Techmeme: Apple acquires Topsy, a company specializing in Twitter search and analytics, for more than $200M (Wall Street Journal)

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December 2, 2013, 10:30 PM

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Wall Street Journal:

Apple acquires Topsy, a company specializing in Twitter search and analytics, for more than $200M — Apple Taps Into Twitter, Buying Social Analytics Firm Topsy — Apple Inc. has acquired social-media analytics firm Topsy Labs Inc. for more than $200 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Apple Buys Topsy For Price Reportedly North Of $200M, Could Use Social Signals To Bolster Siri, App Store Relevance — Apple has purchased social analytics firm Topsy, which focuses on parsing data from Twitter, reports The Wall Street Journal. The deal was apparently worth ‘more than $200M’ according to the publication.

More: Guardian, The Register, eWeek, Digits, CNET, ABC News, Macworld, Forbes, The Next Web, Daring Fireball, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, Engadget, Bloomberg, bizjournals, 9to5Mac, TheStreet.com, Patently Apple, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, Business Insider and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @marvelle

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft codename ‘Threshold’: The next major Windows wave takes shape — Summary: Microsoft's wave of spring 2015 updates to its various Windows-based platforms has a codename: Threshold. — When I blogged recently about Microsoft's plans on the operating-systems front following Windows 8.1 …

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Windows 7 Handily Bests Windows 8 And 8.1′s Minute Market Share Gains In November

More: The Next Web, ZDNet, Ars Technica, CNET, BGR, Los Angeles Times, ZDNet, InfoWorld, Inquirer, Softpedia News and BetaNews

Foreign Policy:

Accused of Cyberspying, Huawei Is ‘Exiting the U.S. Market’ — The CEO of the world's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, which for years has been labeled by U.S. officials as a proxy for Chinese military and intelligence agencies, says he's giving up on America.

More: Gigaom, Telecompaper, SlashGear and ecns

Tweets: @niubi and @csoghoian

San Francisco Chronicle:

Hangar 3: Google building three floating retail stores for $35 million, to be docked in SF, LA and NY — Google plans ‘floating retail store,’ builder says — It turns out that the mysterious high-tech barge that Google is building at Treasure Island is just the first of three floating wonders …

More: BGR, Los Angeles Times, SlashGear, The Verge and AppleInsider

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Salesforce Says Hackathon Winner Didn't Cheat But Declares Tie, Gives Two Finalists $1M Each — Microsoft Rolls Out Student Advantage, Giving Students Free Access To Its Office Suite — Salesforce has responded to cries of foul play in its $1 million hackathon by announcing …

More: Developer Relations, PR Newswire, The Register, InfoWorld, ReadWrite, The Next Web, Gigaom, CNET, Business Insider, ZDNet, NYT Bits and Valleywag

Tweets: @om and @rjonesy

Thanks:@joshconstine

Sean Buckley / Engadget:

Engadget's Cyber Monday 2013 roundup — As tempting as post-Thanksgiving savings are, some of us simply aren't brave enough to face the Black Friday hordes. That doesn't mean stay-at-home shoppers aren't still looking for a bargain: Cyber Monday is upon us, and there are deals aplenty.

More: Xbox Live's Major Nelson, Gigaom, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, Amazon.com, 9to5Google, SiliconANGLE, TechHive, IntoMobile, TechnoBuffalo, Inquirer, pocketnow.com, The Verge, USA Today, Wired and ZDNet

Danielle Kucera / Bloomberg:

Cyber Monday Sales Increase 19%, Aided by Mobile, IBM Says

More: internetretailer.com

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

U.S. Department of Justice gives Microsoft-Nokia deal the OK — Summary: The U.S. DOJ has given its approval to Microsoft's planned $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has given its approval to Microsoft's pending acquisition …

More: The Verge, AllThingsD, Computerworld, TechSpot, VatorNews, SlashGear, WMPoweruser, ReadWrite, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Register, NYT Bits, WinBeta, Softpedia News and Engadget. Tweets: @fosspatents

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:

Amazon Rejected by U.S. High Court on New York Sales Tax — The U.S. Supreme Court stayed out of the multibillion-dollar fight over Internet sales taxes, leaving intact a New York law that forces Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) to collect money from customers in that state.

More: Gigaom, NBC News Business, Associated Press, Reuters, The Register, PC Magazine, CNET, Associated Press, internetretailer.com, The Verge, TechCrunch and The Next Web. Tweets: @gsterling

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound — Topology of a covert mesh network that connects air-gapped computers to the Internet. — Hanspach and Goetz — Computer scientists have developed a malware prototype that uses inaudible audio signals to communicate …

More: Graham Cluley. Tweets: @gammacounter and @suffert

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Dropping the needle: the life and death of Turntable.fm — Meet me in the club, it's going down — Tonight at 10PM EST, the virtual DJs at Turntable.fm will be escorted off the stage for the last time. Two and a half years after founders Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein captivated music fans …

More: Mashable. Tweets: @calebgarling and @turntablelive

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Amazon's Drone Fleet Delivers What Bezos Wants: An Image of Ingenuity — In his 2010 internal “Amazon.Love” memo to senior executives, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos identified a serious problem that can plague big, successful companies: they tend to be feared and, in some quarters, hated.

More: Inbound Hub, The Switch, Wired, Business Insider, Digital Media Wire, BuzzFeed, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Gigaom Research, EE Times, Forbes, Gizmodo, Tracy and Matt's Blog, ReadWrite and GeekWire. Tweets: @gsterling

Heather Timmons / Quartz:

Amazon drones won't replace the mailman or FedEx woman any time soon

More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Salon, WebProNews, Nextgov, Examiner and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @kentgoldman

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires Natural Language Processing Company SkyPhrase To Help Drive Intent Identification — Yahoo has acquired SkyPhrase, a startup that builds natural language processing technology, the company revealed today in a blog post. SkyPhrase will join Yahoo's New York office …

More: Computerworld, The Verge, VentureBeat, Gigaom, PC Magazine, VatorNews, ZDNet, Electronista, Pocket-lint and Business Insider

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Apple Gets “Significant Bounce” On 5c, 5s iPhones; Android Still Trumps With 71% Share Of All Sales — Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the WPP market research division that provides a rolling check-in on how smartphones are selling in key markets, has put out its latest figures this morning covering the 12 weeks that ended October 31.

Rich Edmonds / Windows Phone Central:

Windows Phone hits 10% sales across Europe, but still struggles in China and the US

More: Guardian and PandoDaily

Guardian:

Edward Snowden revelations prompt UN investigation into surveillance — UN's senior counter-terrorism official says revelations ‘are at the very apex of public interest concerns’ — The UN's senior counter-terrorism official is to launch an investigation into the surveillance powers …

Tweets: @mariongroves. See also Mediagazer

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

BlackBerry Sends Out Another 'We're Not Dead' Notice, This Time Homing In On Enterprise — BlackBerry got a lot of chaff from the press for issuing full-page print newspaper ads effectively reminding customers they're not dead, likely to counter rumors to the contrary in a lot of headlines and article feature art.

More: Inside BlackBerry …, BGR, NEWS.com.au, Ars Technica, Guardian, Electronista, VentureBeat, The Verge, The Next Web, Global Nerdy and WebProNews

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

OCZ Says Toshiba to Buy Assets for $35 Million — Defunct flash-storage vendor OCZ Technology Group (OCZ) this afternoon announced that Toshiba (6502JP) will buy the company's assets out of bankruptcy for $35 million, including both OCZ's consumer business and its enterprise solid-state drive business.

More: OCZ Technology Group … and The Register

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