Top Items:
Business Wire:
AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network …
Discussion:
GigaOM, Rev2.org, Guardian Unlimited, Search Engine Journal, Screenwerk, PE Hub Blog and Mashable!
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Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Breaking: Bebo To AOL for $850 Million — AOL has announced this morning that they have acquired social networking service Bebo for $850 million in cash. Bebo has 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX. Bebo is the third-largest social networking service in the U.S. behind MySpace and Facebook.
AOL News:
AOL to Acquire Social Media Network Bebo — AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a leading global social media network. Founded in 2005, Bebo now has 40 million members worldwide. Together with AIM and ICQ, AOL will have a social network of approximately 80 million unique users worldwide …
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million — AOL issued a press release on Thursday morning to announce that the company has acquired social-networking site Bebo. The price tag, according to the AOL statement, is $850 million in cash. Neither company has yet stated when the deal is expected to be closed.
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
AOL-Bebo: Balderton VCs Reap $140 Million From Acquisition — VC firm Balderton Capital will reap about $140 million - nine times what it invested in Bebo less than two years ago - by selling its 15.7 stake in the social net to AOL (NYSE: TWX). That's a huge return on the $15 million investment …
Kenneth Li / Reuters:
AOL to buy Bebo social network — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc's AOL Internet division said on Thursday it will buy social network Bebo for $850 million in cash, bolstering its consumer Internet offerings even as the media conglomerate mulls splitting off the business.
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
The Future Of Voice May Be Voiceless — The above video is a little rough in terms of processing delay, but it's staggering. Voice without voice. — According to New Scientist, the neckband translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals; “with careful training a person …
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Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Nerve-tapping neckband allows ‘telepathic’ chat — A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time. — With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, GottaBeMobile, BUZZYEAH, Tom Raftery's Social Media, textually.org, jkOnTheRun, VoIP Blog, Boing Boing and Slashdot
Elinor Mills / CNET News.com:
Google testing service to let publishers manage ads — Google is testing a new service called Ad Manager that will give Web site publishers more control over their ad sales and ad serving, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Wednesday. — Publishers can sell their own ads …
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Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:Google Ad Manager Targets Medium-Sized Publishers, Seeks Broader …
Discussion:
The Paradigm Shift
Scott Hillis / Reuters:
Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360 — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is not in talks to include Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Blu-ray high-definition DVD technology in its Xbox 360 video game console, an executive said on Wednesday.
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Matt / Photo Matt:
WordPress is Open Source — Six Apart has recently decided that the best way to win back customers fleeing their platforms is to target WordPress, which is a new strategy they call competing. (What have they been doing the past 7 years?) A good example is this exchange between a commenter …
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam — Caution: Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible. — For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups …
Discussion:
CinemaTech, 901am, IP Democracy, VCMike's Blog, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check and isen.blog
louisgray.com:
Elite Bloggers Joining FriendFeed In Droves — Although it hasn't even been a month since FriendFeed opened up to the masses, and announced Series A financing of $5 million, momentum is definitely on the company's side. Garnering incredible media and blog coverage, FriendFeed has also been a magnet …
BBC:
BBC releases fix for iPlayer hack — The BBC has issued a fix to stop people downloading programmes from the iPlayer website that were intended for streaming on an iPhone of iPod only. — Hackers had discovered an exploit that allowed them to save the programmes to hard disk and share them with others.
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Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Congress dons rubber glove, prepares probe of FCC chairman — Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin has two weeks to deliver a truckload of written records to Congress related to over a dozen hot-button FCC issues and policies. They're being demanded by House Energy …
