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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Google's Groupon Offer: $5.3 Billion, With $700 Million Earnout — According to sources close to the situation, Google has offered $5.3 billion for Groupon, in what will be its largest acquisition yet if completed. — Sources said the deal for the social buying site seemed likely to be struck …
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Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Forget Net Neutrality, Comcast Might Break the Web — The fight that erupted today between Level 3 and Comcast involves an esoteric agreement between two of the Internet's big players providers colliding with a series of equally arcane policy arguments, but at its core this fight is about money.
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Level 3 Communications:
Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast's Actions — Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Thomas Stortz, Chief Legal Officer of Level 3: — “On November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that …
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily, Engadget, Fortune, SlashGear, Boing Boing, CNET News, GigaOM, Post Tech, DSLreports, Techdirt, DailyFinance, ITworld.com, Geek News Central, Data Center Knowledge, CircleID and SAI
Joe Waz / Comcast Voices:
Comcast Comments on Level 3 — Level 3 has inaccurately portrayed the commercial negotiations between it and Comcast. These discussions have nothing to do with Level 3's desire to distribute different types of network traffic. — Comcast has long established and mutually acceptable …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Kinect is Selling 2X as Fast as the iPad — The iPad was crowned the fastest-adopted consumer electronic device ever last month, stealing the title from the once-coveted DVD player. Records are made to be broken, though, and the Microsoft Kinect has already come out of the gate twice as fast.
Discussion:
TechFlash, Go Rumors and Deep Jive Interests
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Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Microsoft: Over 2.5M Kinect Sold
Discussion:
Softpedia News, The Seattle Times, Forbes, Mashable!, BetaNews, The Next Web, Pulse2, BGR, VentureBeat, Insights on the tech industry, WinRumors, Electronista, Ars Technica and LiveSide.net
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Google's Secret Social Initiative Delayed Until Spring 2011 [EXCLUSIVE] — Google's big social initiative, once thought to be a full-fledged social network named “Google Me,” is experiencing delays that have pushed back the launch until spring 2011. — Mashable has learned …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, SlashGear, Pulse2 and SAI
Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
The Biggest iPad Subsidy Of All: Softbank Gives It Away - What's Behind It? — One more operator is offering a reduced price for the iPad if you take it on a two-year contract: Softbank in Japan is preparing to launch a deal that offers users a 16GB iPad for free.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, MacNN, SlashGear, IntoMobile, App Advice, BlogsDNA, msnbc.com, Go Rumors, MacStories, Pulse2 and Fortune
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes officially launches Jumo, social network for social activism — Status update from Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and the social media whiz kid behind Barack Obama's presidential campaign: On Tuesday he officially launched Jumo.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Mashable!, New York Times and Neowin.net
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Now Worth $50 Billion In Secondary Trading — It was just a few weeks ago that Accel Partners sold off around half a billion dollars of Facebook shares at a company valuation of $35 billion. If you thought that was insane, and a lot of commenters did, then don't read the rest of this post.
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All Facebook
Danny Sullivan / Daggle:
How Facebook Connect Freaks Me Out — More and more sites I run into these days are offering a way for me to log-in using Facebook. That's cool, if it means I don't have to fill out yet another registration form. But the permission pages that come up sometimes are so scary that I decline the offer.
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Instagram Captures Their First Big Brand Partner: National Geographic — There seems to be a common cycle for many startups. First, you capture users. Then, you capture brands/celebrities. Then you capture revenues. Most startups never make it past step one, let alone steps two and three.
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scot hacker's foobar blog
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Playboy Magazine releases every issue from 1953 to 2010 on a hard drive — Playboy Magazine is on magazine racks, on the Web, on iPad, and now it's also on a hard drive. — The iconic publication, which has struggled a bit as the world goes increasingly digital, is offering every issue of Playboy …
Discussion:
Pulse2, Neowin.net, TeleRead and Boing Boing
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Flock Social Browser Declares War on RockMelt with Version 3.5 — Flock, the self-described “social web browser,” is responding to the launch of RockMelt with the release of Flock 3.5, which boasts greater speed and added functionality. — The browser touts social integration …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Pulse2, GigaOM, Ubergizmo and The Next Web
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Mozilla rages at MS, Apple and Google's ‘trojan horse’ tactics — Shove your plug-ins where the sun don't shine — A well-respected Mozilla man has attacked Apple, Google and Microsoft for installing plug-ins without first asking for a web surfer's permission.
