In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and life science news:

  • A Lenovo exec says Google is headed back to China
  • Fast-growing Raleigh software firm is sold
  • Ford picks IBM for smart car play
  • Lenovo Moto phones get fingerprint sensors
  • Drugmaker Shire is buying Baxalta for $32 billion

The details:

  • Lenovo exec: Google Play going back to China

Chen Xudong, Lenovo’s mobile Business Group leader, says that Google is returning to China this year with its Google Play app store.

Google pulled out of China in 2010 in a dispute over censorship.

Last week, Lenovo and Google announced a partnership to develop a 3D smartphone with what has been called a “magic screen.”

Read more at:

http://thenextweb.com/google/2016/01/12/lenovo-chief-says-google-play-will-return-to-china-this-year/#gref

  • ​Raleigh firm Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems is sold

Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems, a fast-growing software firm in Raleigh, has been acquired by Greenridge Investment Partners, a Texas-based private equity firm.

Terms were not disclosed.

No layoffs are planned at the 63-employee company, reports David Ranii of The News and Observer.

Read more at:

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article54159820.html

  • Ford picks IBM for smart car data

Ford said Monday it will work with IBM on a project to college data about cars, using cloud-based analytics.

​The two are “developing a pilot platform that analyzes vehicular data. It uses small chunks (10-15 sec) of data, and the patterns it sees in that data, to help drivers find a parking spot in a crowded lot or avoid a traffic jam on their drive home from work,” TechRepublic reports.

See more at:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ford-taps-ibm-for-data-analytics-to-win-the-connected-car-race/

  • Moto phones to get fingerprint sensors

​Lenovo says its soon-to-be-renamed Moto phones by Lenovo (renamed from Motorola) will be getting fingerprint scanners.

Lenovo also plans to emphasize larger screens.

Read more at:

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/01/moto-2016-flagships-fingerprint-scanners/

  • Irish drugmaker Shire in $32B deal for US-based Baxalta

Irish drugmaker Shire PLC’s second attempt to buy Baxalta looks more likely to succeed, with Baxalta’s board backing the sweetened offer of $32 billion in cash and stock. If the deal goes through, the combined company would be one of the world’s top 20 drugmakers by revenue and a leader in the sizzling niche of rare disease medicines.

Treatments for rare diseases – those affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans – are a hot, very lucrative research area, with drugmakers testing hundreds in clinical trials. The surge is driven by a combination of tax breaks, the lure of ultra-high drug prices, scientific advances such as the mapping of the human genome and advocacy groups for patients raising money to entice small drug developers to research treatments for their condition.