The new Galaxy device is set to be unveiled at 7 pm London time (11 am PT). AllThingsD will have live coverage of the announcement, which is also being webcast.

In the past, Samsung has announced its main Galaxy devices at Mobile World Congress; however, the company held back this year, saying it wanted to announce the product closer to when it would ship. A top Samsung marketing official also told AllThingsD in January that the company wanted to use the Olympics for a major product launch.

Samsung has since announced a quad-core chip expected to power the new Galaxy.

Earlier:
10:38 am: The live stream is slated to be available here.

11:00 am: Okay. Here are the key details on the Galaxy S III (and yes, that’s the name).

11:03 am: The device will be available in Europe at the end of May, with launches in other markets to follow.

Here’s a picture of the phone:

11:06 am: As for when it will come to the U.S., Samsung had this to say:

“Samsung Mobile is planning a U.S. version of Galaxy S III, optimized for the fastest LTE and HSPA+ networks in the U.S., which will be available in the summer of 2012. Exact timing and retail channel availability is not being announced at this time.”

11:09 am: Here’s a more direct link to the livestream.

11:10 am: Samsung’s JK Shin:

11:11 am: “There were a lot of rumors and speculations about the next Galaxy,” Shin said. “Some were right and some were wrong.” But, he said, Samsung Galaxy S III is the best in class.

Shin touts the quality of the screen and says the design is inspired by water and leaves.

The phone can listen to you and understand what you want. The screen can notice your eye movement and can stay bright when you are looking at it.

If you are texting and you want to call someone instead, Shin said, “it understands your intention to make a call and calls for you.”

Simply put, he said, Galaxy S III is a “human phone.”

11:15 am: It has more than 140 countries with more than 290 carriers, Shin said, making it the largest launch in history.

The 3G version, Shin said, will ship in May in Europe, followed by Asia, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The 4G version will ship first in North America, Japan and Korea starting in the summer.

11:18 am: Other features include direct wireless sharing to a television or other Galaxy device, tablet or PC.

The updated S-Beam feature can share a 1GB video in three minutes or a music file in two seconds, Samsung said.

11:23 am: A European Samsung executive is demoing the “smart stay” feature that avoids going to sleep or dimming the screen by detecting when a user is looking at the screen.

It is annoying to touch the screen to keep it awake, or even worse to have to enter a password, Samsung says. The Galaxys S III can instead determine when to dim the screen by sensing a user’s intentions.

11:25 am: Next up is voice recognition, which can be used to do things Apple’s Siri does, such as getting the weather, but also to launch apps.

“I want to take a picture,” for example, opens the camera app.

The voice engine understands British and American English, Italian, German, French, Spanish (Spain and Latin American versions) and Korean.

11:29 am: Samsung is pushing hard the notion that the new Galaxy is designed with the user in mind, repeating often that the new phone “sees, listens and responds.”

11:31 am: Now demoing improved social sharing features that allow users to, among other things, bond with another phone.

Under the hood, the new “S-Beam” feature combines Wi-Fi direct and NFC technologies.

“It’s the fastest and easiest way to share content with your friends and it happens with just one touch,” said the European Samsung executive.

11:33 am: An add-on dongle extends the sharing option to any HDMI-capable device.

11:33 am: Galaxy S III has a new “buddy” photo sharing feature that recognizes friends in your photos and offers to send them the photo.

11:37 am: Video showing the S3 in action, including its quad-core chip, intelligent photo taking and other features.

11:39 am: It comes in “pebble blue” and “marble white.”

Some other specs:

It’s 8.6 milimeters thick, weighs 133 grams and packs a 2,100 mAh battery.

11:41 am: A “pop-up play” feature allows one to watch a video in a small window while performing another task, such as searching the Web. It’s kind of picture-in-picture for your phone.

A “best photo” feature picks the best shot out of a burst of eight.

11:47 am: Now showing, the first TV commercial for S III.

Among other things, the commercial notes that the Galaxy S III “follows your every move.” Hmm, not sure that’s quite the way they want to put things.

11:49 am: Accessories include flip cover for the screen, wireless charging kit, extra battery and aformenentioned HDMI dongle.

11:52 am: Samsung says the Galaxy S III has improved security and other features for businesses, allowing for better device management.

Galaxy will come in three storage options — 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

Galaxy S III will go on sale in Europe on May 29.

11:57 am: Santa Clara-based Sensory Inc. says its voice activation technology is helping power the voice command features in the Galaxy S III.

12:00 pm: The presentation ends and those in London are invited to check out the phone in various booths designed to replicate the kind of pop-up stands where Samsung plans to show the device.

An invitation being sent to journalists offers few details on the product.

“Come and meet the next Galaxy,” reads the invite, which confirms the time and place of the launch.

Samsung has also been holding back a bit this year. Unlike in past years, Samsung didn’t have a big event at Mobile World Congress in February.

Instead, it said it would launch the successor to its Galaxy S II at an event later in the first half of the year.

Samsung marketing executive Younghee Lee had told AllThingsD in January that the company planned to use its Olympic partnership for a major product launch. Samsung is a global sponsor for the London games, as it was for the Vancouver Olympics.

One of the things the company signaled it was going to do with that money was make acquisitions. Today it announced its first: OneDrum, a British start-up that specializes in making Microsoft Office a lot more collaborative.

Financial terms aren’t being disclosed, and OneDrum is a pretty early-stage company with 10 employees and combined $2 million in capital raised, mainly from angels and Amadeus Capital Partners, a British VC firm. But, the deal is invariably going to be compared to a similar one announced last year by Yammer rival Jive for OfficSync.

I talked to Yammer CEO David Sacks about the deal earlier today and I asked him about the comparison. He said that one thing OneDrum does that OfficSync does not is a level of desktop synchronization that’s comparable in some ways with what you find with something like DropBox. And, it does so without the need for a plugin that might, he argues, mess up how Office runs and which can be difficult to deploy across an enterprise.

Basically, Yammer customers will be able to share and see the contents of the folders they share with other people via Yammer. Also, people can collaborate on Office documents live. Changes are tracked within the Yammer news feed and revisions are stored. Once you drag a document into your Yammer folders, the contents are instantly text searchable from within Yammer.

What OneDrum lacked, Sacks told me, was “a good front end to express the OneDrum technology,” which Yammer will readily provide.

“It is with great sadness that we confirm a BlackBerry employee was the victim of the fatal attack in Southwark on April 3rd,” RIM said in a statement to AllThingsD. “We are all shocked by this news and deeply saddened.”

According to a Reuters report, the man was stabbed with a broken bottle at the event on Tuesday.

British police identified the man killed as Phillip Sherriff, 37, and said that 25-year-old Ashley Charles was in custody in connection with the stabbing.

