Techmeme: AOL CEO Tim Armstrong's Employment Contract Extended Through March 2016 (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

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March 30, 2012, 10:50 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Breach Hits Card Processor Global Payments — Global Payments Inc., which processes credit cards and debit cards for banks and merchants, has been hit by a security breach that has put some 50,000 cardholders at risk, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

More: Examiner, Bloomberg, Pulse2 Technology …, Zero Day Blog and Between the Lines Blog. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

MasterCard, VISA Warn of Processor Breach — VISA and MasterCard are alerting banks across the country about a recent major breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor. Sources in the financial sector are calling the breach “massive,” and say it may involve more than 10 million compromised card numbers.

Wall Street Journal:

Data Breach Sparks Worry — Hack Attack at Card Processor Compromises Potentially Thousands of Accounts — Concerns about credit-card security heightened Friday after a little-known Atlanta company disclosed it had been hit by hackers, potentially exposing hundreds of thousands of account holders to fraud.

More: Global Payments Inc., Network World, MarketBeat, Z Trek, Lifehacker, SlashGear, CNET, Gartner, Gizmodo, Reuters, Computerworld, SC Magazine, Wired, SecurityWeek, SeekingAlpha.com, Between the Lines Blog and Office of Inadequate Security

John Brownlee / Cult of Mac:

This Creepy App Isn't Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It's A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy [Update] — This app is meant to all be in good fun, but it's potentially a weapon in the hands of stalkers. — “Boy, you sure have a lot of apps on your phone.” — “Well, it's my job.”

More: The Verge, Digital Trends, TechCrunch, Bits, Pulp Tech Blog, VentureBeat, The Tech Report and Gawker

Harrison Weber / The Next Web:

Foursquare shuts down location API access to creepy Girls Around Me app — As first covered by Cult of Mac, Girls Around Me is an incredibly creepy app that allows anyone to locate nearby girls based on public Foursquare checkins and Facebook data. Now the app has been officially banned …

More: msnbc.com

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Layoffs Set to Begin Next Week, Followed by Restructuring the Week After — Yahoo is preparing to begin layoffs of what could be thousands of employees starting next week, according to multiple sources, and is then expected to announce a new restructuring of the company the week after.

More: Deadline.com, SlashGear, Tech and China, The Verge, Search Engine Land, TechFlash, Digits, Tech Trader Daily, SeekingAlpha.com, Business Insider, bizjournals and WebProNews

Bits:

With Tablet Plan, Google Goes After Apple and Amazon — Google's long-awaited tablet might finally be on the way to becoming a reality. For at least two years, there have been reports that the search giant was working on something that could compete with Apple's iPad.

More: Digits, Wired, InfoWorld, Computerworld, InvestorPlace, Tecca, internetretailer.com, App Advice, Mobile Marketing Watch, parislemon, OStatic blogs, FierceWireless, MacNN, Tech Trader Daily, Appolicious Advisor, TechSpot and Mobile Entertainment

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Twitter Takes Tweetdeck Offline After Apparent Bug Opens Access To Accounts — Twitter has taken Tweetdeck offline after an apparent bug has possibly given some Tweetdeck users access to others' accounts. — A Tweetdeck user in Australia, Geoff Evanson, says he discovered today …

More: The Next Web, CNET, Digits, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, CNNMoney.com, Geek.com, The Verge, msnbc.com, Ubergizmo, Mashable!, LaptopMemo and Lifehacker

Adi Avidor / Inside Search:

Graphing on Google.com - Now in 3D — A few months ago we launched a graphing functionality right in search to help students and math lovers plot functions in an easy, simple way. In addition to calculating something simple like dividing up a restaurant bill or graphing more difficult math functions using …

More: ReadWriteWeb, BuzzFeed, Mashable!, WebProNews, Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Land

Reuters:

Apple supplier Foxconn cuts working hours, workers ask why — (Reuters) - When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation. — Wu, 23, is one of tens of thousands …

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Sega shutting down games, laying off people — Sega said today it will restructure its Western operations as it deals with the transformation from a maker of retail games to digital distribution. The restructuring will result in an unspecified number of job losses and game cancellations.

More: IntoMobile and PC Magazine

Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:

Confirmed: Netflix buys DVD.com — Netflix buys DVD.com domain name. — [Update: Netflix has confirmed its purchase of DVD.com. A spokesperson tells Domain Name Wire “Netflix cares about keeping DVD healthy, and this is just one small investment in keeping DVD healthy."]

