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Adobe buys Web analytics firm for $1.8 billion
Adobe has agreed to buy Web analytics company Omniture for US$1.8 billion in cash, the companies said Tuesday. The price San Jose, California-based Adobe is paying for the company, which is $21.50 per share, is at a 45 percent premium over Omniture’s average closing price for the last 30 trading days. Adobe, known for multimedia design, Web-development and document-creation software such as Flash, Dreamweaver and Acrobat, said the purchase will help the company add Web analytics and optimization capabilities directly to those products.
Intel fights European anti-trust ruling
Intel has asked Europe’s second highest court to annul last May’s antitrust ruling against the company, accusing the regulators of erring in law and of producing sloppy analysis, according to details of the appeal made public Tuesday. The European Commission, the European Union’s top antitrust authority, fined Intel a record US$1.45 billion in May for abusing its dominant position in the microprocessor chip market in Europe, at the expense of its only significant rival, Advanced Micro Devices. The Commission ordered the firm to stop handing out rebates to PC manufacturers and retailers on condition of near or total exclusivity. It also ordered Intel to stop paying PC makers to delay the launch of models equipped with AMD chips.
Google offers services to Uncle Sam
Google will offer cloud-computing services designed specifically for U.S. government agencies starting next year, the company announced Tuesday at NASA Ames Research Center. The services will give government agencies a way to purchase services such as Google Apps, by ensuring that they meet regulatory requirements. Google is now in talks with several government agencies about the services but has yet to sign up a customer, Glotzbach said, speaking with reporters at a federal government cloud-computing event. The services will be hosted in Google’s existing data centers, but on systems that are compliant with government regulations.
Facebook hits 300 million users
Facebook has passed the 300 million-member mark worldwide, as well as turned free cash-flow positive ahead of schedule, the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced Tuesday. While having 300 million members is “a large number,” it’s just a start on the social-networking company’s goal of connecting “everyone,” Zuckerberg said. As the user base continues to grow, the company faces “fun and important challenges” related to making the Facebook site perform faster and more efficiently, he said, perhaps alluding to Facebook Lite, the new stripped-down version of the site that is built for speed and has been well-received. The company, which is privately held and doesn’t offer a lot of financial details about its business, had expected to be free cash-flow positive next year, but achieved that goal in this year’s second quarter instead
