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AllThingsD contains an archive of columns by Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret from The Wall Street Journal dating back to 2005.
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News Byte
Oracle Buys Social Media and Customer Engagement Player Vitrue
Oracle said today that it will acquire Vitrue, a privately held social media engagement platform company, based in Atlanta. The company manages more than 1.3 billion social interactions across more than 500 brands. Its customers include McDonald’s, NBC, Yahoo and Ikea. Financial terms are not being disclosed, but a report on TechCrunch has pegged the price at $300 million.
SAP Enhances Its Cloud by Acquiring Ariba for $4.3 Billion
The deal is SAP’s second of similar size in recent memory. The first one unleashed a series a deals by rivals Oracle and Salesforce.com.
100 Most Valuable Brands: Apple Tops Again; Nokia Disappears
The tech industry dominates Millward Brown’s annual survey.
Nokia Hopes Pair of Cheap Phones Will Help Regain Some Ground in Emerging Markets
The Nokia 110 and 112 both promise basic Internet access, free games, and connections to Facebook and Twitter, for under 40 euros.
Stalking the Elusive Cord-Cutter: Pay TV Grew Last Quarter (Again)
It’s easier than ever to get what you want to watch without paying for TV. But you’re still doing it.
HootSuite Adds Industrial-Strength Social Media for Corporate Teams
It used to be that the social media department at any given company was one person with a Twitter account. Now there are teams of dozens. HootSuite wants their business.
Voices
SAP Backs Outlook as Profit Rises
SAP AG Wednesday reiterated its outlook for double-digit revenue growth in the full year as the world’s largest business-management software maker reported a 10 percent rise in net profit despite weak sales in North America and some European markets.Bombs Away! Web Ads Miss Their Target, All the Time.
The Internet is supposed to give advertisers pinpoint accuracy. But they’re still throwing away half their money.
Spotify Says It Goes Better With Coke (Updated)
No iPad app, though.
Facebook Not Sleepless in Seattle
Now that the ribbon has been cut and the finger sandwiches have been devoured, Facebook’s new Seattle office is open for business.
Turf War in SOMA: Klout vs. Kred
Klout and Kred, which both measure social influence, have a lot in common — including the location of their offices in the same old shoe warehouse in San Francisco’s trendy tech district.
Demand Media Adds a Dash of Social to Its Ads, With Help From Facebook and Twitter
Demand competes with Mark Zuckerberg for ad dollars. But it can also use his service to give itself a boost.
Nokia’s Strategy Comes Into Focus in Barcelona
At an event in Barcelona, Nokia adds a new low-end Lumia 610 and the 808 Pure View, a Symbian smartphone with an impressive 41-megapixel camera.
Resonate Raises $22 Million for “Values” Ads
Ad tech firm Resonate has a simple pitch: It says it can figure out what different groups of Internet users care about, and where to find them on the Web.
Netflix, Whitney Houston and the Great Streaming Video Outrage That Didn’t Happen
That story about an evil Hollywood studio pulling “The Bodyguard” away from Netflix, so it could sell more DVDs? “Completely bogus.”
Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay
Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.
SAP Names New Marketing VP, One With a History
SAP’s new senior vice president for marketing was once the central figure in a full-blown ad-industry scandal.
Where Did Nine Million Cable Subscribers Go?
According to a new Deloitte survey, a staggering nine percent of the population say they cut the cord recently. Say what?
Seven Questions for Mike Gregoire, CEO of Taleo
In the wake of SAP’s $3.4 billion deal to acquire SuccessFactors, rival Taleo is suddenly the company everyone is talking about.
After SAP-SuccessFactors Deal, the Cloud Is a Different Place
Mainstream enterprise software companies like SAP and Oracle have finally acknowledged that the shift to the cloud is real.
SAP to Acquire SuccessFactors for $3.4 Billion
Having promised to get serious about cloud-based applications, software giant SAP has just acquired one of the more successful up-and-coming cloud companies out there.
VeriFone’s CEO Explains Why It Spent $1 Billion on Acquisitions for a New Payments Strategy
CEO Doug Bergeron says VeriFone has spent more than $1 billion in acquisitions to take advantage of emerging technologies, such as mobile payments, on a global basis.
NetSuite Sales Surge, Making for a Good Day in the Cloud
After reporting record-setting quarterly results, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson talks about the the state of the cloud business and what he likes about competing with SAP.
Seven Questions for SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott
SAP’s co-CEO talks about extending into the cloud and working with the uncertainty of the European debt crisis.
Thoughts on the First Day of Apple’s Era Without Jobs
Today Apple faces its first full day without Steve Jobs. His greatest legacy may be the potential that still lies ahead.
