VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Threatened by the news of the Mozilla Foundation developing a $25 Firefox OS smartphone, Finnish phone maker Nokia also launched its own set of new Android smartphones for emerging markets during the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona.

Nine new hardware partners for its Windows Phone were introduced by officials of technology giant Microsoft at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, VentureBeat reported.

Goodbye SkyDrive, hello OneDrive. Microsoft has officially rebranded its cloud storage service and launched a referral program to get more users to the platform, TechCrunch reported.

Tokyo, Japan-based electronics giant Sony surpassed its sales target for the PlayStation 4 by selling 5.3 million units worldwide just three months after the latest game console went on sale.

San Francisco, California-based wearable tech firm Basis Science put itself up for sale and is currently in acquisition talks with Google, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Microsoft is taking various steps that highlight it is seriously trying to get into the Internet of things, according to a VentureBeat report that took clues from a ZDNet report and other moves taken by the company.

Soon-to-be Microsoft-owned mobile phone maker Nokia will reportedly launch its first Android phone code named Normandy, which could be powered by Microsoft and Nokia, on February 24 in Barcelona, Spain.

Microsoft will soon be renaming its cloud storage service to OneDrive with the tech giant potentially giving incentives like added free storage to encourage users to use the service, TechCrunch reported.

US tech giant Microsoft selected five African tech startups to receive innovation grants, technical support, and mentorship from Microsoft under its venture arm extension, the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative.

TechCrunch looked more closely into the compensation package of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella submitted by the company in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tech giant Microsoft invested $15 million in location-based social networking app Foursquare and inked a licensing deal to use the latter's places database in their products and services.

In a bid to show that their participation in the surveillance efforts of the government was limited, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google started to publish details on the number of government requests for data, Reuters reported.

Boston, US-based social advertising and marketing startup Moontoast announced that it has raised $4.5 million as extension to its Series B financing round for its expansion and platform development.

Samsung, the world's biggest cellphone maker, inked a 10-year patent agreement covering all present and future technology patents with Google, the maker of Android operating system.

California, US-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in the process of raising $1.5 billion for its new fund, according to Fortune LP whisperer Dan Primack.