Sparrow and Google  —  We're excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!  We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.  Now we're joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision …

“Yes, Keep Moving”: Marissa Mayer's First Memo to Yahoos (Natch!)  —  While I might abandon my internal memo-quest at Yahoo at some point soon, I wanted to make sure to post the very first one from newly installed — and extraordinarily well-paid — CEO Marissa Mayer.

v1  —  As betaworks and Digg both announced on their blogs, we are taking over Digg and turning it back into a startup.  What they didn't mention is that we're rebuilding it from scratch.  In six weeks.  —  On August 1, after an adrenaline and caffeine-fueled six weeks, we're rolling out a new v1.

Viacom Is Said To Get Over $600 Million A Year From DirecTV  —  Viacom Inc. (VIAB) will get more than $600 million a year from DirecTV (DTV) in programming fees under their new seven-year agreement, up at least 20 percent from the previous terms, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously  —  In a future conflict, an adversary unable to match our military supremacy on the battlefield might seek to exploit our computer vulnerabilities here at home.  —  Last month I convened an emergency meeting of my cabinet and top homeland security, intelligence and defense officials.

Kleiner Loses Pao Ruling And Opts For Another Year Of Everyone Talking About This Sex Scandal  —  As expected, Judge Harold Kahn has denied a motion by Kleiner Perkins to compel arbitration in a lawsuit filed by one of its partners, Ellen Pao, for gender discrimination and retaliation.

Kayak shares pop 14% to $30.10 in first trade (and climbing), online travel firm valued at $1b+ in IPO  —  The stock of online travel site Kayak.com just commenced trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol KYAK.  At its public debut, the share price promptly soared more than 14 percent to $30.10 …

Lenovo CEO distributes $3 million personal bonus to production-line workers, other junior-level employees  —  After Lenovo posted extremely healthy financials back in May, it provided CEO Yang Yuanqing with a $3 million bonus for doing such a good job.  There's nothing particularly notable …

Rocket Internet's New Site Reveals A Huge Global Cloning Operation In Full Flow  —  Rocket Internet, the secretive incubator vehicle and some-time clone factory piloted by the billionaire Samwer Brothers out of Berlin, is all of a sudden becoming more open about its activities.

Facebook acquires talent behind iOS and Mac developer Acrylic, makers of Wallet and RSS reader Pulp  —  The Mac development house Acrylic has announced that they have been acqui-hired by Facebook.  Acrylic's Dustin Macdonald shared a statement on the company's blog.

Samsung Preparing To Reveal “Newest Galaxy Device” On August 15  —  Here's a little something to get the ol' rumor mill churning before the weekend — Samsung has just sent out a save-the-date email for a “major” product announcement on August 15.  Samsung goes on to say that the company will unveil its …

Apple's new iPad launches in China with short queues and no chaos  —  Apple product launches in China are renowned for being chaotic and rowdy but today the company began selling its new iPad in the country under rather unusual circumstances.  Instead of being greeted by massive queues …

Exclusive: Comcast Prepping 305 Mbps Tier - To Counter Verizon's New Quantum FiOS Offerings  —  Last month Verizon raised the bar for residential broadband (and high prices) when they announced their new Quantum FiOS tiers, which included a new top shelf 300 Mbps downstream, 65 Mbps upstream tier for $205 a month.

Nasdaq to Release Compensation Plan for Investors Hurt by Facebook IPO Mess  —  Nasdaq is looking to release next week the compensation plan for investors who lost out on the bungled IPO of Facebook, FOX Business has learned.  —  Sources say the deal being discussed will be all in cash …

Fred Wilson is wrong about “Free”  —  Fred Wilson is one the smartest, most genuine people in the tech business.  He has a huge fan club that he has earned by being radically transparent and consistently engaging in public debate.  I have emailed with him a few times over the years …

Amazon Prime streaming library grows again with Warner Bros. TV shows  —  Say what you will about Amazon's complimentary Prime streaming video library, but at least its selection is consistently growing.  —  Amazon has forged a new licensing agreement with Warner Bros. to bring several …

Where's Azure, and 4 other takeaways from Microsoft's earnings  —  For all of Microsoft's huge investment in the Azure cloud computing platform, there was scarcely mention of the multi-billion-effort on Thursday's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2012 earnings call.  Here are the top five takeaways from the call.