Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft, Yahoo Talks Intensify In Push to Reach a Friendly Deal — Talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. intensified Friday as the two sides explored the possibility of a last-ditch friendly deal, according to people familiar with the matter. — Though the talks have intensified …
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Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo-Google Pact May Be Close — Yahoo Inc. could announce an agreement to carry search advertisements from Google Inc. within a week, as it braces for Microsoft Corp. to go hostile or abandon its unsolicited acquisition offer for Yahoo, say people familiar with the matter.
DealBook:
Finally, Microsoft and Yahoo in Merger Talks — After a months-long standoff, Microsoft and Yahoo are in active merger talks, a person involved in the discussions said. — Microsoft, which had threatened to abandon its bid, has increased its offer “by several dollars,” this person said.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, WebProNews, Bits, All about Microsoft, Valleywag, GigaOM, Tech Tracks, Epicenter, Beyond Binary, MarketingVOX and MacDailyNews
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
MicroHoo: Mail Monopoly Part of Yahoo's Price Holdout — Let's move this back-and-forth- wrangling aspect of the story forward and get to the real issues in the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover battle, shall we? — So why is Yahoo's board holding out for a higher price than Microsoft wants to offer to raise it?
Betsy Schiffman / Epicenter:
Our Tip to Mr. Ballmer: Forget Yahoo, Buy AOL — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says his only interest in buying Yahoo is in obtaining scale for the company's ad network. — “The question is, is there a better way to get to scale more quickly?” Ballmer told the Wall Street Journal. “We like our strategy.
New York Times:Microsoft and Yahoo Are Said to Step Up Talks
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:Microsoft and Yahoo Price Talk in “Mid-$30s”; Negotiations Continue*
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:Yahoo, Microsoft in talks; Media pawns abound
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily
Steve / The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
The problem with Facebook — This chart says it all. A new study discovers that the vast majority of Facebook apps are an utter waste of time. But oh yeah — Facebook is worth $9 billion, or $15 billion. And Slide is worth half a billion because it makes that super important FunWall application.
Discussion:
Capitol Valley
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Nathan / FlowingData:
Chart of the Day: A Breakdown of Facebook Applications — Of the 23,160 Facebook applications, I use about 5, but I probably wouldn't notice if someone randomly removed all of them from my profile in the middle of the night. Kids these days. I used to play BlockStar …
Discussion:
Screenwerk, mathewingram.com/work, O'Reilly Radar, The Globe and Mail, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, BetaNews, The Chronicle and Mashable!
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:Study reveals shocking truth: Most Facebook apps are silly, pointless
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:Facebook Apps Are Still for Toddlers: The Visual Proof!
Discussion:
All Facebook
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Iron Man — There was a game we used to play in the office, years ago, casting a movie of our own lives. What well-known actor or actress would play you? Who would play your friends? The game eventually faded, as games always do, but at the time it was great fun.
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
Amazon Sues Over State Law on Collection of Sales Tax — Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit challenging New York State's new law forcing online retailers to collect sales tax on shipments to state residents. — On Friday, Amazon filed a complaint in State Supreme Court in Manhattan objecting to the law …
Discussion:
Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Andy Beard, TechCrunch, Digital Daily, Techdirt, ZDNet Government, VoIP Blog, Valleywag, CNET News.com, TeleRead, Digital Trends and Mashable!
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Andy Serwer / Fortune:
Larry Page on how to change the world — Breakthrough ideas are around the corner, says the Google co-founder. But most of us are failing to take a chance on them. — (Fortune Magazine) — As president of Google, Larry Page has pushed his people to take risks that have led to hot new applications like Gmail and Google Maps.
Elizabeth Corcoran / Forbes:
Tech's Top-Paid CEOs — Jerry Yang should take note: The best-paid chief executives among technology companies last year was not Google's Eric Schmidt. — Oracle's (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) Larry Ellison tops our ranking of the best-compensated chief executives at technology companies in 2007.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, HipMojo.com, Insanely Great Mac, The Mac Observer, Valleywag, Silicon Alley Insider and Macsimum News
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The Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry KickStart: T-Mobile launch and a whole bunch of specs! — You didn't think we'd actually leave you hangin', did you? To follow up on on yesterday's post of the BlackBerry KickStart photos, we've got here a couple more images of the phone with T-Mobile branding and some interesting details on the physical design attributes.
Discussion:
Mark Evans, Crave, IntoMobile, Unwired View, TmoNews, CrackBerry.com blogs, Electronista, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, Engadget and BB Geeks
DealBook:
Feeling Oppressed at eBay — Vote, sell or sue. — These are the limited options available to shareholders in a publicly traded company when they are unhappy or otherwise in conflict with corporate management or other shareholders. Shareholders in a private, sometimes called “close” …
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Jake / THIRD RAIL:
Thurday at Noon is the best time post and be noticed (PST) — It's happened to me a few times; I stay up late working on a great post and finish at 1am EST. In a rush of excitement I decide to submit it to reddit or del.icio.us and goto bed fully expecting to see it on the front page of their sites the next morning.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:Want That Post to Go Popular? Here's The Best and Worst Times to Post It
Discussion:
WebProNews
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Microsoft's PopFly makes it easy to create your own arcade games — Microsoft is announcing today that it has created a easy-to-use Popfly Game Creator, a software tool that makes it easy for anyone to create their own arcade-like video games. — The tool is based on Microsoft's popular mashup tool Popfly …
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John Cook / John Cook's Venture Blog:
Old media needs to wake up, or die — Traditional media companies that refuse to invest in the Internet and withdraw into old business models are destined to fade away, opening the door for entrepreneurs to take advantage of the lack of innovation. — That was the message from Merrill Brown …
Discussion:
Serious about Business
Brian Krebs / Washington Post:
White House Plans Proactive Cyber-Security Role for Spy Agencies — America's spy agencies for the first time would be tasked with gathering intelligence on threats to the nation's computer networks under a policy that could be detailed by the White House as early as next week, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
