The social and mobile games gold rush inspired lots of investments in 2011, as venture capitalists tried to find the next Zynga. But the year was also a big one for acquisitions, particularly as big companies such as Electronic Arts tried to outmaneuver the social game giant via acquisitions… Tweet This Post

Amazon wasn’t the only company interested in snapping up the BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. Microsoft and Nokia, now close partners thanks to Nokia’s adoption of Windows Phone 7, also considered a joint bid in RIM, the Wall Street Journal reports… Tweet This Post

Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski has requested a trial-like hearing for the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger after deciding that the deal would hurt consumers. The FCC’s hearing would be yet another roadblock for the beleaguered telecom merger… Tweet This Post

Adobe has acquired video advertising platform Auditude, the companies announced today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Auditude allows its clients to manage and monetize advertising around premium video content… Tweet This Post

Network tech giant Cisco has acquired video optimization software company BNI Video for $99 million in cash, the company announced today. BNI Video helps internet service providers manage their video services, such as entitlement, billing and quality control… Tweet This Post

Who will save what’s left of Palm from HP’s bumbling? It could be Amazon, as the online retailing giant is in serious negotiations to snap up Palm from HP, VentureBeat has learned. A well-placed source tells us that HP is currently looking to rid itself of Palm as soon as possible, and that Amazon is [...]

Microblogging site Twitter has acquired social information analysis startup Julpan for an undisclosed sum, the startup announced Wednesday. The move is an acquihire of sorts since Twitter has appointed Julpan founder and CEO Ori Allon as its new director of engineering… Tweet This Post

Glam Media, a content and media company focused on women but with increasing ambition, has acquired Ning, a web service that lets people build their own social networks. The purchase price was undisclosed, but the deal is well below Ning’s $750 million valuation when it was at the peak of its hype a few years [...]

What were you up to 13 years ago? Maybe you were perfecting the ideal AIM screen name. Or you might have been surfing the “WestHollywood” neighborhood of GeoCities. Chances are, you had been using Yahoo! or AOL as your primary search engines… Tweet This Post

The group messaging battle just heated up with the announcement Sunday that Skype has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GroupMe, a group messaging service that will enhance Skype’s ability to facilitate text and photo messaging… Tweet This Post

The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Editor-at-Large Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space. You can follow Ben on Twitter and Google+… Tweet This Post

Global search corporation Google, Inc. added to its already hefty empire when it announced its planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility the morning of August 15. The purchase marked Google’s most expensive acquisition to-date at a staggering $12… Tweet This Post