Intel is currently performing negotiations to acquire Israeli AI chip startup, Habana Labs, according to a person who spoke to Calcalist anonymously. If the deal realizes, Intel will pay between one and two billion USD, making it Intel's second-largest acquisition of an Israeli company. When asked about the potential deal, the Intel spokesperson has stated that the company will not respond to rumors surrounding it, while Habana Labs has yet to respond to a request for comment made by Calcalist.

Founded in 2016 by Israeli entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz, who founded Galileo Technologies and Annapurna Labs, Habana Labs develops processors for training and inference of Machine Learning models. This acquisition would allow Intel to compete better in the AI processor market and get new customers which were previously exclusive to Habana Labs.

On Sunday, HP Inc. released a letter from its board of directors stating that it rejects acquisition offer from Xerox Corporation pointing out that: "We have great confidence in our strategy and our ability to execute to continue driving sustainable long-term value at HP. In addition, the Board and management team continue to take actions to enhance shareholder value including the deployment of our strong balance sheet for increased repurchases of our significantly undervalued stock and for value-creating M&A."

This decision shows a strong will from the folks over at HP to continue their business in the way they usually done for many years. Additionally, HP stated the following: "We recognize the potential benefits of consolidation, and we are open to exploring whether there is value to be created for HP shareholders through a potential combination with Xerox. However, as we have previously shared in connection with our prior requests for diligence, we have fundamental questions that need to be addressed in our diligence of Xerox. We note the decline of Xerox's revenue from $10.2 billion to $9.2 billion (on a trailing 12-month basis) since June 2018, which raises significant questions for us regarding the trajectory of your business and future prospects.", showing the downsides of the potential merger and questioning abilities of Xerox to manage two companies.

The Intel-Micron partnership pertaining to memory technologies is drawing to a close, with Micron today announcing they'd be acquiring remaining interest in IM Flash Technologies. IM Flash Technologies is the literal embodiment of the Intel-Micron partnership, and Micron acquiring the entire stake of it means that Intel is left out of any investment/development of 3D XPoint memory.

Micron expects to pay approximately $1.5 billion in cash for the transaction, dissolving Intel's non-controlling interest in IM Flash, and the two companies will independently drive their own future technology roadmaps. Based on prior agreements, Micron will sell 3D XPoint memory wafers to Intel for up to a year after close.

THQ Nordic today announced they had acquired rights to two different IPs from Atari Europe SAS. The agreement extends to both the Alone in the Dark and Act of War franchises - of which the first is the most well-known.

Alone in the Dark, with its survival horror archetype, saw early instalments of the series based on the writings of master horror storyteller H. P. Lovecraft. Later entries in the series drew inspiration from other sources including voodoo, the Wild West, and the works of H. R. Giger. Act of War, though, is a different beast: a story-driven, real-time strategy game developed by Eugen Systems that featured a fine-grained story penned by NYT bestselling author Dale Brown. Daily operations in the two newly-acquired franchises (sales and distribution, evaluation of sequels & new content etc.) will be done via THQ Nordic GmbH in Vienna, Austria. Here's hoping this eventually leads to a new lease of life for these currently estranged franchises (and the real time strategy genre in itself).

The Broadcom-Qualcomm acquisition saga continues, but with an encouraging development for the potential buyer. Qualcomm is reportedly coming around to the idea of acquisition by Broadcom, if the price is right. Broadcom's last offer stood at a staggering $121 billion, or $79 per share (which once touched $82 per share). Qualcomm's board is of the opinion that the current offer "severely undervalues" the company, without further guidance on what would constitute a fair price.

"Broadcom reiterated in the February 23 meeting that its reduced $79.00 per share proposal is its best and final proposal. The Qualcomm Board is unanimous in its view that each of Broadcom's proposals, including its prior $82.00 per share proposal, materially undervalues Qualcomm, and the Board encourages Broadcom to enter into mutual due diligence and price negotiations," Qualcomm stated in a press-release.

EPIC Games has made an investment that was both likely and unlikely: the acquisition of Cloudgine, a software company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, that specializes in real-time cloud computing technologies. The company's name has appeared associated with Microsoft's now almost infamous Crackdown 3 project for the Xbox One console, which has been met with delays after delays. The sum for the acquisition hasn't been announced, though EPIC was forthcoming with the intention: they aim to integrate Cloudgine's software and cloud computing solutions on their Unreal engine. The full EPIC press release follows.

