics that affected sales in its mobile phones and smart devices divisions in markets where it has typically performed well, especially India, Middle East, Africa and China. Nokia also cites gross margin declines in the smart devices business.

I think it is unheard of in present times when a company is recording a lower gross margin in smartphones (16 percent) when compared to mobile phones (26 percent). The global 20 percent price cut in its Lumia range seems to have had a big impact on the company’s bottomline. The only silver lining is Nokia has sold 2 million units of its Lumia smartphones at an average selling price of Euro 220. Nokia estimates it sold 71 million mobile phones and 12 million smartphones in this quarter. Read on for the complete press release.

Nokia lowers Devices & Services first quarter 2012 outlook and provides second quarter 2012 outlook

Difficult financial performance reflects company in transition

Positive early momentum in Lumia smartphone strategy

April 11, 2012 at 15.00 (CET+1)

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today provided preliminary information on certain aspects of its first quarter 2012 financial performance, including a lowered first quarter 2012 outlook for Devices & Services. During the first quarter 2012, multiple factors negatively affected Nokia’s Devices & Services business to a greater extent than previously expected. These factors included:

- Competitive industry dynamics, which negatively affected net sales in the Mobile Phones and Smart Devices business units, particularly in India, the Middle East and Africa and China; and

- Gross margin declines, particularly in the Smart Devices business unit.

The impact of these factors on the non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the first quarter 2012 was partially offset by a significant benefit from lower warranty costs.

Updated outlook for Devices & Services for the first quarter 2012:

Nokia currently estimates that its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the first quarter 2012 was approximately negative 3 percent, compared to the previously expected range of “around breakeven, ranging either above or below by approximately 2 percentage points” primarily due to the factors noted above.
Outlook for Devices & Services for the second quarter 2012:

Nokia expects its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the second quarter 2012 to be similar to or below the first quarter 2012 level. This outlook reflects that the first quarter 2012 benefit related to lower warranty costs is expected to be non-recurring, as well as expectations regarding a number of factors including:

- competitive industry dynamics continuing to negatively affect the Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units;

- timing, ramp-up, and consumer demand related to new products; and

- the macroeconomic environment.

“Our disappointing Devices & Services first quarter 2012 financial results and outlook for the second quarter 2012 illustrates that our Devices & Services business continues to be in the midst of transition,” said Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia. “Within our Smart Devices business unit, we have established early momentum with Lumia, and we are increasing our investments in Lumia to achieve market success. Our operator and distributor partners are providing solid support for Windows Phone as a third ecosystem, as evidenced most recently by the launch of the Lumia 900 by AT&T in the United States.”

Additional commentary on the first quarter 2012 for Devices & Services and Nokia:

Nokia currently estimates that Devices & Services net sales in the first quarter 2012 were EUR 4.2 billion, comprised of Mobile Phones net sales of EUR 2.3 billion (71 million units), Smart Devices net sales of EUR 1.7 billion (12 million units), and Devices & Services Other net sales of EUR 0.2 billion. Based on the preliminary view, Nokia ended the first quarter 2012 around the high end of our normal 4 to 6 week channel inventory range, but on an absolute unit basis, channel inventories declined sequentially.

Nokia currently estimates that Devices & Services gross margin (including Devices & Services Other) for the first quarter 2012 was approximately 25%, with Mobile Phones gross margin of approximately 26% and Smart Devices gross margin of approximately 16%.

In the first quarter 2012, Nokia sold more than 2 million Lumia devices at an average selling price of approximately EUR 220 (reported within the Smart Devices business unit). Furthermore, Nokia has seen sequential growth in Lumia device activations every month since starting sales of Lumia devices in November 2011. Lumia has gained market share with both distribution partners and consumers. The Windows Phone ecosystem is also attracting developers and has expanded rapidly with more than 80,000 applications available.

Nokia currently estimates that at the end of the first quarter 2012, the company’s gross cash and other liquid assets were approximately EUR 9.8 billion, and Nokia’s net cash and other liquid assets were approximately EUR 4.9 billion. The sequential decline in net cash and other liquid assets was driven by Devices & Services, which experienced unfavorable and mostly non-recurring net working capital changes as well as operating losses. Nokia Siemens Networks contributed positively to Nokia’s cash flow in the first quarter 2012 due to net working capital improvements. This was despite Nokia Siemens Networks having a preliminarily estimated non-IFRS operating margin of approximately negative 5 percent in the first quarter 2012, in line with the previously provided outlook.

Actions to Address Competitive Industry Dynamics Affecting Devices & Services

Nokia is quickly taking action. Nokia will continue to increase its focus on accelerating Lumia sales, as well as on lowering the company’s cost structure, improving cash flow and maintaining a strong financial position.

