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It is looking like Helio customers may soon be making their monthly payments to Virgin Mobile. Recent reports coming from a Helio “tipster” are claiming that we can expect to see some of their corporate stores and kiosks begin to close very soon.

It has also been mentioned that Helio and Virgin were looking towards a merger, but it seems that Virgin has backed out of those talks and the merger will not be happening. At least not without some drastic changes first. Those changes are said to be that Helio either considers a bankruptcy claim or a major liquidation. Which seems to fit nicely in line with those stores beginning to close.

Helio, while maybe not offering the widest selection of handsets does at least have a solid group. I would imagine that the customers main change would be who they write their checks to, but I would also hate to see the current selection of Helio handsets to go away, the Ocean for one is a nice, full featured phone at an affordable price. Either way it does not look good for those in the MVNO business, its also pretty safe to say that SK Telecom made a big mistake when they took the controlling stake in Helio.

Via [Gizmodo]

Just when rumors were beginning to circulate that Verizon is planning to acquire Alltel, comes the official announcement that both companies have already reached an agreement. And surely the acquisition numbers involve a big sum of money, totaling to an aggregate transaction value of $28.1 billion which includes Alltel’s equity of approximately $5.9 billion and a projected net debt of $22.2 billion at closing.

So, what does this mean for customers of both companies once the transaction is completed by the end of the year? The range of products and services that customers of both companies have access to will expand to include basic and advanced devices and expanded IN network calling community. Additionally, Alltel customers will have access to advanced services from Verizon that include over-the-air downloadable music from Verizon’s three million song library plus a nationwide network that can provide coast-to-coast experience for customers and industry-leading consumer policies such as Test Drive and Worry Free Guarantees. All of which are being provided by Verizon to its existing customers.

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Remember the rumor back in February that Google was buying Plaxo for $200 million? Well, for the most part, it turned out to be a trumor.  However, instead of Google making the purchase, it turns out that Comcast is doing the buying. The cable company plans to utilize Plaxo to deliver upcoming social-networking features currently in the works for their TV, Internet, and phone service. Plaxo will be used to bridge all three Comcast services together, linking devices such as TVs, DVRs, and wireless devices. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but the two companies have already been working together in developing SmartZone, an online portal available to millions of Comcast broadband and phone customers that provides easy access to several communications tools (e.g., email and voicemail)—all in one place.

Plaxo was founded in 2001 with an original premise of keeping users’ address books updated by automatically sharing data among friends. With the emergence of social networking sites, the start up company now offers capabilities to keep in touch with family and friends by sharing photos, videos, and messages. According to the Plaxo blog:

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CBS and CNET Network has sealed an acquisition agreement that could probably be the next biggest acquisition deal after the failed Microsoft-Yahoo deal. Although the price involved in this acquisition is not as big as the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, the fact is both CBS and CNET Network own some of the most popular internet properties and combining them would elevate CBS into the ranks of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the US.

For a purchase price of $11.50 per share, CBS hopes to acquire CNET Networks by the close of the third quarter this year. Luckily for them, the CNET Board has unanimously approved the proposed deal valued at $1.8 billion.

This deal would certainly be most favorable to CBS, since if you combined the unique visitors of its Internet properties with that of CNET Networks, the company would gain around 54 million unique users per month, with a total of around 200 million users worldwide. This is certainly not a bad deal at all for both companies.

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It is getting tough to tell who’s side is whose in the terrestrial vs extra terrestrial battle going on as all consider the merger of XM and Sirius radio.  Some, like the Department of Justice, see no problems.  Others like two lawmakers who on Friday announced we should take a good, long, hard look at the damage a satellite radio merger might reap and how they should protect us.

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Well after all the hype during these past three months Microsoft has withdrawn their bid for Yahoo. With the final offer coming in at $33 per share or a total of $47.5 billion, that was just not enough to match the $37 per share or $53 billion that Yahoo was requesting. Steve Ballmer was also later quoted as stating that Microsoft would not proceed with a hostile takeover because they felt Yahoo “would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.”

That is that, the deal is dead.

Read [Yahoo! News]

Saturday’s deadline passed with no deal for Microsoft and Yahoo. The two companies have been negotiating for sometime now after Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring it’s rival web portal. Now Microsoft is deciding whether to launch a hostile takeover via proxy fight or to simply drop the deal. Yahoo had no comment but Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell had this to say:

“Unless we make progress with Yahoo towards an agreement by this weekend, we will reconsider our alternatives. We will provide updates as appropriate next week, these alternatives clearly including taking an offer to the Yahoo shareholders, or to withdraw our proposal and focus on other opportunities, both organic and inorganic.”

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Another day another product leak from the FCC, the latest is the Starmate 5 from Sirius, which in by itself would not be that exciting. However in this case based on a memo that switched hands from a “testing firm and the FCC authorization staff” included the possibility of the Starmate 5 supporting Sirius channels as well as XM.

“We used the satellite radio signal coming from either XM or Sirius,”

Which assuming that happens, and note as of now its just speculation as nothing official has been announced, this would be the first hybrid satellite radio receiver. Sounds like a great move, however a very risky move, while the DOJ has given their seal of approval on the merger, its still pending FCC approval which is not expected to take place until sometime late in May or possibly into June.

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As we previously reported, video rental giant Blockbuster has been looking to acquire electronics giant Circuit City. Blockbuster has already offered a whopping $1 billion, but reports are flying in, saying that they cannot fund such a hefty offer.

In an official statement from the company, Circuit City said:

“Circuit City awaits a viable financing structure that is predictably executable by Blockbuster given its current constraints of size and capital structure before it would be appropriate to allow further due diligence.”

While this may be just another attempt to stop the merger in its tracks, Blockbuster has no resistance to going hostile in the bid. More on this as it happens.

Via [Crave]

The courtship began in December with heady bids, chocolate kisses, and flowers. Blockbuster, the movie rental leader was set to hitch Circuit City to it’s star. Making its overtures public on Monday with an offering reportedly worth nearly 1 billion dollars. There were talks of crossing platforms with Circuit City renting movies and Blockbuster selling home electronics. And a day later there were talks that it would never happen. According to published reports, questions about how Blockbuster, a company valued at less then their initial offer to Circuit City would finance such a deal arose. My guess was late fees (I swear I returned that copy of A New Hope and I will fight those charges to the death!) but apparently the pot just didn’t have the gold. So in this post possible merger world how will these companies survive?

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