Five biggest tech stories in 2014

This year is marked by a lot of acquisitions, new product announcements, and shifts in key positions from top tech brands. Google, Microsoft and Apple continue to lead as the top newsmakers.

The year 2014 is about to end and we look back at the biggest stories in technology that happened this year.

This year is marked by a lot of acquisitions, new product announcements, and shifts in key positions from top tech brands. Google, Microsoft and Apple continue to lead as the top newsmakers.

Satya Nadella becomes new Microsoft CEO. After a very long and exhaustive search, the Redmond giant finally announced its new chief executive officer in the name of Satya Nadella. He was Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group and has been with the company since 1992.

All in all, Satya Nadella is expected to get a total of about $84 million on his first year as CEO, most of it coming from cash and stock bonuses. However, his annual base salary will only be $1.2 million.

Nadella is only the 3rd CEO since the founding of Microsoft in 1975, following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Google sells Motorola to Lenovo. Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2011 for about $12 billion. It was perceived as a bullish move for Google to push its own Android OS and dominate the smartphone market.

Along with it, Google got its hands on thousands of patents and IPs that it could use to further the foothold of its ecosystem and handset partners.

Google eventually sold the device company to Chinese giant, Lenovo, for only $3 billion.

Apple announces the iWatch. Smart watches have been around for a couple of years now but Apple’s announcement of the iWatch has prompted more attention to this fledgling market.

Like the iPod, Apple is banking that the iWatch could be its next biggest break and considering that it has some level of dependence with the iPhone, the potential could be a huge win for Apple.

Microsoft announces Windows 10. Microsoft skipped a number and announces Windows 10 as the next operating system. Windows 10 will have the look and feel of Windows 8 but the familiarity of Windows 7.

Microsoft aims to unify Windows 10 across platforms allowing Windows, Windows Phone and Windows embedded products in one internal core.

Microsoft is scheduled to release Windows 10 to the public sometime in the middle of 2015.

Facebook buys WhatsApp. Perhaps one of the biggest acquisitions ever made is the purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion.

Valued at $1.5 billion, the messaging service was snapped up by Facebook at more than 10 times the value.

The acquisition includes $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares and an additional $3 billion in restricted stocks granted to the founders.

By late 2014, WhatsApp had over 600 million active users per month.