Publisher EA has just announced that they are acquiring Titanfall and Titanfall 2 development studio Respawn Entertainment. The deal, which includes cash, equity, and performance milestone payments valued at $455M, will add one more studio to the publisher's wing, just weeks after EA announced the shuttering of Visceral Studios and the end of its single-player, linear, story-driven Star Wars game. EA fought for this acquisition, outbidding South Korean publisher Nexon, who also had their eyes on Respawn.

"We've had success as an independent company but as we look to how we want to compete in the future, and the challenges that face us in a rapidly changing landscape, now is the time for us to combine forces with a global industry leader like EA," said Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment's CEO in a blog post on Respawn's website. "EA will provide us with more resources, access to new technologies, and expertise that we can tap into to that will help us make better games, and Respawn will retain the same creative freedom and culture we've always had," he added. "We've been talking closely with the leadership at EA and we share their values and vision for the future of being a developer-focused company that puts the players first."

SoftBank has to be the most high-level investor in the tech world today, with multiple headline-grabbing purchases in the last year alone. First, it was ARM's multi-billion dollar purchase, which shook the tech industry almost to its knees. Then, the acquisition of a $4 billion dollar stake on NVIDIA, which is increasingly looking like a great move (and is partially responsible for NVIDIA's soaring market cap.)

Now, SoftBank has moved to acquire Google parent company Alphabet Inc's Boston Dynamics, the engineering and robotics design firm best known for being compared to the manufacturing arm of Skynet. Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., said that "Smart robotics are going to be a key driver of the next stage of the Information Revolution," and that he and the full might of SoftBank are looking forward to "supporting them as they continue to advance the field of robotics and explore applications that can help make life easier, safer and more fulfilling." Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but as part of it, SoftBank has also agreed to acquire Japanese bipedal robotics company Schaft. SoftBank is the octopus of the tech world, with tendrils extending towards the technologies that look to be most important in our collective future. The company already has the high efficiency processing, deep learning and AI chops for a robotic future with their acquisition of ARM and investment in NVIDIA - now, they're adding a manufacturing arm. Is this Skynet's inception?

Intel and Mobileye announced on March 13 that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Intel will acquire Mobileye. Under the terms of the agreement, a subsidiary of Intel will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Mobileye for $63.54 per share in cash, representing a fully-diluted equity value of approximately $15.3 billion and an enterprise value of $14.7 billion.

The acquisition will couple the best-in-class technologies from both companies, including Intel's high-performance computing and connectivity expertise and Mobileye's leading computer vision expertise to create automated driving solutions from the cloud through the network to the car.

In a bid to reinforce its audio business, Razer has now acquired the majority of THX's assets. THX, which was founded in 1983 by George Lucas, has for the past thirty-three years focused on cinema audio systems, home audio systems, and audio certification. It is now to operate as an independent subsidiary of Razer, under its own management and the leeway to run its own operations and make its own business decisions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Razer stressed that it intends to maintain all of THX's management and staff.

It is expected that this won't bring about major changes to THX's business model; their main focus points, namely Certification (testing and validation that a given system has passed a set of criteria determined by THX); THX Live! (focused in the audio experience unto itself, whether at cinema-like venues or at home); and THX Inside (focused on hardware's underlying technologies), are to continue operating within their given framework. That said, THX will now further expand their Certification programme to additional lines of products: headphones, Bluetooth speakers, streaming video, set-top boxes, and connected speakers, which are all, unsurprisingly, part of Razer's product portfolio.

The Wall Street Journal's earlier report about an expected record-setting 2016 in regards to chinese investment in the United States was right. Newegg Inc., one of the most popular online tech-related retailers, is now reportedly owned by chinese company Hangzhao Liaison Interactive Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Liaison Interactive).

After September's reports of a significant investment from the Chinese company on Newegg, which would allow the California-based company to "accelerate the pursuit of the company's strategic initiatives" and into high-growth markets such as eSports, VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality), it now appears that the investment was much more than a simple capital infusion: it was a bid towards controlling an effective majority in the American company's shares.

SoftBank today announced that it has concluded the acquisition of British chipmaker ARM, in a USD $31 billion purchase. The acquisition was first announced in July 2016. Following this, ARM will be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange from the 6th of September 2016. Although ARM is a CPU architecture designer with a mere $1.5 billion in revenue last fiscal, and licenses the architecture to other SoC makers such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, etc., SoftBank is betting on ARM CPU architecture's emergence as the prime-mover of the IoT (Internet of things) revolution. This is SoftBank's largest tech acquisition following the $20 billion acquisition of American cellular network Sprint, and a $15 billion investment in Vodafone Japan.

