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8:25 PM ET, August 21, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Skype To Acquire Year-old Group Messaging Service GroupMe  —  Skype will acquire group messaging service GroupMe, a service that was born at a hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York in 2010.  GroupMe was founded by Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci.  —  The terms of the deal, including price, aren't being disclosed.
RELATED:
Ben Popper / Betabeat:
GroupMe Acquired by Skype for More than $50 Million  —  GroupMe just celebrated their one year anniversary, and founders Steve Martocci and Jared Hetch certainly had something to smile about.  A deal in the works for months was just completed, with global VOIP giant Skype acquiring GroupMe for a price we hear is north of $50 million.
Thanks:betabeat
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Skype Pays Around $85 Million For GroupMe  —  Skype has agreed to acquire GroupMe, a company that has developed a way to for a group of people to send messages to each across various smartphone platforms.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Skype is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft.
Discussion: About Skype and PC Magazine
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
HP's TouchPad fire sale: The fallout  —  Summary: HP's TouchPad liquidation sale says a lot about the company, the tablet market and its ability to keep an e-commerce site running.  —  HP's TouchPad liquidation sale this weekend was telling on multiple fronts as techies drooled over a good deal …
RELATED:
BetaNews.com / @betanews:
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
‘It was like a stampede, and they went quick’
Discussion: CNET News and PC World
Bryna Corcoran / @brynaathp:
Just tuning in? #Touchpad on HP online stores in USA are sold out. More coming. Alert site server busy but keep trying: http://t.co/cQkzKCW
Discussion: Bits and PC Magazine
Dan Ramirez / webOSroundup:
BREAKING: HP Crediting Fire-Sale Difference to Current TouchPad Owners
Jean-Louis Gassee / Monday Note:
HP: What Léo Apotheker's Decisions Mean  —  Last Monday evening, hours after Google's $12.5B gamble on Motorola Mobile (MMI), I had an intriguing idea and began drafting a Monday Note to explore its ramifications.  It started like this: … Building and dismantling the business case …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm and Is Getting Out of the PC Business  —  HP acquired Palm at the end of April 2010, for $1.2 billion.  HP's CEO was Mark Hurd.  —  Three months later, in early August, Mark Hurd was forced to resign over that scandal with forged expenses and lies about his lady friend.
Discussion: DisplayBlog
Poornima Gupta / Reuters:
Analysis: HP - Dial “M” for mayhem  —  (Reuters) - Leo Apotheker's credibility as a CEO is falling along with Hewlett-Packard's stock price.  —  Apotheker, who gained a reputation for sharp business acumen when he headed up SAP, thoroughly flummoxed HP shareholders last week with what some analysts …
Discussion: AllThingsD, Pulse2 and Gizmodo
Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
Apple Testing LTE in iOS 5 and Hiring More LTE Engineers  —  Early last week, Boy Genius Report claimed that Apple has been testing a 4G LTE-enabled iPhone with carriers, and pointed to an “internal iOS test build” of one of Apple's major mobile partners.  In that build was a property list file (.plist) for LTE.
RELATED:
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple is field-testing LTE iOS 5 devices, could the next-gen iPad run on LTE?
Zee M Kane / The Next Web:
Twitter Just Got the Respect it Deserves  —  If you're one to check your analytics on a daily basis you may have noticed a pretty sharp increase in referrals from Twitter's “t.co” domains.  We noticed it almost immediately on Wednesday but naively didn't pay much attention.
Kevin Marks / Epeus' epigone:
Google Plus must stop this Identity Theatre  —  Bruce Schneier in Beyond Fear coined a phrase: … The Common Names debâcle at Google Plus is a variant of this, where the supposed protections are manifestly not working.  Google's stated policy on this is that you should use your ‘common name’ …
Discussion: Chris Saad and TechCrunch
RELATED:
Sean Portnoy / Home Theater Blog:
Best Buy's Samsung HDTV and Galaxy Tab combo offer: “Bundling two losing products together”?  —  Summary: Samsung is the biggest name in 3D TV, and its Galaxy Tab is the best-known Android tablet competitor to the iPad.  So when Best Buy decided to bundle a free Galaxy Tab …
Discussion: Digits
Jaikumar Vijayan / Computerworld:
Microsoft disables ‘supercookies’ used on MSN.com visitors  —  New tracking technology a ‘colossal privacy gaffe,’ researcher says  —  Computerworld - Microsoft said it has disabled an online tracking technology that, according to a Stanford University researcher, allowed the company …
Discussion: ITProPortal and GigaOM
 
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 More Items: 
Kevin Murphy / Reuters:
Missouri teachers sue to block social media law
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Is “Jupiter” the Future of Windows...PC, Phone &Tablet?
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
Google Given Chance to Settle Belgian Case Over Street View
 Earlier Items: 
Edward Moyer / CNET News:
SF subway sets public debate on cell shutdown
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Feature: “A sort of PC”: how Windows 8 will invade tablets (and why it might work)
Discussion: Slashdot and WinRumors
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi agree to part ways and let her contract expire at the end of the year, following new allegations about her affair with RFK Jr.

Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: David Ellison's interference in WBD's failed summer talks to extend HBO Max's South Park licensing deal left David Zaslav distrustful of Ellison

Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Sources: Forbes has cut ties with dozens of contributing writers; one exec said Forbes needs to ensure the contributor model is “financially sound”

 
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