This week in the RUMOR feed

There are alot of rumors flying around which can greatly disrupt our current ecosystems. Join us as we run through those we feel might come to pass along with our thoughts and comments.

We would love to hear your thoughts and fears of these acquisitions. Share them with us down below in the comments.

Kicking off the week we heard talks about Apple acquiring Beats.

This has become a hot topic coming from many sources. The rumour is apple could possibly be buying Beats for 3.2 billion as well as giving founder Dr. Dre and Jimmy Lovine key positions within Apple. 

It’s been said a $200 product from Beats costs $14 to manufacture. So they must be doing something right. I personly don’t like headphones that tweek the sound that artists intended us to hear. I have always felt Beats were a bit bass heavy and obviously thier are many out there that like this. 

I don’t feel Apple is looking into them because of their hardware. Beats has also released a music streaming service a few months back. I jumped on this bandwagon through a 3 month trials offered to At&t members. I felt the release was a bit premature and should have offered ways to transfer playlists from other services making the transition smooth. No one wants to leave large playlists behind. On top of that there were no iPad versions and their web version was extremely limited compared to its mobile versions. To cut it short at the end of my 3month trial I went back to Rdio and have not looked back. 

So I don’t feel Beats have done anything groundbreaking to warrant a purchase for 3.4 billion. My personal thinking is that Dr. Dre and Jimmy Lovine may be able to open some doors that Apple has had a hard time opening. It would be awesome if this acquisition gave them more influence to sway content media providers. Thus, opening doors to a real TV experience within Apples ecosystem.
Att has announced plans to buy DirectTv worth around $48.5 billion dollars. This for me is a little bit hard to swallow and always wonder at what point does things become a monopoly. Living out here in SoCal satellite is always tuff 2 months out of the year. It’s been getting better, but the fact that heavy rain can degrade or kill your tv signal is not good. Also you're limited to going with DSL if you plan to bundle your services to save some money. However, this merger can open a few things up, like the possibility of having stability bundled with a fiber Internet connection. Also both Uverse and DirectTv have mobile applications and would be nice to see all features roll them all together. 

The only downside to this is if/when price rise you will have less chooses as to where to go. My hope is cellular gains more momentum and becomes the main broadband of the future

Source: ATT

Google is currently in talks with Twitch a popular video game streaming service for an acquisition at $1 billion dollars.

Twitch is not just popular with PC Gammer, but Consol gamers alike. Giving them the ability to stream and share thier triumphs and bragging rights. This accusation seems like they would go hand and had. Cannibalizing twitches streaming service right into Youtube and Hangouts seems like a logical thing. With limited streaming options on consoles there will be many concerned gammers watching this sale. On the other hand with Youtube’s advertizing this could open up a whole new revenue stream for some, including Youtube.

Source: WSJ

There are also talks that Twitter are considering buying Soundcloud.

This Berlin based music company has created a service for aspiring artists and musicians large and small to upload and share their creativity in form of sound files. Last year Soundcloud was valued at $700 million following a funding round.

There isn’t much talk as to why twitter is interested in inquiring soundboard. However, Twitter has tried in the past to break into the music industry and has even gone as far as creating applications in the past (#Music app). It’s also been said that Soundcloud has over 200 million users around the world. This would provide a jolt to any service. 

Soundcloud users are very loyal and will no dought be keeping an eye on this in fear of change. 

Source: recode

GoPro The small durable HD camera which everyone loves

Announced they will be going public and hopes to raise $100 million in its public offering. There has not been a date announced yet, but expected the end of second quarter of 2014. It will be interesting to see what direction Gopro as an IPO company will take. GoPro was founded by a bunch of guys who had a need and designed something to fill it. These guys traveled the world with their own passions with a simple philosophy capture and share your meaningful experiences with others.

Source: CNBC

Normally here, at lifewithtech we deal with improving and encouraging,

in which rumors help in neither way. It’s hard to ignore rumors so big as these this week. Tides seem to be shifting in some of these big companys which certainly have the power to disrupt some markets we use everyday. So every now and then it’s helpful to keep our eyes and ears open so we are not shocked when the change comes. There is an old saying I once heard from a friend(Tony) “Be ready so you don’t have to get ready”