Microsoft has now officially confirmed their acquisition of Skype, in a deal which is said to be worth $8.5 billion. The big M announced the deal on their website and they say that the deal is worth $8.5 billion in cash, and that includes taking on Skype’s debts. The deal was approved by both the board of Microsoft and the board of Skype.

Does this mean that we should start calling them MicroSkype or Skypesoft? The rumor had been that Google and Facebook were looking to buy Skype, but it seems like no one guessed that Microsoft would be acquiring them.

Palm has fallen quite a long way since those heady days before the Palm Pre was actually offered. HP has now bought Palm for $1.2 Billion. That’s about $5.70 per share of Palm stock. This will help HP get some firm footing into the mobile segment, with Palm’s entire patent history at their disposal. Can we expect some HP phones as soon as within the next two years?

The deal will be official by July 31 2010 and the Current CEO of Palm, Jon Rubinstein might be staying.

According to The Wall Street Journal, publishing company HarperCollins is in talks with Apple about bringing e-books to Apple’s rumored tablet. You know, the one that’s expected to be the focus of its January 27th event. That tablet.

Apparently other publishing companies have been in talks with Apple as well. Sure, e-book readers are what it’s all about at the moment, but soon after it will be all about being integrated into slates. It’s still unconfirmed and just a rumor, but this one makes logical sense and gels with what we’ve been hearing.

The Wii has had it’s time in the sun, but lately it seems to have lost some traction and given way to it’s higher resolution competitors. Lately I’ve been seeing all kinds of Wii deals. Even businesses giving them away as promotions.

Well, Amazon has a great deal if you haven’t bought a Wii yet. When you buy the Nintendo Wii console along with a Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board you get a free $50 Gift Card. Normally the Wii sells for $199.99 and the Wii Fit Plus with Balance board sells for only $89.99. The overall cost is $289.98. But subtract the $50 gift card value and you get this Wii bundle for $239.98 on Amazon.

So you’ve put off that purchase of a Blackberry, right? You’ve been waiting for a deal. Well, don’t wait any longer than next week. That’s when Walmart shoppers will be given a $100 gift card if they purchase nearly any BlackBerry phone on a 2-year contract from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless.

The offer starts at 8AM local time this Saturday and is in effect through November 20th.

Rumors have been swirling for the past couple of days, and it looks like the rumors were real. This weekend, Walmart is kicking off their pre-Black Friday deals, including a $199 Xbox 360 Arcade that comes with a free $100 gift card. That basically drops the price to $100.

And that isn’t the only good deal they have either. The sale starts at 8 a.m. Nov. 7 and lasts through Nov. 13. Probably these deals will be finished on the first day. I know where I’ll be

The new Zune HD arrives on Tuesday in the U.S., and if you haven’t already pre-ordered from Amazon, just enter the right coupon codes at Dell and you can save $43 on the 32GB model and $33 on the 16GB model.

That’s 15% off with free two-day shipping. It probably won’t arrive by Tuesday, but you’re getting a great deal. So grab your credit card, or fire up your PayPal account and check out LogicBUY for the code.

Still using a lot of tape? Well now you can have your tape and data too, all in one place, with this USB Tape Holder. This very useful device will hold a standard roll of tape and it also sports 4 USB ports.

It’s a great space saver for the home office desk. The USB ports are on the opposite side of the dispenser so it’s easy to plug in all of your gadgets. Sure, it isn’t all that flashy, but desk space is important, you messy slob. Time to clean up your act. It’s only $9.

Have you been hoping to score a deal on the T-Mobile G1? You got it. Instead of $200 w/ contract directly through T-Mobile, you can get one from Amazon for $97! Sure there are some strings, what did you expect?

You have to be a new customer and sign up for a two-year contract. But if you really want it, it’s worth considering. Oh, no white version for you. Amazon is only offering the black version for this deal.

Most of us thought that after Christmas those promotional prices would change, but instead of prices going back up on the Vudu set-top-box, the retail price is now permanently reduced by 50%. You can get a box for $149 (previously $299).

The VUDU XL is also down by half, dropping from $999 to $499, which includes a home theater connectivity software package. Even the VUDU XL2 is getting in on the action, dropping from $1,299 to $799. So, are you gonna buy one now?

LG loves to collaborate with other brands. Looks like the newest brand will be that of Formula motorsports. They want some of that racing action so they can get back into that whole “Life Is Good” thing they killed. It’s as if the company is having a mid-life crisis and just wants to go really fast, like vroom.

It looks like they will be rolling out a Formula One handset sometime next year. The news comes on the heels of a new sponsorship deal with F1 earlier this morning, where LG’s Chief Marketing Officer, Dermot Boden, said that the Korean consumer electronics company is “looking to develop products in the future with Formula One.”

You can be pretty certain we haven’t heard the last from Microsoft regarding their offer to buy Yahoo!, but for now Yahoo! is saying a “no thanks” to the $44.6 billion buyout offer. Jerry Yang and other directors say Yahoo! are seeking at least $40 a share, or nearly $60 billion. Microsoft may not be willing to pay.

The bean counters of Yahoo! feel the number is on the low end. Others would like to get cozy with Google in order to improve search revenues, despite the fact that there may be some antitrust implications with that. Stayed tuned on this one. Things are getting very interesting.