- In the Smart Devices business unit, Nokia is increasing investments in Lumia to bring more products to more consumers in more markets.

- In the Mobile Phones business unit, Nokia is taking tactical pricing actions in the near term and plans to bring new products to market in the second quarter 2012.

- Nokia will accelerate planned cost reductions and will pursue additional significant structural actions if and when necessary.

“We are continuing to increase the clock speed of the company,” said Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia. “The change is tangible, and we are proud of the way Nokia employees are quickly responding to the needs of consumers and partners.”

Nokia will provide full first quarter results and more details when it reports its first quarter 2012 results on April 19, 2012.

Even as Google waits for approval from Chinese authorities for its $12.5 billion acquisition bid for Motorola Mobility, rumors are apparently rife that it could sell off Motorola’s handset business to Huawei. Intomobile seems to have sparked this rumor but it isn’t exactly anything new. Both Huawei and ZTE were considered to be prime candidates to scoop up the handset business, that is if Google put it up for sale.

I do not see any reason for Google to do that, though some analysts would point out Google would alienate its OEM partners if it kept Motorola’s handset business. While Google had initially justified Motorola Mobility’s 17,000 patents as the reason for the acquisition, it always maintained it will keep Motorola as a complete separate division outside of Google. Read on.

Google’s interest in hardware can be judged from CEO, Larry Page’s comments in his recent letter, in which he wrote: “We are excited about the opportunities to build great devices capitalizing on the tremendous success and growth of Android and Motorola’s long history of technological innovation.”

Even if we consider Google putting up Motorola’s handset business for sale, the chances of Huawei getting approval for the same are next to impossible. There is already enough lobbying against Chinese telecom firms including Huawei and ZTE in the US, where the bone of contention being not only the management’s links to the Chinese government (usually refuted by companies) but also the fact that government does not provide a level playing field in telecom projects in China.

Last year, Huawei had to walk away from its $2 million acquisition of 3Leaf, a startup, following a probe by US Committee of Foreign Investment. If the authorities are not comfortable with Huawei acquiring a small American startup, I have my doubts about it ever approving acquisition of a company with thousands of employees around the world.

I rest my case.

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“On April 4, the company barred entry to the factory to 52 workers without any reason. The management has also initiated an enquiry against the workers. We are protesting against these actions. Representations sent to Nokia Siemens Network’s headquarters in Finland did not elicit any response,” E. Muthukumar, president of Nokia Siemens Networks India Thozhilalar Sangam, which is affiliated to Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said.

Tracing the genesis of the labour problem, Muthukumar said: “The workers’ trouble with the management has been simmering since February when another union wanted to establish a base. Immediately the company transferred 15 workers to Kolkata without giving any advance notice or joining time. We later took up the transfer issue with the management.”

He said all the 260 permanent workers were not allowed inside the factory between Feb 15-23.

“At the conciliation meeting held by the Assistant Commissioner of Labour, the management agreed that the workers would be allowed and other issues would be sorted out by talks. Today (Monday) the company announced initiation of enquiry against the 52 workers, including union office bearers,” Muthukumar said.

Nokia Siemens Networks has its plant at Oragadam, around 45 km from here, and employs 260 permanent workers and 100 contract labourers.

“The production operations at Oragadam facility are running normally. We have offered our colleagues an opportunity to have an open dialogue to understand the employees’ concerns in a manner that is mutually conducive and rational in approach. We continue to treat all our employees with utmost respect and appreciation as we have in the past,” Satendra Singh, head of manufacturing operations, India was quoted in a statement issued by the company.

Refuting that Muthukumar said: “Production has come to a halt. Around 170 workers are on sit-in strike and several workers are outside the factory gates. We have asked female workers to be at home.”

A conciliation meeting is slated between the union, management at the Assistant Labour Commissioner’s office Tuesday.

Sony is set to reduce its workforce by an estimated 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global total workforce. These cuts would happen over the next two fiscal years, ending in March 2014 and are a part of the new restructuring plan by new CEO Kaz Hirai, which will be announced at the corporate strategy meeting on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company will also be selling or spinning off businesses which are not earning the brand any profits such as its television division, where Sony is again expected to lose money for an eighth straight year. The company’s plan to reduce its workforce was first reported by Japan’s Nikkei newspaper today where it reported the cuts would come into effect by the end of this year. Sony denied this newspaper report in an interview with the BBC.

This restructuring will be the company’s second major overhaul in four years. In late 2008, during the global financial crisis, Sony axed 16,000 jobs and closed a number of factories. Messrs Stringer, Kaz Hirai and five other executive officers are also expected to forgo their bonuses for the fiscal year that ended in March, like reported earlier today.

