Tech Business Roundup: Angry Birds, and Angry Apple

Angry Birds‘ invasion of China moves full steam ahead, as its Finnish maker Rovio confers with Renren (NYSE:RENN), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU), which are Chinese companies it has retained to assist in exploring strategic ways in which projected game downloads there can be expedited. It’s estimated that more than 500 million Internet users in China comprise the market for what is called “explosive” growth in game downloads, and Rovio seeks to boost its advertising and merchandising within that sector.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is not taking the Justice Department’s antitrust suit lying down, as its spokesperson Tom Neumayr brands the allegations as “simply not true”. On the contrary, Neumayr contends that Apple’s arrival upon the e-book scene “fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.”

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Facebook’s (FB) purchase of Instagram seems to be humming right along, as the latter says that it has added 10 million users during the last 10 days, which swells its total base to 40 million. Instagram’s Android intro and the free press it received when it was acquired didn’t hurt much either.

Server-based application platforms supplier Network Engines (NASDAQ:NEI) reports that its largest customer, EMC, will move away from certain of its products, which could bring a loss of around $21 million by this year’s end. Shares drop accordingly.

Investing Insights: Nokia Takes Microsoft in a New Direction.

Thursday’s strategy meeting at Sony (NYSE:SNE) apparently disappointed most everyone, including investors. Hopes were that Sony’s early-week warning of a larger fiscal year loss than had been forecast, would be ameliorated by the contents of the meeting, but Credit Suisse reports that it “did not contain any surprises”, and that “explanations regarding the timeframe for execution and assessment of proposed initiatives fell somewhat short.”.

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) will start merchandizing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 tablet for only $49.99 with a new mobile broadband plan that will begin on April 22. The tablet ordinarily retails for $499.99 and Verizon normally sells it for $229.99 with a new two-year contract, thus offering a $180 markdown.

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