Blockbuster has said this week that they have signed a $290 million deal that will sell the chain to a group of investors which will take it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The offer comes from Cobalt Video Holdco LLC, which consists of funds Monarch Alternative Capital LP, Owl Creek Asset Management LP, Stonehill Capital Management LLC and Varde Partners Inc.

Each of the funds hold secured Blockbuster debt.

While the deal needs approval from the federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy it is expected to receive the necessary approval soon. From there, other bidders have 30 days to place bids. If any other group does, the company would go up for auction.

CEO Jim Keyes added (via Y!):

An auction will allow for the consolidation of ownership of the company to those with a clear and focused vision for Blockbuster's future.

Blockbuster's stock fell to $0.14 at the close today.

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Google has released the full Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK this week, giving developers the proper API and tools to create apps for the tablet platform.

Additionally, Google updated their latest smartphone version of Android, Ginergerbread, to version 2.3.3.

Late last month, Google introduced a "preview" version of Honeycomb but Yahoo says the full SDK includes "the ADT plug-in, a new app palette with categories and rendering previews, a more accurate rendering of device-specific layouts, selection-sensitive action bars to manipulate View properties, improvements to zoom, and improved support to merge layouts and create layouts with gesture overlays."

The first tablet with Honeycomb is the upcoming Motorola Xoom, which will be launched next week.

Google says the first two devices to get 2.3.3 (they are pretty much the only devices with 2.3 anyways) are the Nexus One and Nexus S.

2.3.3 adds the "ability to write NFC tags in addition to reading them, better speech recognition, and API support for Bluetooth over a nonsecure socket connection."

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HP shares have fallen as much as 12 percent today following a lackluster quarterly earnings report yesterday, and a weak forecast for 2011.

The company blamed its revenue downgrade on a "weak consumer personal consumer market" and slowing growth in its information technology services business.

However, corporate hardware business was a strong winner, said the company.

New CEO Leo Apotheker has planned a March meeting with analysts and stock holders in which he will unveil the company's long-term vision, moving it out of its current "transitional" stage.

Overall, HP reported Q1 profit of $2.6 billion on revenue of $32.3 billion. For the Q2, however, the company predicts revenue of $31.5 billion, much lower than the anticipated $32.6 billion average of analysts following the stock.

For the full year 2011, the company expects revenue of $131 billion, lower than the anticipated revenue of $133 billion.

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According to the WSJ, social gaming giant Zynga made $400 million profit on just $850 million revenue in 2010, good for an astonishing 47 percent profit margin.

BI shows off a number of comparisons, and it appears that Zynga may actually be the most profitable company, ever.

In the tech sector, Google, Apple and Facebook all have near 30 percent margins, which are massive, and other behemoths like Amazon and Salesforce have margins closer to 5 percent.

Luxury brands like Hermes have a 30 percent margin, and although unconfirmed, Chanel is said to be the most profitable company in Europe, with a 45 percent profit margin.

Zynga pays Facebook fees for advertising and pays out 30 percent from its virtual goods sales but otherwise has little operating expenses.

The company has hits such as FarmVille, MafiaWars, CityVille and ZyngaPoker, all of which have tens of millions of users.

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Microsoft is making headlines this week after their recent Windows Phone 7 update has bricked some user's handsets and caused crashes on others.

The official Windows Phone 7 Troubleshooting Guide has a list of 19 possible error codes, and the final repair is simply a rollback to the more stable firmware.

While a small portion of users had their phones completely bricked by the update, most had lighter issues, such as the update failing.

LG Optimus 7 and Samsung Omnia 7 owners saw the highest proportion of bricked devices.

For now, Microsoft is asking users to not try the update for 72 hours, while it investigates and fixes.

To make matters even worse, the update doesn't bring the promised copy and paste update, which Microsoft says is coming next month.

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Apple has begun sending out invites for an iPad 2 launch event on March 2nd, confirming recent rumors.

The event will be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am, the same venue used for multiple launches in the past few years.

It is unclear what will be upgraded for the iPad 2, but most reports have the tablet adding a dual-core CPU, updated GPU, dual cameras and a slimmer form factor.

The invite teases "Come see what 2011 will be the year of," although arguably 2010 was the year of the iPad, with the tablet crushing all sales estimates on route to 15 million units sold. Apple is expected to sell 40 million iPad/iPad 2 units this year even as it faces increased competition from Android, WebOS and BlackBerry tablets, all of which will make their true debuts this year.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball subtly noted last month that Apple may be moving to a 6-month release schedule for their popular iPad tablet, meaning the iPad 3 could be ready by the end of the year, as well.

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Google is currently in talks with the NBA and NHL in an effort to bring live game streaming to YouTube.

The move follows the strong success of live streaming cricket's Indian Premier League.

Gautam Anand, Google's director of content partnerships for Asia Pacific says YouTube is aiming for more live sports and is in talks with "most pro sports leagues," including soccer in Europe.

Anand says last year's ndian Premier League experiment brought in 55 million unique visits from 250 countries.

Says the director:

It's fair to say that there will be a lot more appealing sports content you'll see on YouTube. We have ongoing conversations with pretty much everyone.

Google does note that where the live streaming will be offered is dependent on each deal, which will be different.

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