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Italy 
36 posts and columns on Italy
Apple Fined $1.2 Million in Italy Over AppleCare Warranties
“Unfair commercial practices.”
News Byte
Ngmoco Hires Former Mattel Exec to Head Up Marketing
Following the recent appointment of a new COO, San Francisco-based Ngmoco continues to fill out its executive team. It has hired Michael Staskin as CMO to lead global marketing and communications, including the launch of Mobage, a mobile games platform. Previously, Staskin was VP of Marketing at Sisal, a gaming and lottery company in Italy; before that, he held several positions for Mattel. He will be based in San Francisco.Samsung to Seek Ban on Apple iPhone 4S in France, Italy
Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it would try to stop the sale of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S in France and Italy, aiming to use the product’s rollout as leverage against Apple in a broader fight over the design of smartphones and tablet computers.Where in the World Is Yahoo’s Carol Bartz? (Here’s the Internal Memo GPS!)
With its annual meeting this coming Thursday, you’d think Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz would be taking a rest. Not so! She has been a regular Carmen Sandiego, in fact, jetting to Yahoo hotspots around the globe from Dubai to Milan to New York and then back to Yahoo’s Sunnyvale HQ.
News Byte
Kobo Opens New Chapter in Europe
Toronto-based Kobo, the e-reading service going up against Amazon, Apple and others, is expanding into Europe. It plans to launch local content versions starting in Germany and Spain in May, and then expand to France, Italy and the Netherlands. Kobo, which isn’t focused on selling hardware, turned one in December and has sold millions of e-books in at least 100 countries.Telecom Italia to Shuffle Key Roles
Telecom Italia SpA’s controlling shareholders have agreed to a reshuffle at the helm of Italy’s largest phone operator that will see Chief Executive Franco Bernabe moving to the role of executive chairman at the end of his mandate, with a new chief executive, Marco Patuano, to focus on turning around Italian operations, people familiar with the situation said Sunday.
News Byte
Spanish Private-Sales Site Privalia Expands to Germany Via Acquisition
The online private-sales retailer Privalia, which operates in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico, is buying Germany’s Dress for Less. Reuters said that according to its sources, Privalia paid between $210 million and $280 million. On Monday, Privalia raised roughly $123 million from private equity firms General Atlantic, Highland Capital Partners, Index Ventures and Insight Venture Partners to fund the transaction, which also included debt and shares. Together, Privalia is forecasting that they will achieve triple-digit revenue growth this year to around 400 million euros. In December, eBay purchased Germany-based brands4friends for $200 million.News Byte
LivingSocial Acquires Stake in Europe's Let's Bonus
LivingSocial has acquired a majority stake in Let’s Bonus, which operates a daily deals site in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico. With the stake, LivingSocial now offers steep discounts via email for spas, restaurants and other services in more than 170 markets, serving 16 million subscribers in 10 countries, compared to its archrival, Groupon, which serves 50 million subscribers in 40 countries. LivingSocial did not disclose how much it paid or how big of a stake it purchased. The company recently raised more than $180 million in capital from Amazon and others.Nielsen: Young People Across The Globe Love Their Cell Phones (But Use Them Differently)
According to a a new report, China is the biggest spot for the mobile Internet, with 73 percent of Chinese youths age 15 to 24 citing mobile Internet usage as among the things they used their cell phones for in the past month. That compares to less than half of American and British young people and less than a quarter of those in the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, young women in most countries were more likely than males to send text or picture messages, although the opposite was true in India, China and Brazil.
Amazon: It Was Our Hardware, Not Hackers, That Brought Us Down
Amazon’s 30-minute European outage was caused by hardware failure, not another attack by hackers.