Techmeme: Microsoft to Buy Yammer for $1 Billion (Wall Street Journal)

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June 15, 2012, 12:35 AM

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Wall Street Journal:

Yammer Agrees to Sell Itself to Microsoft — Business-software company Yammer Inc. agreed to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $1.2 billion, according a person familiar with the matter, in a sign Microsoft may be trying to plug holes in its ubiquitous Office software.

Tweets: @erickschonfeld

Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft to Buy Yammer for $1 Billion — Business-software company Yammer Inc. has agreed to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for more than $1 billion, according to a person familiar the matter. — It is unclear when the acquisition will be completed and announced, this person said.

More: The Next Web, BGR, The Verge, CNET, Neowin and Bloomberg

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Why The Rumored Microsoft Deal for Yammer Rings True

More: eWeek, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Mashable!, PC Magazine, GigaOM, Personal InfoCloud, digitaltrends.com, ReadWriteWeb, TechnoBuffalo, Internet Evolution, Tech Cocktail, TechSpot and SocialTimes

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Microsoft Schedules L.A. Event for Some Windows Tablet Talk — After months of being secretive about its work to bring Windows 8 to ARM-based tablets, Microsoft is about ready to raise the veil. — The company has scheduled an event on Monday in Los Angeles where it is expected …

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Apple expected to launch 13" Retina MacBook Pro by early Oct. — Apple will bring a high-resolution Retina display to its 13-inch MacBook Pro with a product update set to launch this October, according to one insider. — Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI shared in a note with AppleInsider …

More: MacRumors, Your Communications Coach, TechnoBuffalo, InvestorPlaceGadgets …, BGR, CNET, DisplaySearch Blog, TUAW, MacNN, Macworld, Ars Technica and iClarified

Danielle Sacks / Fast Company:

Can VCs Be Bred? Meet The New Generation In Silicon Valley's Draper Dynasty — Over the course of a half-century, the Draper family has carved out a name (and a fortune) in a place where breeding and ancestry are thought to be irrelevant. Now it's time for the debut of the youngest generation.

More: Betabeat, Venture Capital Dispatch and AllThingsD

Tweets: @megan and @evelynrusli

Sam Biddle / Gizmodo:

Vizio's Beautiful Sci-Fi Computer Fleet Lands Now for Cheapish (Updated: Hands On) — It takes a lot to make us genuinely excited about a laptop, or even worse, another desktop PC. But cheap TV king Vizio's done just that. We loved them at CES, and now the all-in-one and superskinny laptop line's official.

More: AllThingsD, ABCNEWS, Liliputing, The Verge, Engadget, Engadget and LAPTOP Magazine

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:

Apple Adds Gay and Lesbian Couple Icons to iOS 6 — The new version of Apple's iPhone operating system comes with new emojis, the popular emoticons that are often used in texting and email, especially by young kids and nerdy adults like me. Two of these new pictograms represent gay and lesbian couples for the first time.

More: Macgasm, TechCrunch, The Register, MacDailyNews, Know Your Cell, WebProNews and Pulse2 Technology …

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Judge changes mind, grants Apple an injunction hearing against Motorola (and vice versa) — Judge Richard Posner, the Seventh Circuit judge sitting by designation on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to preside over an Apple v. Motorola lawsuit …

More: Ars Technica, AllThingsD, The Verge, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Engadget, GigaOM and iClarified

Dave Thier / Forbes:

Reddit General Manager Erik Martin Respons to Domain Ban Controversy — Yesterday, reports that Reddit administrators have been banning high-quality publications like The Atlantic and Business Week from their site as a punishment for — spamming attempts.

More: Daily Dot, Social Media and Betabeat

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Ethiopian Government Bans Skype, Google Talk And All Other VoIP Services — The Ethiopian government, Al Jazeera reports, has criminalized the use of Skype and other VoIP services like Google Talk. Using VoIP services is now punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

More: VentureBeat and The Stream

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Asks Every User For A Verified Phone Number To Prevent Security Disaster — Every single Facebook user is or will soon be seeing a link at the top of their desktop news feed asking them to “Stay in control of your account by following these simple security tips”.

More: CNET

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Carat: The Brilliant App That Increases Your Battery Life By Showing What Other Apps To Kill — “Kill Pandora - Expected Battery Life Improvement: 1 hour 50 minutes” This is what you'll learn from Carat, an incredibly useful free new iOS and Android app that's the first to give …

More: Examiner and AMP Lab

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Nokia to End “Meltemi” Effort for Low-End Smartphones — One of the casualties of Nokia's latest cuts is Meltemi, the company's effort to create a new Linux-based operating system for low-end smartphones. — The project was aimed at offering smartphones at prices that neither Android …

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, Engadget, PC Magazine, Nokia Innovation, The Register, Engadget, Bloomberg, The Next Web and The Verge

Marco Cimmino / Skype for Linux:

Skype 4.0 for Linux — First off, we'd like to thank our Skype for Linux users for your patience awaiting Skype 4.0 for Linux, codenamed ‘Four Rooms for Improvement,’ which is now available. With this release, we have finally filled the gap with our other desktop clients and we are now making …

More: Geek.com, ZDNet, The H Open Source and Slashdot

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Kevin Rose On His New Gig At Google Ventures, What He Looks For In A Startup Founder, And More [TCTV] — Kevin Rose has been a familiar face in the tech scene for more than a decade now — first as a startup employee during the first dot-com boom, then as a host on some very popular tech shows …

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Karma: a 4G provider that rewards users for sharing their data plan with strangers — “Something is fundamentally broken in the market for mobile providers,” says Robert Gaal, one of the founders of Karma, a startup that just graduated from the TechStars NY accelerator program.

