Top Items:
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook — Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook. — The two companies said on Wednesday that Microsoft would invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Mark Evans, BloggingStocks, MarketingVOX, Soaring on Ridgelift, Geek Speaker, Joe Duck, Todd Watson, Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi, TechSpot News, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Tom Raftery's Social Media, Innovation in Software, Download Squad, Online Dating Insider, TechBlog, HipMojo.com, Business Week, Bloggers Blog, iMedia Connection, Nate Elliott, rexblog.com, Clickety Clack, VentureBeat, Wikinomics, The Last Podcast, broadstuff, Slashdot and Search Engine Watch Blog
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Terrence Russell / Epicenter:
Three Reasons Microsoft Underpaid For Facebook — It's official — the truth is less profitable than fiction. Facebook has secured the cornerstone of its $15 billion valuation with today's Microsoft alliance. But at $240 million, that's only a 1.6% slice of a much larger pie.
Steve / The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
Oh snap! Faceberg raises another $500 million — Word up. Hot on the heels of the big investment by the Borg only a few hours ago, Facebook has now landed another $500 million from two hedge funds in New York. At the same $15 billion valuation. It is on, people.
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Source: Microsoft wins Facebook bid battle — Update: 12:30 p.m. see bottom. — After weeks of speculation, Microsoft appears to have won a battle with Google over who would get a stake in Facebook, according to a source familiar with the situation. — Microsoft and Facebook were close to a deal, according to the source.
Discussion:
Valleywag, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, All about Microsoft, MarketWatch, The Register, Bloomberg, Todd Watson, Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog, Things That, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, WebProNews, Webware.com, Rev2.org, HipMojo.com, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley Insider, Computerworld, Media Biz, Between the Lines, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, Mashable! and Deal Journal
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:Microsoft acquires equity stake in Facebook, expands advertising partnership
Wall Street Journal:Facebook Is Close to Choosing Microsoft or Google for Deal
Discussion:
Bits, Nate Elliott, Ars Technica, John Battelle's Searchblog, Mashable!, Media Biz, Read/WriteWeb, paidContent.org, PDA, alarm:clock, Tech Trader Daily, Search Engine Land, Technology Live, Searchviews, VentureBeat, BloggingStocks, ResourceShelf, GigaOM, bub.blicio.us, All Facebook, Between the Lines and Mac Beach
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:Liveblogging The Facebook Press Conference
Discussion:
Tech Tracks, paidContent.org, CenterNetworks, mathewingram.com/work, The Universal Desktop, Mashable!, Valleywag, The Utube Blog and 901am
David Pogue / New York Times:
Apple Offers New Goodies in Leopard System — If you're a computer company, what on earth do you add to the sixth annual version of your operating system? — It's not as though there are any glaring holes left. Nobody is still crying out for a better way to organize photos.
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Walter S. Mossberg / Wall Street Journal:
Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista — Upgrade of Apple's OS — Isn't Revolutionary, — But It Beats Microsoft's — The Mac is on a roll. Apple Inc.'s perennially praised but slow-selling Macintosh computers have surged in popularity in the past few years, with sales growing …
USA Today:
Leopard, Apple's new Mac operating system, hits all the right spots — When Steve Jobs unleashes Mac OS X Leopard on Friday, Mac fans and others considering an Apple computer for the first time will have questions. Is the new Leopard operating system worth the $129 upgrade price?
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Leopard reviews coming in, usual suspects agree: it's all gravy — It's not like we really expected scathing, Apple-coring criticism from the likes of the same motley crew Apple supplied pre-release iPhones to (namely: Walt Mossberg of WSJ, David Pogue of NYT, and Ed Baig of USA Today …
Discussion:
Valleywag
Steve / The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
PodTech: RIP — Well, they've had a good run but apparently the Casa de Scoble is heading for the big sleep. Or is it the dirt nap? I can never remember. No announcement yet but we hear it's imminent. Word is that Scoble was planning to bail in January anyway but now he won't have to.
Discussion:
Scobleizer, WebProNews, WinExtra, The Last Podcast, Mashable!, Valleywag and GracefulFlavor
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Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
PodTech Heading Towards The Deadpool? — Fake Steve Jobs aka Daniel Lyons has written that he's heard that PodTech will be closing up shop with an announcement imminent. — We can't confirm the rumor although I have pinged Robert Scoble asking him to comment. If we get a response we'll publish it.
Discussion:
Mashable!
Megan McCarthy / Valleywag:
Jackpot: Mark Zuckerberg, the $5 billion man — One thing has been overlooked in today's Facebook valuation announcement — how much the major players can now claim to be worth. A source tells us that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg owns about 30 percent of the company …
Discussion:
Mark Evans
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Stephen C. Miller / New York Times:
Copy Video From Your PC, and Then Watch It on Your TV — SanDisk's Sansa TakeTV is aimed at people who want to take digital video from their computers and watch it on their TVs, without getting too high-tech about it. — The heart of TakeTV is a U.S.B. flash drive that can store videos copied from your computer's hard drive.
Discussion:
The Mossberg Solution
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Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Live Search Almost Certainly Coming To Facebook — During this afternoon's Microsoft-Facebook conference call the question was asked whether the new deal would include paid search. Microsoft's Kevin Johnson and Facebook's Owen Van Natta declined to directly answer the question …
Nick / Rough Type:
The science of blog reading — The problem of detecting contaminants in a public water system is analogous to the problem of figuring out what's going on in the blogosphere, write a team of Carnegie-Mellon researchers in an award-winning paper called Cost-effective Outbreak Detection in Networks:
Dan Goodin / The Register:
More gnashing of teeth after Microsoft update brings PCs to a standstill — Resource-hogging search app sprung on reluctant admins — Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in an untold number of IT departments on Wednesday after Microsoft installed a resource-hogging search application …
