A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week, beginning with the news Snap Ireland is expanding its digital marketing services through the purchase of web design company Denobi.
Snap doubles digital marketing reach after acquiring Denobi
Snap Ireland is expanding its digital marketing services through the acquisition of web design company Denobi. This follows Snap’s acquisition of The DG Group last year.
Denobi, which has been designing and developing web solutions since 2002 for clients such as Carphone Warehouse, ComReg and Impact Trade Union, will join the digital marketing team at Snap and will provide support to customers across the 20-strong Snap franchise network around Ireland.
The acquisition will double Snap’s digital marketing portfolio in the coming year and will see the number of active websites managed by Snap increase to 1,000.
BSkyB makes €6.1bn bid to create Sky Europe
British satellite broadcasting channel BSkyB is attempting to establish itself as the largest broadcaster in Europe with a €6.1bn bid to purchase Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.
If the deal is to go through, BSkyB will own Sky Italia outright, while purchasing a 57pc stake in Sky Deutschland would buy out 21st Century Fox’s ownership of the two channels, according to Engadget.
This deal may well make BSkyB the largest TV company in Europe.
Google acquires Twitch for US$1bn – a big boost for YouTube
Google has reportedly secured a deal to buy gaming video platform Twitch for an estimated US$1bn. Post-acquisition, Twitch will be merged into the search giant’s YouTube division.
Twitch enables video gamers to broadcast their gameplay from the PC, Xbox One or PlayStation 4 to the internet, in some cases making celebrities out of skilled gamers.
According to Variety, the acquisition makes sense for Google since it has been struggling to get into live broadcasting and because Twitch has established a proven model for subscription-based video.
Apple sells 35m iPhones, reports Q3 revenues of US$37.4bn
Apple reported third-quarter revenues of US$37.4bn, yielding the company a tidy US$7.7bn profit after selling 35.2m iPhone devices, 13.2m iPads and 4.4m Mac computers.
This is up from revenues of US$35.3bn last year and profits of US$5.9bn a year ago.
Gross margin was 39.4pc, up from 36.9pc last year.
Facebook’s mobile juggernaut: mobile users pass 1bn, revenue hits US$2.1bn
Having corrected its path towards mobile-first, Facebook is reaping the rewards, having beaten analyst expectations and reporting US$2.1bn in revenues and earnings per share of US$0.42 in its second quarter.
The social network revealed for the first time that actual mobile users have surpassed more than 1bn to reach 1.07bn people.
Facebook revealed that daily active users of its service reached 829m on average at the end of June, up 19pc on last year. Mobile daily active users were 654m a day on average, up 39pc year-on-year.
Facebook continues its march into profitability, reporting profits of US$791m, up from US$333m last year. The company reported an operational profit of US$1.39bn, up 147pc.
Nokia names new Nokia Technologies president
Network-equipment maker Nokia has appointed Ramzi Haidamus as president of Nokia’s technologies business and member of the group leadership team, effective 3 September, 2014.
Haidamus will take over from Henry Tirri, who has served as acting head of the Nokia Technologies business since its formation on 1 May.
Tirri will step down from the leadership team on 3 September and will become an adviser to Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia, on technology issues.
Financial results this week
A couple of high-profile technology companies are scheduled to release their financial results this week. Social network Twitter is due to release its results on Tuesday, and business social network LinkedIn is scheduled to reveal its earnings on Thursday.
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