Time / Golf.com

Magazine giant Time Inc. said Monday it has acquired golf news Web site Golf.com for an undisclosed amount, giving the company the widest print and online reach in the sport.

Time, whose magazines range from Sports Illustrated to Southern Living, said it acquired Golf.com and the company that operates it, SirenServ Inc., from a group of owners including founders NBC Universal Inc., New York Times Co. and private investors.

Golf.com has an average of 1.3 million unique visitors monthly. The site carries coverage of news and developments from the PGA, Champions and Nationwide tours, including hole-by-hole leaderboard results. The site also sells a fee-based membership program that allows eligible golfers to track playing performances.

The site will join Time's existing portfolio on the sport, including Golf magazine, GolfOnline, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus and SI.com's Golf Plus.

Time Warner shares rose 1 cent to $17.08 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

(c) AP

iCarMagic / e-Pencil.com & AutoPencil.com

iCarMagic LLC is pleased to announce that it has completed the asset acquisition of two independent auto dealer software sites: e-Pencil.com and AutoPencil.com. Both companies were involved in helping car dealers prepare and estimate payment options on new and used cars for retail customers. The acquired "pencil" technology has been integrated into iCarMagic's suite of CRM, Website and Inventory tools and will launch on February 1st 2006 in full release.

iCarMagic is the fastest growing customer relationship management software company aimed at the expansive automobile retailing marketplace and is an approved solution for most of the major automobile manufacturers in the United States. The company creates customer relationship software, internet lead management solutions, inventory management systems, websites, DeskLog, AutoPencil and eBay auction services specifically for the automobile retailing industry.

(c) BUSINESS WIRE

Scientific Games / EssNet

Scientific Games Corp., a lottery ticket supplier, said Friday it agreed to acquire substantially all of the online lottery assets of the Swedish firm EssNet AB for about $60 million.

EssNet specializes in online lottery systems and terminals to run numbers games, sports betting, instant tickets and mobile games on a national level.

Lottery customers include seven states in Germany, the national lotteries of Hungary and Norway, Golden Casket and Tattersall's Lottery in Australia and other national lotteries.

The acquisition will include substantially all of EssNet's existing online lottery contracts, as well as related technology and intellectual property. Scientific Games will also retain EssNet's technical staff and game designers.

EssNet's reported online lottery revenues for the first six months of 2005 were roughly $16 million.

Scientific Games will finance the purchase under its existing $250 million revolving credit facility. The company expects the acquisition to boost earnings.

Scientific Games shares rose 15 cents to $31.16 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.

(c) AP

WebMD Health / eMedicine.com

WebMD Health Corp., a leading provider of health information services to consumers and physicians, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of eMedicine.com, Inc., an online publisher of medical reference information for physicians and other healthcare professionals. The purchase price was $25.5 million.

With in-depth coverage of approximately 6,000 topics, eMedicine.com provides physicians and healthcare professionals detailed clinical information relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of medical conditions. The acquisition of eMedicine.com further enhances WebMD's ability to deliver diversified promotional and educational programs on behalf of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, who spend more than $8 billion annually for promotional and educational programs for physicians and healthcare professionals.

The Company expects to realize the full benefits of the acquisition after the integration of sales, technology and editorial infrastructure is completed in the latter part of 2006. For 2005, eMedicine.com estimated revenues were approximately $6 million with a break even net income. The Company believes that eMedicine.com will have a small positive contribution to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and other non-cash charges for 2006 as a result of eMedicine.com's anticipated level of profitability, offset by integration related expenses expected to be incurred during the first half of 2006.

(c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

Traffic.com / MyTrafficNews.com

Traffic.com, Inc., a leading provider of accurate, real-time traffic information in the United States, announced today that it has purchased the assets of MyTrafficNews.com, a leader in traffic information and delivery in the Denver market. These assets include a patent for the delivery of traffic and transit information.

