Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
LivingSocial Financials Exposed: $2.9 Billion Valuation, $50 Million In Revenue Per Month — There's nothing like full disclosure during the negotiating process in an acquisition deal. LivingSocial acquired SocialMedia for just $3 million in stock, we reported earlier today.
Discussion:
Fortune
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
LivingSocial Acquires SocialMedia For $3 Million — Fast growing daily deal service LivingSocial, which just raised $400 million, has acquired long suffering social advertising network SocialMedia, we've confirmed. The price was just $3 million, all in LivingSocial stock.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google Music Label Talks “Going Backwards” — Google has spent a year trying to build a music service that could compete with Apple's iTunes. But those efforts seem to have stalled again. — Google's negotiations with the big music labels are “broken,” says a source familiar …
Discussion:
open, MacRumors, PC World, Gizmodo, BGR, TechSpot, Android Phone Fans, Complex.com, Electronista, WebProNews, MacDailyNews and Slashdot
Peter Farago / Flurry:
Apple and Google Capture U.S. Video Game Market Share in 2010 — Last year, Flurry reported that iPhone and iPod touch game sales surged from 2008 to 2009. From a standing start, and in just one year, iPhone games captured 5% of the mature U.S. video game market.
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Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:
Could Smartphones Kill The Portable Gaming Star?
Discussion:
MediaPost
Biz Stone:
The Trouble Bubble — We founded Twitter, Inc. in March of 2007 and while we have long said it's about the users, not the service, we have nevertheless enjoyed favorable media coverage. What took so long for somebody to write the article that says we are falling apart?
Discussion:
BoomTown, PC Magazine, NBC Bay Area, SAI, WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Venture Capital Dispatch, AllTwitter and Marketing Pilgrim, Thanks:mdoeff
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Nicholas Carlson / SAI:
The Truth About Twitter's Troubles
Discussion:
ITProPortal, Techie Buzz and VentureBeat
Nicholas Carlson / SAI:
These People Sold Twitter For Just $5 Million Back In 2006
Discussion:
BaltTech and The Business Insider
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Shawn Fanning And Sean Parker Are Back With An Ambitious New Project; Investors Abound — Longtime collaborators Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker are back together working on an ambitious new project, we've learned. — In 1999, Fanning and Parker introduced the world to Napster.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @karaswisher, Social Markets, Online Dating Insider, Electronista and PE Hub Blog
Chad Bray / Wall Street Journal:
Poker Websites Targeted in Federal Crackdown — NEW YORK—Eleven people, including the founders of three of the largest online poker companies doing business in the U.S., have been charged in the latest crack down on Internet gambling by U.S. authorities. — Federal prosecutors …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, SAI, Techdirt, TorrentFreak, Reuters, @cnbc, Tech Trader Daily, NewsGrange, Techland, The Next Web, Associated Press and Voices on All Things Digital
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Joe Light / Wall Street Journal:
Mobile App Talent Pool Is Shallow — Companies Scramble for Engineers Who Can Write Software for Smartphones — This year, magazine publisher Hearst Corp. intends to add five software engineers to its mobile development staff. Social-networking company Ning Inc. plans to nearly double its mobile development team.
Discussion:
NBC Bay Area, MSDN Blogs, Inc.com, Mobile Marketing Watch, PhoneArena and FierceMobileContent
Fred Vogelstein / Wired:
The Android Explosion: How Google's Freewheeling Ecosytem Threatens the iPhone — ndy Rubin needed a hit. It was January 2009, three years since Google had bought the company he cofounded, a little startup called Android. — Rubin had created a slick operating system for mobile phones …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, @johnacook and @bill_gross
Paul McIntyre / AdNews:
Google: we want iPhone to grow — Google's Android platform might be in a fierce battle with Apple to dominate smartphone handsets and apps, but the search giant's APAC boss says iPhone is delivering so much mobile search traffic they want their rival competitor to keep growing.
Discussion:
Technologizer, IntoMobile, Digital Trends, 9 to 5 Mac and Electronista
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
The Betrayal of Bnter — We filmed this week's Ask a VC on Tuesday, and I started out by asking Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital about the danger of venture capitalists investing in competitors. There was no ulterior motive on my part. It's just a question I've seen coming up increasingly …
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / Networking Blog:
It's official: Asia's just run out of IPv4 Addresses — Well, that was fast. The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) has just released the last block of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses in its available pool. We knew this was coming when the Internet Corporation …
Discussion:
The Register, @bonforte, Ars Technica, SlashGear, DSLreports and Network World
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple hit with class-action suit over iPhone in-app game currency purchases — A new class-action lawsuit takes issue with free iPhone games that feature in-app purchases, alleging that Apple's App Store makes it easy for children to rack up credit card charges without realizing they are spending real-world money.