“We are deeply saddened to hear our colleague has died as a result of the attack on Tuesday 3rd April,” RIM said on its U.K. Twitter page. “Our thoughts are with his family and those close to him and we ask for the respect of their privacy at this difficult time.”

Shakil Khan, the well-known head of special projects for the popular Spotify music service, is taking a job with the same title at Path, the fast-growing personal social networking start-up.

Khan will be focusing on growth and international issues, and based out of London but with global duties. Path’s HQ is in San Francisco.

That’s important, since Path has been growing strongly outside its initial U.S. market, especially in Asia. In February, Path CEO Dave Morin announced that it had two million users.

In an interview last night, Khan said he will remain an adviser to Spotify’s CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek, noting that he is also an investor.

Interestingly, said many sources and also a number of reports, both Path and Spotify are in the midst of large funding rounds with hefty valuations.

In fact, Spotify is being valued at $4 billion, which was not the case when Khan came to the then-fledgling company in 2008. Taking up a job essentially as a kind of fix-it guy for Ek, he worked on a number of important initiatives, from gaining early user traction to hiring its early management to wrangling celebrities to use the service.

Khan said that he decided to leave Spotify, which has recently had a huge spurt of growth due to its recent integration on Facebook, because he has “always been a start-up guy.”

“I loved the days when people used to say, ‘What is that, how do you spell it,’” he said about Spotify. “I need those kind of butterflies, and Path is just that kind of amazing product with huge global potential.”

In an email, Path’s Morin said:

“We are beyond delighted that Shak has chosen to join the Path family as we continue our mission to build the first global personal network by helping people journal and share life with family and close friends. Shak brings a unique global perspective and skill set to Path which will help us reach and serve our members and partners across the globe in a uniquely personal way.”

And Ek, calling in from Sweden (where it is 80 degrees!), said that he was sad to see Khan go, and was also in his debt for his service to Spotify.

“I am kind of an introvert guy, and Shak is definition of social, so he was the link to the rest of the world in many ways for me and for the company,” said Ek. “So where he is going and what he will be doing at Path is perfect.”

Today, Big Blue closed its first acquisition of the Rometty era, announcing a deal to buy privately held Green Hat, a company that specializes in software for conducting quality tests on software applications for the cloud. It’s small enough that IBM didn’t disclose financial terms. Green Hat dates to 1996 and is based in London and Wilmington, Del. Its main stock in trade is to simplify the capital- and labor-intensive job of testing software applications by moving the entire process to the cloud. Once the deal closes, Green Hat will become part of IBM’s Rational Software business unit.

And if acquisitions weren’t enough, there have been some promotions too. As first reported by Bloomberg News, which obtained an internal memo, Rometty named Bruno Di Leo as senior vice president of sales and distribution and Bridget Van Kralingen as new senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, IBM’s consulting arm. Van Kralingen is replacing Frank Kern, who is retiring after 35 years at IBM.

Di Leo is a native of Peru, and joined IBM in 1975. His last job was running the high-profile growth markets unit, which specializes in business in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China. James Bramante was named as his replacement and will be based in Shanghai. The job is an important one as IBM has set a goal of boosting its revenue in these markets to 30 percent of sales by 2015.

Here’s a video I beg you not to miss, if you missed it last week in the holiday swirl. Made by a talented London production company called The Theory, using Google Street View, stop-action photography and a toy, it is titled “Address Is Approximate.”

There is nothing approximate about its success; the video has garnered many million of views since its recent debut and gained much notice for its makers.

Enjoy:

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

As we reported Wednesday, Oracle decided to slap Lynch silly with a public rebuke concerning his comments to The Wall Street Journal that his company had never been shopped to Oracle.

Always eager to clear up the record — just, well, you know, because — Oracle went on to publish the PowerPoint slides sent by investment banker Frank Quattrone of Qatalyst Partners to Mark Hurd in January. The slides may or may not have had anything to do with a meeting held by Lynch, Quattrone, Oracle President Mark Hurd and its head of M&A, Douglas Kehring, in April. Or not! You see, the stories vary.

(Oracle, by the way, has since taken down the slides, but you can still read them here. Update: And we’re now told the slides are back up. Interesting!)

But what about the email those slides arrived with originally? Well, a kindly source has sent it to us. Dated Jan. 26 — you can read it below — it was sent to Hurd by Quattrone (whose address I’ve deleted as a courtesy). Judge for yourself, but to me it sure reads like the windup to a sales pitch.

From: Frank Quattrone
Date: January 26, 2011 7:48:37 AM PST
To: “‘mark.hurd@oracle.com’”
Subject: Fw: Autonomy slides

Hi Mark,
It was great to catch up earlier this month. I wanted to follow up by sending the slides I promised on Autonomy. Given its strong position in managing unstructured data (such as video, voice and photos), “meaning based” contextual enterprise search, data protection, compliance, archiving and content/web management, I beleive it’s a very strategic asset that could alter the balance of power in the industry for whoever might acquire it. And despite its strong track record of growth and very high profitability (50 pct margins), it trades at less than 20x earnings and around 11x Ebitda, huge discounts to the other strategic software assets of scale. Please let me know if you would like me to follow up with you, Doug K or otherwise.
Thanks
Frank

And it was! At least the email part. Quattrone weighed in on the whole kerfuffle via an email to Lynch, which Lynch then shared with the Financial Times Alphaville blog:

“The slides Oracle posted publicly were sent by me to Mark Hurd in January, were prepared by Qatalyst and were for the purpose of our independently pitching Autonomy as an idea to Oracle. These slides were not used in our April meeting with Mark and Doug.”

So what of the meeting in April? Well, apparently it wasn’t a sales pitch at all. No, really. As Autonomy said in a statement also sent to the FT:

“In April 2011, there was a meeting for approximately thirty or forty minutes between Autonomy and Mark Hurd, which was set up by Frank Quattrone as an introduction to Mark Hurd. Oracle is an Autonomy customer. It was made clear that Autonomy was not for sale and no sale process was under way. Mr. Quattrone’s company was not engaged by Autonomy at that time. There has been no other contact with Oracle since then. …

“Qatalyst have informed us that the slides Oracle has recently posted on its website were prepared and sent independently by Qatalyst to Oracle on 26 January (the content is clearly from January). This is the first time we have seen them. Autonomy was not involved in this nor was Qatalyst engaged by Autonomy until mid-year. Autonomy did not present these slides in the meeting.

“Oracle seems a little confused about the sequence of events and origins of the data it has received, something that would suggests it needs better management of and insight into the unstructured data on its internal systems. We would be delighted to help.”

