Techmeme: “Total Fiction”: There Is No $20 Billion Microsoft Deal to Buy … (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

4:35 PM ET, November 30, 2008

Top Items:

Jessica Wohl / Reuters:

Black Friday Web sales jump — CHICAGO (Reuters) - Online sales jumped on Black Friday as consumers searched for electronics such as the Wii video game console and Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, according to eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc. — Amazon.com and eBay had both forecast a weaker holiday …

Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com, blogs.chron.com, Christopher Null and Technosailor.com

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:

Apple's Black Friday bestsellers — In a holiday shopping season that got off to a better start than expected, Apple (AAPL) products sold particularly well — although not as well as last year, judging from sales at Amazon, America's largest online retailer.

Discussion: Associated Press and Infinite Loop

comScore:

Black Friday Sees $534 Million in E-Commerce Spending, Up 1 Percent Versus Year Ago — Upcoming ‘Cyber Monday’ Represents Strong Historical Bellwether for Total Holiday Season E-Commerce Spending — comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking …

Discussion: TechFlash and MediaMemo

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

“Total Fiction”: There Is No $20 Billion Microsoft Deal to Buy Yahoo Search (Not Yet, at Least!) — A report in the Times of London in which Microsoft would buy Yahoo's search business in a convoluted $20 billion deal that would include well-known Internet execs Jon Miller and Ross Levinsohn …

Discussion: Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Boy Genius Report, Barron's Online, Tech Confidential and The Microsoft Blog

John Waples / Times of London:

Microsoft in $20bn Yahoo deal — SOFTWARE giant Microsoft is in talks to acquire Yahoo's online search business for $20 billion (£13 billion). — The proposal forms the centrepiece of a complex transaction that would see Microsoft support a new management team to take control of Yahoo.

MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
A new, elaborate $20 billion deal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo Search?

Discussion: Joe Duck

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Reports Of New Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Hard To Believe

Discussion: Shoemoney

John Markoff / New York Times:

You're Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy? — HARRISON BROWN, an 18-year-old freshman majoring in mathematics at M.I.T., didn't need to do complex calculations to figure out he liked this deal: in exchange for letting researchers track his every move, he receives a free smartphone.

Discussion: Slashdot and PalmAddicts

Zephoria / apophenia:

reflections on Lori Drew, bullying, and solutions to helping kids — The involvement of Lori Drew (an adult) in the suicide of Megan Meier has been an unavoidable topic. Last week, Drew was tried on three counts of accessing computers without authorization, a legal statute meant to stop hackers.

Glenn Kelman / TechCrunch:

The First-Time CEO's Recession Survival Guide — Editor's note: The following guest post is written by Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin, an online real estate broker. His industry went into recession a year ago, so he's had a little more time than most startup CEOs to think about how to deal with the current downturn.

Discussion: TechFlash, Redfin Corporate Blog and /Message

Jeffrey Rosen / New York Times:

Google's Gatekeepers — In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. — ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig …

Discussion: madisonian.net, The Progress & Freedom …, FUTURE OF PRIVACY FORUM, WinBeta and digg.com

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

10,000 iPhone Apps — 148Apps, which tracks and reviews iPhone Apps, says 10,000 applications have now been released on the iPhone App store (the site is named after the fact that you can add up to 148 applications to an iPhone or iPod touch). — A tribute page shows a mini icon for every application.

Discussion: Mark Evans, Podcasting News, PMP Today, MacRumors, mobilesyrup.com, Edible Apple, IntoMobile and Mobile Tech Addicts

Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:

Why I Love Twitter — If you care what I think, you know that Twitter is just about the best way to learn what I'm paying attention to. I pass along tidbits of O'Reilly news, interesting reading from mailing lists and blogs I follow, and of course, tidbits from the twitterers I'm following.

Discussion: Off On A Tangent, Howard Lindzon, Twitterrati and Joe Duck

Colin Barker / CNET News:

Dealer files antitrust complaint against Microsoft — A Dutch software dealer has filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, arguing that the company's pricing policy in Europe violates antitrust laws. — Company owner Samir Abdalla's complaint is that Microsoft charges …

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