ACQUISITIONS
Apple buying AuthenTec
Apple has agreed to acquire AuthenTec Inc. for about $350 million, gaining fingerprint-authentication technology.
Apple is paying $8 a share in the deal, AuthenTec said Friday in a filing. The transaction represents a premium of 58 percent over AuthenTec's closing share price Thursday. Under the agreement, Apple also has the right to pay patent licenses totaling as much as $115 million.
The deal would help Apple shore up its biometric features, which help maintain security on devices. The company is under pressure to speed up its product development cycle as competition in mobile technology increases, according to investor Michael Obuchowski, a portfolio manager at North Shore Asset Management LLC. Apple shares fell 4.3 percent on Wednesday after quarterly iPhone sales missed analysts' projections, underscoring the need for a new model.
The AuthenTec deal, which requires the approval of shareholders and regulators, is expected to close in the third quarter, according to the filing.
REGULATION
Google admits retaining some ill-gotten data
After being caught spying on people across Europe and Australia with its Wi-Fi-slurping Street View cars, Google had told angry regulators that it would delete the ill-gotten data.
Apparently it did not.
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office received a letter from Google in which the company admits it kept a "small portion" of the electronic information it had intended to get rid of. "Google apologizes for this error," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said in the letter, which the Information Commissioner's Office published on its website Friday.
The agency said Google had agreed to delete all that data nearly two years ago, adding that its failure to do so "is cause for concern."
Other regulators were less diplomatic, with Ireland's deputy commissioner for data protection, Gary Davis, calling Google's failure "clearly unacceptable." Davis said his organization had conveyed its "deep unhappiness" to Google and wants answers by Wednesday.
SMARTPHONES
Samsung widens market lead over Apple
Samsung has extended its lead over Apple in smartphones, in part because its new Galaxy phones came out before Apple updated its iPhone, research group IDC said Friday.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 phone got good reviews when it was released late in the second quarter. In the United States, the phones work with the faster fourth-generation, or 4G, cellular networks that major wireless companies have been building. The Galaxy's screen is larger than the iPhone's, while the phone is also lighter and thinner.
An iPhone with 4G capabilities isn't expected until this fall. The current model, the iPhone 4S, came out in October, and sales typically drop several months after each release.
According to IDC, Samsung Electronics Co. shipped 50.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter and had a market share of 33 percent, up from 17 percent a year ago. Apple Inc.'s fell slightly to 17 percent, from 19 percent a year ago. It sold 26 million iPhones in the April-June quarter.
REASL ESTATE
Prologis may see surge in property sales
Prologis Inc., the world's largest warehouse owner, may sell about $800 million of U.S. properties by the end of 2012 amid growing investor demand for industrial buildings, Co-Chief Executive Officer Hamid Moghadam said.
Prologis this year has already disposed of about $470 million of property in the Americas that it either owns or is in funds it manages, the San Francisco company said Thursday when it reported second-quarter results.
Prologis reported that second-quarter core funds from operations rose to $201.3 million, or 43 cents a share, from $109.7 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier. Prologis and AMB Property Corp. combined a year ago in the biggest merger of U.S. real estate investment trusts.
Shares rose 0.8 percent to $32.52 Friday in New York trading. The shares have gained almost 13 percent this year.
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