Oh, snap! At least Lynch is learning the art of the snarky retort. So the slides were the work of eager bankers trying to get a deal cooking. And the meeting was just a friendly call by Autonomy’s CEO on a customer? With an investment banker and another company’s head of M&A — two people who have collectively done more Silicon Valley deals than any other people in the world — joining in just for kicks? Okay then.

While this tit-for-tat seems like a mildly entertaining tempest in a teapot, it’s a $12 billion teapot! One about which HP shareholders still seem to have a lot of questions, especially in light of the management change that has gone on there since the deal was announced. Time, however, is short: HP is said to be about ready to close on the deal Monday.

Why is it so important to Lynch that the world believe that Autonomy was not shopping itself, and not engaging in any discussions about selling itself? Because laws in the U.K. about corporate acquisitions are very strict, for one thing. And companies engaging in discussions about being acquired without disclosing that fact to shareholders quickly find themselves in hot water with regulators! That means CEOs in the U.K. get ticklish on this subject very easily.

Of course, the first official public disclosure about Autonomy being in discussions to sell itself to anyone crossed the wires at 1:32 pm New York time on Aug. 18, which, by my watch, is about two minutes after markets had closed in London. The disclosure, however, came about an hour and change after Bloomberg News reported that a deal was near. About 90 minutes after Autonomy’s disclosure in London — and with 52 minutes left before the close of markets in New York — came HP’s confirming statement that it was “in discussions.” Then, just after markets closed in New York, the deal was done. That leaves plenty of room for people on both sides of the Atlantic to ask all kinds of fun questions. Anyway.

And as we all know, Oracle — whether in January or April — passed on the opportunity to bid on Autonomy, primarily because the price was, as CEO Larry Ellison put it on a conference call last week, “shockingly high” at about $6 billion. And four months later — or eight, depending on when you start counting — on Aug. 18, Hewlett-Packard announced its plans to acquire Autonomy at nearly twice that price.

So what was the purpose of the April meeting in Oracle’s board room in Redwood Shores? Was it really a “lively discussion about databases,” as Lynch has previously claimed? Or an innocent customer call during which two masters of tech M&A just happened to be in the room? We don’t know exactly.

But we do know one thing: Having first characterized Ellison’s description of the matter as “just inaccurate,” then copping to a previously undisclosed meeting of some kind, Lynch does know how to change his story.

Scotland Yard says it has nabbed two more people that it says are members of the group; one of them is said to be connected to crimes committed under cover of the online identity “Kayla.”

In a statement, police did not release the names of the two men arrested. They are aged 20 and 24, and one comes from the town of Mexborough, while the other comes from Warminster. The arrests were conducted in cooperation with local police and the FBI. In one case, a home was searched and computer equipment taken.

It was the second pair of arrests in as many days. On Thursday, police arrested two others as part of the growing worldwide investigation into the activities of LulzSec and Anonymous.

And yet the hacker crimes continue, seemingly unabated. Anonymous has dubbed today “Texas Takedown Thursday” or #TTT on Twitter. The target: Law enforcement agencies in the state of Texas, in apparent retaliation for the arrests earlier this summer of 16 people said to be associated with Anonymous.

The group says it has leaked about three gigabytes worth of email and other data from private email accounts it says belong to certain police officials in Texas. It also claimed credit for defacing a Web site belonging to the Texas Police Chiefs Association.

It’s the second such targeting of police officers in a particular state. In June, the group went after the Arizona State Police, posting home addresses of officers.

LulzSec and Anonymous, in their various contortions, have had a busy summer. The group and its sympathizers started out making Sony’s existence miserable, on the heels of an attack on the PlayStation network; the attack brought the network down for several weeks.

Margo Georgiadis (pictured here), 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.

A Google spokesman confirmed the move by Georgiadis, while Groupon–which specifically denied a query about her appointment that BoomTown made Tuesday–dithered.

In a statement, her boss, SVP and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said:

“I’m grateful for all that Margo has done for our team over the past two years. We will miss her, but we’re also very excited that she’s joining a terrific company and a great partner for Google.”

Besides COO, I will officially bestow the title of “Chief Cat Wrangler” on Georgiadis, for the massive organizational job ahead for her at the notoriously chaotic start-up. (As evidenced by Google being the company confirming a major Groupon hire.)

Still, Groupon’s growth had been stunning. It now has thousands of employees and has already washed out one COO, former Yahoo exec Rob Solomon, whose departure was reported here.

It has also turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, raised a badillion dollars in venture funding from tech’s top investors and also is prepping an IPO valuing the company at upwards of $15 billion.

Phew!

Georgiadis must bring calm to this perfect storm.

Because of her solid resume (see below) and quiet demeanor, I had included her in a list of candidates several weeks ago and had queried the social buying company about her specifically this week.

In fact, when I asked for a comment if Georgiadis was hired on Tuesday, a Groupon spokeswoman said: “This would be news to me. Nothing to announce yet.”

At the time, Google had the class to simply say “no comment.”

(Lesson learned!)

Crain’s Chicago Business’ John Pletz first posted on Georgiadis’ hiring earlier today.

In any case, Georgiadis is just the kind of candidate that Groupon has been looking for–a competent and experienced sales and operations exec who would not overshadow its quirky CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason.

As I wrote two weeks ago:

Lastly, and perhaps most important, the Groupon COO candidate is going to have to accept that the role will not be a CEO-in-waiting, either before or after its inevitable IPO in the next year.

While I have received several tips that co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason might not stay its principal exec, extensive checking with sources inside and outside the company indicate that such a move is highly unlikely.

“Andrew is beloved to the board, by investors and, most of all, by employees,” said one source. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Indeed, Mason has a close working relationship with co-founder Brad Keywell, as well as Groupon co-founder and Chairman Eric Lefkofsky.

In fact, despite other business interests, Lefkofsky has been very involved in all key decisions with Mason.

That job, presumably, would fall to the new COO, which Groupon should be hiring sooner rather than later.

“Groupon needs a world-class COO, who can manage hyper-growth, but also who knows that a No. 2 stays in the background while doing it,” said another source. “That’s a tall order.”

Groupon has looked at a number of top execs, most specificially at former DoubleClick and Google exec David Rosenblatt. Sources said the high-profile exec did not want to play second fiddle to Mason or move to Chicago.

That’s moot now. Here is Georgiadis’ bio at the Silicon Valley search giant, which shows why Groupon picked her:

Georgiadis is responsible for driving Google’s sales operations and strategies across regions, channels and products as well as leading the sales technology teams which enable the successful commercialization of Google’s products (e.g., AdWords, AdSense, display and mobile ads) with advertisers and publishers.

