Techmeme: Nikesh Arora, Google's chief business officer, leaves company to join SoftBank (Peter Kafka/Re/code)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

July 18, 2014, 10:30 AM

Top News

Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:

Microsoft to Shutter Xbox Entertainment Studios — Microsoft will shut down the Xbox Entertainment Studios, ending an ambitious foray into original video programming. — The Santa Monica studio will be shuttered as Microsoft focuses on strengthening its core videogame business.

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Microsoft plans to spin-off Nokia MixRadio as a standalone music streaming service, iOS and Android versions now a possibility — Nokia MixRadio spins out of Microsoft as standalone streaming music service — Personal radio app will still be preloaded on Windows Phones, but now has scope to launch on iOS and Android too

More: CNET, Geeky Gadgets, The Next Web, RAIN News, SlashGear, TIME and hypebot. See also Mediagazer

Om Malik:

Elop is the latest in a string of high-profile executives moving up the ranks despite being a dud — It is time to stop rewarding failure — Silicon Valley (the notion) has become very much like rest of corporate America — it has embraced the philosophy of failing upwards.

More: Microsoft Corporation, The Register, MediaNama, Global Nerdy, Guardian, Phandroid, Tech Times, ReadWrite, Gigaom, bit-tech.net, The Verge, The Tech Report, ZDNet, Phones Review and Business Insider

Tweets: @pmarca and @joshconstine

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft cuts to affect nearly all groups; OS Group restructuring to become more startup-like

More: The Verge, Softpedia News and Business Insider

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft is killing off Nokia's feature phones in favor of Windows Phone

More: CNET, BetaNews, Softpedia News, WinBeta, Re/code, MediaNama, NextBigWhat, TIME, AnandTech, PhoneNews.com, Ubergizmo, IntoMobile and CITEworld

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Microsoft cuts will also hit ‘shadow workforce,’ going beyond announced layoffs

More: Associated Press. Tweets: @hkanji. Thanks:@johnhcook

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Nikesh Arora, Google's chief business officer, leaves company to join SoftBank — Nikesh Arora, Google's Top Business Executive, Is Out — Google's Q2 earnings report was overshadowed by news about the top of the company's org chart: Nikesh Arora, the company's longtime sales boss …

More: Bloomberg, Tech in Asia and Reuters

Tweets: @nikesharora, @sundarpichai, @pkafka and @pkafka

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Google's Q2 Revenue Of $15.96B Beats, But Its Non-GAAP EPS Of $6.08 Disappoints

Google:

Google Inc. Announces Second Quarter 2014 Results and Management Change

More: Business Insider, Inquirer, Guardian, Android Central, Search Engine Roundtable, TechOne3, Softpedia News, Reuters, The Register, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista, ABC News, WebProNews, Gigaom, GeekWire, 9to5Google, Droid Life and Network World

Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:

Bill Campbell reflects on his relationship with Steve Jobs, coaching tech's leaders, and Apple under Tim Cook — After 17 years, Bill Campbell steps down from Apple's board — Bill Campbell recalls Steve Jobs' invitation to join Apple's board of directors as the kind of request that takes your breath away.

More: Computerworld, TechCrunch, MacRumors, MacNN, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, Business Insider and ABC News

Tweets: @johndoerr and @daiwaka

Apple:

Longtime Apple board member Bill Campbell retires after 17 years; BlackRock director Sue Wagner to replace him — Sue Wagner Joins Apple's Board of Directors — Apple® today announced that Susan L. Wagner, founding partner and director of BlackRock, has been elected to Apple's board of directors.

More: 9to5Mac, Wall Street Journal, MacStories, iLounge, App Advice, Forbes, AppleInsider, The Verge, ZDNet and TUAW. Tweets: @clairecm

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Amazon's Kindle Unlimited offers all-you-can-eat e-books for $10 a month — After teasing us with a possible launch, Amazon has confirmed Kindle Unlimited, its all-you-can-read e-book subscription service. For $9.99 per month, the new service offers 600,000 books and “thousands” of audiobooks across a range of devices.

