Latest Posts

News Byte

Next Up to Investigate Google’s Competitive Practices: Canada

Here’s some late-on-a-Friday regulatory news for you: Canada’s Competition Bureau will investigate Google’s Canadian business operations, according to the Financial Post. Google confirmed the investigation, while Canada declined comment. Earlier this year, Google was largely cleared in a U.S. antitrust examination, and it is currently testing remedies in Europe.

Voices

DirecTV Consider Bid for Hulu

DirecTV is weighing a potential bid for Hulu, the latest company to show interest in the six-year-old video site, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Time Machine! Tumblr’s David Karp in 2007, Age 21.

Back when he was 21, had 75,000 users and was raising $750,000.
Tumblr David Karp Wallstrip

Tableau and Marketo Create Whopping Piles of Money With IPO Debuts

NEA’s $29 million stake in Tableau is now worth $955 million and change.
istockphoto_581154-pile-of-money

Amazon Kills Zombies, Keeps John Goodman as It Plans First Season of Web Series

Amazon starts ordering its first set of TV series. It says you helped them decide.
amazon_zombieland

News Byte

April Was a Loser for Videogame Industry

April was a cruel month indeed for the videogame industry. Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. for the month peaked at $495.2 million, according to sales data from research firm NPD, down 25 percent from the same period in 2012. Retail software sales declined 17 percent year over year to $254.3 million. Hardware sales plummeted 42 percent from the year prior to $109.5 million. The top console for the month? Microsoft’s Xbox 360, though it sold just 130,000 units in April, down 45 percent from a year earlier.

Voices

Tesla Has a Fresh $1 Billion — And Lots of Ways to Spend It

Tesla Motors Inc. just raised about $1 billion in new capital, riding a remarkable burst of investor exuberance. New Tesla shareholders will now get to see just how fast the auto business gobbles up money.

News Byte

NYT Digital Head Joins EA Board of Directors

Game giant Electronic Arts announced Friday that Denise F. Warren, head of digital products and services at the New York Times, will join its board of directors. Warren replaces outgoing board member Greg Maffei, who sat as a director for a decade (his departure, according to EA, is due to his commitments with Liberty Media, where he is CEO). Before taking over digital products, Warren was the NYT media group’s general manager and chief advertising officer.

This High-Tech Backpack Is Mapping the Remotest Corners for Google (Video)

Google uses a 42-pound backpack with 15 cameras to capture areas its picture-taking cars can’t go.
Google map treadmill

AOL’s Patch Gets New CEO, as Just Under Three Percent of Staff Is Laid Off in Consolidation (Memo)

The hyperlocal content efforts gets trimmed in profit push and a new leader too.
patch_logo

Co-Founder Yat Siu on Animoca’s Big Menu of “Fast Food” Mobile Games

With more than 350 games, Animoca is all about quantity, and its co-founder says being based away from Silicon Valley helps.
Pretty Pet Salon is one of the more popular games Animoca has published, and started a "Pretty Pet" franchise.

Bloomberg Names Former IBM CEO Palmisano to Advise on Data Privacy

But will there be an audit?
ibm_palmisano

Meta Wants to Become the Next Augmented-Reality Glasses Phenom

Meta wearers can interact with virtual games, architectural renderings and other 3-D objects by using their hands.
meta headset front on

Voices

Day Traders Steer Tesla Higher

For weeks, Anne-Marie Baiynd kept a close eye on shares of Tesla Motors Inc. On May 9, a day after the company posted its first-ever quarterly profit, the stock exploded higher in heavy trading. Ms. Baiynd, a full-time short-term trader since 2006, pounced.