Discussion:
CNET News, Techland, PC Magazine, TUAW, Neowin.net, MobileBurn.com, IntoMobile and NBC Bay Area
Mary Pilon / Wall Street Journal:
T. Rowe Price Invests in Facebook — Mutual-fund company T. Rowe Price has invested in Facebook Inc., according to recently released filings, underscoring traditional investment vehicles' growing interest in hot technology companies. — T. Rowe said it invested a total of $55.4 million …
Discussion:
DealBook, L.A. Times Tech Blog, VentureBeat, GeekWire, Hillicon Valley, WebProNews, Tech Trader Daily and silicontap.com
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Wired's Newest iPad Issue Boasts Its Best Feature Yet: Free — Remember when iPad magazine apps-and Wired's app in particular-were big news? That was a year ago. — Now Wired would like to remind you that it's still publishing on the iPad, and the Conde Nast title is offering a pretty …
Discussion:
AdAge, The Next Web, Gizmodo, @r, @bonforte, App Advice, Boing Boing, MacStories, SAI and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Windows 8: Portable Workspace allows you to run Windows from a USB device … An early copy of Windows 8 leaked to the Internet this week and enthusiasts have been digging their way through the various new bits in Microsoft's next-generation operating system.
Discussion:
PC World, Engadget, Electronista, Geek.com, TechSpot, Liliputing, The Tech Report and Gizmodo
Bloomberg:
RIM Said Weighing Bid to Top Google Offer for Nortel Patents — Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) is considering a bid for Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ)'s portfolio of wireless technology patents that would top Google Inc. (GOOG)'s $900 million offer, two people familiar with the plans said.
Discussion:
CNET News, Tech Trader Daily and Electronista
Zak Stambor / Internet Retailer:
Facebook wants to make daily deals more social — The social network hopes to leverage its news feed to help consumers discover their friends' interactions with Facebook Deals. The move is designed to distinguish Facebook's offering from competitors such as Groupon and LivingSocial.
Discussion:
GigaOM, MediaPost, internetretailer.com and Screenwerk
Brett Wiltshire / Blogger Buzz:
An important note about legacy accounts — There was a time early on in Blogger's life where we had our own, custom account system for handling login authentication. Starting in 2006 all new Blogger accounts were created using the official Google accounts system, and then in 2007 we started …
Discussion:
BloggingPro
Electronista:
E-book sales triple, top paper as most popular format in US — The Association of American Publishers said late Thursday that e-books had surged and established a foothold as the most popular format for reading in the US. Results from February saw e-book sales triple from just a year ago to $90.3 million.
Discussion:
The Association …, TechCrunch, Engadget, CrunchGear, Slashdot and DisplayBlog
Electronista:
Android 3.0 tablets allegedly delayed due to low hopes — Companies building Android 3.0 tablets are supposedly holding back on launches based on concerns of low sales and support from Google. Results for the Motorola Xoom were “lower than expected,” according to rumors.
Discussion:
Guardian, SAI, BGR, GottaBeMobile, TG Daily, MarketingVOX, DisplayBlog, AppleInsider, Techland, Softpedia News, Computerworld, MacDailyNews, TiPb and DigiTimes
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Google Intros New Privacy Controls For Mobile Consumers — To date Google has not used the mobile handset UDID “device identifier” to target mobile advertising via its AdSense for mobile and AdMob networks. For several reasons that have to do with ad performance, Google has decided to use the device identifier going forward.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
iPad Resellers Now Camp Overnight at Apple Stores — On Wednesday morning I stopped by the SoHo Apple store in New York City to purchase an iPad for a family member. As I had anticipated, a store clerk said they were out of stock and recommended that I check back the following morning.
Discussion:
Electricpig.co.uk
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Online Education Startup Instructure Raises $8M From Eric Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures, Tim Draper — Instructure, a startup that develops and open-source online learning management system, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by OpenView Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures …
Discussion:
PR Newswire and VentureBeat
