Looks like the rumours from last week were true about BlackBerry potentially going up for sale. The company has announced this morning that the Board of Directors have created a ‘Special Committee’ to “explore strategic alternatives” that could include ‘possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.”

According to the press release the Special Committee will be chaired by Timothy Dattels, plus include Barbara Stymiest, Thorsten Heins, Richard Lynch and Bert Nordberg. Leading the “Exploration of Strategic Alternatives” process will be JP Morgan [...]

Technology pundits have long speculated that, one day, Microsoft would buy its way into manufacturing of its own mobile phones. Apparently that day came a lot closer to fruition than people had thought.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone business – the deal you probably assumed would happen sooner or later – has been scuppered before talks were even made public, according to a new report.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Microsoft has been engaged in “advanced talks” to snap up the Finnish mobile maker, but that those discussions [...]

A London teenager has sold a mobile app he first designed in his bedroom for between £20 million and £40 million.

Nick D’Aloisio, 17, said he would probably buy a new computer and trainers after Yahoo bought his Summly software for an undisclosed sum.

Yahoo said today on its blog that Nick D’Aloisio  will join Yahoo along with the rest of his team.

The free iPhone app automatically boils down lengthy news stories and features to make them more “user friendly” for a mobile screen.

Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer is focusing Yahoo on providing Web services that are customized for individual users, and aims to add engineers by buying small [...]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has acquired indoor mobile location positioning firm WiFiSLAM, in a deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Jessica Lessin reports:

“Apple has acquired indoor-GPS company WifiSLAM, a sign that the war over indoor mobile location services is heating up. Apple paid around $20 million for the Silicon Valley-based company, according to a person familiar with the matter who said the deal closed recently.

The two-year-old startup has developed ways for mobile apps to detect a phone user’s location in a [...]

RIM is about to release its latest BlackBerry 10 platform by next week. But even with this new development, the Canadian company is not off the hook when it comes to its market predicament. BlackBerry is a platform on the decline, and apart from BB10, RIM is thinking of ways to revitalize its business. Among the possibilities is licensing is operating system or even selling off its hardware division.

Lenovo is reportedly mulling over a purchase of RIM’s traditionally-unprofitable hardware division as it determines how best to move into the international smartphone and tablet [...]

HTC has assured that after a final assessment of the worth of S3 graphics the company will wrap up the buyout some time soon. The 270 patents that come into HTC portfolio will help the company fight off any legal issues that may arise in the future.

The strong Patent portfolio may also scare potential competition and make them think twice before any other patent wars begin

[Focus Taiwan]