Techmeme
April 25, 2014, 7:25 AM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Google+ to become more a platform than product, with key staff members moving to Android team, and fewer product integrations  —  Google+ Is Walking Dead  —  Today, Google's Vic Gundotra announced that he would be leaving the company after eight years.  The first obvious question …
Re/code:
Google+ head Vic Gundotra to leave company after 8 years, with VP of engineering David Besbris replacing him  —  Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company  —  Vic Gundotra, who aggressively led Google into the social world with the creation of Google+, is leaving the company.
Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:
Focusing on single-purpose social apps could be the key to Google's social future  —  What Would Happen If Google Really Did Kill Google+?  —  News is leaking out that Google might be planning to kill Google+, or at least put it into a Walking Dead-like “zombie” mode, as TechCrunch characterizes it — and something Google denies.
Suzanne Choney / Microsoft Corporation:
Microsoft, Nokia Devices and Services business aim to remake mobile market  —  The completion of the Nokia Devices and Services business acquisition April 25 will enable Microsoft to accelerate its share of smartphones and feature phones in developed and emerging markets, and increase its role as a devices and services company.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft morphs into a hardware giant with Nokia deal completion  —  Microsoft is no longer just a software giant, it's now a hardware giant.  —  Nearly eight months after its original announcement, Microsoft has completed its deal to purchase Nokia's devices and services unit today.
Jennifer Khoury / Comcast Voices Blog:
Comcast: Neflix degraded its Comcast streams, seeks to shift its costs onto all Internet users  —  Comcast Response to Netflix  —  Netflix's argument is a House of Cards.  But there is no need for us to engage in a point-counterpoint with Netflix to demonstrate the continued distortions and inaccuracies on which it relies.
Ken Florance / Netflix US & Canada Blog:
Dan Levine / Reuters:
Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe agree to pay $324M to settle hiring conspiracy lawsuit  —  Exclusive: Apple, Google agree to pay over $300 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit  —  (Reuters) - Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle …
Tom Wheeler / Official FCC Blog:
Ina Fried / Re/code:
CEO Nadella Promises Microsoft Will Deliver “Courage in the Face of Reality”  —  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised his company's recent efforts to both grow where it is strong, but also to bulk up in areas where it has been weaker.  —  “I sum up this quarter in two words, execution and transition,” Nadella said.
Microsoft:
TechCrunch:
Pinterest Hits 30 Billion Total Pins, Up 50% In 6 Months  —  Tonight at an event in the company's San Francisco headquarters, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann announced that users had contributed more than 30 billion Pins since the service was founded, a number that has grown by nearly 50 percent in the past six months alone.
Amazon:
Lorraine Luk / Wall Street Journal:
Foxconn Sells Communications Technology Patents to Google  —  Foxconn, Also Known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Has a Sizable Patent Portfolio.  —  HONG KONG—Foxconn, which assembles gadgets for companies such as Apple Inc., said it has sold a number of its communications technology patents to Google Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
More than a social network: Facebook aims to be the source for breaking news  —  Facebook has always been filled with “news,” just not the kind you'd find in a daily newspaper.  —  Recently, however, Facebook had made several moves to shift the content of your News Feed towards hard news …

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