Leap Wireless, the Cricket folks, told us we can expect to see LTE service go live in Tucson before the end of the year — and by golly, they were bound and determined to do it. Sure ’nuff, the prepaid carrier is now ready to match wits against MetroPCS as it brings its first 4G market and device live with just ten days remaining in 2011. At least 90 percent of Tucson will be able to enjoy the faster speeds, with nearby Nogales, AZ receiving some expansion love sometime in 2012 and at least two-thirds of its countrywide network benefiting from the next-gen service within the next two to three years. Its first LTE device is the Huawei Boltz — also known as the Huawei E397 in other parts of the world — and can be bought for 0 with no contract. Eventually, Leap says, the lineup will be expanded to include smartphones and tablets. Now, let’s talk pricing: two data plans of 5GB each are available, with getting you download speeds of 3Mbps and offering you 6Mbps. Granted, this is nothing compared to the ultra-fast speeds you see on Verizon and AT&T’s LTE networks at the moment, but it’s a start.

Continue reading Cricket LTE goes live in Tucson, introduces the Huawei Boltz

Cricket LTE goes live in Tucson, introduces the Huawei Boltz originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga has shown a notable uptick in acquisitions in recent months, in what turned out to be part of the buildup to the company’s planned IPO. But although much has been made of the volume and frequency of Zynga’s M&A activity, it turns out that the company did not amass the nearly billion it has in cash and equivalents by opening up its wallet too widely when making buys. The S-1 Zynga filed Friday revealed exactly how savvy it has been in making all those deals.

Zynga completed seven acquisitions in 2010, according to the IPO filing. Together, the purchase prices of all those deals totaled 1.6 million; .2 million of that was in stock, and .4 million was in cash.

By far, the biggest deal Zynga made last year was its November 2010 acquisition of online mobile gaming company Newtoy, which had a purchase price of .3 million, most of which was cash — .3 million of it, to be exact. In fact, the Newtoy deal accounted for fully two-thirds of all the cash Zynga used for M&A in 2010.

It bears mention that using stock to make acquisitions is nothing unusual. In fact, many of the startups that have been acquired by Zynga may have preferred to be paid in stock. Having a piece of a very hot, pre-exit company like Zynga could well turn out to be more lucrative than the corresponding cash value at the time last year’s deals were made.

And while the volume of Zynga’s M&A activity seemed to pick up in 2011 with at least three buys in the first three months of the year, the S-1 shows that the company’s actual spending on those deals was negligible. According to the filing, Zynga spent a total of just .4 million on acquisitions in the first quarter of 2011.

None of this is to say Zynga is stingy in its acquisition strategy. Zynga offers acquired employees equity awards and cash bonuses that appreciate over time, as an incentive to get them to stick around post-deal. During 2010, the company issued 5.5 million worth of post-acquisition compensation awards.

Once Zynga goes public, it will probably become a bit more spendy. Public companies are expected to have full-fledged M&A strategies, and shareholders often expect a healthy amount of the firm’s annual budget to be put toward making buys. But so far, Zynga has shown a notable restraint in its M&A strategy, especially considering its size and growth. It goes to show that even in the ultra modern world of today’s tech industry, some old-fashioned ideas about saving money are still sticking around — in some circles, at least.

Image courtesy of Flickr user kenteegardin and www.seniorliving.org

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T
• Putting Big Data to Work: Opportunities for Enterprises

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Trend story or bona fide trend? The Guardian reports that the birth parents of adopted children are flocking to Facebook to locate and contact their descendants. The article claims that, at least in the U.K., two-thirds of adopted children are removed from their birth parents due to abuse or neglect; and now “huge numbers” of adoptive parents are reporting that their children are being contacted by those birth parents via Facebook.

But, the article also acknowledges that “there are no reliable estimates of how many children have been contacted using social networking sites.” The writer cites a few examples, including a 16-year-old girl who received a message from her abusive biological mother that caused her to feel “a whole range of emotions.” Another boy met up with his birth father, who had physically abused him in the past, after the father contacted him through Facebook. Interestingly, the article doesn’t quote any of the reactions from the children themselves. (And yet its headline — “Adopted children face anguish as birth parents stalk them on Facebook” — would make you think otherwise.)

Continue reading Apparently ‘Huge Numbers’ of Birth Parents are Hunting Adopted Children Online

Filed under: Web, Social Networking

Apparently ‘Huge Numbers’ of Birth Parents are Hunting Adopted Children Online originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 25 May 2010 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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