iLike

PaperKarma’s Mobile App Tries to Eliminate Junk From Your Mailbox

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 8 at 10:58 pm PT

PaperKarma is a new app that helps you reduce the amount of unwanted coupons, catalogs and postcards that clog your mailbox.

Facebook Acquires Mobile Advertising Company Out of Stealth Mode

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 25, 2011 at 9:26 am PT

Facebook has acquired Rel8tion and the employees of the nine-month-old Seattle-based start-up, which has been working under the radar to develop a hyper-local mobile advertising service.

Why Digital Music Is a Terrible Business That Google Should Embrace

Peter Kafka in Media on June 22, 2010 at 6:00 am PT

Digital music is a lousy business. Almost everyone who tries it loses money, and even mighty Apple says its iTunes Store is basically a break-even proposition. But if Google does it right, it makes perfect sense for the search giant to jump in anyway.

Google Plans Music Service Tied to Search Engine

Scott Morrison, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on June 22, 2010 at 12:00 am PT

Google Inc. is preparing to roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online subscription service in 2011, according to people familiar with the Internet giant’s discussions with the music industry.

As BoomTown Said: Partovi Brothers Finally Leave MySpace (Here Are the Internal Memos)

Kara Swisher in News on April 20, 2010 at 5:22 pm PT

Well-known tech entrepreneurs and twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi are leaving MySpace, in a high-profile departure for the struggling social networking company. Internal memos were sent around to staff this afternoon about the departure, said sources, which you can see after the jump. The fate of the well-known tech wunderkinds has been one of the more interesting guessing games of late at MySpace. MySpace execs have been keenly interested in avoiding the appearance that the company is in the grip of a talent drain, especially related to such high-profile innovators.

MySpace Musical Chairs: Will the Partovis Stay or Will They Go Now?

Kara Swisher in News on March 11, 2010 at 11:11 pm PT

While there have surely been a lot of departures of talent at MySpace over the last year–including two major shifts in top management–one of the more interesting guessing games of late concerning the social networking company has been over the fate of well-known tech wunderkinds Hadi and Ali Partovi. According to many sources inside and outside MySpace, that’s just the discussion the pair of serial entrepreneurs has been having with the company’s newest leaders. How it turns out, though, is unclear.

MySpace and News Corp. Eye Flixster (But for What?)

Kara Swisher in News on December 14, 2009 at 5:12 pm PT

Now that the digital equivalent of a super-vac, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, has sucked up some decent music start-ups–Imeem and iLike–for a song, to bolster the social networking site’s efforts to expand into an entertainment portal, what’s next? According to several sources, the News Corp. unit has turned its omnivorous attentions to Flixster, the popular social networking site for movies. Whether this is an acquisition or more of a larger partnership deal with News Corp. digital entertainment sites is unclear. Several sources said a purchase was a possibility, while others talked about a more complex deal that did not necessarily mean a purchase.

Lala’s Fire Sale That Wasn’t: What Apple Really Paid

Peter Kafka in Media on December 7, 2009 at 10:49 am PT

On Friday, I reported that Apple was buying Lala at a fire-sale price, which meant that investors in the music service wouldn’t get their money. I was wrong. Apple ended up paying around $80 million for the company, according to multiple sources. That’s less than half what investors valued the company at in 2008, but it’s more than the $35 million the company raised throughout its life. Which means that some investors could get their money back and more.

Confirmed: MySpace Looking to Buy Imeem

Peter Kafka in Media on November 17, 2009 at 6:07 am PT

Going, going, gone: The last of the Web 2.0 music services are dwindling away. The latest is Imeem, which is in the process of being purchased by MySpace, I’ve confirmed. Haven’t heard a price yet, but I wouldn’t expect much, given that this deal, like the iLike purchase MySpace made earlier this year, is an “acqhire”–News Corp.’s social network/portal wants to buy Imeem for its “sales team, engineering, Snocap and other Imeem IP,” a person familiar with the transaction tells me.