MyTrafficNews has an audience of more than 35,000 daily e-mail recipients. Its daily e-mail readers will now have the option to sign up for a full suite of free traffic solutions from Traffic.com. These services include traffic alerts delivered via e-mail, PDA and/or cell phone; the ability to personalize and save frequently-driven routes; city "hot spot" reports sent at a pre-determined time; and a toll-free, interactive traffic hotline for drivers on the go.

(c) BUSINESS WIRE

Google Inc. is continuing to expand its advertising capabilities beyond the online world, agreeing to buy a company that automatically connects advertisers with radio stations. The price could top $1.2 billion.

The company, dMarc Broadcasting Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif., creates an automated platform that lets advertisers more easily schedule and deliver ads over radio and keep track of when they air. On the broadcaster side, the dMarc technology automatically schedules and places such advertising, helping stations minimize costs.

Under the deal, announced Tuesday, Google would pay dMarc at least $102 million in cash. If performance targets are met, Google would make additional payments of up to $1.14 billion over three years.

The up-front cash payment will make only a small dent in Google's reserves. Through September, Google had $7.6 billion in cash and marketable securities, though it has since committed to making a $1 billion investment in Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit.

Google said it plans to integrate the dMarc technology with its highly successful Google AdWords platform, in which third-party Web sites share revenues with Google for carrying the Mountain View., Calif., company's highly profitable search ads.

Already, Google has bought advertising in print publications such as tech magazines and resold chunks of the space to its online advertisers.

Google shares rose 86 cents to close at $467.11 Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

(c) AP

Motorola / Kreatel Communications

Motorola Inc. said on Tuesday it agreed to acquire Kreatel Communications, a Swedish developer of set-top television boxes, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter 2006.

Kreatel, which is headquartered in Linkoping, Sweden, develops Internet Protocol-based digital set-top television boxes, and has a customer base that includes Telefonica in Spain, TeliaSonera in Sweden, and KPN, in The Netherlands. The Kreatel management team will remain in Linkoping, and will be integrated into Motorola's Connected Home Solutions division.

Shares of Motorola, which have traded between $14.48 and $24.99 over the last year, were down 8 cents at $23.95 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

(c) AP

MGIC Investment / Myers Internet

MGIC Investment's Mortgage Guaranty Insurance acquired Myers Internet, an online mortgage outfit.

Terms weren't disclosed, but Milwaukee-based private mortgage insurer MGIC said Myers Internet automates many parts of the real estate mortgage transaction, ultimately making the home sale and mortgage origination processes easier and less expensive for all parties involved. The Myers platform also augments MGIC's eMagic subsidiary, which provides a collaborative work environment for originators, lenders and vendors. eMagic offers access to automated underwriting decisions, mortgage insurance, contract services, bundled services, rate locks, document imaging and delivery and more.

The move comes on the heels of an analyst downgrade of MGIC this morning, a day after the company posted disappointing fourth-quarter earnings.

Early Friday, MGIC fell $1.33 to $67.52.

(c) TheStreet.com

Netoy.com / SafePay Solutions

Netoy.com is proud today to announce that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire SafePay Solutions Inc., an online payment processor which handles payment processing and funds transfers, for convertible preferred stock of Netoy.com.

The proposed transaction is expected to be closed no later than January 27th, 2006 and is subject to confirmation of certain conditions, covenants, representations and warranties made by the parties, which are expected to be completed within 90 days of the Closing.

(c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

Emblaze / Smart Content

Emblaze Ltd, the telecom vendor group, announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire majority interest in Israeli based software technology company, Smart Content, developer of highly advanced technology for Content-Push over wireless and IP networks to mobile devices and personal computers.

Smart Content's technology is considered to be the "missing link" that will allow users to receive real-time personalized content directly on their devices personal computers. Their current FreeMate technology automatically collects information from the web, routes, and "pushes" a variety of digital content pre-defined as relevant by any mobile or PC user. Such technologies are essential as content and vital information are converging into everyday lives and devices as users demand relevant content to be present and directly available to them at all times without thinking or doing anything in order to actually get it. The trend is towards receiving quick updates, accurate information and personalized content at work, at home and on the move.

