international

Yahoo Starts Making Wish List, as Asian Deal Huffs to Finish Line and Board Changes Readied

Kara Swisher in News on February 6 at 5:45 am PT

Here’s a big, honking update on the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s various machinations for you!

Japan’s Rakuten Set to Challenge Amazon With Help From Kobo

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 27 at 11:40 am PT

Who is Amazon’s biggest competitor? It may be a Japanese-based company you’ve never heard of.

Airbnb’s Skyrocketing Growth Includes Four Million Nights Booked in 2011

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 26 at 6:00 am PT

Travelers have used Airbnb to book a total of five million guest nights over the past four years, staying in spare bedrooms and empty homes around the world.

Zynga Confirms It Is Seeking Partners for Online Gambling Initiatives

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 20 at 6:00 am PT

Operating the largest poker game on Facebook is not enough — Zynga has confirmed that it is exploring the prospects for real-money gambling, and is in active talks with several partners.

News Byte

Intuit’s GoPayment Mobile Credit-Card Reader Beats Square’s into Canada

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 9 at 7:00 pm PT

Intuit will soon launch its mobile credit-card reader in Canada, beating the well-funded-and-recognized Square to the market. Both companies distribute devices that allow small-scale merchants to accept credit cards on a cellphone or tablet; so far, Square only operates in the U.S. Intuit, the publicly held company that sells other small-business resources, such as QuickBooks, said its GoPayment device will be available in Canada early this year; it plans to push into other international markets in the future.

TripAdvisor CEO Says Wall Street Underestimates Its Value Now That It’s Flying Solo

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 9 at 6:00 am PT

TripAdvisor’s co-founder and CEO Stephen Kaufer talks to AllThingsD about the media company’s prospects for growth now that it has broken off from Expedia and is an independently traded company.

IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering

Kara Swisher in Media on January 6 at 4:36 pm PT

Let the Hunger, oops, PR games begin!

Facebook-Pokes-Its-IPO-and-Delays-Going-Public-Until-Late-2012

VeriFone’s CEO Explains Why It Spent $1 Billion on Acquisitions for a New Payments Strategy

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on November 30, 2011 at 7:00 am PT

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.