Microsoft makes colossal bid for Yahoo in wake of chairman's departure
Confirming that his company had indeed been in discussions with Yahoo's senior management about a possible takeover throughout the last 18 months, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed this morning he has personally placed an offer to Yahoo's board of directors, proposing a takeover whose value it estimates at $44.6 billion.
"We've been engaged in conversations with Yahoo management off and on for the last 18 months," Ballmer told reporters early this morning. He confirmed that he had a personal conversation with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang yesterday, to discuss his formal offer to the board.
Motorola is considering restructuring its mobile business
In an extraordinary public admission Thursday afternoon, Motorola CEO Greg Brown issued a statement saying his company is indeed considering ways to restructure its mobile devices and services business.
Brown's statement this afternoon reads as follows: "All of our businesses have exceptional people, products and intellectual property and the ability to achieve category leadership in their markets. We are exploring ways in which our Mobile Devices Business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise."
Applying the 'community' ideal to Web advertising
Business leaders in the Web advertising and network-building industries convened today at Fordham University to discuss how they can remake the Web advertising model so that it helps forge communities the way Web sites already do.
NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - While the metaphor of the Web typically invokes images of spreading out, the modern model of Web sites and services is actually more geared toward congregation -- building a community, and supporting it with a strong software platform. But that model applies generally to Web sites, destinations, portals as we've come to know them.
Meebo looks to monetize its chat rooms for partners
Meebo is looking to open up its interactivity platform in an effort to increase both its reach and ad revenues, which will be shared with partners.
At launch, the company is announcing that Piczo, Revision3, RockYou, Social Project, and Tagged would employ the API and Network platforms. Advertising revenues will be split 50 percent between meebo and the partner. It also will provide licensing options for those wishing to eliminate ads.
EchoStar wins partial reversal of TiVo verdict on DVR infringement
A complex tangle of technological arguments ended up being untangled in EchoStar's favor, in an appeals court decision today that could lead to DVR service being restored to Dish Network.
A technically replete, yet still dramatic, decision handed down today by Federal Circuit Appeals Court Judge David Folsom has found that two of EchoStar lines of digital video recorders, including its own 50X line and another, using technology supplied by Broadcom, did not infringe upon two patents held by TiVo.
TiVo's revolution in audience measurement snags CBS
CBS Corporation has announced it will enter into a partnership with TiVo, utilizing the DVR pioneer's Stop||Watch viewer metric.
TiVo's Stop||Watch service is a second-by-second system, which is used to measure program and advertisement ratings for both live and time shifted DVR viewing. It was the first company to use such a comprehensive system, and major network NBC began using Stop||Watch earlier this year.
Internet blackout cuts off tens of millions in the Middle East
On Wednesday, Internet traffic to Middle Eastern countries through two international data pipelines was greatly reduced or totally severed, as a result of breaks in undersea cables.
Countries serviced by the Sea Me We 4 and FLAG ("Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe") data pipelines were severely affected by what are believed to be undersea breaks.
HyperOffice brings corporate e-mail to the iPhone
Launched in public beta on Wednesday, HyperOffice's enterprise communications tools will enable Apple iPhone users to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook, since the iPhone doesn't support Microsoft Exchange.
Currently, the iPhone has no support for Exchange e-mail, which can be seen as a negative to its use in the corporate environment. HyperOffice hopes that its tools suite will solve this problem.
The first Garmin phone pairs location with connectivity
Consumer GPS company Garmin has announced for the third quarter of 2008, its first entry into the cellular handset market: the nuvifone (with a small "n").
It's Garmin's first entry into the broader smart communications device market, adding mobile Web browsing, data connectivity, and personal messaging to the company's trademark personal navigation functions.
Amazon scoops up Audible in $300 million deal
The deal is likely to mean that audiobooks will become the latest addition to its fast-growing music download store.
It's not clear what will happen to Audible's deal with iTunes, if anything -- the company is the chief supplier of audio books to Apple's music service. However, Audible seems a good fit for Amazon considering the retailers core business is book sales.
Sweden formally charges Pirate Bay owners
As expected, the Swedish government charged the owners of Pirate Bay with copyright infringement of four applications, nine movies, and 22 music tracks.
Each of the four owners, Fredrik Neij aka 'TiAMO,' Gottfrid Svartholm Warg aka 'Anakata,' Peter Sunde aka 'Brokep' and businessman Carl Lundström could be liable for fines of up to $188,000 and a two-year jail sentence.
Gaming, electronics sales compensate for Sony's lagging music, movies
The keyword this morning for Sony is "up," especially with regard to its performance over the holiday quarter. The PlayStation brand would finally steal the show, if it weren't for Bravia hogging the spotlight.
The reason you build a corporation with highly diversified operations is because, regardless of the state of the global economy, no single market segment can ever be guaranteed to grow. Sony, in light of that fact, is a very smartly combined operation, and its careful balance of market segments helped it once again weather a year that at least seemed at the time to have been going badly.
FCC 700 MHz 'C-block' reserve price finally met
In what will certainly come as relief to advocates of open access rules for wireless services, someone this morning placed a bid for the jewel-in-the-crown "C-block" of spectrum just above the minimum reserve trigger price.
At approximately 11:00 am Eastern Time, the FCC's live auction database reported a bid during round 17 for the C-block of $4,713,823,000. That qualifies under FCC rules as a Potentially Winning Bid (PWB), over the $4.6 billion reserve price. This means if that ends up being the final bid, the winning bidder must promise to open any wireless services it offers on the C-block to the end user's choice of premise or handset equipment.
Verizon exec: No 'policing the Internet' for us
The telecommunications company said it had no interest in looking into how its customers use its broadband services in an attempt to filter pirated content.
Public affairs chief Tom Tauke made the comments at the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net conference, being held in Washington, DC. The stance of Verizon seems to differ from that of other operators, who are actively throttling downloads.
Dell shutters its kiosks as part of a new retail strategy
In a move possibly intended to shift focus to its efforts in retail stores, computer manufacturer Dell Inc. said that it will shut down its retail kiosks in about 140 malls nationwide.
"Moving into retail is a prime example of Dell listening to its customers," global consumer business chief Tony Weiss said in a statement. "This move fits in with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving."
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