Emblaze intends to drive the FreeMate technology roadmap to be adapted into the mobile environment and physically embedded into Emblaze Mobile devices over the coming year which will create a significant advantage of its devices over potential competition and will create a new class of terminals that address the mobile needs beyond a regular voice call.

(c) BUSINESS WIRE

VeriSign / CallVision

VeriSign Inc., a provider of digital security services, said Wednesday it is acquiring CallVision Inc. in a deal worth about $30 million net of cash.

Seattle-based CallVision offers Web-based billing and client management software and data analysis to major telecommunications firms, such as T-Mobile and Bell Canada.

The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter and is not expected to affect VeriSign's 2006 financial results.

The acquisition will enable VeriSign to deliver converged electronic bill presentation, payment and customer self-care applications to mobile operators, Tier 1 carriers, broadband companies and consumer-brand MVNOs worldwide. By adding these applications to the comprehensive VeriSign Commerce Suite, VeriSign can help communications providers further simplify the billing process, improve customer satisfaction, reduce operational costs and mitigate churn.

(c) AP & (c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

VeriSign / CallVision

VeriSign Inc., a provider of digital security services, said Wednesday it is acquiring CallVision Inc. in a deal worth about $30 million net of cash.

Seattle-based CallVision offers Web-based billing and client management software and data analysis to major telecommunications firms, such as T-Mobile and Bell Canada.

The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter and is not expected to affect VeriSign's 2006 financial results.

The acquisition will enable VeriSign to deliver converged electronic bill presentation, payment and customer self-care applications to mobile operators, Tier 1 carriers, broadband companies and consumer-brand MVNOs worldwide. By adding these applications to the comprehensive VeriSign Commerce Suite, VeriSign can help communications providers further simplify the billing process, improve customer satisfaction, reduce operational costs and mitigate churn.

(c) AP & (c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

Kerio Technologies / WebSTAR

Kerio Technologies Inc., a leading provider of Internet security software and secure messaging solutions, today announces its acquisition of the 4D WebSTAR product lines from 4D SA, a software solution provider based in Clichy, France. 4D WebSTAR is a complete messaging system designed for Mac OS X.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed though Kerio Technologies obtains access to 4D WebSTAR's customer base and technology.

The WebSTAR name has been associated with Mac-based email technology for over 10 years. Today 4D WebSTAR and 4D Mail have several thousand customers worldwide.

(c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

AOL / Truveo

America Online Inc. has acquired the video search company Truveo Inc. as it seeks to make online video offerings easier to find.

The acquisition announced Tuesday underscores the importance of video in drawing visitors to AOL's ad-supported sites, an important component in AOL's year-old strategy of emphasizing free content over its declining access subscription business.

Terms were not disclosed.

Online video is highly competitive, with Google Inc. just last week announcing plans to let content owners including CBS Corp. and the National Basketball Association sell clips through the search engine leader.

AOL and Google announced a partnership last month in which Google would, among other things, better integrate AOL's offerings in Google's fledging video service. That deal also involved Google buying a 5 percent stake in AOL.

AOL already has multimedia search technology from Singingfish Inc., a Seattle company the Time Warner Inc. unit acquired in 2003.

(c) AP

GeoTrust / TC TrustCenter

GeoTrust, Inc., a leader in identity verification solutions for e-business and a leading issuer of digital certificates for web security, today announced that it has acquired the entire assets of TC TrustCenter, a German company with a strong portfolio of IT security solutions. The acquisition provides GeoTrust with industry-leading smart card solutions.

The TC TrustCenter acquisition will enhance GeoTrust's focus on providing identity verification and authentication solutions that enable businesses, institutions and consumers to conduct secure network transactions. The TC TrustCenter solutions will enhance GeoTrust's product set by allowing strategic applications such as secure e-mail, secure VPN (Virtual Private Networks), digital signatures, encryption and access control on a single identity card, providing portability for digital certificates. Additional GeoTrust solutions, which will be marketed by TC TrustCenter, include managed security services for large enterprises; web security services for hosting providers; identity verification services to confirm the identity of businesses, individuals and web sites; and digital signing services for documents and code.


