Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
12:25 PM ET, January 16, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Jonathan Schwartz / Jonathan Schwartz's Blog:
Helping Dolphins Fly  —  We announced big news today - our preliminary results for our fiscal second quarter, and as importantly, that we're acquiring MySQL AB.  —  If you're interested in the financial details for the quarter, tune in to our conference call (see details on sun.com) today …
RELATED:
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Sun To Acquire MySQL  —  Sun Microsystems announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire open source database leader MySQL AB for $1 billion in cash and assumed stock options.  (Disclosure: I am on the board of directors of MySQL, and O'Reilly co-produces the MySQL User Conference with MySQL.
Discussion: Profy.Com and Kwiqq Blog
Zack Urlocker / InfoWorld:
Sun Shines on LAMP  —  This morning we announced that Sun Microsystems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL.  Having spent the last four plus years working on making MySQL into a strong independent company, this is a bit of a change of strategy, but from my perspective it's all for the good.
Martin LaMonica / CNET News.com:
Sun to fork out $1 billion for open-source firm MySQL  —  Sun Microsystems will plunk down $1 billion to buy MySQL, the maker of a popular open-source database.  —  Sun said Wednesday that it will pay about $800 million in cash for MySQL's stock and take on about $200 million worth of options.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sun acquires MySQL; Adds to its software stack  —  Updated: Sun Microsystems is taking the plunge into the database market with the purchase of open source database developer MySQL for $1 billion ($800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assumption of approximately $200 million in options).
Discussion: Sun Microsystems and InfoWorld
Kaj Arnö:
Sun acquires MySQL
BBC:
Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous  —  Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble.  —  The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users.
RELATED:
Reuters:
Facebook asked by Mattel to remove ‘Scrabulous’  —  The makers of Scrabble have asked Facebook to remove a popular online version of the word game, Scrabulous, which they say infringes their copyright.  —  The U.S. and Canada rights to Scrabble are owned by Hasbro, the world's second-largest toy …
Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
Hasbro and Mattel: Dumb, dumb, dumb
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC NEWS | dot.life:
Facebook, Scrabulous, and the End of Innocence
Discussion: The Register
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why we're going to FastCompany.tv  —  Ahh, Andy Plesser broke my career news again (he was the guy who broke my news about leaving Microsoft too).  Louis Gray got the story first, though, I think, although I told dozens of people at the BlogHaus last week at CES.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Surprise!  Oracle buys BEA Systems  —  The clumsy courtship between Oracle and BEA Systems is over.  Oracle said Wednesday that it will acquire BEA for $19.375 a share in cash.  —  The offer puts the value of BEA at roughly $8.5 billion.  —  On a conference call-where Oracle …
RELATED:
Aaron Smith / Company news:
Oracle, BEA Systems in $8.5B deal  —  Activist investor Carl Icahn, BEA's largest shareholder, had been advocating a merger.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Software giant Oracle Corp. reached a deal to buy rival BEA Systems Inc. for $8.5 billion Wednesday, just months after its initial offer was rebuffed.
Discussion: VentureBeat and The Open Road
Wall Street Journal:
Oracle to Pay $8.5 Billion for BEA
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Advisory (947563)  —  Vulnerability in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution  —  Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2002 …
RELATED:
Jeremy Kirk / IDG News Service:
Microsoft Warns of New Excel Vulnerability
John Markoff / Bits:
The Passion of Steve Jobs  —  Even more than when he's performing on stage, Steven P. Jobs's passion for personal computing comes through when he talks about the years he spent cajoling his designers to build what he presented today as the world's “thinnest” computer.
RELATED:
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
Macworld: the thinnest notebook computer and Blu-ray
Discussion: Electronista and Gizmodo
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
MacBook AirHead: why Apple's new laptop is basically useless
Tony Ruscoe / Google Blogoscoped:
iGoogle Themes Directory Launched  —  In October last year, I asked whether we should expect to see an iGoogle Themes Directory Coming Soon.  Today, Peter Dawson noticed that the Themes Directory is now live!  —  Not only does the directory allow you to view and select themes …
Discussion: Lifehacker and Mashable!
RELATED:
Jesse Shieh / Google Code Blog:
iGoogle Themes API
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stevenote In 60 Seconds  —  Too lazy to watch the entire Stevenote video stream on CrunchGear, or read Duncan's real time notes from the event?  No worries.  Mahalo's Veronica Belmont distills all the important stuff down into just sixty seconds.  —  See all of our coverage from Macworld here and at CrunchGear.
Eric J. Sinrod / CNET News.com:
Is GPS liability next?  —  perspective An automobile driver recently was held responsible for crashing a rental car into a train after following global positioning system instructions that put his rental car onto the train tracks.  —  This raises the specter of automobile drivers pointing …
Discussion: All Points Blog
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 12:25 PM ET, January 16, 2008.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Plaxo inches further onto your desktop with new Mac application
Andrew Wallenstein / Hollywood Reporter:
Picture develops for 60Frames
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Reel Pop
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Amazon's free shipping costing €1,000 per day in France
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
New Wallstrip Host Promises Controversy, Dirty Humor
Alex Iskold / ReadWriteWeb:
The Danger of Free  —  Everyone loves to get stuff for free.
John Musser / ProgrammableWeb:
USAspending.gov: You Will be Watched
Discussion: The Social Times
GigaOM:
10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Broadband
 Earlier Items: 
alarm:clock euro:
Euro VCs Report Flurry of Online Deals Today
Times of London:
Microsoft seeks patent for office ‘spy’ software
Discussion: Slashdot
Thomas Mennecke / Slyck:
The Pirate Bay Interview
Discussion: CrunchGear and TorrentFreak
Nate Westheimer / innonate:
Freebase's $42M! Can the top-down semantic web scale?
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Application Developers: Don't Be Surprised If Facebook Changes …
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
In Child Porn Case, a Digital Dilemma
Discussion: Rough Type
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: CNN is considering making network anchor Kaitlan Collins its chief White House correspondent and relocating her show from New York to DC

Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:
An interview with Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL, a seasoned editor and broadcaster who spent months in a Russian prison before being released in a prisoner swap

Peter White / Deadline:
Fox and Hulu extend their content partnership, including in-season streaming rights for Fox's programming; sources: the deal is worth $1.5B over four years

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page