Western Digital Corporation today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Western Digital Technologies, Inc. has completed the acquisition of SanDisk Corporation. The addition of SanDisk makes Western Digital Corporation a comprehensive storage solutions provider with global reach, and an extensive product and technology platform that includes deep expertise in both rotating magnetic storage and non-volatile memory (NVM).

The Company also indicated that the debt financing associated with this transaction has been consummated and that the previously obtained funds from this financing have been released from escrow to Western Digital Technologies, Inc. "Today is a significant day in the history of Western Digital," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. "We are delighted to welcome SanDisk into the Western Digital family. This transformational combination creates a media-agnostic leader in storage technology with a robust portfolio of products and solutions that will address a wide range of applications in almost all of the world's computing and mobile devices. We are excited to now begin focusing on the many opportunities before us, from leading innovation to bringing the best of what we can offer as a combined company to our customers. In addition, we will begin the work to fully realize the value of this combination through executing on our synergies, generating significant cash flow, as well as rapidly deleveraging our balance sheet, and creating significant long-term value for our shareholders."

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced that the Ministry of Commerce of China ("MOFCOM") has approved the acquisition of SanDisk by Western Digital Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC). All necessary regulatory approvals for the acquisition have now been received and the transaction is expected to close on Thursday, May 12, 2016. SanDisk stockholders previously voted to approve the transaction at a special meeting of stockholders held on March 15, 2016.

"We are pleased that the final regulatory approval has been received and we can now proceed with the planned combination with Western Digital," said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer, SanDisk. "We thank our stakeholders for their support of this transaction and look forward to contributing to the success of Western Digital as it transforms into the leading storage solutions company."

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a leading independent proxy advisory firm, has issued a report recommending that Western Digital shareholders vote to approve the issuance of Western Digital stock (the NASDAQ Stock Issuance Proposal) in the proposed acquisition of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and all other proposals described in Western Digital's proxy statement/prospectus relating to the company's special meeting of shareholders to be held on March 15, 2016.

"We are pleased that ISS has recommended voting in favor of this compelling combination," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. "The Western Digital Board of Directors believes that the acquisition of SanDisk is the best strategic option for the company and the path that creates the most long-term value for shareholders. This combination is the next step in our ongoing strategy to transform Western Digital into a leading storage solutions company with global scale, extensive product and technology assets, and deep expertise in non-volatile memory."

Intel Corporation today reported full-year revenue of $55.4 billion, operating income of $14.0 billion, net income of $11.4 billion and EPS of $2.33. The company generated approximately $19.0 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $4.6 billion and used $3.0 billion to repurchase 96 million shares of stock.

For the fourth quarter, Intel posted revenue of $14.9 billion, operating income of $4.3 billion, net income of $3.6 billion and EPS of 74 cents. The company generated approximately $5.4 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion, and used $525 million to repurchase 17 million shares of stock.

Intel Corporation today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Altera Corporation ("Altera"), a leading provider of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. The acquisition complements Intel's leading-edge product portfolio and enables new classes of products in the high-growth data center and Internet of Things (IoT) market segments.

"Altera is now part of Intel, and together we will make the next generation of semiconductors not only better but able to do more," said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. "We will apply Moore's Law to grow today's FPGA business, and we'll invent new products that make amazing experiences of the future possible - experiences like autonomous driving and machine learning."

Altera will operate as a new Intel business unit called the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG), led by Altera veteran Dan McNamara. Intel is committed to a smooth transition for Altera customers and will continue the support and future product development of Altera's many products, including FPGA, ARM-based SoC and power products. In addition to strengthening the existing FPGA business, PSG will work closely with Intel's Data Center Group and IoT Group to deliver the next generation of highly customized, integrated products and solutions.

In this week's TechPowerUp News - WD's whopping $19 billion acquisition of NAND flash major SanDisk and what it could mean for both brands, MSI's insanely powerful all-in-one gaming desktop; and a fully-integrated NUC desktop by Intel following three generations of the revolutionary platform. Also, an exclusive sneak peek at SilverStone's Raven RVX01 mid-tower case!

