Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Decision Time For Yahoo — The dust is settling on Microsoft's $31 per share offer to acquire Yahoo, and the options left open to the company are fairly well understood at this point. There will almost certainly be no White Knight or other buyout offer coming to the table - the sorry state of the debt markets is assuring that.
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Mark Evans:
Could Anyone Buy Google? — If you believe the adage that anything is for sale at the right price, does that apply to Google? — This scenario - however seemingly implausible - struck me after Microsoft unveiled plans to spend $44.5-billion to acquire Yahoo.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Bid for Yahoo Drops To $29.50 a Share — As Yahoo waits in vain for other bidders or deal alternatives to emerge, the dissatisfaction of Microsoft investors with the Yahoo bid has reduced the value of Microsoft's offer to $29.50 a share. — Why? — The bid is half-cash / half-stock,
Discussion:
WebProNews
Steve Lohr / New York Times:Microsoft Adversary Rises Instinctively at Yahoo Bid
Discussion:
CrunchGear
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Google Likely Out, And Happy — After dominating the U.S. wireless spectrum auction for months, from influencing the terms of the auction to bidding, it looks like Google is off the hook. — Nine days into the closely watched Federal Communications Commission auction …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
AOL revenue continues to slide; Who are these 9.3 million AOL access subscribers? — AOL's revenue and operating income continued to slide as the parent Time Warner focuses on advertising. For the fourth quarter, AOL reported operating income of $274 million on revenue of $1.25 billion.
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:Time Warner To Split AOL Into 2 Parts; Could Reduce Cable Stake …
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
MySpace's San Francisco Debut In Living Color! — Last night, BoomTown checked out the new space MySpace is renovating for its soon-to-open San Francisco office. The occasion was a party the social networking site held for developers as part of its recent platform launch.
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Ex-Googlers Launch Instructional Video Site Howcast, Raise $8 Million A Round — A New York City startup called Howcast is launching today that wants to be the YouTube of instructional videos. In fact, the three founders—Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman …
Discussion:
Techland, The Technology Chronicles, Screenwerk, NewTeeVee, Rev2.org and Silicon Alley Insider
Josh Bernoff / Groundswell:
Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession — Is a recession coming? Don't ask me — I'm not an economist, and even the economists don't really know. But if it's anything like the last recession, advertising will plummet and experimental media will crater.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
The Latest From Jerry: Stay Focused, Yahoos! — Yet another employee letter to Yahoos from CEO Jerry Yang has now become public, thanks to Yahoo being required to file these things with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. It makes you wonder why Yahoo (and Microsoft) …
Discussion:
Digital Daily, WebProNews, Techland, paidContent.org, Valleywag and Silicon Alley Insider
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Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Video site Revver shopping itself for a song — Revver, a YouTube competitor that made a name for itself by paying video producers, has fallen on hard times. — The company's staff has dwindled to less than half the size it was 18 months ago, according to former employees.
Discussion:
NewTeeVee, mathewingram.com/work, Bloggers Blog, paidContent.org and Silicon Alley Insider
Zach Epstein / The Boy Genius Report:
AT&T Announces Major 3G Expansion in 2008 — AT&T has officially announced this morning that 2008 will be a very big year for its wireless broadband networks. America's largest cellular provider has plans to expand its 3G coverage into more than 80 new cities in 2008.
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Asma Ali Zain / Khaleej Times:
Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE — DUBAI — An estimated 1.7 million Internet users in the UAE have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage, an expert said yesterday, quoting recent figures published by TeleGeography, an international research Web site.
Discussion:
DailyTech, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, Slashdot, DSLreports, securosis.com, Boing Boing, Schneier on Security and Digital Daily
Steve Tobak / CNET News.com:
Ten irrelevant technology companies — The great corporate graveyard is filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of technology companies that managed to go public and then fizzled. Still, most of them weren't going anywhere and never should have gone public to begin with.
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
How a BitTorrent Tracker Owner Hides from the MPAA/RIAA — Apart from The Pirate Bay guys, most tracker administrators are acutely aware of the risks they expose themselves to, and do everything they can to hide in the shadows. We speak to a tracker owner to find out the kind of measures …
Wall Street Journal:
Google Aims to Crack Chinese Market — Two years after Google Inc. began a big push in China, Baidu.com Inc. continues to dominate the country's Internet search market, thanks in significant part to a controversial and legally risky offering: searches for free, unlicensed music downloads.
