Weekend Wrap-Up: AT&T Pays $48.5 Billion for DirecTV; Microsoft Unveils the Surface Pro 3

Happy Sunday, folks! I hope you’re having a great Memorial Day weekend, and that you aren’t spending too much time in front of the computer.

Unless, you know, you’re reading BestTechie. And it seems you’re doing that right now, so please, stay as long as you’d like!

This is the Weekend Wrap-Up post, which summarizes the top stories from the past week in tech news. If you’re new to this, you can ingest the Wrap-Up in one of two ways: by watching the video directly below, or by scrolling down a bit more to get written summaries of the last week’s major happenings.

Ready? Let’s go.

AT&T Acquires DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

Did you know that AT&T was in the market for a satellite TV company? We reported this past week that AT&T is making moves to acquire satellite provider DirecTV for a handsome $48.5 billion. The reasons behind the acquisition haven’t been fully fleshed out, save for some AT&T executives mentioning that they’d like to begin offering Internet TV at some point in the future. It’s definitely going to be one of the more interesting buys this year — if it goes through. We’ll keep you updated on it.

Microsoft Unveils the Surface Pro 3

What if your tablet was your laptop? It’s a concept that countless companies have tried, and that Microsoft itself has tried repeatedly. The company’s latest attempt, the Surface Pro 3, is a laptop and tablet hybrid that promises to be the only device you’ll need to carry around (well, besides your smartphone). Will Microsoft be successful this time around, or will it have to go back to the drawing board if it discovers that consumers don’t want a “jack of all trades” machine? We’ll have to wait and see.

YouTube May Purchase Game Streaming Site Twitch

Twitch has always been a popular site for gamers who want to live stream their play. But thanks to its inclusion in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One operating systems, Twitch has really blown up, and the company is now getting a look from YouTube. Reports say that YouTube may be looking to acquire Twitch for about $1 billion, which is a sizable chunk of change for a site where gamers play for and chat with an online audience. We’ll keep you up to date on this one and report back if we learn more.

The Twitter-SoundCloud Deal is Off

Twitter hasn’t had much luck when it comes to music, and reports said that the company might try to buy a little success by acquiring audio hosting site SoundCloud. Unfortunately, we found out that Twitter had backed out of the talks and that no deal would be done. According to those in the know, “the numbers didn’t add up,” so it appears Twitter will have to find some other way to integrate music into its product.