More: Business Wire, MacRumors, GeekWire, TechCrunch, BetaNews, AppleInsider, ZDNet, iMore, CNET, The Verge, Gigaom, TechCrunch, The Next Web and SlashGear. See also Mediagazer

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Snowden: Dropbox is hostile to privacy, unlike ‘zero knowledge’ Spideroak — Whistleblower urges consumers to adopt more secure file storage systems which are less susceptible to government surveillance — Edward Snowden has warned against the cloud storage service Dropbox which he says is …

More: Guardian, Inquirer, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, Business Insider, The Register, Boing Boing, Ubergizmo, ZDNet and Forbes. Tweets: @dmac1

Dave Lee / BBC:

Apple scolded by Europe over in-app purchase protections — Some parents have been shocked by charges for additional features in free-to-download games — Apple has been criticised by the European Commission for not offering any “concrete and immediate” plans to stop users being misled by “free” apps.

More: Engadget, Guardian, EU Press Room, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Inquirer, PC Advisor, AppleInsider, Gigaom, iMore, iPhone Hacks, Electronista, iPhone in Canada Blog and Gamasutra

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Chrome 37 beta supports Microsoft's DirectWrite API, which improves the appearance of fonts — Fonts In Chrome For Windows Will Look Better Soon — Google released the latest beta version of its Chrome browser today, and if you're a Windows user on a machine that runs at least Vista, fonts will now look better on your screen.

More: PC World, Chromium Blog, Engadget, Inquirer, The Verge, The Tech Report, Softpedia News, Techdows, 9to5Google, CNET and The Next Web

Nellie Bowles / Re/code:

Airbnb Founder on Vagina Logo: “Go Ahead, Laugh All You Want” — Airbnb launched a new corporate logo yesterday, and everyone — including their dinner guests last night — had an opinion about it. — At the Verdi Club in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, many of the guests …

Tweets: @caseynewton, @startupljackson and @nero

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook starts testing Buy button on News Feed ads and Page posts, will not charge participating US businesses for now — Facebook Tests Buy Button To Let You Purchase Stuff Without Leaving Facebook — Facebook is trying out letting you pay for ecommerce purchases from other businesses without leaving its site or app.

Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:

They Might Be Tearing Down The Creamery To Build Condos — If you're involved in the startup world in San Francisco you've likely been to the Creamery on Townsend and 4th street. It's iconic, even if only recently so. — In 2012 I wrote about the Creamery in a post talking about the shift …

Tweets: @startupljackson and @caseynewton

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Amazon's first Fire Phone ad is all about Amazon Prime — After announcing it a month ago, Amazon is finally about to release its first smartphone, the Fire Phone. It's now beginning to air its first commercial for the phone too, and it's one of strange choices, to say the least.

More: Mashable, Business Insider, BGR, 9to5Google, GeekWire, Business Insider, Geeky Gadgets, CNET, AdAge, SlashGear and IntoMobile

Cromwell Schubarth / Silicon Valley Business Journal:

TubeMogul lowers IPO shares to $7, raises $43.8M ahead of first trade Friday, will list on Nasdaq as TUBE — TubeMogul IPO raises $43.8M after hitting bottom of lowered target range — It's been a rough second half start Silicon Valley area companies going public, with TubeMogul the latest …

More: NASDAQ.com, AdExchanger, Seeking Alpha, PR Newswire, bizjournals and silicontap.com

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitter Acquires CardSpring To Power In-Tweet Commerce And Offers — Twitter just announced it's acquired CardSpring to enable “in-the-moment commerce experiences.” CardSpring is an application platform that lets developers build card-linked offers electronic coupons, loyalty cards …

More: The Twitter Blog, PandoDaily, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews, Business Insider, Network World, TechOne3, ReadWrite, Marketing Land, The Next Web, ZDNet, Gigaom and internetretailer.com

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

No signal? GoTenna has a messaging gadget that will work in the middle of nowhere — For all of our dependency on mobile phones, there are still quite a few places in this world you can't get a wireless signal, from mountaintops to national parks to rural highways and even the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

More: Softpedia News, gHacks Technology News, Android Authority, San Francisco Chronicle, SlashGear, Crowdfund Insider, Engadget, Also, Pocketnow and VentureBeat

Bloomberg:

Line Said to Pursue U.S. IPO With Confidential Filing to SEC — Line Corp., operator of Japan's most popular mobile messaging service, filed confidentially for an initial offering in the U.S., people with knowledge of the matter said, taking a step closer to a dual-listing in New York and Tokyo.

More: Reuters. Tweets: @serkantoto

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

The best time to become a Zoho Partner — The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt. Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, July 18, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.