Herzogenaurach / Canton, MA – The Boards of adidas-Salomon AG and Reebok International Ltd. decided that adidas will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Reebok for US$ 59.00 per share in cash. The offer price represents a premium of 34.2 percent over the closing price of Reebok’s stock on August 2, 2005. The transaction value is approximately €3.1 billion (US$ 3.8 billion) including the assumption of net cash of €69 million (US$ 84 million). The transaction is subject to the approval of Reebok’s shareholders as well as to the regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Both companies believe that the transaction will close in the first half of 2006.
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Adidas to Buy Reebok
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Apple’s Mighty Mouse
Apple just announced a new mouse – The Mighty Mouse (trademark infringement anyone?), and it’s quite cool. What isn’t from Apple? It looks a lot like the current mouse offered by Apple with a catch. It now has a roller ball, and dual zones to emulate having two buttons while still maintaining one. You can also squeeze the sides of the mouse to call up Expose. Cool shtuff. -
NHL Unveils New Logo
After spending a year in the boardroom, the National Hockey League decided it needed a little facelift.
As part of a marketing plan to revamp its image with the ratification of the collective bargaining agreement, the NHL unveiled an updated logo on Friday.
The new mark maintains its time-honoured shape of the original shield, but changes its dominant colour from orange to silver. It also “uses upward-reading letters to project a vibrant, optimistic image.”The colour change, according to the NHL press release, is in homage to the sterling silver of the Stanley Cup.
NHL design director Paul Conway created the new shield. It is part of a comprehensive brand identity initiative launched last year.
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Extensis Sells Plug-Ins to Third Party Software Developer
While looking up some serial number information for a friend of mine, I stumbled across some interesting news on the Extensis website: They’ve sold their Plug-In and eXtension apps to another company. I hadn’t heard about it anywhere else…
PORTLAND, Ore. – July 28, 2005 – Celartem, Inc. and its company brands – Extensis and LizardTech – today announce the sale of its popular Photoshop Plug-ins and QuarkXPress XTensions to independent software developer, onOne Software. Products included in this purchase are pxl SmartScale, PhotoFrame, Intellihance Pro, Mask Pro, PhotoTools, and QX-Tools Pro from Extensis and the Genuine Fractals product from LizardTech. Extensis and LizardTech will continue to support these products until July 31, 2005 when onOne Software will take control of all aforementioned titles.
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Firewheel Unleashes BlinkSale
Those crazy geniuses over at Firewheel Design finally released BlinkSale to the public. If you’re looking for an easy and affordable way to manage invoice clients, this may be the way to go. I really like the use of AJAX in the site. It’s easy to toggle between panels with the XMLHTTPRequest’s that are being made. The invoices seem very customizable. I really like what I’m seeing so far. I’m going to evaluate it a little further and actually use it to send out some invoices just to see how well it handles that part. But, if it’s half as good as what I’ve seen so far, I’ll be extremely happy with it. It’s affordable too! Plans range from Free to $26/month. Not too shabby at all. Nice work, Firewheel Design! -
Yahoo! Buys Konfabulator
The deal, finalized late last week for an undisclosed price, gives Yahoo access to a toolbox of mini-applications – known as widgets – that have built a cult following since Palo Alto-based Konfabulator first introduced them for Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh in 2002.
To celebrate the purchase, it looks like Konfabulator 2.1 is now a free download! Go ahead and grab yo’self a copy! It’s super keen!
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MSN Virtual Earth
In an effort to compete with Google’s efforts, Microsoft has released the new MSN VirtualEarth website. Very cool in my opinion.
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It’s Official: Windows Vista it is!
From Microsoft.com:
Today Microsoft Corp. announced the official name of its next-generation Windows® client operating system, formerly code-named “Longhorn.” Video of the name announcement can be seen via the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0507/25234/Win_Name_MBR.asx
More info on Vista can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx -
Longhorn Development: Name Announcement Imminent?
According to ActiveWin.com, Longhorn’s official name will be announced this morning at a press conference at 6am PST. According to their sources, Longhorn will be called “Microsoft Windows Vista”. Click here for more details on the name change.Why Vista? Let’s look at how Microsoft’s Encarta defines the word:
vis·ta (plural vis·tas) – noun
- scenic view: a scenic or panoramic view
- view seen through narrow opening: a view seen through a long narrow opening, e.g. between rows of trees or buildings
- mental picture: a mental picture covering a wide range of objects or a long succession of events in the past or future … open up vistas of expansion into hitherto untapped markets
Maybe I’m retarded, but I just don’t get it. I can understand the switch from a date-based naming system for the OS, but to change it to Vista? Bah… sounds like the Marketing folks liked that one a bit too much. I think they ought to just name it “Windows AintGonnaHappenRealSoon” and be done with it.
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New Basecamp Updates Released
The folks over at 37Signals have been hard at work making continual improvements to Basecamp, their online project management app. They just enhanced the To-Do List functionality – adding drag and drop sorting, Adding/Editing tasks without reloading. Very cool AJAX stuff going on here.Some people are not going to like these updates. I think they’re cool AND useful.
According to the Basecamp Forums, it looks like Time Tracking and an improved calendar within the Milestones section is forthcoming. I can’t wait.