For months now, there has been endless speculation in the market that Monster Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ: MNST) would be taken over. In the past days, including today, and weeks, rumors are coming fast and furious. Thanks to the recent appointments of CEO Sal Ianuzzi and CFO Timothy Yates, who worked together at Symbol Technologies Inc (NYSE: SBL), the stock has been trading up. These appointments were "designed to simplify and streamline [Monster's] operations on a global basis," the company said in a press release, and are intended to fuel future growth.

Possible suitors for Monster have included Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), as well as newspaper publishers and, more recently, private-equity firms. Does this mean a sale will come any time soon for the global online employment solution provider? It depends on who you ask:

On the "not for sale" side of the fence is Wachovia, who says that after speaking with management, they're confident the company has no intention to sell in the near-term. Analysts at Goldman Sachs appear to agree, as they believe the restructuring in the upper ranks provides a second data point, indicating the company will not be sold. Goldman specifically says that the company's June and July volatility is near a 26-week average, which suggests non-directional risk.

Okay, but other firms beg to differ, including Stifel Nicolaus, which says the appointment of Yates is evidence that management would consider strategic alternatives - alternatives which may include selling the company. The firm points to the sale of Symbol Technologies to Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) on Ianuzzi's and Yates's watch.

LBO or no, many firms agree that now is the time to buy shares of Monster.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has joined the "RED" campaign to fight AIDS in Africa. Created by U2's Bono, the campaign began in Britain and has moved to the U.S. in time for the December holiday shopping season. Motorola will donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of special RED cell phones to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Motorola joins with American Express, Gap, Nike, and other companies in this hybrid type of corporate philanthropy.

Motorola has partnered with Deutsche Telekom to invest in Ruckus Wireless, Inc., which makes "smart" Wi-Fi routers capable of beaming live TV and radio into and around the home. Ruckus makes the MediaFlex router that plugs into a box set on top the TV, much like a cable TV box. Using Internet Protocol TV, IPTV, the router can beam the signal to a Wi-Fi laptop or desktop computer in that room or even in another room. Motorola is betting the ability to beam the signal throughout a home or office without adding additional wiring will prove popular with consumers. The current Ruckus MediaFlex router retails for $159.

Motorola also rolled out its iRadio deal with National Public Radio (NPR) to provide leading public radio programming to radios in cars and homes, but now also to Motorola mobile phones. Motorola's iRadio offers over 600 channels of commercial-free audio programming.

Not all is going well with Motorola. In September, Motorola agreed to buy barcode scanner maker Symbol Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: SBL) for $15 per share, for a total of nearly $4 billion. Some Symbol Technologies shareholders have filed suit seeking to stop Motorola's acquisition of Symbol. In part, the shareholders think the price per share should be higher than $15. Symbol Technologies management says the suit is without merit. It wants the acquisition to go through.

Interested investors will want to listen to Motorola's Q3 earnings call on Tuesday 17 October, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.

With $36.8 billion in revenues, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) made the 2006 Fortune Global 500 list at #152. Motorola beat out its competitors Cisco Systems #241, Ericsson #319, and Alcatel #411. Nokia Corporation #131 remains the world's largest communications equipment company with $42.5 billion in revenues.

There is more good news. Motorola in the US has issued a co-branded cell phone for the Product RED high profile fundraising campaign led by Bono, among others. Motorola will donate up to 50% of the profits from RED cell phone purchases to Global Fund to help fight the spread of AIDS in Africa. Such cause-related shopping campaigns have been very successful in England. Bono and Project RED wish to replicate that success during the holiday shopping season in the US.

Motorola recently announced plans to acquire Symbol Technologies, maker of bar code and inventory-scanning technology, in a deal valued at $15 per Symbol share for a total of $3.9 billion. The deal is supposed to close by early 2007. If the deal falls through under certain circumstances, Symbol Technologies could end up owing Motorola as much as $130 million. Motorola may need to hope that the deal does in fact fall apart. Motorola can then use that money to pay off part of the $3.7 billion plus interest Iridium creditors are demanding Motorola give back. Iridium LLC paid more than $5 billion to its parent company Motorola to build Iridium's satellite system. Creditors allege Motorola knew at the time that Iridium would not be financially viable, but took the money anyway. At issue is just how much Motorola's senior management knew about Iridium's financial problems prior to its bankruptcy in 1999.

The consolidation in tech continues to heat-up. The latest deal is Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) $3.9 billion purchase of Symbol Technologies (NYSE: SBL).

Founded in 1975, Symbol is a developer of devices and software to capture, move, and manage information to make better business decisions. Often these technologies are used for things like inventory management, such as by scanning products using RFID readers.

The deal looks like a good fit for Motorola. With $1.7 billion in revenues, Symbol is a major player in the mobile enterprise. So with this transaction, Motorola will get a big boost.

Also, Motorola can leverage the Symbol technology through its significant distribution channels – especially as things like RFIF and 802.11 get more traction.

The deal also shows that Motorola's management has a lot of confidence. After all, the company's last mega deal was in 2000.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.