More: Engadget, The Next Web, fiercewireless.com, TechnoBuffalo, Gotta Be Mobile, Betabeat, Gizmodo, dailywireless.org, Mashable!, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, MacNN and TechCrunch

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Microsoft's NUads on Xbox Live ‘motions’ boring TV commercials forward — The traditional television commercials that play between programs on a TV set are long overdue for an upgrade, which Microsoft is more than happy to provide. — The technology giant announced today …

More: msnbc.com, Microsoft Corporation, Los Angeles Times, PC Magazine, Adweek, SlashGear, Mashable!, AllThingsD and Addicted to Digital Media

Staska / Unwired View:

Apple's idea for optical zoom, stroboscopic flash, etc; in the next iPhone: removal back panel with optics — Since iPhone 4, camera experience on Apple phones was among the best in the industry. But it's only so much you can do with the camera quality in such a tightly packed device as a smartphone.

More: Patently Apple, AppleInsider, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com, Gizmodo, PhoneArena and Engadget

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

App Store enigma: the patent holder, the developer, and the voiceless child — Apple's “benign dictatorship” of the App Store leaves users, devs in the dark. — The Unity language implemented on a Prentke Romich AAC device — Prentke Romich Company — Few apps available for the iPad sell …

More: PadGadget, Uncommon Sense and App Advice

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Indie studio Thatgamecompany raises $5.5M to create magical games for wider audiences — The journey of indie game developer Thatgamecompany is about to get a lot more interesting. The maker of Journey, a big hit and highly original game on Sony's PlayStation Network, has raised $5.5 million from Benchmark Capital.

More: thatgamecompany, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, GamesIndustry International, Destructoid and AllThingsD

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:

Forthcoming Facebook Motion Said to Discuss Nasdaq's Role in I.P.O. — Facebook is preparing for battle. — One month after its botched initial public offering, the social network is set to file a motion to consolidate all the shareholder lawsuits against the company …

More: The Atlantic Wire, Reuters and Wall Street Journal

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

To Fight Off Airtime and Google+ Hangouts, Facebook Tests Adding Video “Call” Button To Profiles — Desperate to increase video chat usage, Facebook is testing out a “Call” button on top of people's timeline profiles. I don't think I've received a Facebook video chat since Facebook partnered …

More: Los Angeles Times, CNET, PandoDaily, Ubergizmo, Engadget, YouTube Blog, The Next Web and AllThingsD

Mark Lee / Bloomberg:

Baidu To Share Revenue With Apple On China Iphone Search — Baidu Inc. (BIDU) said Apple Inc. (AAPL) will be entitled to a share of advertising sales after the Chinese company's search-engine was added as part of a software upgrade for iPhones in China. — The revenue-sharing agreement …

More: TUAW, SlashGear, PadGadget, Macgasm, WebProNews, 9to5Mac, AllThingsD, Pulse2 Technology …, Search Engine Land, MacNN and iClarified

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Cloud Wars: Amazon Web Services cuts premium support prices, adds new features — Amazon Web Services this morning announced a series of changes in its support plans, aiming to make its cloud computing and storage more attractive to companies and software developers in an increasingly competitive market …

More: BetaNews, ZDNet, WebProNews, VentureBeat, Amazon.com, GigaOM and TechFlash

Dong Ngo / CNET:

WD joins networking big time with My Net router family — WD shows off the My Net N900 HD router's Web interface at launch. — (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET) — Once in a while there's a big change, and Western Digital is having one of its own. — The major storage vendor today unveiled …

More: Ars Technica, AllThingsD, Computerworld, WebProNews, Forbes, Pulse2 Technology …, Macgasm, FT Blogs, SlashGear, Mashable!, DSLreports, Digits, The Verge and Engadget

Krishna Panicker / The Big Blog:

Skype 5.8 for Mac: Your Contact List Just Got Slimmer, While Video Calls with Mobile Users and Group Screen Sharing Got Even Better. — Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of Skype 5.8 for Mac. With this update we're improving the usability of the Skype for Mac client, while also delivering a bunch of new features.

More: Skype Garage, GigaOM, Pulse2 Technology …, TUAW, iPhone, Engadget, AppleTell, Lifehacker, MacStories, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, The Next Web, Apple Bitch, The Verge and 9to5Mac

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Switchcam Raises $1.2 Million From Mark Cuban, 500 Startups, Turner Media Camp, And Others — San Francisco-based startup Switchcam has created technology that combines videos from multiple sources and allows users to watch concerts, political rallies, conferences, and other events from multiple different points of view.

More: CNET, BetaKit and PandoDaily

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