(c) PRNewswire

CheckFree / PhoneCharge

CheckFree Corp. said on Tuesday it bought PhoneCharge Inc., an online bill payment service provider, for approximately $100 million in cash.

CheckFree, an e-commerce service provider, said it expects the acquisition, which closed on Jan. 1, to be neutral to 2006 earnings and to add to earnings thereafter.

Shares of CheckFree, which have traded between $32.33 and $50.55 over the past 52 weeks, closed up by 68 cents, at $46.58, on the Nasdaq.

(c) AP

Symantec / IMlogic

Symantec Corp. is bolstering its computer security offerings by acquiring IMlogic Inc., which helps companies secure and store instant-messaging traffic by employees.

Financial terms of Tuesday's deal were not released.

Acquiring privately held IMlogic will enable Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec to broaden the security and legal compliance tools it offers to customers, said Enrique Salem, senior vice president of security products and solutions. This comes on the heels of Symantec's $11 billion acquisition last year of Veritas Software Corp.

Instant messaging has emerged as a popular means of real-time communications in companies but the technology can be vulnerable to malicious hackers.

In fact, earlier Tuesday, Waltham, Mass.-based IMlogic released a report saying that worms, viruses and other security threats on instant-messaging networks rose 826 percent in December from the same period in 2004. IMlogic said 48 percent targeted Microsoft Corp.'s MSN messaging network while 41 percent went after Time Warner Inc.'s AOL IM service.

Another driver for the deal is the need at many companies to archive IM communications to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley executive-accountability law.

The deal was announced after Symantec shares fell 1 cent to close at $17.49 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock's 52-week range is $16.32 to $26.60.

(c) AP

LearnSomething / Isoph Corporation

LearnSomething, Inc., a Tallahassee-based provider of e-learning solutions for professional industries, and Isoph Corporation, a trusted e-learning partner for nonprofit and membership organizations based in Carrboro, NC, have signed a definitive agreement to unite the two organizations into a single company bearing the LearnSomething name.

Isoph offers a turnkey e-learning success system that takes organizations from initial analysis through successful deployment and ongoing delivery of e- learning programs. Key to typical initiatives is Isoph Blue, Isoph's hosted database-driven e-learning platform designed for seamless connectivity with major association management systems.

(c) PRNewswire

Pegasus Wireless / CNet Technology

Pegasus Wireless Corporation, a leading provider of advanced wireless solutions, announced today the acquisition of 51% controlling interest in CNet Technology, Inc., a China-based designer and manufacturer of computer network equipment, including wireless devices. The acquisition will be financed by a purchase of 222,222 restricted shares of Pegasus Wireless Corporation's common stock by Jasper Knabb, Company's President. The cash equivalent of $1 million will be used for the purchase of CNet Technology, Inc., while the additional $1 million cash will be used to obtain raw materials to begin the manufacturing of Pegasus Wireless' products that will be available for distribution within thirty days. The acquisition of CNet's manufacturing subsidiary will allow Pegasus Wireless to accelerate the assembly of its own products as well as goods for companies abroad, which will ultimately increase profit margins. Previously, Pegasus Wireless has been manufacturing their wireless products through various venues around the world, and the ability to manufacture its products in a centralized environment will greatly enhance the speed and volume of their product output.

(c) BUSINESS WIRE

uBid / Cape Coastal Trading Corporation

uBid, Inc., one of the leading online auction companies in the U.S., announced today that it has merged with a subsidiary of Cape Coastal Trading Corporation, whose only business following the merger will be the execution of uBid's business plan under the uBid name.

Concurrent with the merger, the combined company completed a $45 million private placement involving the issuance of 10,000,000 shares of Cape Coastal Trading Corporation common stock to a group of institutional and accredited investors at $4.50 per share. The Company also issued to the investors warrants to purchase an additional 2,500,000 shares of Cape Coastal Trading Corporation common stock exercisable at $5.85 per share. The net proceeds from the financing of approximately $40 million will be used for the retirement of all debt and for general working capital purposes.