She also leads the company’s local and commerce businesses, working to extend services like Checkout, Google Places and commerce search to small and large businesses alike.

Before joining Google, Margo was a principal in Synetro Capital LLC, a private investment firm based in Chicago. She also spent five years as the executive vice president of card products and chief marketing officer of Discover Financial Services where she led a radical turnaround of business performance and revitalized its rewards leadership with award-winning new products, customer experience and marketing. Prior to Discover, Margo was a partner at McKinsey and Company for 15 years in London and Chicago. She was a leader in the firm’s marketing and retail practices, and also co-founded and led the customer acquisition and management and retail marketing practices.

She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nokia has already announced the key piece of its strategy–a shift to Windows Phone for future smartphones. Now the company is set to talk about the financial implications of that and go through the rest of its strategy, which includes a mix of Symbian and even a dash of MeeGo.

The investor event is scheduled to start shortly and due to run until about 2 pm London time. Mobilized will have live coverage, providing our battery holds out. I’ll try to mention only the high points, however. Mobilized loves numbers, but it is awfully early for a whole lot of financial speak, especially for the U.S. insomniacs tuning in.

12:02 pm: Still waiting for things to get going. But if you really want something to do, we have plenty of earlier coverage, including the press conference and the YouTube video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as well as a chat with Elop on how he made his big decision.

12:05 pm: Okay, things are getting going as Elop takes the stage (the same one as the earlier press conference.

12:06 pm: Elop is reviewing things. Lots of talk of both challenges and gems. If you read his memo, or anything else he’s said recently, you have heard this.

Battle of devices to war of ecosystems, etc. Mobilized has this part memorized.

12:09 pm: Smartphone strategy is just one piece.

Reviewing the three alternatives that Elop considered–MeeGo, Android or some partnership with Microsoft.

As for Google, Elop says it is the case there are some advantages for that approach.

“There’s something happening there. There’s no denying that.”

However, Elop says the company was worried it would be late and be just one of many, and was not sure how it could leverage assets like its Navteq location-based services.

“Our sense was differentiation could be a pretty big challenge,” Elop says. “The risk for commoditization would increase dramatically.”

Feels profit would have eventually moved to Google, with handsets becoming a commodity.

“It felt a little bit like giving up and not enough like fighting back,” Elop says.

12:12 pm: As for Microsoft, Elop says both companies are bringing something to the table.

As expected, Elop is characterizing this as more strategic than just taking a license to Windows Phone. Talking about Nokia services like mapping, local advertising and other things that Nokia can bring to the table.

“It’s far more interesting than a simple licensing deal,” Elop says. This was the only strategy that makes it a three horse race with Google and Apple.

Elop says he is convinced that Nokia will be able to differentiate within the Windows Phone ecosystem on a sustainable basis.

12:15 pm: There were some challenges and potential disadvantages, he acknowledges.

Top among these is the fact that Windows Phone 7 is new on the market.

“It’s early,” he says. “Will it succeed?”

12:17 pm: Also, there is the issue of being locked in or a lack of control. Elop does not disclose terms but says the company has flexibility and “substantial control” over the future of the ecosystem.

“This is not your mother’s OEM deal with Microsoft,” Elop says.

12:17 pm: Elop says the deal is at the “term sheet” stage, noting that the companies have yet to sign the “definitive agreement.”

12:18 pm: Already the engineers are working through, and Elop says this deal will allow Nokia to move far faster than it has in recent years.

12:18 pm: He’s also making the cost-saving argument, saying Nokia can focus its investment, which he acknowledges hasn’t been getting the return it should.

Elop earlier acknowledged that the company expects significant cost savings from the move as well as substantial workforce reductions.

“Bottom line: Products that are more competitive,” he says.

12:22 pm: Operators are excited by a third viable option, Elop says.

“A two-horse race is not a satisfactory [situation] for operators,” Elop says.

Elop says that Microsoft-Nokia will be operator-friendly, as compared with Google and Apple.

12:24 pm: Elop talking about differentiation–a key concern of analysts and investors.

Elop talks about Windows Phone as offering differentiation form Apple and Google, but also insisting that Nokia has the assets and business terms it needs to stand out from other Windows Phones. He focuses on camera technologies and “unique relationship.”

Stresses again that this is not a standard handset maker agreement. But he also says that just because Nokia can change lots of things within Windows Phone, doesn’t mean it should.

Nokia, he says, must “resist the temptation to customize just for the sake of customization.”

12:27 pm: Now talking about Symbian. For those that missed it, Elop reiterates this is a transition strategy, but adds that the company still expects to sell 150 million more Symbian devices before that transition is complete.

12:29 pm: Strategy is more than just smartphones. He wants the company to be a leading force in connecting the next billion people to the Internet via phones in emerging markets. “The market for feature phones is pushing down the price curve and that is an opportunity for Nokia.”

Nokia will do incremental work in that area–things like Nokia Money for people that don’t have a bank account or telephone. Another, Nokia Life Tools, helps connect, say, farmers to market information.

This area is still a target for innovation, he says, but it also faces competition from Chinese-made phones based on MediaTek chipsets.

Elop says that the company must also plan for the future so that it can be disruptive down the road. “As they say in Finland, it is time to shoot ahead of the duck,” he says.

That’s where MeeGo comes in–the mobile version of Linux that until recently was seen as Nokia’s future. Nokia said that team will ship a phone later this year and then see where the future is headed.

12:35 pm: Want to point out this New York Times article that said both Google and Microsoft were offering hundreds of millions of dollars in engineering and marketing support in order to woo Nokia.

12:36 pm: Elop now talking about cost cuts, including significant job reductions.

“We are not announcing how many and in what country,” Elop says, but adds that the company wants to move quickly on that front.

He says that he has made changes to the business to ensure speed, including leadership structure changes aimed at ensuring accountability. “If things go well today, I’ll be the CEO.”

Of note, the two of the three business unit leaders are women–Mary McDowell, who will lead lower-end phones, and Jo Harlow, who will head the smartphone business.

12:40 pm: Nokia looking for a new leader for its services and developer division. The acting head is Tero Ojanpera, but he will soon be looking for other opportunities within Nokia, Elop says.

Also of note, Louise Pentland, who is head of the legal and intellectual property unit, is being elevated to the top leadership team.

“We have one of the strongest patent portfolios out there” he says, adding that he would encourage all players to take a license to said patents. (hear that, Apple?)

New leader of North American sales unit to be named in coming days.

“We are creating a different industry,” Elop says in closing his introductory remarks.

12:44 pm: Elop Brings on CFO Timo Ihamuotila to go through the numbers.

12:46 pm: Ihamuotila acknowledged Nokia didn’t meet the targets it had set out to achieve at its last financial analyst day.