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“Substantial change is what RIM needs,” said CEO Thorsten Heins while addressing shareholders and analysts to announce the BlackBerry manufacturer’s fiscal year 2012 earnings. RIM posted a loss of $125 million on a revenue of $4.2 billion (down 19 percent from Q3) and saw its smartphone sales dropping a whopping 21 percent from the preceding quarter to 11.1 million units. RIM also announced its former Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, CTO David Yach and COO Jim Rowan would be leaving the company.

Just 10 weeks after stepping into the CEO position, Heins has been more forthcoming in accepting the problems plaguing the company and is willing to do something about it, a departure from his former bosses and Co-CEOs, who founded the company. “We are undertaking a comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures,
licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM’s assets and maximize value for our stakeholders,” he said during the call.

Apart from sweeping changes at the top management, Heins is also convinced RIM should focus on its core user base – enterprises – rather than focusing on consumers. “We plan to refocus on enterprise. We believe BlackBerry cannot succeed by being everybody’s darling and all things to all people,” he announced. “It became clear to me that it would be extremely difficult for RIM to develop this initiative (consumer VAS) into a profitable value added services business at this time. With the heavy ongoing investment required to run this initiative does not make sense in RIM’s current position and marketing strength,” he added.

RIM has 77 million BlackBerry customers globally but its market share is decreasing in the US and Europe. Most of its growth is coming from emerging countries with predominant prepaid market and more sales of entry-level Curve series offering than its higher-end Bold series. RIM has sold 40 million units of the Curve series and is going to launch new models in that series in coming weeks.

The absence of a popular all-touch product as well as LTE-enabled smartphones means RIM has no chance of gaining (or even maintaining) its market share in the US and other major markets till devices running on its new BlackBerry 10 OS are available towards the end of the year. RIM’s BlackBerry 7 smartphones did not sell well in these markets and the company lost $267 million on inventory provisions on these products. This is in addition to the $54 million hit RIM took as a result of a global service outage last year and $485 million on account of unsold PlayBook inventory.

Things look bleak for RIM this year as its average selling price will keep dropping as it will have a higher mix of entry-level products where it will also face greater competition and pricing wars. The company is entering what could be a fatal spiral, especially if there are any further delays in the introduction of BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

HTC’s Beats Electronics is tipped to acquire MOG, a music subscription service, for an undisclosed amount, according to a Reuters report. The two companies have been in talks for weeks and the acquisition could happen within the next fortnight. HTC has been rumored to launch its own music subscription service in order to differentiate its products from other Android vendors.

MOG has over 500,000 users but it is not clear whether HTC would be able to launch the service globally considering geographic license restrictions that music labels enforce on such services. HTC holds a controlling stake in Beats Electronics after it invested $300 million last year. At last month’s MWC, the fifth largest smartphone vendor in the world also opened APIs for third-part app developers to take advantage of Beats audio technology in their games and services.

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Spreadtrum, a fabless semiconductor provider in China, has invested $10 million (approximately Rs 50 crore) in Micromax Mobile and will become one of Micromax’s preferred chipset vendors. Till now, Micromax has typically launched phones that run either on MediaTek or Qualcomm’s chipsets.

With this partnership, the two companies will work together through a joint R&D collaboration to deliver feature-rich innovations across Micromax’s portfolio of products. Micromax currently ships more than 60 models ranging from dual-SIM feature phones to 3G Android smartphones. Spreadtrum will collaborate with Micromax on the development of new innovative products in order to gain major market share.

According to Spreadtrum’s website, Samsung used its chipsets in the Chinese variant of the Galaxy Note. Apart from feature phone solutions, it also has chipsets for entry-level Android 2.2 smartphones as well as mid-end smartphones running on Android 2.3 with 1GHz processor (albeit on ARM A5). It also has TD-LTE chipsets in its portfolio. The company had $267.5 million in cash and cash-equivalent at the end of December 2011 and clocked a revenue of approximately $675 million in fiscal year 2011, up over 94 percent from 2010.

Micromax has an established sales presence across India and in Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri-Lanka, Maldives, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan and Brazil. It claims to be the 12th largest cellphone vendor globally and ships over four million handsets every quarter. Micromax made its name in India by launching its dual-SIM phone portfolio when the likes of Nokia and Samsung had dismissed the category all together.

This investment is likely to open up Spreadtrum’s doors to the Indian market, where many home-grown brands aspire to become the next Micromax.

ABC recently became the latest news organization to be given a look inside consumer electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn’s facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, and the Nightline special that resulted from the trip will air on Tuesday. In the meantime, ABC News has posted a 90-second teaser video containing footage from reporter Bill Weir’s trip to China. Apple, of course, is the only Foxconn partner mentioned in the preview so we can expect the forthcoming report to focus on the Cupertino-based company’s wares, but the teaser promises a never-before-seen look at Foxconn’s facilities so it could be an eye-opening segment. Foxconn and its premier partner Apple have once again taken center stage in a human rights debate that recently saw protesters deliver a petition to Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store demanding the technology giant play a more active role in improving working conditions in the Chinese factories that assemble its hardware. ABC’s teaser video follows after the break.

