Top Items:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Disney Acquires Club Penguin In Deal Valued At $700 Million; To Be Branded 'Disney's Club Penguin' — On a call with Disney CEO Bob Iger now while he announces the company's acquisition of Club Penguin, which he describes as a perfect fit. It's a cash payment of $350 million and an opportunity …
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Merissa Marr / Wall Street Journal:
Disney to Buy Club Penguin — Seeking to bolster its online presence among kids, Walt Disney Co. said it is buying the popular Club Penguin virtual community for $350 million in cash. — Disney said it had agreed to pay up to another $350 million to Club Penguin's founders …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Extremely Happy Feet: Disney Acquires Club Penguin For Up To $700 million — Club Penguin, a social network/virtual world that has been on the market for some time, was acquired by The Walt Disney Company and announced today. An earlier deal with Sony fell apart over valuation …
PR Newswire:
American Airlines Selects AirCell to Launch In-Flight Wi-Fi Service Over U.S. — American Airlines Becomes First Airline to Launch AirCell's High-Speed Broadband Internet Service on Aircraft Flying Over U.S.; Conquering the Last Frontier for Internet Access
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Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Lufthansa to add in-flight broadband by 2008 for long-hauls — Lufthansa is apparently continuing the airborne scramble to get customers connected, announcing that with the help of T-Mobile it will be reinstating its broadband service (formerly from Connexion) to its long-haul flights by 2008.
John C. Dvorak / PC Magazine:
Bubble 2.0 Coming Soon — Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results—a bust. It's déjà vu all over again.
Peter Lauria / New York Post:
DISCOVERY BUYS GREEN — Discovery Communications has scooped up a companion Web site to its upcoming Planet Green cable network, agreeing to buy Treehugger.com for about $10 million, The Post has learned. — The deal, expected to be announced today, marks the first acquisition for Discovery under …
Discussion:
Download Squad, CNET News.com, The Browser, Valleywag, Earth2Tech, Tech Confidential Blog and Geek Speaker
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Spencer D. Chin / TMCnet:
Skype to Offer SpinVox Voice-to-Screen Messaging — Expanding from the carrier and wireless worlds into Internet calling, SpinVox (News - Alert), the founder of voice-to-screen messaging, has signed a contract with Skype to offer its voice-to-text service for its Internet-communication software.
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Om Malik / GigaOM:Have Skype SMS your Voicemail text: By Late 2007
Discussion:
Skype Journal, Compiler, SMS Text News, jkOnTheRun, Technology News Daily and andrewteman.org
Wall Street Journal:
Murdoch Wins His Bid for Dow Jones — Bancroft Family Agrees — To $5 Billion Offer — After Deal on Fees — A New Owner for Journal — A century of Bancroft-family ownership at Dow Jones & Co. is over. — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sealed a $5 billion agreement to purchase …
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Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Forrester is wrong, imho — Forrester analyst Vidya Lakshmipathy claims that the iPhone's approach to the web eliminates the need for "stripped down sites crammed onto the small screens of devices meant for phoning, not browsing." — I would love to agree, but I came to the opposite conclusion.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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Vidya Lakshmipathy / Forrester Research:The Mobile Web Versus The Web On An iPhone: iPhone Wins In A Blowout
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
FTC complaint flags NFL, MLB, studios for overstating copyright claims — Any fan of the NFL can almost recite the warning by memory: "This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions …
Discussion:
Wendy Seltzer's Home Page, The Register, Salon: Machinist, Life On the Wicked Stage, Boing Boing, Slashdot and digg
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Console mod-chippers busted in nationwide raids — Federal agents have carried out a series of raids against individuals and businesses in 16 states as part of an investigation into the distribution and sale of mod chips. Dubbed "Operation Tangled Web", the 32 search warrants were executed …
Discussion:
TechSpot News
Sir Elton John / The Sun:
Why we must close the net — Web rant ... Sir Elton says the internet is destroying music — POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN. — Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.
Digital Music News:
GoFish Abandons Bolt Purchase, Licensing Issues Blamed — Video-sharing destination GoFish is now abandoning its purchase of Bolt, according to sources to Digital Music News. The acquisition, first reported in February, involved a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $30 million.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon To Launch Payments Services; Will Compete With PayPal and Google Checkout — Look for a launch announcement by Amazon this week or next of a new web service around payments, adding to their S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual server) and other services. They've been quietly testing the service …
Discussion:
Read/WriteWeb, Today @ PC World, Download Squad, Valleywag, eBay Strategies, 24/7 Wall St. and The Utility Belt
Reuters:
Google wary of behavioral targeting in online ads — MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - Google Inc. is looking to find more links between the searches its users do in order to better target advertising, but the company is reluctant to go much further than that in tracking their behavior.
Nicole Lee / Crave: The gadget blog:
Motorola rolls out six budget handsets — Six new unannounced handsets have shown up on Motorola's image gallery, and they all appear to be budget candybar devices. Not too much information on these phones aside from model numbers (Motorola W206, W213, W156, W160, W175 and W18), and we don't even know where they'll be headed.
