England

Will That Be Sir Jonathan, or Sir Jony?

Arik Hesseldahl in News on December 30, 2011 at 7:49 pm PT

Apple’s design guru Jonathan Ive is to be knighted by the Queen of England.

Viral Video: Google Street View Address Is Approximately a Hit

Kara Swisher in Media on December 6, 2011 at 12:20 am PT

This simple Web video shows how good the genre can be. Also, it’s pretty.

Britain’s First Software Billionaire Now Reports to HP CEO Meg Whitman

Arik Hesseldahl in News on October 3, 2011 at 2:58 pm PT

Hewlett-Packard closes on its $11.7 billion deal to acquire the British software firm Autonomy. Now the question is whether it can make it pay off.

Tick, Tick, Tick, HP Board: The Time to Act Is Today

Kara Swisher in News on September 22, 2011 at 3:15 am PT

As Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker twists painfully in the wind, it’s up to its directors to move quickly to end the latest crisis at the Silicon Valley tech giant.

Google Confirms That Groupon COO Will Be Google's Margo Georgiadis

Kara Swisher in News on April 21, 2011 at 11:14 am PT

Margo Georgiadis, VP of Global Sales Operations at Google, will be COO of Groupon, Google confirmed. She is currently located in Chicago, where the social buying site is headquartered. Besides COO, BoomTown will officially bestow the title of “Chief Cat Wrangler” on her in recognition of the massive organizational job ahead of her at the notoriously chaotic start-up.

RockYou Acquires Playdemic for Bigger Push Into Social Games

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 13, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

RockYou has acquired Playdemic of Manchester, England, to continue its transformation from a widget-maker on Facebook to a social games developer.

Google Buys Phonetic Arts to Make Machines Sound Human

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on December 3, 2010 at 2:06 pm PT

Google is beefing up its voice services with today’s acquisition of Cambridge, England-based Phonetic Arts. Google’s view is that voice will be critical going forward to making mobile devices with small screens and keyboards more useful.

Microsoft of Arabia? If Windows Phone 7 Is as Freaky as This Ad, BoomTown Will Take One Now!

Kara Swisher in News on September 7, 2010 at 5:15 am PT

Cue the desert music, mix in some swirling dust and a mirage, use a Middle Eastern font and a mysterioso tagline of “The Revolution Is Coming,” and show it at a movie screening of “Lawrence of Arabia.” At least Microsoft will not be spending its badillions of advertising dollars on the launch of its Windows Phone 7–playing catch-up in the smartphone race–without some style.

News Byte

Casual Contestant Shatters Texting Speed Record

Voices in News on August 23, 2010 at 10:29 am PT

Melissa Thompson, 27, of Salford, England, was out shopping over the weekend when the folks at a Samsung booth persuaded her to have a go at texting the official 26-word sentence used in determining the Guinness World Record speed title. Despite proclaiming her fingers out of shape, Thompson took a Swype-equipped Samsung Galaxy S in hand, and when she was done, the existing record of 35.54 seconds–set earlier this year by Franklin Page of Seattle–lay in tatters. Thompson took just 25.94 seconds to type “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”

DST's Alexander Tamas Talks About New Investors, New Investments and Dealing With Troubling Russian Stereotypes

Kara Swisher in News on July 19, 2010 at 11:15 am PT

After Russia-based Internet investor Digital Sky Technologies got $388 million in a stock-swapping deal with South Africa media giant Naspers — coming after an earlier $300 million investment from China’s Internet behemoth Tencent — BoomTown dialed up DST partner Alexander Tamas in London to interview him about the implications. This developing international spiderweb of digital and media companies begged the question of what DST might do with all this new dough, especially since it has created quite a splash over the last year investing massive gobs of money in high-profile, social-focused U.S. Internet companies.

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