Facebook has agreed to acquire mobile data compression startup Onavo and plans to use its technology in an effort to make Internet access more affordable, Facebook said on Monday.

Continuing to build its portfolio of software for supporting electronic commerce operations, IBM has acquired Xtify, a provider of push notification-based marketing services for mobile platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google has acquired Flutter, a gesture recognition company whose technology lets people control music and movies on their desktop by waving their hands.

SAP is expanding its arsenal of data-analysis software with the acquisition of predictive analytics vendor KXEN, announced Tuesday.

Twitter has acquired Trendrr, a data analysis company, to better leverage users' tweets about television to draw in more advertisers.

Software AG is adding mashup and real-time analytic capabilities to its lineup with the acquisition of JackBe. Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, were not disclosed.

Facebook said it is buying Mobile Technologies, a company known for its speech recognition and voice-to-voice translation technology.

SAP has given customers a peek into how it will compete with the likes of Oracle and IBM in the growing market around CEM (customer experience management) software with the acquisition of commerce software vendor Hybris.

There's no shortage of speculation about why Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post. It could be for access to local news, content deals involving the Amazon Kindle, political self-interest or even ego.

Apple has acquired Locationary, a start-up based in Toronto that provides a platform for aggregating and managing local business listings.

Yahoo has made yet another acquisition, this time picking up Beijing-based data analysis startup Ztelic to boost its research and development efforts in China.

Put your hands in the air - Intel has made another major push into the world of touch-free computing. The chipmaker has confirmed that it bought Israel-based Omek Interactive, a gesture-recognition firm. Omek (which means 'depth' in Hebrew) offers gesture-recognition products for computer and software makers that can track full-body movements as well as finer detail hand and finger gestures.

Yahoo said Friday that it has bought contact management specialist Xobni for an undisclosed amount, presumably to enhance Yahoo Mail and its related applications.

Further boosting its presence in the field of product marketing, Adobe is acquiring campaign management software provider Neolane for approximately US$600 million in cash.

Google is buying the crowdsourced mapping app developer Waze, in a move geared toward adding more real-time navigation tools to its own Maps software, the company announced Tuesday.

Marketo says it has created tools that put it far ahead of rival marketing automation software vendors by making it much easier to run targeted campaigns, and more effective ones to boot.

SAP is buying privately held Hybris in a bid to build out an e-commerce software offering that connects with customers across multiple "channels, devices and touch points."

Salesforce.com's pending US$2.5 billion purchase of marketing software vendor ExactTarget will help it develop a new $1 billion annual revenue stream and set the company on a clear strategic course for the foreseeable future, according to Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.

Yahoo's board of directors has approved spending $US1.1 billion in cash to buy popular blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Facebook rumour mill is churning with reports that Zuckerberg and company are inching ever closer to sealing the deal on a purchase of the popular crowdsourced navigation app, Waze.