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12:45 PM ET, March 13, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Business Wire:
AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo  —  NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network.  Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Buys Bebo For $850 Million  —  I'm not going to say that we told you so, but we told you so.  —  AOL has acquired social networking site Bebo for $850 million in cash.  AOL CEO Randy Falco (left in picture) sent an email to all AOL employees this morning.  Allen Stern's press call notes are here.
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Bebo To AOL for $850 Million  —  AOL has announced this morning that they have acquired social networking service Bebo for $850 million in cash.  Bebo has 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX.  Bebo is the third-largest social networking service in the U.S. behind MySpace and Facebook.
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million  —  AOL issued a press release on Thursday morning to announce that the company has acquired social-networking site Bebo.  The price tag, according to the AOL statement, is $850 million in cash.  Neither company has yet stated when the deal is expected to be closed.
AOL News:
AOL to Acquire Social Media Network Bebo  —  AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a leading global social media network.  Founded in 2005, Bebo now has 40 million members worldwide.  Together with AIM and ICQ, AOL will have a social network of approximately 80 million unique users worldwide …
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
AOL-Bebo: Balderton VCs Reap $140 Million From Acquisition
Discussion: HipMojo.com and Fred Destin
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:   AOL-Bebo: Falco: ‘Gamechanging For AOL’; Shields: Didn't Plan …
Reuters:
AOL to buy Bebo social network
Discussion: VentureBeat
What we do:
Balderton Capital to sell its stake in Bebo
Discussion: TechCrunch UK
Om Malik / GigaOM:
AOL Buys Bebo, Time Warner Still Schizophrenic
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:   Live Blog: AOL / Bebo Acquisition Call
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
The Future Of Voice May Be Voiceless  —  The above video is a little rough in terms of processing delay, but it's staggering.  Voice without voice.  —  According to New Scientist, the neckband translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals; “with careful training a person …
RELATED:
Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Nerve-tapping neckband allows ‘telepathic’ chat  —  A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time.  —  With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web - Expect The Internet To Organize Itself In A Hurry  —  Yahoo's embrace of all things open continues today - expect an announcement in an hour or so that they are expanding their Open Search Platform that we wrote about last month.
Discussion: /Message
RELATED:
Kevin Newcomb / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Yahoo to Begin Indexing Microformats
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Rohit Dhawan / Official Google Blog:
Our solutions for ad serving  —  Earlier this week, we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick.  Together, we're now focused on building a full suite of products and tools that help publishers of all sizes improve productivity, manage their inventory, generate additional revenue opportunities …
RELATED:
Scott Hillis / Reuters:
Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is not in talks to include Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Blu-ray high-definition DVD technology in its Xbox 360 video game console, an executive said on Wednesday.
RELATED:
Mike Ricciuti / CNET News.com:   Report: Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360
Bonnie Cha / Crave: The gadget blog:
RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 lands at AT&T  —  You knew it was just a matter of time before one of the GSM carriers got a hold of the next-generation RIM BlackBerry Pearl after Verizon Wireless released the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130.  That lucky carrier would be AT&T. Today …
RELATED:
PC World:
BlackBerry Pearl 8120  —  RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 Cell Phone
Discussion: BlackBerry Cool
louisgray.com:
Elite Bloggers Joining FriendFeed In Droves  —  Although it hasn't even been a month since FriendFeed opened up to the masses, and announced Series A financing of $5 million, momentum is definitely on the company's side.  Garnering incredible media and blog coverage, FriendFeed has also been a magnet …
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Gates, Mundie: Congress must make trade-offs to propel tech's future  —  WASHINGTON—It's not always easy persuading politicians on Capitol Hill to take up items on Silicon Valley's wishlist, even if you're Bill Gates and his posse.  —  That was one message that the Microsoft chairman …
Discussion: Ars Technica
Vishesh Kumar / Wall Street Journal:
DirecTV to Start On-Demand  —  In its yearslong battle with cable-TV operators, DirecTV Group Inc.'s Achilles' heel has been its inability to offer any sort of video-on-demand service.  The company intends to change that.  —  The No. 1 satellite-TV provider by subscribers is testing …
 
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 More Items: 
news.harvard.edu:
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences hacking incident
AppleInsider:
Apple TV DVR interface revealed in patent filings
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
AP Consolidates Its Media Units; Brettingen, Seagrave and Cross Promoted
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
iPhone 2.0 “sneak peek”
Discussion: MacRumors, Gizmodo and iPhone Atlas
Michael Keferl / Trends in Japan:
Tobidasu 3D Table Menu from TEC
Discussion: Engadget, Gizmodo and The Raw Feed
ZDNet:
Nikkei: Toshiba faces $986 million loss on HD DVDs
Discussion: Gearlog and Electronista
Om Malik / GigaOM:
ShareThis Raises $15 Million
George Moore / Windows Live Dev:
A Unified Standards-Based Protocols and Tooling Platform for Storage from Microsoft
Discussion: ProgrammableWeb
 Earlier Items: 
N'Gai Croal / Level Up:
Exclusive: Writer-Director George Miller Announces 'Mad Max …
Frank Rose / Wired News:
Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
SALE OF JOSSIP GOSSIP
BBC:
BBC releases fix for iPlayer hack
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Congress dons rubber glove, prepares probe of FCC chairman
Discussion: Engadget and Orbitcast
Matt / Photo Matt:
WordPress is Open Source
Canon USA:
CANON'S TRENDSETTING TRIO OF NEW DIGITAL ELPH SUPERMODELS INSPIRE …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload
Discussion: Fresh Creation