Both TriZetto and Cadient Group's strengths lie in offering healthcare IT solutions, which signals that Cognizant is looking to increase its presence in the healthcare industry, as 26 percent of the corporation's revenue - approximately $2.5 billion of a total of $9.6 billion - was generated by healthcare services in the June quarter, according to the release.

According to its website, the WeatherSphere brand represents the synthesis of science and simplicity. "We focus on immediate information by providing a collection of applications that are straightforward, reliable, and built with the user in mind." This approach has clearly been successful for the company - more than 3 million people use apps developed by WeatherSphere.

According to a press release issued Tuesday, Oct. 7, multinational IT corporation Cognizant Technology Solutions has acquired Cadient Group in an estimated $30 million deal. This technology acquisition by Cognizant is its third this year - the corporation acquired itaas Interactive TV Solutions in April and TriZetto Corp in September.

The E.W. Scripps Co. has acquired WeatherSphere, the publisher responsible for weather apps such as RadarCast, Hi-Def Radar, WeatherAlerts and Lightning Cast for an undisclosed amount. According to a report published by TechCrunch on Tuesday, Scripps made the acquisition to diversify its offerings and will add the WeatherSphere applications to its portfolio alongside its preexisting weather app, StormShield. WeatherSphere CEO Raghav Gupta told TechCrunch he will retain leadership of his team.

Nest acquired Dropcam for $555 million, and Google recently began implementing the additional capabilities it obtained as a result of the technology merger, integrating the Nest thermostat with Dropcam so users can choose to have the surveillance camera activate automatically when the thermostat is set to "away."

Down payments vary depending on the type of loan you take out to make the acquisition. Having a clear idea of what you can realistically afford will narrow down your search for a viable business to acquire.

Roughly six months after being acquired in a $3.2 billion deal, the Learning Thermostat company and Google subsidiary Nest announced, in June, its intention to merge with Dropcam, developers of a wireless, high-definition surveillance camera that streams video to a user's computer, phone or tablet in real time.

Making the decision to acquire a small business is one that requires much forethought and planning. In some cases, buyers are confident in their desire to buy a business, but are unsure of what type of company will be the most lucrative and well-suited to their needs.

Red Hat, which was founded in 1993, is famous for its open-source software Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but is looking to shift its attention "from client-server to cloud-mobile," according to CEO Jim Whitehurst. In a recent blog post, he called this shift in focus "a once-every-twenty-years kind of change."

Make sure your data is in order- that means organized financial paperwork and thorough documentation of everything. Prepare a detailed account of every role within the company and what each team and individual's responsibilities are.

In accordance with the recent technology merger trend in which companies acquire others in order to expand their cloud-based offerings, Raleigh-based open-source software provider Red Hat, Inc. has announced its intention to acquire FeedHenry, a self-described "leading enterprise mobile application platform provider," for $81.8 million.

Selling a company requires more preparation than some business owners might think. In an article for Entrepreneur, contributor Brad Sugars encourages potential sellers to start preparing a year before they intend to pass the baton.

The company's self-described "flagship product," Docspad, is targeted at app developers who wish to make document viewing and editing a seamless experience for their users. Docspad offers document embedding capabilities, as well as the ability to annotate and edit documents within applications themselves.

Travel & Expense (T&E) management software corporation SAP SE, based in Germany, has arranged for its subsidiary SAP America, Inc. to acquire Washington-based T&E software provider Concur Technologies in an $8.3 billion agreement ($129 per share), GigaOm reports.

Though buying a business may cost more than starting one, "it's easier to get financing to buy an existing business than to start a new one," reports Entrepreneur. This is because lenders tend to have more confidence in the profitability of pre-existing companies that are already generating revenue.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster officially merged in 2010, becoming Live Nation Entertainment a year after the merger deal was proposed in February 2009. Ticketmaster's acquisition of Eventjoy is certainly in line with recent trends. According to Mashable, 17 percent of Ticketmaster's sales were purchased using a mobile device this year, up 3 percent from the end of last year.

Multinational tech company Oracle recently announced its successful acquisition of MICROS Systems, Inc., a Maryland-based hospitality-centric hardware and software manufacturer. The merger, which was recently approved by the European Commission, totaled $5.3 billion at $68 per share, and is Oracle's most significant acquisition since purchasing Sun Microsystems in 2010, reports Bloomberg writer Dina Bass. Oracle has acquired approximately 100 companies over the last ten years, spending roughly $50 billion in the process.

Business owners who are not prepared for the austerity of the due diligence process may find themselves feeling vulnerable, explains Inc. contributor and investment banker Steven Sarwin: "If the owner is not prepared for the rigors of the due diligence, they will likely experience undue stress and potentially diminish their chances of securing a premium price for their life's work."

Determining whether you and your company would do better in the long run to continue as a stand-alone entity or sell and become part of a larger organization involves a large number of considerations, both professional and emotional. Entrepreneurs almost universally struggle harder with the latter, for there is no denying that selling your company is as much a personal as it is a business transaction.

Telecom giants Sprint and T-Mobile are currently engaged in an intensifying, industry-wide price war. Provoked by failed merger talks earlier this summer, the battle continues to escalate, with both wireless carriers lowering prices. Late in August, Sprint announced a new strategy for generously-priced data plans to attract the competition's current customers, offering subscribers up to 10 lines (20 gigabytes of available data per month) for $100 a month while T-Mobile, for the same price, will provide four lines with 10 gigabytes of data.