Top Items:
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems — The Oracle Corporation, the technology information company, announced Monday that it would acquire a rival, Sun Microsystems, for $9.50 a share, which would value the transition at $7.4 billion. — The deal with Oracle came about two weeks after I.B.M. ended its talks with Sun.
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
Our Full Analysis of the $7.4B Oracle-Sun Deal — Updated: Less than a month after it walked away from a $7 billion deal with IBM, Sun Microsystems says that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with database and enterprise software giant Oracle. Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, eWeek, Computerworld Blogs, TechFlash, Open Source, LinuxWorld.com, SOA Center, CNET News, OStatic blogs, AppleInsider, Digits, Homotron.net, The Register and Sramana Mitra on Strategy, Thanks:om
Reuters:
Microsoft CEO ‘very surprised’ by Oracle-Sun deal — Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday he was ‘very surprised’ by Oracle Corp's (ORCL.O) plans to buy Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA.O). “I just learnt it ... I need to think about it. I am very surprised,” Ballmer told reporters in Moscow.
The Official Google Blog:
Hard at play in Google Labs with Similar Images and Google News Timeline — At Google, we are constantly researching, designing, and brainstorming about the next big idea, and when we think we've found something compelling, we often use our “20-percent time” to build a working version.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, Tech Beat, Google News Blog, Google Operating System and InformationWeek
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Kevin Fitchard / TELEPHONY Magazine:
AT&T doubling 3G capacity — Tweaks to the HSPA network will bring 3G capacity up to 7.2 Mb/s even before AT&T implements next-gen wireless technologies — AT&T is in the process of doubling the capacity of its 3G networks, using software enhancements to squeeze one last boost in bandwidth …
Discussion:
IntoMobile, DSLreports, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Boy Genius Report, SlashGear, jkOnTheRun, mocoNews, iPhone Savior, FierceWireless, Electronista and Phone Scoop
Sylvie Barak / Inquirer:
Apple netbooks manufactured by Foxconn rumoured — Apple sliced down to netbook size? — WE'VE PICKED UP ON some Chinese whispering which would have us believe Apple could be about to release its very own netbook, with Foxconn Electronics chosen as the fruity toymaker's main manufacturing partner.
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BBC:
Adobe Flash secures set-top deal — Adobe has secured a deal to put its Flash software into many of the chips that go inside TVs and set-top boxes. — It will enable developers and content providers to create applications to deliver web-based content such as news, weather and share prices to TV screens.
Discussion:
the Econsultancy blog
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Tim Elliott / The Age:
How the man in a van outsmarted Microsoft — Ric Richardson ... money not that important. — Picture: Steve Holland — He has been called a “born creative thinker” and “a man of extraordinarily high principle”. Others consider his inventions frivolous and derivative.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple jumps 32 spots into Fortune 100 — Reflecting a strong 2008 in which its sales — if not its stock price — jumped sharply, Apple (AAPL) this week made its first appearance in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 since Steve Jobs' return. — Apple became a Fortune 500 company in 1983 …
John Leyden / The Register:
Music industry sites DDoSed after Pirate Bay verdict — Hacktivism cuts both ways — Free whitepaper - Guidelines for specification of data center power density — Hacktivists have launched denial of service attacks against music industry association ifpi.org and lawyers involved …
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Jason Hiner / Between the Lines:
Have we arrived in the post-Windows era? — Microsoft knew this day was coming. This was the reason it desperately wanted — no, needed — to take down Netscape in 1996. Netscape wasn't just trying to build a program for reading text and photos across a network of connected computers.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
How Many New Twitter Users Post-Oprah? A Lot. Maybe Over A Million. — Late last night, former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block tweeted out that he had done some research to attempt to quantify the “Oprah Effect” — that is, the number of users who signed up for Twitter after Oprah featured the service on her show on Friday.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Tweetie For Mac: A Powerful, Native Twitter Client For The Masses — Today sees the public launch of Tweetie for Mac, the desktop-based big brother of what many (myself included) consider to be the iPhone's best Twitter client. I've been playing around with a beta version of the app …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
More Microsoft layoffs looming? Seattle analyst cites possibility — Tough business conditions may force Microsoft to make further reductions in its work force, beyond the up to 5,000 job cuts announced in January, a Seattle-based analyst said this morning in a preview of the company's Thursday afternoon earnings report.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Susan Boyle Videos To Pass 100 Million Views — Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle continues to pass crazy milestones as a viral Web sensation. — According to Web video metrics company Visible Measures, Boyle's performance had generated more than 650 total “placements” by Sunday night …
Michael S. Malone / Wall Street Journal:
The Twitter Revolution — The brains behind the Web's hottest networking tool. — San Francisco — “Twitter is the side project that took,” says company co-founder Biz Stone, 35. “Now it's our chance to do something transformative.” — When I arrive at Twitter's headquarters on a recent morning …
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Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
KnowEm searches 120 sites for open user names — KnowEm is the latest in services that check for unclaimed user names at multiple social sites. This is helpful if you're interested in retaining the same user name at sites you haven't yet signed up for, or if you're on the verge of launching …
FairSpin Blog:
FairSpin: breaking through the bias — We've just opened FairSpin to the public. Check it out at http://fairspin.org and let us know what you think! — What's FairSpin? — Following politics in our country is not easy. It's getting harder to tell “news” from opinion, fact from spin …
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Tweeting Becomes a Summer Job Opportunity — JOB TITLE, TRANSLATED A summer intern who uses Twitter. — JOB CATEGORY Hot pizza/social media — SALARY Competitive (with other Twitterers). — JOB PURPOSE To attend advertising shoots, product meetings and other corporate events.
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Is the mobile web coming of age? — The strategies of companies ranging from Google to Microsoft and from Apple to Yahoo suggest they believe the future of the internet lies in mobile phones - but many in the industry believe the mobile web is still a long way from realising its potential.
Zachary Rodgers / ClickZ:
Digg Ends Exclusive Ad Deal with Microsoft — Digg is ending its two-year-old exclusive ad selling relationship with Microsoft, one year earlier than the deal was set to expire. — The two will continue working together on remnant and so-called “network reserve” inventory.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
IBM's earnings better than expected on software, services; Hardware revenue thumped — IBM on Monday reported net income of $2.3 billion, or $1.70 a share, on revenue of $21.7 billion, down 11 percent from a year ago largely due to currency fluctuations. The upshot: Cost cutting helped IBM …