“Our execution did not cut it.” he says.

12:49 pm: Ah, Now on to the good stuff. CFO talking financial impact from Microsoft deal. Says should be good over the long term.

Slide shows royalty payments to Microsoft causing lower gross margins, but says sales and marketing support from Microsoft should lower operating expenses.

“We will receive substantial go-to market support from Microsoft,” he says, without giving numbers.

12:52 pm: Ihamuotila talking now about the company’s long-term targets for devices and services period “after the transition period.”

Device sales to grow faster than the market, with operating margins of 10 percent or more–but this is only after the transition period, which the company has said could last this year and next.

Significant uncertainties in this period.

Ihamuotila shows a slide showing Symbian sales slowly giving way to Windows Phone with lower-end mobile phones remaining about half of sales.

12:57 pm: Ihamuotila shows chart of how it expects to cut R&D with the company investing less in services, more in entry-level phones and far less on MeeGo, though still some. The investment in Symbian will be replaced by a far lower investment in Windows Phone R&D. Overall, R&D should be a fraction of what it was.

1:02 pm: Over long term, Ihamuotila says that the Microsoft deal should help significantly boost the company’s Navteq navigation business.

“We think this new strategy is the best way to maximize long-term value, both to our shareholders and to other stakeholders,” Ihamuotila says.

On to Q&A for financial analysts.

1:03 pm: Question on how Nokia will keep employees motivated, something else and when to expect the first Windows Phone.

“Thanks for the one question” Elop quips, before addressing them in turn.

Elop says that the key is on focused innovation so they see the fresh opportunities (at least for the ones who don’t get cut by the large workforce reductions also promised).

He also pointed to his sharply worded memo, which he said was designed to convey the message that “Here is the truth, we’re making decisions and we’re moving forward.”

Won’t give date on first Windows Phone, but says again that the move will allow a substantially faster pace than the company was on with Symbian.

1:07 pm: Elop is asked about some of the challenges with Microsoft and Nokia each responsible for different pieces of software and services, as opposed to Google and Apple, where things are more integrated.

“We wanted to drive operational simplicity,” Elop says, adding that the companies talked about other arrangements, though not a full-on acquisition. The companies, Elop says, decided not to go with the operational complexity of a joint venture.

1:10 pm: Elop says Nokia has opportunities to differentiate from other Windows Phone devices, but adds it is in Nokia’s interest for there to be other strong handset players supporting Windows Phone.

“We’ve got to make Windows Phone successful,” he says.

Nokia’s mapping technology, he says, will benefit rivals like Samsung and HTC. “We’re willing to make those trades,” Elop says.

1:11 pm: Elop is asked why he feels comfortable with a “bet the farm” strategy on Microsoft, a company he clearly knows well.

Elop points out that it was harder to see how Microsoft would rapidly be successful without someone like Nokia.

“But this is now different,” he says, adding that this is now an ecosystem that Microsoft and Nokia are jointly helping to build.

Mapping and local advertising were not part of the ecosystem before the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.

As for impact of the transition, it’s hard to say, Elop says. Symbian is strong in some places where Apple and Google are present today.

1:14 pm: Asked whether Nokia will remain profitable during the transition. “It’s hard to say financially, and I am not going to provide any further specific guidance.”

1:17 pm: Elop won’t say when the first Windows Phone will ship, but lots and lots by next year at various price points.

“We’ll be shipping in volume in 2012,” he says.

1:20 pm: Another two-parter! 1) Why will Symbian be supported if it is transitioning away? 2) Why does Nokia think it will be able to have double-digit operating margins using someone else’s platform?

Elop: They recognize Symbian is key to Nokia being able to transition, but he agrees that consumers will have to want the Symbian phones Nokia builds. CFO also notes that less than half of Symbian phones are sold through carriers.

As for question on margins, CFO says the company has opportunities for higher margins around services and advertising.

1:23 pm: Asked about how the company is confident Windows Phone can get to lower prices, Elop says that was a key consideration, down to which chipsets will be supported, etc.

Between the two companies there was a lot of work to get a high degree of confidence.

“That was a critical evaluation,” he says.

That said, Elop agrees there is a smartphone market below Windows Phone that Nokia will manage with an evolution of today’s Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems.

1:31 pm: Elop: Some of the hardware designs that would have run MeeGo or Symbian will be repurposed for Windows Phone. Some devices may come out with similar models for both Windows Phone and Symbian.

1:32 pm: Question again on who pays whom in Microsoft-Nokia. Is there a lump payment from Microsoft?

Elop doesn’t answer and instead refers to slide that shows opportunities on both sides. Saying value going both ways. As for Microsoft’s payments, “That is a significant part of the conversation,” Elop says.

1:35 pm: Two good questions: Can Windows Phone be put on any current devices? What happens to QT development layer that Nokia bought and had sought to unify developer approach?

Elop: It’s not as simple as plugging in and downloading on to current phones, though some technologies can be repurposed.

QT continues to be the development for Symbian and lone MeeGo device. Also could have a role on low-end devices.

However, Elop says, “We are not proposing a QT on Windows Phone” approach. Adding another development environment could fork the ecosystem, which is not good for Nokia or Windows Phone, he says. Development environment for Windows Phone will be Silverlight and XNA–Microsoft’s current tools.

1:38 pm: Asked about branding, he says in some cases you will see both Microsoft and Nokia brands. Examples could include Nokia Search powered by Bing or Bing maps powered by Nokia, though he says those are examples and not final choices.

1:39 pm: Asking about tablets, questioner points out that Nokia had an early lead in tablets, but Apple “stole the show.”

“We are not announcing today a specific tablet strategy,” he reiterates, saying that Microsoft creates opportunities.

Elop notes that there are rumors of Windows Phone and Windows that could power tablets.

“We could do that,” he says. “We might do that.”

Also an opportunity for Nokia to step back into the game using its own software.

1:41 pm: Elop wrapping up.

“We have set a new course for Nokia,” he says, adding that despite what has been written, Nokia is still an incredibly powerful company, though perhaps not in North America. “Today we are diving forward” he says. “We have a strong partner in Microsoft who is incented as are we in making this successful.”

Investor guy closes by reminding there were forward-looking statements. He’s still going as people leave the room.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video
• R&D Spending: Nokia Vs. Apple Shows Size Doesn’t Matter
• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

Mobilized will have live coverage starting in just a few minutes.

10:06 am: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop takes the stage.

Nokia faces challenges. “The entire market is growing rapidly and we should be setting the pace.”

Quotes Winston Churchill saying a pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees it the other way around.

10:09 am: He’s talking about Microsoft partnership now, but no new details yet. Reiterating Windows Phone is the primary smartphone OS for Nokia.

