Weekly Tech Highlights: Sony Beat Apple To The Punch, Twitter M&A Rumors And More

This week was filled with M&A chatter, a massive change for one pay-TV provider and more legal drama for an industry stalwart.

Twitter Was Rumored To Be Up For Sale…

The media was all over Twitter Inc TWTR this week after Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino tweeted that the company was open to an acquisition by Google Inc GOOG or Facebook Inc FB. "The window of opportunity to buy Twitter right now is the greatest for this quarter and the next quarter," Twitter expert Sean Udall (@UdallTechStrat) told Benzinga. Udall, who serves as the CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and is the author of The TechStrat Report, said that Gasparino did some of the "absolute best reporting during the financial crisis on potential takeover deals." "He nailed a bunch of them," Udall continued. "I think, historically, he's been a very good M&A reporter. He seems to be a guy who's very well connected and would have a lot of good sources."

Related Link: E3 2015: How Sony Could Lose Its Leverage To Microsoft

…But The Purchase Price Remained A Mystery

How much would Google be willing to pay for Twitter? Analysts had mixed reactions. "Google might pay $40 billion because they want to monetize Twitter to where it will be worth $100 billion or more," Udall told Benzinga. Niles Lawrence, president of stock analysis site Vuru told Benzinga that he doesn't think Twitter would be worth anywhere near $100 billion (as recently rumored) to Google right now. Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said he doesn't think Google would pay $20+ billion for any company, including Twitter.

Sony Launched A La Carte Options Ahead Of Apple

Sony Corp (ADR) SNE got the jump on another competitor this week, but it wasn't Microsoft Corporation MSFT or Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) NTDOY. Instead, Sony actually beat Apple Inc. AAPL to the punch in offering a la carte TV options. "The existing cable agreements pretty much prevent this, as Intel found out -- which is why they bailed from their very well-funded TV effort," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told Benzinga. "So I expect this Sony effort, while well-intentioned, will fall short." In the end, Apple's biggest problem may not be Sony -- it might simply be the industry's ongoing restrictions that prevent the Mac maker from succeeding.

Apple Fought A Monster

Monster LLC sued Beats for fraud involving the company's sale to Apple. Apple responded to the lawsuit by revoking Monster's ability to make licensed iPhone, iPad and iPod products. "What it means [for the other case] is Apple no longer feels the need, from a business standpoint, to affiliate itself with Monster," Darren Heitner, a sports and entertainment attorney and founder of Heitner Legal, told Benzinga.

AMD And NVIDIA Gained Some Attention Ahead Of E3

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD caught the attention of industry watchers ahead of the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo. "Watch for the hardware, the PC gaming graphics war between NVIDIA and AMD," Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Benzinga. "AMD has been very forthright, saying, 'There's something new that's coming.' I think watching how NVIDIA and AMD fight each other is gonna be a really interesting one for me at this show, how they position against each other." Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.