More: AllThingsD, The Next Web, Engadget, SlashGear, The Verge, Gizmodo and TechCrunch. See also Mediagazer

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Senator Al Franken: ‘privacy is a casualty’ of Google and Facebook's success — Senator Al Franken gave a rousing speech to the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section last night, calling for greater antitrust oversight of large media and tech companies as a way to ensure greater privacy protections for Americans.

More: CNET, Marketing Land and Interactioned

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

SOPA is all fun and games until NBC rips off Apple's artwork — Reality TV is a harsh business. One minute everyone is glued to Jersey Shore, the next you're looking at a canceled series and a backlog of ‘GTL’ shirts cluttering up the company store. One of the perennial favorites …

More: Techdirt, Pulse2 Technology …, WebProNews, MacDailyNews and Softpedia News

Joe Pollicino / Engadget:

AT&T now accepting Lumia 900 pre-orders, only those seeking cyan or black need apply (update) — Friendly reminder here, folks. As expected, AT&T has opened the pre-order floodgates for the Nokia Lumia 900 today ahead of its April 8th release in the US. Interested parties can secure …

More: BGR, The Verge, WMPoweruser, Gear Live and Windows Phone Blog

Ari Levy / Bloomberg:

Groupon Discloses ‘Material Weakness,’ Lower Quarterly Revenue — Groupon Inc. (GRPN), the largest provider of daily deals online, reported a “material weakness” in its financial controls and said fourth-quarter results were worse than previously stated because of higher refunds to merchants.

More: VentureBeat, Bloomberg Tech Blog, GigaOM, AllThingsD, Business Insider, The Tech Trade, Wall Street Journal and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @evelynrusli

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Workers Put Tim Cook Atop List of Most Beloved CEOs — Tim Cook, the man Apple co-founder Steve Jobs hand-picked to be his successor, may never surpass Jobs in panache or vision, but as a leader, he's picking up right where Jobs left off. — Indeed, after just 10 months …

More: BGR, Computerworld, Glassdoor Blog, GigaOM, NBC Bay Area, DailyFinance.com, Computer Business Review, PC World, TUAW, iPhone, IntoMobile, 9to5Mac, CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena and MacNN

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong's Employment Contract Extended Through March 2016 — UPDATED: “We are continuing to work on the comeback of AOL and have a plan that is beneficial for employees, customers and shareholders,” the company said. — NEW YORK - AOL said Friday it has extended …

More: PandoDaily, The Wrap, Business Insider and Deadline.com

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Appstore Generates More Revenue Per Daily User Than Google Play — According to new data released today by mobile analytics firm Flurry, Amazon's Appstore for Android is generating more revenue per daily user than the Google Android Market, which was recently rebranded as the Google Play store.

More: mocoNews, Flurry Blog, MacNN, PadGadget, MacDailyNews, VatorNews, The Digital Reader, BGR, MediaPost and Fortune

Tweets: @yoda_2little and @christoff

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:

Ahead of I.P.O., Mark Zuckerberg's Lawyers Expedite Disclosures — Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is rushing to clear all his paperwork, ahead of the social network's highly anticipated initial public offering. — The Federal and Trade Commission disclosed in a notice on Friday …

More: The Next Web, VentureBeat, Friending Facebook Blog and Los Angeles Times

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Violin Memory Raises $50 Million at $800 Million Valuation, May IPO This Year — Violin Memory, the company that builds storage arrays based on flash memory technology, will on Monday announce that it has raised a $50 million Series D round of funding at an implied valuation of $800 million.

More: GigaOM, Fortune, The Register, SeekingAlpha.com, Digits, VentureBeat and VentureBeat. Thanks:@ahess247

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Wikipedia's Next Big Thing: Wikidata, A Machine-Readable, User-Editable Database Funded By Google, Paul Allen And Others — Wikidata, the first new project to emerge from the Wikimedia Foundation since 2006, is now beginning development. The organization, known best for its user-edited encyclopedia …

More: Business Insider, CNET, Digits, Wikimedia blog, TechFlash, The Seattle Times and UMBC ebiquity. Thanks:@sparkcatalyst

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Apple named Japan's top consumer brand for the first time — With more than half of all US households reportedly owning at least one of its products, Apple is a company that is continually topping satisfaction surveys in America and the world over. Today, the company has been named …

More: Nikkei.com, The Loop, Macgasm, MacNN, Techie Buzz, Tech Trader Daily, CNET, TechPinions, iDownloadBlog.com, VentureBeat, App Advice and AllThingsD

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