Top Items:
Alec Saunders SquawkBox:
Interview with JAJAH's Daniel Mattes on the eve of their deal with Yahoo! — Thought JAJAH was old news? Think again. Having attracted a whopping 10 million users in the last two years, up from 2 million just last year, they're now expanding their business in dramatically new directions with the launch of JAJAH Managed Services.
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Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
Yahoo to outsource Messenger phone calls to Jajah — NEW YORK - Yahoo Inc. is outsourcing the Internet telephone functions of its instant messaging program to the startup Jajah. — Jajah will connect the calls to and from users of Yahoo Messenger and handle billing and customer care, the startup said Tuesday.
Michael Learmonth / Silicon Alley Insider:
Cox Buys Ad Network Adify For $300M — Heard through the electronic grapevine and haven't been able to confirm: Cox Enterprises, the privately-held parent of Cox Newspapers and Cox Communications, is buying Adify, one of few remaining online ad networks of significant scale. Supposed Purchase price: $300 million.
Discussion:
Washington Post, paidContent.org, TechCrunch, Valleywag, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Beet.TV and RyanSpoon.com
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Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Online Ad Network Adify Sold To Cox For $300 Million Plus Earnout — Adify, the white-label online ad network, has been sold to an unlikely buyer, Cox [Communications] Enterprises, for about $300 million and earn out, we have learned and confirmed from sources.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Blodget Says Facebook Is Only Worth $9 Billion, Hypothetically Speaking — Putting a value on private companies is hard enough for insiders and venture capitalists who have full access to the company's financial statements. When outsiders try to do it, even well-informed ones, it is nothing more than a guessing game.
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Dan Farber / Outside the Lines:
Silicon Alley Insider creates start-up valuation index — How much is Facebook, Wikipedia, or Twitter worth? Silicon Alley Insider is attempting to crack the mysterious code on the valuations of the major Web start-ups with its SAI 25 Live! It tracks the valuation of the private companies …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Steven Musil / CNET News.com:
‘Grand Theft’ reviews give Take-Two a boost — Shares of game publisher Take-Two were up Monday on the heels of positive reviews of the forthcoming video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which is being released to the public at midnight Tuesday. — Shares of the game publisher traded as high as $27.10 …
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Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
Pixar Backdating Scandal Reverberates At Google (GOOG) — Remember the big backdating scandal of, um, 2005 and 2006? It hasn't gone away. And it's touching companies that have so far remained unscathed: Today Google disclosed that board member Ann Mather is about to face civil charges …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Tech Trader Daily, paidContent.org, WebProNews, Valleywag and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder — OAKLAND, California — Jurors found Linux programmer Hans Reiser guilty of first degree murder on Monday, concluding he killed his estranged wife in 2006. The verdict followed a nearly six-month trial and nearly three days of deliberation
Discussion:
Capitol Valley, The Register, The Tech Report, CNET News.com, Boing Boing Gadgets, Threat Level and Valleywag
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Video: OQO hacked to run Leopard, now world's smallest Mac — While greeted with heaps of initial skepticism, forum jockeys over at OQO Talk now seem convinced that a junior member by the name of TRF has successfully hacked the OQO to run OS X Leopard. Adding a video filmed by Mr. Blurry Cam didn't hurt the cause.
BBC:
Drowning in data — There is no doubt that video is big on the net. But is it getting too big? — Ask AT&T and it will answer - yes. — Speaking in London in late April, Jim Cicconi, AT&T's vide president of legal affairs, said the burgeoning amount of video would consume all the net's bandwidth in two years.
Tom Foremski / IMHO:
Where's the next new thing in Silicon Valley? — Excellent article by Jeff Nolan, an ex-VC, writing in SandHill.com on venture capital investments and locating the next big thing. — Incrementalism and “The New New Thing” - With all the venture capital moving around in the Silicon Valley, where is the real innovation?
Nick Gonzalez / TechCrunch:
Yelp Lets Businesses Fight Back — Local businesses have a love/hate relationship with review site Yelp: The site sends new customer leads to the businesses reviewed. But businesses can also be reviewed (and trashed) without even knowing Yelp exists. — Businesses like Oakland coffee …
Discussion:
SarahLacy.com
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
Coldplay, Metallica, Motley Crue Embrace the Web — British art-rock band Coldplay is releasing its new single on its Web site free of charge today, the latest band to experiment with new distribution models made possible by the Internet. This once again raises the question: Why can't businesses be more like rock stars?