Paytm buys Cube26

One97 Communications Ltd which owns payments app Paytm announced the acquisition of New Delhi based technology startup Cube26. The acquisition will help the company upgrade user experience over its mobile platform.

Cube26 develops customized Android OS for original equipment manufacturers, and it is currently building a games and apps store by connecting India-based developers directly with smartphone users. The app store also helps developers monetize their content.

Cube26 is backed by Tiger Global Management and Flipkart. It had raised $7.7 million from both investors in 2015. The start-up was founded in 2012. The acquisition comes just days after Paytm claimed to have 120 million monthly active users on its in-app messaging feature called ‘Paytm Inbox’. The company also said that it will focus more on regional content for making its app more popular across small cities and towns.

Paytm had also made two acquisitions in recent months. In December 2017, Paytm acquired Nearbuy and Little, two platforms that focus on local restaurants and commercial establishments. Paytm later merged both entities and made an undisclosed investment into the resultant entity.

Apple to acquire digital magazine service Texture

Apple had announced it signed an agreement to acquire Texture, the digital magazine subscription service by Next Issue Media LLC, which gives users unlimited access to their favorite titles for one monthly subscription fee.

Texture brings over 200 of the world’s best magazines to life, providing an easy way for users to read high-quality stories and entire issues of their favorite titles. With Texture, users enjoy the magazines they know and love, while discovering new content that fits their passions and interests.

Texture is owned by a consortium of big publishers, as well as private equity firm KKR, which put $50 million into the company in 2015. Texture was first assembled in 2009 and launched in 2012 as Next Issue Media. It was an attempt for big publishers to own their own version of Netflix or Hulu, and give them control of digital distribution instead of being cut out by Apple or Google. It eventually rebranded the service and de-emphasized the concept of magazines. Instead, it pushed the idea that your $10-a-month subscription gets you access to the world’s best articles, curated based on your particular interests.

Since its launch in 2010, Texture has become the leading multi-title subscription service giving users the ability to instantly access some of the most widely read magazines while on the go. In 2016, Texture was chosen by the App Store editorial team for the annual Best Of selections, which celebrate the most innovative apps and games for iOS users.

Microsoft acquires Double Labs

Microsoft has added to its stable of Android Apps with the acquisition of Double Labs, the makers of Echo Notification Lockscreen, a popular app on Google’s mobile platform that helps user control the notifications they see. Echo replaces the default Android Lock screen with a new interface for handling push notifications.

The app’s marquee feature is its ability to categorize and sort user’s incoming notifications and only wake their phone for high priority messages. In addition, users can tell the lock screen to remind them of notifications at a later time or in a different place, so they can postpone seeing notifications about personal emails until they get home. It’s not the company’s first foray into Android Lock screens.

Microsoft’s garage division put out the Next Lock Screen app last year, which is another take on replacing the default experience for users of Google’s mobile platform. The acquisition, which took place in August, gives Microsoft another beachhead on Android, but it is also aimed at getting Microsoft access to the personalization technology that powers the lock screen’s features. The work with Next and Echo will translate the information the company will use to improve products like Office and Windows 10.

By acquiring Echo, Microsoft is picking up more information that it can use to power products like its Cortana virtual assistant, which is currently available in public beta for Android users. Microsoft has a variety of other Android utilities available including an app launcher currently in private beta, a voice search tool for Bing and an app that provides information about air quality to users in China. 

Google Important Acquisitions

Google has spent more than $28 Billion on a whooping 163 companies since 2001. That is almost one company one month. The search Engine could have purchased all kinds of companies, service, and technologies from mapping companies to security services to gadgets and robots to gaming and facial recognition software and much more. With so many acquisitions, let us look at acquisitions, which have influenced Google business.

Google first invested in Green Energy startup before it completed its purchase of Makani Power in May 2014. This acquisition cost Google $30 Million. Makani has operated out of Google X Labs to build airborne wild turbines, which have the potential to be the dominant form of clean energy. Google purchased Zagat in September 2011 in $151 Million. It was mostly about getting the company’s content into Google services including search, Maps, and Earth. Google purchased Mexico based Titan Aerospace Company that made solar-powered flying drones in April for $60 Million. It can contribute to the Google Maps and Earth or even work with Makani Power Project. It is also playing a big role in Google project Loon, which strives to bring Internet connectivity to those regions without it beaming broadband from the sky.

In March 2013, Google purchased Toronto based DNNreserach Inc. to continue researching its experimental neural network. Google neural network proved it could identify the hundreds of millions of street and house numbers to help its Google street view users with location and navigation. It was purchased in $5 Million. Google wants to organize the world’s data and multimedia. For this, Google acquired DeepMind Technologies in January for $650 Million. It gives computers corresponding perception capabilities so machines can do things like listen music and soundtracks and build their perceptions. Google purchased Boston Dynamics in $500 Million. It used to make mobile research robots for the pentagon but now they are making robots for Google. Boston dynamics also made drones for Amazon. Google purchased GPS and navigation making company Waze for $996 Million last June. Google has vastly improved its real time mapping data about road conditions, closures, and accidents.

Google buys Nest labs in January last year for $3.2 Billion with a plan to bring Android to living room. Name of the project was “Android@home.” Nests made two home products, a thermostat, and a smoke detector. Google purchased Double Click in March 2008 for $3.1 Billion. Double Click has been a source of income for Google, developing and serving its ad services to customers like Apple, Coca-cola, and Nike. Google purchased world’s largest video sharing site YouTube in $1.65 Billion. It is the number three website in US and globally on which users upload 100 hours of new video content every minute. Google best deal ever was to buy Andy Rubins Android in $50 Billion. It was purchased in 2006 and is the most used smartphone operating system in the world.

These days Android, it is empowering in car systems, games, televisions, tablets, and wearable devices. These were the most important acquisition of Google. Recently, they purchased Jetpac, Emu, and Directr Inc. Most of the Google purchases are startups, which can add value to Google business and empower world with something new.