Techmeme
February 5, 2013, 12:40 PM

Top News

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:
Dell in $24 Billion Deal to Go Private  —  Dell announced Tuesday that it had agreed to go private in a $24 billion deal led by its founder and the investment firm Silver Lake, in the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis.  —  Under the terms of the deal, the buyers' consortium …
Dell, Inc.:
Dell Enters Into Agreement to Be Acquired By Michael Dell and Silver Lake  — Transaction implies a 37 percent premium over the average closing share price during the previous 90 calendar days ending Jan. 11, 2013  —  Dell Inc. today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement under …
Microsoft:
Microsoft Statement on Loan to Support Dell Privatization  —  “Microsoft has provided a $2 billion loan to the group that has proposed to take Dell private.  Microsoft is committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Will Microsoft's $2 billion role in Dell's buyout play out like its Nokia partnership?  —  Summary: If Microsoft's $2 billion loan to Dell plays out the same way its Nokia deal has, other PC makers may have less to fear than they initially might expect.  —  One of the worst-kept secrets …
MarketWatch:
HP Issues Statement on Dell's Leveraged Buyout Plan  —  HP today issued the following statement related to Dell's announcement to enter into an agreement to be acquired by Michael Dell and Silver Lake: “Dell has a very tough road ahead.  The company faces an extended period of uncertainty …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
‘Radio Buy Buttons’ found in iOS 6.1 via newly jailbroken iPads, could mean new functionality coming  —  ‘Radio Buy’ buttons, above, enlarged, put together from files, below  —  Having a look around our newly jailbroken iPads with iFunBox, we happened on a new set of files in the iPad Music.app.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Ouya console will be sold at Best Buy, Target, and Gamestop for $99.99 in June  —  Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman has announced the first details of retail availability for the Android-powered games console.  If you missed out on Ouya's successful Kickstarter campaign and wanted to pick one up in stores …
Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
Twitter Makes Big Acquisition, Buys Social TV Analytics Company Bluefin Labs  —  Twitter has acquired Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company that was founded in 2008, sources say.  Although we don't know the exact acquisition price, we were told this is Twitter's biggest acquisition to date.
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Amazon launches new ‘Coins’ virtual currency for Kindle Fire app purchases, coming to the US in May  —  Intent on helping app developers gain more money from their Appstore submissions, Amazon today announced the launch of ‘Amazon Coins,’ a new virtual currency that will allow Kindle Fire owners …
Douglas MacMillan / Bloomberg:
Facebook Is Said to Create Mobile Location-Tracking App  —  Facebook Inc. (FB) is developing a smartphone application that will track the location of users, two people with knowledge of the matter said, bolstering efforts to benefit from growing use of social media on mobile computers.
Ryan Gallagher / Slate:
The Threat of Silence  —  Meet the groundbreaking new encryption app set to revolutionize privacy and freak out the feds.  —  For the past few months, some of the world's leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention.  Today, they've decided it's time to tell all.
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:
HTC M7 to ditch megapixels in favour of Ultrapixels  —  HTC is to use a new camera sensor on its much-rumoured HTC M7?smartphone, Pocket-lint can confirm, which will use what the company calls Ultrapixels.  —  Although rumours have suggested the new smartphone will use a 13-megapixel sensor …
Ken Yeung / The Next Web:
Cloud storage service Box launches Partner Network to push into new markets and verticals, as it closes in on an IPO  —  File-sharing service Box has announced the creation of its Partner Network, a service that is the formalization of the company's three major tenets of partnering: alliances, channel, and platform.
More: TechCrunch, GigaOM and ZDNet
Michael Carney / PandoDaily:
Viddy CEO Brett O'Brien is out, rumors of a declined Twitter deal swirl  —  Viddy co-founder and CEO Brett O'Brien will no longer be involved in the company's day to day operations, and the search is underway for a new chief executive with more product and content monetization experience.
Om Malik:
Evolution of a Founder: Lessons I have learned  —  Being a startup founder is hard, tough, frustrating and rewarding - possibly all within the space of a nanosecond.  And yet, it is like a high none other.  I have experienced it in others.  And quietly, I have lived it for over six years.
More: ventureburnTweets: @emilychangtv
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix delayed until March or April  —  Lenovo's versatile ThinkPad Helix was one of the more impressive convertible laptops we saw at CES 2013, but there's some bad news for those holding out for its mooted February release date.  Responding to a question on the company's Facebook page …
Steven Millward / Tech in Asia:
Report: Qihoo's iOS Apps Under Special Investigation by Apple  —  Still banned by Apple: the 360 Browser HD for iPad.  —  At the start of last week, all the 20+ iOS apps made by Chinese software company and search engine Qihoo (NYSE:QIHU) vanished from Apple's App Store - and they still haven't been restored.

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