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This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Barely hours after getting a nod from the European Commision, US Department of Justice (DoJ) has also gives its approval for Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola. The American regulator commented that given Motorola’s history of using its patents, it is unlikely that the sale to Google will drastically alter market dynamics. It also approved the sale of Nortel’s patents and Apple’s acquisition of Novell’s patents. Read on…

The Department of Justice noted:

The evidence shows that Motorola Mobility has had a long and aggressive history of seeking to capitalize on its intellectual property and has been engaged in extended disputes with Apple, Microsoft and others.  As Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility is unlikely to materially alter that policy, the division concluded that transferring ownership of the patents would not substantially alter current market dynamics.  This conclusion is limited to the transfer of ownership rights and not the exercise of those transferred rights.

The judgement also approved the acquisition of Nortel’s patents by a consortium comprising Apple, Microsoft and RIM. It also approved Apple’s acquisition of Novell’s patents. The DoJ noted that none of these deals would change the competitive market landscape significantly though it will be keeping a close eye on Google and how it uses Motorola’s standard essential patents.

During the course of the division’s investigation, several of the principal competitors, including Google, Apple and Microsoft, made commitments concerning their SEP licensing policies.  The division’s concerns about the potential anti-competitive use of SEPs was lessened by the clear commitments by Apple and Microsoft to license SEPs on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, as well as their commitments not to seek injunctions in disputes involving SEPs.  Google’s commitments were more ambiguous and do not provide the same direct confirmation of its SEP licensing policies.

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Google today announced it has received a nod from the European Commission for its pending purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The acquisition, which was announced on August 15 last year, still has a few hoops to jump before fruition but Google has crossed one big hurdle in the form of the European Commission which is renowned for its anti-trust proceedings (just ask Microsoft). Google is still awaiting to hear from a few other jurisdictions (including American) but the deal is expected to be closed by the end of this quarter.

Google has its hopes pinned on the Motorola acquisition as it would give its hardware partners some much needed patent love to take on the likes of Apple and Microsoft, who have their patent guns trained on major Android OEMs, especially Samsung and HTC – the two largest sellers of Android smartphones. Microsoft has managed to get almost every OEM and vendor on board to pay it royalty for every Android device shipped. However, this deal is much bigger than Motorola’s patent trove alone.

With Motorola under its command, Google will also acquire hardware design and manufacturing capabilities with some of the finest hardware engineers and industrial designers in the business. It is rumored that Google is already flirting with the idea of having its own branded hardware, starting with a home entertainment system. Motorola will also give it some leverage for Android-running set top boxes.

Though Google has said time and again that it will run Motorola as a separate entity, which would not have any impact on its relationship with rival smartphone vendors, it will also give them more legroom to get things done their way when negotiating with its hardware partners. It will always have Motorola to fall back to in case others try to play hardball, which is always a good thing. And lest we forget, Google’s co-founders have always fostered an Apple-envy and the idea of “controlling the entire widget” can be expected to be playing in their minds. You have to be naive to think that Intel’s multi-year, multi-device partnership with Motorola has nothing to do with the pending acquisition by Google.

Stay tuned as it will be weeks and not months before Google closes the deal and displays some awesome Googorola magic as this year’s Google I/O to be held in the latter part of June.

The “Apple is worth more than” meme has gotten plenty of play over the past year, but a new measure of Apple’s success emerged on Monday that is as simple as it is monumental: a single share of Apple stock now costs more than an iPad. As of the open of the market on Monday, Apple’s stock rose just above $499 — the entry-level price of Apple’s iPad 2 — undoubtedly on its way to $500 and beyond. The Cupertino-based firm that once teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and was saved in part by a $150 million investment from Microsoft is now worth more than Microsoft and Google combined. Read on for more.

Apple shares exploded last month after the company reported earnings for its first fiscal quarter. The firm’s $13.06 billion in profit was the most ever recorded in a single quarter by a technology company, and the second most ever recorded by any company in the United States.

Apple now has more than $100 billion in cash — the company reported that the total value of its cash and marketable securities reached $97.6 billion at the end of the first fiscal quarter — and it is about to unveil a brand new version of its popular iPad tablet, the Retina Display-equipped iPad 3. Apple is then expected to enter brand new territory for the firm when it launches the “iTV” this summer, and a completely redesigned iPhone will likely follow this fall.

No company stays on top forever, but things aren’t expected to slow down any time soon for Apple. In fact, those sky-high price targets some scoffed at last year really aren’t looking so outlandish anymore. OK, maybe a few of them still are.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com