In a move to beef up its portfolio of analysis software and services, Microsoft is acquiring Revolution Analytics, a major commercial distributor of the R statistical programming language.

Teradata has acquired Israel-based mobile marketing automation vendor, Appoxee, as it looks to round out the omni-channel capabilities of its Integrated Marketing Cloud.

Half the money spent on advertising is wasted -- the question is, which half? That's the age-old question in adland. Now Oracle is hoping to help its customers answer that question with the acquisition of Datalogix, which collects offline consumer spending data in a bid to help online advertisers pick the right targets.

Accenture has acquired Australian digital agency, Reactive Media, in a bid to strengthen its digital marketing and technology services capabilities.

The search for game-changing technology capable of fueling growth in an uncertain economy is driving global tech mergers and acquisitions to a level not seen since the dotcom era.

European headquartered marketing agency, Publicis Groupe, has acquired marketing consultancy and omni-channel technology group, Sapient, for US$3.7 billion as it seeks to lead the converging marketing, commerce and technology space.

Facebook has revealed a little more about what compelled it to spend close to $US19 billion earlier this year to buy mobile messaging service WhatsApp -- a deal that had many scratching their heads at the huge sum.

Tag and data management vendor, Ensighten, has acquired marketing analytics provider, Anametrix, as it looks to shore up a stronger position in the race to own marketing budgets.

Google has acquired Polar, a company that specializes in online polls that allows its customers to get "instant opinions on anything."

Tibco's board of directors has begun a review of "strategic and financial alternatives," which presumably include a sale, the middleware vendor has confirmed following a news report of its plans.

Amazon will pay US$970 million to acquire Twitch, a site for live video broadcasts of people's video gaming sessions.

Melbourne-based creative agency, DT, has acquired mobile and gaming specialist, Millepede, in a bid to broaden its mobile engagement offering to marketers.

Apple has acquired headphones maker Beats Electronics for US$3 billion, in what is the company's largest-ever acquisition.

Tibco has acquired Jaspersoft for US$185 million in a deal that will give it a widely used embedded BI (business-intelligence) suite to sell alongside its existing Spotfire analytics product.

Continuing its run of digital marketer acquisitions, IBM has announced its purchase of Silverpop, which specializes in managing personally-customized Internet promotions.

Facebook has reached a surprise deal to buy Oculus VR, developer of the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, for about $US2 billion, according to the social network.

Yahoo has acquired Vizify, a company that turns social media data into interactive visual aids such as infographics and videos, adding to the Internet giant's string of acquisitions designed both to get talent and access to new technologies and services.

Google claimed it's ratcheting up the fight against fraud in online advertising, disclosing Friday that it has bought Spider.io, a London company specializing in ad fraud detection technology.

Facebook, in a major push to expand its business on smaller screens, has agreed to buy the mobile messaging app WhatsApp for $US16 billion.

Japan's Rakuten will acquire instant messaging and calling app developer Viber Media for US$900 million, the e-commerce giant said Friday, highlighting its moves to penetrate new markets.

Apparently Klout is popular.