Top Items:
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
BREAKING: CBS Acquiring CNET For $1.8 Billion; 44.6 Percent Premium — CBS (NYSE: CBS) is acquiring CNET (NSDQ: CNET) for $1.8 billion. The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44.6 percent premium over last night's closing price of $7.95.
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Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
CBS Buying CNET For $1.8 Billion — CBS will pay $11.50 a share for CNET. The all-cash deal represents a premium of 44% over above the $7.95 CNET closed at yesterday. Will it be enough to satisfy JANA et al? — If you take the JANA team's argument at face value, this deal won't satisfy them …
Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:
CBS to buy CNET Networks — CBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday. — The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 32 percent premium over Wednesday's closing price of $7.95.
Discussion:
Screenwerk
Wall Street Journal:
Icahn Will Launch Proxy Contest To Unseat Yahoo's Entire Board — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is launching a proxy contest to unseat Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors, according to a person close to the matter — a move aimed at pressuring the Internet company to reach out to Microsoft Corp. to re-start sale discussions.
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
At The Churchill Club: The Top 10 Tech Trends — I'm at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose tonight, for the Churchill Club's annual Top 10 Tech Trends Dinner. This is the club's 10th annual tech trend panel. Making the picks: — Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. — Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures.
Discussion:
The Pondering Primate, LEWIS 360°, Guardian Unlimited, Redeye VC, VentureBeat and VentureWoods
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Comcast Bought Plaxo, Deal Closed Today — The rumors were accurate: Comcast will announce their acquisition of social contact list Plaxo today. Financial terms are not being disclosed, but the purchase price is between $150 and $170 million. Plaxo, which was founded in 2002 …
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John / Plaxo's Personal Card:
Comcast to Acquire Plaxo; Pulse to Become Central to Creating Unified “Social Media” Experience Across the Web, the TV (and more) — Big doings at Plaxo today! We are really excited to announce some of the biggest news in the history of Plaxo: We have just signed an agreement** to be acquired by Comcast …
Discussion:
Associated Press, GigaOM, WebGuild, Valleywag, VentureBeat, Latest Geek Stuff, The Real McCrea, paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider, DealBook and The Inquisitr
Vindu Goel / Bits:It's Complaxtic: Comcast Buys Plaxo to Boost Video Sharing
Discussion:
Kelsey Group Blogs
Jack Schofield / Guardian Unlimited:
Intel disclaims ZDNet report over larger iPhone or internet tablet — The Mac rumour sites have been buzzing about the idea of a MID (Mobile Internet Device) that could be considered an ultramobile Mac or large iPhone, especially since it was apparently “confirmed” by Hannes Schwaderer from Intel Germany.
RELATED:
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:Intel Germany CEO Spills on Atom-Based Mini-Tablet iPhone
Discussion:
PalmAddicts
Mark Cuban / Blog Maverick:
Beating Google ? — Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while listening to Jethro Tull and pondering how to change the balance of power in the search world and unseat Google ? — Better search ? Too subjective. Better monetization ? After the fact.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Ask.com to buy Dictionary.com owner — Ask.com, the fourth-ranked search engine, plans to increase its heft through an agreement to acquire Lexico Publishing Group, which operates the Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com Web sites. — Ask.com didn't release terms of the acquisition …
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:Lexico, Dictionary.com Being Acquired By Ask.com; Price In $100 Million Range
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Alex Iskold / ReadWriteWeb:
The Rise of Contextual User Interfaces — Web 2.0 has brought many wonderful innovations and ideas to the Internet. We can no longer imagine the web without a social dimension, and we can no longer imagine an online world that is read-only - it is now a read/write web full of user-generated content.
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Strands Absorbs Another Personal Finance Company — Strands has made a second recruitment in its effort to develop a Mint competitor called moneyStrands that leverages the same recommendation engine behind its video and music products. — Just over two weeks ago Strands acquired Expensr …
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Spreadsheets Can Be Edited by Anyone — Google Spreadsheets added an option in the sharing dialog that allows anyone to view or edit the spreadsheet just by knowing the URL. Until now, you had to send an invitation URL that contained a secret code and the people you invited had to login using a Google account.
RELATED:
Mike Ricciuti / Webware.com:
Adobe set to test new Flash Player — Adobe on Thursday is expected to launch a beta test program for the latest version of its Flash Player software. — Flash Player 10, developed under the code name Astro, includes better support for 3D animation and video hardware acceleration, among other improvements.
Mike Jones / Official Google Maps API Blog:
Introducing the Google Maps API for Flash — Here at Google, we receive a lot of feature requests - and it feels great every time we fulfill one of them. The ability to utilize the power of Google Maps from Flash is one of those requests that has been popping up on blog posts and other forums since …
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Android faces a tougher battle, with Verizon and Mozilla backing LiMo — The road ahead for Google's Linux platform for mobile devices just got a little cloudier, with two of the companies whose allegiance it would need to ensure its success, this morning announcing they're backing its principal competitor.
Seth Schiesel / New York Times:
O.K., Avatar, Work With Me — WHAT'S ON TV? — WHEN Nintendo released the Wii 18 months ago, it upended the notion of what video games could be. Moving beyond the sunlight-deprived young men at gaming's core, Nintendo appealed to the rest of the world with an intuitive, family-friendly entertainment experience.
Discussion:
Smart Mobs