“We will help drive the future of the platform,” he said.

10:10 am: Why Windows Phone? It gives us an opportunity to jointly lead” a new ecosystem. “It gives us a faster path to the United States marketplace.”

10:11 am: Also good for developers and publishers, Elop says. Noting that Windows developers can use their existing skills.

10:12 am: Elop promises more on Nokia’s strategy later today, saying this only one part. With that, Ballmer on stage

10:13 am: Ballmer: Windows Phone more than just a single product. Brings together stuff from across company including Bing, Office, Xbox as well as third-party services like Facebook and notes its the easiest-to-use smartphone operating system.

“The people that use Windows Phones have been delighted,” Ballmer said, without saying just how many people that is. There are 8,000 apps in the marketplace, he said.

“We do dream bigger though,” he said, saying the company wants global reach and scale. “This partnership with Nokia will accelerate, dramatically accelerate the development… of a Windows Phone ecosystem.”

10:16 am: Ballmer is talking about how it will offer more choice for everyone–developers, consumers, etc. , not to mention the two companies.

This is just the start, Ballmer said. Already working together to create the first Windows Phone-based Nokia devices, but lots ahead. “We need to learn along the way.”

10:19 am: They are posing for pictures. Now on to Q and A.

10:21 am: When will the first handset be out?

No specific timing, Elop said, but partnership should allow faster time-to-market. Ballmer said that the two companies’ engineering teams are already working together.

“When there is news there will be news,” he said.

10:22 am: Ballmer stresses that the partnership is non-exclusive and other companies will be making Windows Phones.

10:23 am: Why Microsoft rather than Android?

Elop: What we assessed essentially was three options: internal options with MeeGo and Symbian. Worried about expanding to low-end price points and quickly develop their own ecosystem. Those two things make it difficult.

“We absolutely spent time with our colleagues at Google.” There were pros to chooising Android. “It’s moving very quickly. It’s gaining share.”

“Our fundamental belief is we would have difficulty differentiating. The commoditization risk was very high.”

10:25 am: What about MeeGo and Symbian?

Elop: Over 200 million Symbian users and see 150 million or more Symbian devices still to ship in the coming months and years.

“But it is a transition program,” he said.

MeeGo will ship not as a new smartphone strategy but as a way to learn. And then MeeGo will be used for longer-term planning in trying to determine what comes next in mobile.

10:27 am: Business relationship. Will Nokia pay Microsoft a license fee?

Elop: Quite a bit of value moving both ways. Does respect fact that Windows is royalty-bearing ecosystem, but also Nokia bringing a lot to the table.

10:28 am: Ballmer: Nokia’s got other assets, not just mapping assets that Microsoft will make part of platform.

10:29 am: What happens to Finland?

Elop: “Nokia is first and foremost and always will be a Finnish company. Finland is our home and it will remain our home.”

However, he said that the company has to adjust lower its operating expenses.

“The best thing Nokia can do for Finland is ensure its future success.”

Elop said the strategy shift will involve cost cuts, including in its workforce.

“There will be substantial reductions in employment” around the world, including Finland,” Elop said.

10:32 am: Asked what it means for Nokia since Windows Phone is so consumer-oriented.

Ballmer: We designed Windows Phone to be good for all aspect of people’s lives, not just the business aspect. Early users are a mix of business and consumer users. Promises more features to come that business IT departments will appreciate.

10:34 am: Asked about impact to costs:

Elop: It is the case we anticipate being able to substantially reduce R&D expenditures.

10:35 am: Being able to compete against Apple and Android required more than just a consortium like MeeGo but a more focused alliance like the one announced today.

Mobile carriers like it, Elop said.

“They need a credible alternative,” Elop said. “This is now a three-horse race.”

10:36 am: One of the things Nokia will do, Elop said, is help Windows Phone move down to lower price points.

10:38 am: Does Nokia have a tablet strategy?

Elop: The relationship with Microsoft and our strategy going forward gives us different options. Might go with some future Microsoft tablet product, but nothing to announce. Also preserve right to introduce tablets using other approaches, including internal approaches.

Not announcing tablet strategy today.

10:41 am: How will this help Nokia in North America?

Elop: We have to deliver a complete user experience — services, iconic devices, operator support. He also suggests there will be new leadership in North America.

10:44 am: Elop: We’re here to fight.

Ballmer: Nokia and Microsoft first talked back in November. Elop said he wanted a decision by around this time.

“That struck me as quick and we’re here,” Ballmer said.

End of Q and A.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video
• R&D Spending: Nokia Vs. Apple Shows Size Doesn’t Matter
• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

The company also said in a statement that the shift makes it difficult to offer a financial forecast for the coming years, although it did say 2011 and 2012 will be “transition years.”

“Due to the initiation of Nokia’s strategic transformation on February 11, 2011, the full-year prospects for its Devices & Services business are subject to significant uncertainties, and therefore Nokia believes it is not appropriate to provide annual targets for 2011 at the present time,” the company said in a statement, adding it will continue to offer shorter-term quarterly forecasts.

Even with the move to Windows Phone as its “primary smartphone platform,” Nokia said it still expects to sell 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come, on top of its existing installed base of 200 million devices.

It also isn’t entirely killing its plans for MeeGo, a version of mobile Linux that was originally slated to be Nokia’s main future operating system. It said it still expects to ship one device later this year and left the door open to future MeeGo-based products.

“Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project,” Nokia said. “MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences.”

Mobilized will have more on this as the day progresses, including live coverage from Nokia’s London investor event later this morning.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video

Nokia has posted a letter to its Web site from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and its CEO Stephen Elop outlining the partnership between the two companies.

Mobilized had already deduced this was coming and confirmed it earlier this morning, thanks to a video on YouTube.

In the letter, the two CEOs talk about what each brings to the table and promise a tough fight in their uphill battle against the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android.

“There are other mobile ecosystems,” the two wrote. “We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them.”

Nokia will have much more to say at a meeting with investors scheduled for noon London time (4 a.m. PT). Mobilized will be there with live coverage.

In the mean time, you can read the letter below and also get some of Elop’s thought process in deciding to go with Windows Phone by checking out our exclusive interview.

Below is the full text of their letter:

Today in London, our two companies announced plans for a broad strategic partnership that combines the respective strengths of our companies and builds a new global mobile ecosystem. The partnership increases our scale, which will result in significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world. We both are incredibly excited about the journey we are on together.

While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here’s a quick summary of what we are working towards:

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.

• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.

• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.

• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services.

• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience.

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.

• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach.

• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives.

• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

We each bring incredible assets to the table. Nokia’s history of innovation in the hardware space, global hardware scale, strong history of intellectual property creation and navigation assets are second to none. Microsoft is a leader in software and services; the company’s incredible expertise in platform creation forms the opportunity for its billions of customers and millions of partners to get more out of their devices.

Together, we have some of the world’s most admired brands, including Windows, Office, Bing, Xbox Live, NAVTEQ and Nokia. We also have a shared understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a mobile ecosystem, which includes the entire experience from the device to the software to the applications, services and the marketplace.

Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward.

There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.

There will be challenges. We will overcome them.

Success requires speed. We will be swift.

Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video
• R&D Spending: Nokia Vs. Apple Shows Size Doesn’t Matter
• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

Irony alert: YouTube is owned by Nokia beauty contest loser Google.

But, in the short video, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer only outline the barest of details.

The announcement came ahead of an investor meeting scheduled for noon London time (4 am PT). Mobilized will be there with live coverage.

Update: It’s now officially official, with a joint letter from the two CEOs posted on Nokia’s Web site.

Here’s the video:

I began by making some work-related visits, including a stop at Carphone Warehouse, a big seller of phones here in the U.K. and partly owned by U.S. giant Best Buy.

The store had things neatly arranged by category, with most things divided into “phones” and “smarter phones,” although the iPhone had a display all to its lonesome. The clerk told Mobilized that the iPhone is the most popular, followed by some of HTC’s Android phones, with BlackBerry also reasonably popular. As for Windows Phone 7 devices, there were none, though she said some were due to arrive next week. Nokia still sold some, but they weren’t nearly as popular these days, she said.

Considering my work done, I headed to other sites, spending a rainy couple of hours in Camden Market, a great open-air shopping area that is even better when you don’t have to buy a five-pound Union Jack umbrella just to get around.

From there it was on to King’s Cross Station, which Harry Potter fans know as the place where students can catch the Hogwarts Express, assuming they can find Platform 9 3/4. Because there are lots of tourists like me, the powers that be have actually put in a Platform 9 3/4 so people can have their picture taken pushing a trolley into the wall.

Finally, I decided I should check out the Regent Street Apple Store to see how Cupertino retail translates. It turns out the store is very similar to Apple’s stateside stores, with one big difference–the prices, which are much higher. That explains why Mobilized is always in line behind three Europeans at the store in San Francisco.

For those who like pretty pictures rather than words, here ya go. Cheers.

Two of Index Ventures’ high-profile partners–Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi–are opening a new Silicon Valley office for the Europe-based venture firm in September.

The move is actually more of a return home for both men, now located in London, who had lived and worked at tech epicenter for much of their careers.

Among other things, before their stints at Index, Rimer was an Internet analyst at Hambrecht & Quist and also at the now-defunct Barksdale Group, while Volpi was an exec at Cisco.

BoomTown had been hearing about the possibility of the move for months, but Rimer and Volpi finally confirmed it in an interview yesterday.

“We thought we would be better positioned to support our entrepreneurs by being in Silicon Valley,” said Volpi (pictured here), who left the area when he became CEO of the then-hyped Joost premium online video service. “Having two solid investors from Index on the West Coast was important, as opposed to a chipshot.”

Volpi noted that of Index’s $1.3 billion in investments in 173 companies, $400 million was in 58 U.S.-based start-ups. In addition, the firm had helped another 35 move here.

There are currently nine investing partners at Index, which is actually headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Rimer noted that initially it will just be him and Volpi here, as well as some support staff. But it was likely they would expand their office, which will be located in either San Francisco or around Palo Alto, Calif.

“It has been a challenge to be a European firm and also be present in the Valley and be considered an insider here,” said Rimer (pictured here), who often traveled to California. “There is a lot to have an immediate ability to be face-to-face with our companies.”

Recent investments by Index in California include Flipboard, Swipely, Boku and Factual.

Rimer and Volpi said the move did not mean deals were only to be found in Silicon Valley, as Index is not focused on geographical investing.

In addition, the pair will continue their focus on cloud computing, infrastructure and social, wherever the investments were to be found.

“We’re not coming to the U.S. to do only U.S. deals,” said Volpi. “But there is a lot to be said for being part of the daily mix in Silicon Valley.”

In other words: Party at Mary Meeker’s house!

(The well-known Morgan Stanley analyst has also recently moved to the West Coast from New York to join Kleiner Perkins.)

The funding comes from Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

To date, the Baltimore-based company has raised $65 million. But that hardly seems sufficient when fighting Goliaths like Apple and Google, which both made multimillion-dollar acquisitions last year in the space.

Previously, CEO Paul Palmieri said it was Millennial’s intention to stay an independent company, and therefore aim for an IPO. Is $65 million enough?

The funds will be used for acquisitions in 2011, and to invest in the company’s international business, which is considered smaller than its competitors’, such as Google’s. So far, it has built a team in London, and has begun to expand to the Asia-Pacific region.

Market share statistics are notoriously poor in the space, but in December, IDC estimated that Millennial was the largest independent mobile ad network at 15.4 percent, trailing behind Apple with 18.8 percent share and Google/AdMob with 19 percent share. Millennial’s share was estimated to be larger than Yahoo’s 10.1 percent share.

Millennial declined to give specific numbers, but said it achieved “operational profitability” in 2010, and tripled its revenues during the year.

Interest from the two software giants would seem a plausible explanation for the peculiar circumstances around Autonomy’s on-again, off-again talks about making an acquisition.

In April it said it would sell convertible bonds to raise money–nearly $800 million–to fund an acquisition, though it never named a target.

Then suddenly last month the company said the deal it had been working on was being put off because of another unspecified opportunity, which promptly sent its stock reeling. Autonomy shares, which trade on London’s FTSE, are down 27 percent from their 52-week high. It could be that whatever deal the company was working on was put on the back burner following unexpected overtures from Larry Ellison and Steve Ballmer.

Autonomy specializes in what it calls Meaning Based Computing. Its software is designed to recognize the relationships between structured data–what you find in an organized database–and unstructured data–which can be anything from words in a written document, a speech or conversation, or anything else that has information that isn’t organized into rows and columns. Its customers run the gamut from businesses such as FedEx, the NYSE, Louis Vuitton and Goodyear to tech firms like Adobe and Cisco Systems.

On its face this rumor is interesting because now that the battle to roll up the data storage firms is largely resolved following Dell’s acquisition of Compellent, one of the next dealmaking battle fronts for the large IT vendors is going to be software that makes managing data in all its various forms easier, more powerful and less costly.

Autonomy certainly fits that bill, and at market valuation in the $7 billion neighborhood, both Oracle and Microsoft could get it done.

However, the cynic in me wonders if this is just a deliberate rumor intended to goose Autonomy’s flagging stock price. If that’s the case, it appears to have worked.

