Activision Blizzard to buy 'Candy Crush' maker King for $5.9 billion

Video game maker Activision Blizzard Inc said it will buy "Candy Crush Saga" creator c for $5.9 billion to strengthen its mobile games portfolio.

ABS Partners CV, a unit of Activision Blizzard, will acquire King shares for $18 each in cash, representing a premium of 16 percent to King's closing price.

The addition of King's mobile games will position Activision as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, Activision said in a statement.

Video game publishers are shifting to the lucrative digital business from physical sales of games as consumers shift from consoles to playing on smartphones and tablets.

The fast-growing mobile gaming segment is expected to generate more than $36 billion in revenue by the end of 2015, according to Activision.

Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick told Reuters that buying King will help broaden the reach of its games and expand into new demographics, adding that 60 percent of King's players are female and that no gaming consoles or hardware, besides a phone, is needed to play King's games.

"You have such broad reach. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to create compelling content for new demographics," Kotick said.

Activision, which owns popular game franchises such as "World of Warcraft," "Call of Duty," and "Diablo," said the deal gives the combined company more than 500 million monthly active users across the world and would add to Activision's estimated 2016 adjusted revenue and earnings by about 30 percent.

Dublin, Ireland-based King will continue to operate as an independent operating unit led by Chief Executive Riccardo Zacconi. Zacconi told Reuters that Activision appealed to him because of the company's expertise in building long-lasting franchises.

King, which went public last March, has been struggling to boost bookings - an indicator of future revenue.

BlackBerry's Android phone Priv officially launches in US

 BlackBerry has launched its first Android-based device, with the future of the company's hardware business riding on a slick smartphone called Priv that boasts an impressive array of features and a hefty price tag.

The company is betting the Priv's large curved screen, full array of Android apps from the Google Play store and blend of productivity and security features will help it rebuild its share of the smartphone market, which has slid to under one percent.

With hacking and data theft issues becoming a bigger concern these days, BlackBerry expects keen interest in its pre-loaded DTEK feature that alerts users every time any app attempts to access data, or turn on the phone's microphone or camera.

"You will be blown away by some of the apps you use and how much data they actually access of yours," said BlackBerry's head of devices, Ron Louks.

The smartphone's "wow" factor, as Louks dubs it, is actually a throwback - a slide out physical keyboard. While the small number of such Android 'slider' phones that do exist have had little success in the market, most are dated and clunky, say analysts.

BlackBerry is hoping its sleek design and touch-sensitive keys that allows users to swipe, scroll and set up shortcuts will woo former loyalists back to using the Priv.

Initial reviews of the device were mixed, with many lauding its security offerings, long battery life, camera, dual-keyboard design and other features, but panning the Priv's high price tag -- $699 without a contract in the United States and C$899 without a contract in Canada.

Still, if the Priv does well, analysts note the device could be a game changer for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company.

"If the Priv -- with its premium price of about $700 -- is a hit, it could drive meaningful growth for the company. Moreover, the smartphone industry tends to be largely perception-driven, and a single hit flagship product can bolster a company's brand image and create a halo effect around its entire product line," said research firm Trefis, in a note on Thursday.

Apple Watch in India

US technology giant Apple has launched its much-awaited Watch in the India market. The company is selling Apple Watch variants at price starting from Rs 30,990 to Rs 14 lakh per unit through its over 100 Apple Premium stores in the country.

Early Earth forecast calls for periodically hazy skies

Groundbreaking scientific work led by researchers at the University of St Andrews is redefining the trajectory of planetary evolution.

It is widely accepted that the juvenile Earth's atmosphere was devoid of oxygen until around 2.4 billion years ago, when oxygen concentrations rose abruptly during what is known as the 'Great Oxidation Event' (GOE). This event fundamentally altered the chemistry and the ecological structure of our planet, ultimately paving the way for the emergence of complex life.

Researchers from the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at St Andrews, in collaboration with the University of Leeds (UK), the University of Maryland (USA), and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA), have revolutionised this narrative of atmospheric history, based on chemical analysis of sedimentary rocks deposited immediately prior to the GOE.

These rocks – from South Africa and Western Australia – suggest that Earth's early oxygen-free atmosphere was far more fascinating than previously thought. Namely, these new geochemical analyses reveal widespread periodic occurrences of a hydrocarbon-rich "haze", similar to the atmosphere on Saturn's Moon, Titan.

The findings are published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a leading journal for researchers across the Earth and planetary sciences community.

Dr Gareth Izon, who led the research, said: "These data are really exciting because we now see evidence for a hazy atmosphere in multiple spatially separated sedimentary successions spanning nearly 200 million years of Earth history."

The researchers speculate that episodic bursts of methane production from specialised microorganisms ("methanogens") could explain this phenomenon.

Dr Aubrey Zerkle, principal investigator of the project, said: "These events provide a spectacular example of the role of biology in modulating our planetary atmosphere, particularly on the early Earth when microbes ruled the planet."

"Importantly, these new records emphasise the need to understand the mechanisms and feedbacks controlling both biogenic oxygen and methane fluxes in the prelude to the GOE," Izon continued.

Dr Mark Claire, a co-author on the study, added: "This biologically-produced methane haze scatters sunlight, so could have had dramatic consequences on the climate. Examining the early Earth has once again revealed a complicated and fascinating interplay between Earth and the life it supports."