Discussion:
Asa Dotzler, InformationWeek, PC Pro and Which? News
Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog:
Over 500,000 Windows Live Spaces blogs migrated to WordPress.com — We're very excited to be working with WordPress.com to let customers connect the fantastic blogging capabilities of WordPress.com with the leading communications and sharing services of Windows Live.
Discussion:
WordPress.com News, Softpedia News, LiveSide.net, TechCrunch, The Blog Herald, Technologizer and Pulse2
Zach Epstein / BGR:
WP7 developers complain of missing payments, broken reporting tools — Microsoft is making good progress in its efforts to woo developers to the new Windows Phone 7 platform, but we hope the company is equally devoted to keeping devs on board once they arrive.
Discussion:
Nick's Rumbling, eWeek, Know Your Cell, SlashGear, AppleInsider, IntoMobile, Electronista, WPCentral.com and Ubergizmo
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Microsoft TV: A Bold Move That May Blow Up Broadcast — From what we can tell from a brief Reuters report, Microsoft is in talks with HBO and Showtime to broadcast and sell a la carte video through the XBox. Microsoft already offers ESPN through XBox Live.
Discussion:
broadstuff and Digital Trends
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Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Microsoft in talks for new TV service: sources
Discussion:
Examiner, AppleInsider, SAI, Digital Trends, I4U News, Pulse2, PC Magazine, Engadget, Microsoft Watch, VG247, AfterDawn.com, Techland, Reuters, Mashable!, DailyTech, WebProNews, Ars Technica, Hacking NetFlix, The Seattle Times, Technologizer, Joystiq, dailywireless.org, ITworld.com, eHomeUpgrade, The Next Web, MTV Multiplayer, VentureBeat, Fast Company, FierceIPTV, BlogsDNA, The Microsoft Blog, TechFlash, MediaMemo, TechSpot, GigaOM, iClarified, Gizmodo, Electronista, paidContent, DSLreports, DigitalBattle.com, SlashGear, Media Maverick, Erictric, Reuters and WinRumors, more at Mediagazer »
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Twitter Gets a Hollywood Guy: Omid Ashtari — Twitter has hired its first official liaison to the stars: Creative Artists Agency veteran Omid Ashtari. His first day at the microblogging service was today. — Ashtari told me he is “going to be Twitter's L.A. person” and will be dealing with media companies and celebrities.
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Lost Remote
Riley McDermid / VentureBeat:
Google-backed satellite provider O3b raises $1.2B to bring the world online — Google-backed Internet satellite company O3b Networks has raised $1.2 billion in what is says is its final funding round before it launches its “constellation” of fiber-quality satellites to bring the developing world online.
Discussion:
Google Public Policy Blog, Pulse2, GigaOM, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, BBC and dailywireless.org
Wall Street Journal:
Makers of Firefox Browser Explore Do-Not-Track Tool After Scrapping Earlier Effort — Makers of Firefox Browser Explore Do-Not-Track Tool After Scrapping Earlier Effort — The makers of the popular Firefox Web browser are exploring ways to create a do-not-track mechanism that could offer Internet users …
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AdExchanger.com
Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:
How to Make Google Translate Beatbox — Not sure if this falls in the category of Easter Egg or clever manipulation, but either way, there go our afternoons: Redditor harrichr has devised a scheme for turning Google Translate into a makeshift beatbox machine. … For the lazy, just click this link and it'll be done for you.
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TechCrunch
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Zuckerberg Interviews Former President George W. Bush At Facebook HQ [Video] — Looks like President Obama isn't the only one resorting to Facebook as a way to reach the American people. In a first for a U.S. President past or present, former President George W. Bush will hold a discussion …
Discussion:
Gov 2.0, Forbes, The Next Web and Between the Lines Blog
Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:
Few smartphone owners are loyal to their brand: survey — (Reuters) - The booming smartphone market shows no sign of slowing but manufacturers will have to fight hard to keep their customers as smartphone owners show little loyalty to their current brands, a GfK survey shows.
Discussion:
BGR, Pulse2, GigaOM, IntoMobile, pocketnow.com, TechSpot, I4U News, TUAW, displayblog, Electronista, Examiner, The Toybox Blog, Internet2Go, MobileBurn.com, PhoneArena, Fortune, Inquirer, The Next Web, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, FierceMobileContent and Phones Review
Courtney Comstock / SAI:
Morgan Stanley's Legendary Tech Analyst Mary Meeker Moving To Kleiner Perkins — Kleiner Perkins just poached Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley's star tech analyst, says CNBC, citing WSJ. — Meeker has been a huge name since the .com days, and every year comes out with a hugely influential report/overview of the industry.
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