Samsung Electronics released some financial results for its second quarter today, ahead of the official release July 24, saying that earnings will be well above market estimates. Last month, Qualcomm also raised its guidance, but it was unclear whether that meant the cell-phone slump was over. Similarly, in this case,…

PacketVideo, the San Diego-based mobile video and software company that has been around since 1998, has sold about 35 percent stake in the company to Japanese mobile giant DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM). The firm is part of NextWave Wireless. The all-cash deal is intended to “strengthen DoCoMo’s position in advanced music…

London-based Monitise, a mobile banking company, said it has signed a five-year deal with Visa worth $13 million. As part of the deal, Visa will take a 14.4 percent stake in the company and have the option of taking a seat on its board, reports the WSJ. In addition to…

Secretive mobile analytics startup Ground Truth, which recently hired former Qpass president Sterling Wilson as its CEO, has raised $2.62 million in a venture round, according to a regulatory filing. The filing does not list the venture capital firms that participated in the funding, although Steamboat Ventures managing director Beau…

Italy’s diverse social network, mobile and community operator Dada has resumed its journey on the M&A trail, buying 51 percent of Milan Stock Exchange-listed casual web games publisher Fueps for €1.36 million.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bling Nation, a mobile payments company, has raised $8 million in a first round of capital. The company has raised a total of $13.3 million, including a seed round. Investors in the round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meck and CampVentures.  Founded in 2007, Bling Nation says its…

While the larger M&A market has all but dried up in the first half of 2009, “companies that have something, anything, to do with mobile,” are the exception to the rule, reports AllThingsD, which quotes The Jordan, Edmiston Group. Release. In the past six months, the number of overall transactions…

It’s been two years since Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) first started selling applications for the iPhone through the App store. In that time, investors have flocked to the opportunity, pumping slightly more than $100 million into 17 companies. The figures are being reported today by “the ChubbyBrain database,” which keeps a…

Every time you hit the “r” instead of the “t,” and accidentally type “thsnks” instead of “thanks,” you probably wonder why someone isn’t working on a better solution for entering text on a mobile phone? Well, actually, someone is. Swype has been quietly trying to fine-tune the keyboard for seven…

It will now be cheaper to make cellphone calls, send a text message or surf the web when traveling in Europe. The new rates, which the European Parliament formally adopted in March after months of debate, will go into effect tomorrow, July 1. Reuters said it will now be up…

Sense Networks, which describes itself as a company that “indexes the real world using real-time and historic location data for predictive analytics,” has raised $6 million in funding. Venturebeat.com, citing an unnamed source, reports that semiconductor giant Intel (NSDQ: INTC) led the deal, after beating out Sequoia, who wanted Sense…

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) is mulling over a bid for T-Mobile UK, a move that would catapult them to the lead of the British mobile phone market, one of the most competitive markets in Europe. The FT.com, citing “people familiar with the situation” said that Vodafone, the world’s largest carrier by…

Israeli smartphone ad network Toda!Cell has raised $1 million in its first round of funding led by Israeli VC AfterDox which describes itself as a group of angel Investors, made up of present and former execs from Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), the mobile technology provider.

Mobile, it seems, remains one of the few bright spots in venture capital. Bob Borchers has left his post as Apple’s senior director of worldwide product marketing for the iPhone to join venture capital firm Opus Capital as a general partner,  the WSJ.com reports. The 43-year-old Borchers, who first arrived…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is tripling its stake in UK microchip firm Imagination Technologies, taking its share to 9.5 percent. Its buying 2.2 million new shares at £1.4275 each (total £3.14 million).

Newly appointed Palm (NSDQ: PALM) CEO Jon Rubinstein symbolically took over the company’s reigns today by leading the Palm’s fourth-quarter conference call, and was clear in delivering this message: Palm remains on track—from meeting Pre supply to working with application developers. One topic he would not touch, however, was the…

Swedish mobile payment and security solutions provider Accumulate has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sweden’s Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund, ArcticStartup reports. (The Sixth AP fund, as it’s also known, is a Swedish state fund for long-term risk capital, which invests in small and medium-sized growth companies.)

New media developer Fanzter, which runs the celebrity, style and entertainment platform Coolspotters, has acquired iPhone app creator Mustache. Terms were not disclosed, but the transaction involved a combination of cash and stock, Aaron LaBerge, Fanzter’s CEO and co-founder, told us. The deal follows Fanzter’s $2 million second-round funding in…

Social media payment platform oneTXT, which aims to offer social nets and other entertainment companies an alternative payments processing method to the likes of Paypal using their mobile phones, has raised $2 million in its first round of funding, the company announced today. The start-up said that it differed from…