Blackstone Group bows out of its $25bn (£16.3bn) offer for Dell, thereby, paving the way for Michael Dell and his private equity partner Silver Lake to go ahead with a $24.4bn (£15.9bn) to acquire the world’s third biggest PC maker. Blackstone’s withdrawal from the deal follows reservations expressed by Blackstone’s private equity fund investors on the merits of the deal, and concerns that the stock market had already valued Dell…

Dish Network has made a $25.5bn (£16.6bn) takeover bid for mobile phone firm Sprint Nextel which could launch a mobile bid war with Japan’s phone operator Softbank. Sprint shareholders would receive $7 a share, which is 13% higher than its closing price on Friday of $6.22. This includes $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 Dish shares for every Sprint share. Last year, mobile phone company Softbank announced a $20bn…

Fairsearch Europe (FE), which includes hi-tech firms like Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Expedia and Trip Advisor, has exhorted the European Union (EU) to investigate Google over supposed unjust practices in the mobile smartphone marketplace. FE has alleged that the Android operating system is a deceptive way to dominate the mobile marketplace. FE consists of firms, which are opponents of Google, and whose positions have been eaten into by Google.

Cisco has taken over Ubiquisys, a small-cell technologies provider, for $310m (£205m) to strengthen its mobile services portfolio. Ubiquisys is the latest company to be acquired by a larger US participant. Through the cash and retention-based incentives deal, Cisco plans to expand its wireless portfolio and couple Ubiquisys’ technology with its own mobility and Wi-Fi offerings.

The much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4, release date of which is set on April 26 across 155 countries, has already been given a thumbs down by investors, sending Samsung stocks plunging by 2.63% in Seoul on Friday. Samsung Galaxy S4, which launched today, comes with a bigger screen and software that tracks eye movements. With a 5-inch screen, 13-megapixel camera and motion-detection technology that lets users control features with face movements,…

Sony chairman Howard Stringer, who was the first foreign president of the electronic giant, has announced his retirement scheduled in June. Howard Stringer is quitting his position as chairman to focus on his role as a board member of companies in the education and healthcare sectors and would continue as chairman of the American Film Institute. The announcement of his departure came last week during a speech at the Japan…

Google has announced 1,200 job cuts at its Motorola Mobility division in an effort to revive the loss-making unit which it acquired for $12.5bn (£8.3bn) last year. The layoffs will mainly affect Google employees in US, China and India. The internet giant had cut 4,000 jobs at Motorola Mobility in August last year as Google seeks to make more smartphones and fewer simple handsets. Motorola Mobility was Google’s biggest takeover…

Groupon has ousted its founder and chief executive Andrew Mason after the daily deals company suffered due to accounting manipulations, low earnings and falling stock price. The widely-expected move came after Groupon posted another quarterly loss, leading to a 24% slide in its stock price on Thursday. Speculation has been rife since last year that Andrew Mason’s days as Groupon head were numbered, prompting him to state last November that,…

As Apple CEO Tim Cook battles to come to terms with falling stock price of the technology giant, shareholders protest over his pay. Apple stocks fell by around 35% from its September high and boss Tim Cook was given a 51% hike in pay last year, while other members of the management team were given big equity awards, despite disappointing results announced at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting at Cupertino in…

PayPal, the online payments service owned by eBay, is entering the UK mobile payments market with its own chip-and-pin service. The new service, called ‘PayPal Here’, makes it easier for small traders such as ice cream sellers, market stall holders and taxi firms to accept card payments through the chip-and-pin device. PayPal Here is aimed at smaller businesses which may find it costly to take card payments and have traditionally relied on…