TiesMorskate.nl

This contributor on TechCrunch doesn’t share the general opinion that Google is going to turn Motorola into its ‘chosen first’. Instead he offers:

 The mobile phones of today are hooks, luring you into the comfort of iOS or Android or Windows — and each of these devices is only friendly with other devices in the same ecosystem. The point being, all of the of the customers who get snatched up by iOS, Web OS, or Windows today are going to be much harder for Google to convert down the line. Which is why it needs to get as many of them as it can, right now. Which brings us back to the Motorola deal.

Read the rest at TechCrunch

Just in, my favorite online community Empire Avenue has raised $ 1.2 mln in series A financing, reported by TechCrunch. I won’t post much more about it, other than add my comment from TechCrunch:

I’m a very active Empire Avenue user and it is a great discovery engine in its own right. Personal and business applications are numerous.

Investment-wise I think EAv has a core user group that is doing a great job on enlarging the user base, which in turn allows them to invest in more people!

The full post can be found on TechCrunch. Or a similar post on Gamasutra.

The press release explains how the money will be used:

Rather than buying a fancy zeppelin or, say, a tank full of diamond-clad singing sharks, Empire Avenue will use the investment to grow its team and further expand its platform, which is already generating strong revenue thanks to sales of virtual  goods, currency and partnerships for branded virtual items and Achievements.

I hope all has been resolved now. If not, please let me know in the comments.

BTW: If you’re here because of me spamming your Twitter stream, I apologize, I would’ve hoped that Twitter wouldn’t allow this many posts at one time. But it didn’t…

A. The new US Defense ministry

B. A drawing from the Venus Project (Zeitgeist)

C. The new Apple campus

Answers in the comments!

 As expected, no big changes this week, while I will probably not surpass Goforus I see that Frederik Zevenbergen is slightly slacking in his growth. If I manage to keep my current growth I’ll probably pass him up within the coming weeks! The [X]pendapalooza of July 30 has done a lot, since a lot of people are still buying back, great success!

Value Of Tech M&A Deals Nearly Doubled In Q2 2011 To $52.1 Billion is the heading of an interesting article on TechCrunch that is based on a recent report by Ernst & Young.

While tech company IPOs have captured buzz of late, it looks like M&A activity in the sector has been booming. According to an Ernst & Young report, big deals drove the aggregate value of global technology M&A to $52.1 billion in the second quarter of 2011, nearly doubling the deal value from the first quarter (up 92 percent to be exact).

Ernst & Young said that the surge was attributed mainly to industry consolidation and by ongoing innovations in areas such as cloud computing, smart mobility, internet and mobile video, the smart grid and solar energy.

Read the full article on TechCrunch here.