Walmart confirms purchase of 77% of Flipkart in $16B deal

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, has struck a deal worth $16B with India's top e-commerce retailer Flipkart. The deal, which is pending regulatory approval in India, gives Walmart a 77% stake in Flipkart, putting the company's total value at $20.8 billion. Flipkart's other investors - Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft will stay on and work with Walmart. Before Walmart sealed the deal, Amazon offered to acquire a 60% share of Flipkart through a $12B investment. India is the second-largest Asian market after China, and one of the fastest-growing in the World. And it...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/walmart_gains_77_of_flipkart_in_16b_deal-news-30959.php

HTC U12+ to come with translucent color option, high price

As the HTC U12+ inches towards official status, more and more details become available. The most recent tidbit details the color options: Black Red Rose, Violet and Translucent (a semi-transparent back that was introduced with the U11+). Most of the specs are already known, but now we're getting info on what's going to be available in Europe - a 64 GB model in single and dual SIM flavors "And it won't be cheap", concludes @rquandt without citing a specific number. Anyway, you can get in the U12+ spirit with this wallpaper: HTC U12+ wallpaper @LlabTooFeR has promised to posts a...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_u12_will_feature_a_translucent_color_option_will_not_be_cheap-news-30963.php

Canalys: Smartphone shipments in Europe decline, Xiaomi makes the top 5

Canalys released its quarterly report on smartphone shipments in Europe and the numbers do not look good. Overall shipment fell 6.3% between January and March, with British, French, and German markets declining 29.6%, 23.2% and 16.7%, respectively. The entire Western part of the continent declined 13.9% to 30.1 million total shipments. The picture is brighter in Central and Eastern Europe which grew 12.3% to a total of 15.9 shipments, with Russia seeing a huge 25.4% jump. Canalys went into detail about leading manufacturers and their performance throughout the first quarter of...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/canalys_smartphone_shipments_in_europe_decline_xiaomi_top_5-news-30956.php

Vodafone is acquiring Liberty's business in 4 EU countries for €18.4 billion

Vodafone has agreed to pay €18.4 billion (about $21.8 billion) for the Liberty Global business in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic that spans cable TV, brodband and mobile. Reuters reports that the deal is part of Vodafone's attempt to more successfully compete with Deutsche Telekom in Europe. With the new acquisition, Vodafone will be able to offer cable and fiber network, and to sell services and devices to 54 million homes in the 4 EU countries. The deal is tutted as one of the biggest in Vodafone's history, following an agreement for Spanish cable operator...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/vodafone_acquiring_liberty_business_4_europe_countries-news-30953.php

Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite renders leak in Burgundy and Black

High-quality renders of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite have surfaced, confirming the design of the device as well as at least some of the colors in it will come in. The renders feature the device's back in Burgundy Red and Black. Sadly no pictures of the front have surfaced yet. Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite render The Galaxy S8 Lite features a recycled Galaxy S8 design with the fingerprint scanner to the right of the camera. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite is rumored to have a Snapdragon 660 chipset with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, a 3,000mAh battery and either a 16MP or 12MP...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8_lite_renders_leak_in_burgundy_and_black-news-30961.php

Qualcomm launching a new chipset for wearables

Qualcomm's senior director of wearables, Pankaj Kedia, has announced that Qualcomm will unveil a successor to its aging Snapdragon Wear 2100 platform this Fall. While Kedia stopped short of providing specifics, such as die size and actual battery life, he was very forthcoming on several key features. Qualcomm's new chipset promises: Rethought system architecture Reduced physical size facilitating smaller designs A "significant" upgrade to battery life All chips will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as standard Fitness and sports-focused chips will have GPS Many will have...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/qualcomm_launching_new_processor_for_wearables-news-30952.php