Top Items:
Jonathan Schwartz / Jonathan Schwartz's Blog:
Helping Dolphins Fly — We announced big news today - our preliminary results for our fiscal second quarter, and as importantly, that we're acquiring MySQL AB. — If you're interested in the financial details for the quarter, tune in to our conference call (see details on sun.com) today …
RELATED:
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Sun To Acquire MySQL — Sun Microsystems announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire open source database leader MySQL AB for $1 billion in cash and assumed stock options. (Disclosure: I am on the board of directors of MySQL, and O'Reilly co-produces the MySQL User Conference with MySQL.
Zack Urlocker / InfoWorld:
Sun Shines on LAMP — This morning we announced that Sun Microsystems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL. Having spent the last four plus years working on making MySQL into a strong independent company, this is a bit of a change of strategy, but from my perspective it's all for the good.
Discussion:
eWeek, Electronista, InfoWorld, Open Source, TheOpenForce.com, Tech Trader Daily and 451 CAOS Theory
Sun Microsystems:
Sun Microsystems Announces Agreement to Acquire MySQL, Developer of the World's Most Popular Open Source Database — Sun Growth Strategy Accelerates With New Position in $15 Billion Database Market — Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sun acquires MySQL; Adds to its software stack — Sun Microsystems is taking the plunge into the database market with the purchase of open source database developer MySQL for $1 billion ($800 million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assumption of approximately $200 million in options).
BBC:
Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous — Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble. — The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users.
RELATED:
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC NEWS | dot.life:Facebook, Scrabulous, and the End of Innocence
Discussion:
The Register
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why we're going to FastCompany.tv — Ahh, Andy Plesser broke my career news again (he was the guy who broke my news about leaving Microsoft too). Louis Gray got the story first, though, I think, although I told dozens of people at the BlogHaus last week at CES.
RELATED:
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
Robert Scoble to Launch Online Video Network At Fast Company — Robert Scoble, who pioneered tech videoblogging at Microsoft with Channel 9 and produced hundreds of segments during his tenure at PodTech, is launching a new business television network for Fast Company.
Discussion:
Fast Company, Podcasting News, Fast Company Now, CenterNetworks, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Dembot and louisgray.com
Don Dodge / Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing:
Scoble's reasons NOT to start a business — I spend most of my time talking to entrepreneurs who have started companies. Reading Robert Scoble's story about why he decided to not start a company, and instead go to work for Fast Company, presents the other side of the story...the more common path.
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
MacBook AirHead: why Apple's new laptop is basically useless — First, let me just say that the Air is an extremely impressive piece of technology. The miniaturization, the optimization of space, the blatant disregard for current standards — it's everything a revolutionary machine should be.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Virtual Economics, Web Worker Daily, /Message, WinExtra, TechCrunch, Shipping Seven, Christopher Null, Elliott C. Back, Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally, PaulStamatiou.com, Venture Chronicles, Engadget, Alec Saunders .LOG, Brier Dudley's blog, mikecane2008.wordpress.com, Gizmodo and TechFold
RELATED:
John Markoff / Bits:The Passion of Steve Jobs
Discussion:
Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi, Gizmodo, MacDailyNews, NewTeeVee, Glass House, ParisLemon, CenterNetworks, Cult of Mac, BBC NEWS and Techlog
Eliot Van Buskirk / Wired News:Apple Reinvents Film Biz With iTunes Movie Rentals
Discussion:
Cult of Mac
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Surprise! Oracle buys BEA Systems — The clumsy courtship between Oracle and BEA Systems is over. Oracle said Wednesday that it will acquire BEA for $19.375 a share in cash. — The offer puts the value of BEA at roughly $8.5 billion. — On a conference call-where Oracle …
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Oracle to Pay $8.5 Billion for BEA — Oracle agreed to buy BEA Systems in an $8.5 billion deal, three months after BEA turned down an Oracle takeover offer as too low. BEA investor Carl Icahn endorsed the deal.
Jesse Shieh / Google Code Blog:
iGoogle Themes API — Recently, on a trip to Shanghai, I snapped a bunch of incredible street photos for my friends and family back home. When I logged into my iGoogle page and was greeted by my iGoogle theme, I suddenly wished I could create my own theme out of my Shanghai pictures and share …
Discussion:
Google Operating System
RELATED:
Eric J. Sinrod / CNET News.com:
Is GPS liability next? — perspective An automobile driver recently was held responsible for crashing a rental car into a train after following global positioning system instructions that put his rental car onto the train tracks. — This raises the specter of automobile drivers pointing …
Discussion:
All Points Blog
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stevenote In 60 Seconds — Too lazy to watch the entire Stevenote video stream on CrunchGear, or read Duncan's real time notes from the event? No worries. Mahalo's Veronica Belmont distills all the important stuff down into just sixty seconds. — See all of our coverage from Macworld here and at CrunchGear.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Application Developers: Don't Be Surprised If Facebook Changes The Rules When You Do Something That Hurts Users — We saw early on that Facebook was willing to change policies and their API in order to protect users against clearly black hat/spammy applications, or ones that break the terms of use with users.