Western Digital Corporation and SanDisk Corporation today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Western Digital will acquire all of the outstanding shares of SanDisk for a combination of cash and stock. The offer values SanDisk common stock at $86.50 per share or a total equity value of approximately $19 billion, using a five-day volume weighted average price ending on October 20, 2015 of $79.60 per share of Western Digital common stock. If the previously announced investment in Western Digital by Unisplendour Corporation Limited closes prior to this acquisition, Western Digital will pay $85.10 per share in cash and 0.0176 shares of Western Digital common stock per share of SanDisk common stock; and if the Unisplendour transaction has not closed or has been terminated, $67.50 in cash and 0.2387 shares of Western Digital common stock per share of SanDisk common stock. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The combination is the next step in the transformation of Western Digital into a storage solutions company with global scale, extensive product and technology assets, and deep expertise in non-volatile memory (NVM). With this transaction, Western Digital will double its addressable market and expand its participation in higher-growth segments. SanDisk brings a 27-year history of innovation and expertise in NVM, systems solutions and manufacturing. The combination also enables Western Digital to vertically integrate into NAND, securing long-term access to solid state technology at lower cost.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Dot Hill Systems Corp., a trusted supplier of innovative software and hardware storage systems.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement signed between Seagate and Dot Hill, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate commenced a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Dot Hill in an all-cash transaction valued at $9.75 per share, or a total of approximately $696 million on a fully-diluted equity value basis.

The tender offer and the second step merger contemplated by Seagate's definitive agreement with Dot Hill were completed on October 6, 2015. As a result, Dot Hill has become an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate and will no longer be listed for trading on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today confirmed it acquired the software assets of OUYA, including its content catalog and online retail platform. The technical team and developer relations personnel behind OUYA, the leading Android game platform for the television, have joined the software team of Razer, the company additionally reported. Financial details of the transaction, which closed on June 12, 2015, were not disclosed.

"Razer has a long-term vision for Android TV and Android-based TV consoles, such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Alibaba Tmall Box, to which OUYA already publishes," says Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. "OUYA's work with game developers, both triple A and indies, went a long way in bringing Android games to the living room and Razer intends to further that work. This acquisition is envisaged to usher more developers and content to the Android TV platform."

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced that it has completed its acquisition of IBM's Microelectronics business. With the acquisition, GLOBALFOUNDRIES gains differentiated technologies to enhance its product offerings in key growth markets, from mobility and Internet of Things (IoT) to Big Data and high-performance computing. The deal strengthens the company's workforce, adding decades of experience and expertise in semiconductor development, device expertise, design, and manufacturing. And the addition of more than 16,000 patents and applications makes GLOBALFOUNDRIES the holder of one of the largest semiconductor patent portfolios in the world.

"Today we have significantly enhanced our technology development capabilities and reinforce our long-term commitment to investing in R&D for technology leadership," said Sanjay Jha, chief executive officer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "We have added world-class technologists and differentiated technologies, such as RF and ASIC, to meet our customers' needs and accelerate our progress toward becoming a foundry powerhouse." Through the addition of some of the brightest and most innovative scientists and engineers in the semiconductor industry, GLOBALFOUNDRIES solidifies its path to advanced process technologies at 10 nm, 7 nm, and beyond.

Intel Corporation today announced that first-quarter revenue is expected to be below the company's previous outlook. The company now expects first-quarter revenue to be $12.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million, compared to the previous expectation of $13.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million.

The change in revenue outlook is a result of weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain. The company believes the changes to demand and inventory patterns are caused by lower than expected Windows XP* refresh in small and medium business and increasingly challenging macroeconomic and currency conditions, particularly in Europe.

The data center business is meeting expectations.

Today, Intel announced the acquisition of PasswordBox, a Montreal-based and award-winning provider of a cross-platform identity management service that gives users a convenient way to log into all of their websites and applications from any device without having to type or remember passwords. As a result of this acquisition, PasswordBox will become a part of the Safe Identity organization within Intel Security Group. The Safe Identity organization is committed to delivering solutions that reduce the pain of passwords, simplify and strengthen security and providing consumers with easy access to their digital lives.

Secure passwords are essential to protecting sensitive personal data. According to a recent report by consulting firm Deloitte, more than 90 percent of user-generated passwords are vulnerable to hacking, citing that the 10,000 most common passwords could access close to 98 percent of all accounts.1 Last year, Experian found that the average user had 26 password-protected online accounts but used only five different passwords.2 In fact, nearly 37 percent of users have asked for assistance on their username or password for at least one website per month. Together, Intel Security and PasswordBox will work to eliminate these problems.

Lenovo and Google announced today that Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google is complete. The acquisition of the Motorola brand and Motorola's portfolio of innovative smartphones like Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and the DROID series, as well as the future Motorola product roadmap, positions Lenovo as the world's third largest maker of smartphones.

Lenovo will operate Motorola as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Motorola's headquarters will remain in Chicago. With the completion of the acquisition, Lenovo welcomes the addition of a new portfolio company with nearly 3,500 employees around the world - including about 2,800 in the U.S. - who design, engineer, sell and support Motorola's outstanding devices.