Google’s view is that voice will be critical in making mobile devices with small screens and keyboards more useful. Already, it’s launched a number of services that let people use their voice to conduct a Web search, compose emails, play songs on a phone or get directions.

The acquisition of Phonetic Arts will help in the reverse situation–when the computer speaks to you, a.k.a. voice output, the company said in a blog post.

Voice interaction is a field in bloom. There are safe-driving applications that speak your text messages to you, so you can keep your eyes on the road, and Google’s own translation “speaks” text in multiple languages. Currently, Nuance Communications is one of the leaders in the voice-recognition space.

Google says Phonetic Arts’ team of researchers and engineers will focus on making the interactions less robotic and more natural by using small samples of recorded voice.

Terms weren’t disclosed, but Phonetic Arts will be joining Google’s engineering center in London.

What could be better than listening to legendary Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak wax poetic about his first and favorite gadget–which turns out to be a transistor radio?

Well, doing it inside the newly renovated Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., certainly raises the geek factor to 10.

The museum has spent the last five years planning and installing “Revolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computing” and will open the doors to the public on January 10, 2011. That’s “011011,” Woz reminded the small crowd of journalists invited for an early tour of the new Silicon Valley facility.

The museum has more than doubled its public space to accommodate the new exhibit, which includes an impressive collection of the rare, revolutionary and ridiculous–mostly relating to computing from the 1950s onward.

The whole shebang was largely funded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose name features prominently in the signage.

Woz led a tour that highlighted some of the machines that meant most to him. He recounted hours spent at the IBM Model 026 punch card machine, and fawned over a Honeywell Kitchen Computer.

That device was originally sold by Neiman Marcus, complete with mod ’60s styling and bearing the “Mad Men”-esque slogan: “If only she could cook as well as the Honeywell computes.”

Woz said it was the machine that inspired him to believe computers could be attractive things for the home.

After a long meander through many, many more Woz-ly musings, the tour ended at the Homebrew Computer Club exhibit, complete with an Apple 1–signed by Woz–basically identical to the one that recently sold at Christie’s of London for $210,000. (Woz flew there and signed that one too.)

Once open, the expanded museum promises to be the perfect spot to take that über-geeky date, or just wander and reflect amidst hundreds of miles of wire and mountains of transistors.

No word on whether Woz will also be on permanent display.

He seemed to enjoy it, but you can judge for yourself by checking out our highlight video reel from the tour, complete with an interview about Woz’s first and favorite gadget, the coming robopocalypse and the iPhone as a future historical artifact.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101203/back-in-the-day-with-woz-a-sneak-peek-inside-the-new-and-improved-computer-history-museum/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101123/apple-i-goes-for-210000-at-auction/ http://allthingsd.com/20101123/apple-i-goes-for-210000-at-auction/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:29:42 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=33069 It won’t connect to the Internet, and it’s definitely not Flash-friendly, but a rare Apple I computer, one of only 200 made, was sold at Christie’s in London today for $210,000. It included the original packaging and a signed sales letter from Steve Jobs. The Apple I was originally available from 1976-77 for $666.66. The buyer, Italian businessman Marco Boglione, will restore it to working condition and add it to his collection of Apple computers.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101123/apple-i-goes-for-210000-at-auction/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-deal/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:00:08 +0000 Ethan Smith http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=32682 After years of litigation and ill will, it took two men just a couple of hours to hammer out the basic terms that would finally bring the Beatles’ music to the iTunes Store.

Beatles songs are finally available in Apple’s iTunes store. But ATD’s Peter Kafka says that iTunes is all about apps these days, while digital music sales have flattened out–and even the Fab Four may have a hard time changing that.

The deal was outlined by Jeff Jones, chief executive of the Beatles’ corporate entity, Apple Corps Ltd., and Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI Group Ltd., which owns and distributes the band’s recordings. The meeting took place at EMI’s London headquarters this past July 14, less than a month after Mr. Faxon took the reins at EMI.

Under the terms, Apple Inc.’s digital media store is the Beatles’ exclusive online retailer at least until January, Mr. Faxon said in an interview Tuesday, after the much-awaited deal was announced. It marks the first time that Beatles songs have been available for digital-download sales.

“Jeff and I sat down shortly after I arrived” as CEO of EMI, Mr. Faxon recalled. “We agreed this really was the moment to do this. After that it was very easy to cut a deal.” They code-named the initiative “Bastille,” as it coincided with Bastille Day.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100930/tv-studios-arent-buying-apples-99-cent-rentals/ http://allthingsd.com/20100930/tv-studios-arent-buying-apples-99-cent-rentals/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:05:12 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=49750 Better run a diagnostic on the reality distortion field….

“We think the rest of the studios will see the light and get on board pretty fast,” Steve Jobs said earlier this month of the TV studios wary of its new 99-cent iTunes TV rentals initiative. And while it’s never wise to bet against the Apple CEO, it’s beginning to look like “pretty fast” was an optimistic choice of words. Because in a flurry of public comments recently, a growing number of TV execs have decried the 99-cent rental model, which they say undervalues their content.

At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference last week, Viacom (VIA.B) CEO Philippe Dauman said of it, “The 99-cent rental is not a good price point. It doesn’t work for us. We value our content a lot. We don’t think Apple has it quite right yet.”

And during his appearance at the conference, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said pretty much the same thing. “We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content,” he argued. “We thought it would devalue our content.”

Then there was Warner Bros. Entertainment Chairman Barry Meyer, who trashed Apple’s (AAPL) effort at the
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch 2010 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference. “We just don’t think the value proposition is a good one for us,” Meyer said, adding that he’d rather sell season passes to the studio’s TV series and $1.99 and $2.99 per-episode downloads than “open up a rental business in television at a low price.”

And now Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes has come out against 99-cent iTunes TV rentals. Speaking at the Royal Television Conference in London, Bewkes echoed the comments of his colleagues, warning that the new model Apple’s pushing will threaten sales of TV shows to network television. “How can you justify renting your first-run TV shows individually for 99 cents an episode and thereby jeopardize the sale of the same shows as a series to branded networks that pay hundreds of millions of dollars and make those shows available to loyal viewers for free?” he asked. “These new entrants must meet a few criteria: They must provide consumers with a superior TV experience, and they must either support or improve the overall economics that funds and creates the programming in the first place.”

Early reviews suggest that Apple has met Bewkes’s first criteria, but given the statements above it’s looking like it may take a bit longer than expected to meet the second, or convince the studios that it has.

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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 (MSFT) 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.

While the trailer below seems to be a one-off for an event in London, it’s still very different from the basic marketing around the Apple (AAPL) iPhone (“It’s magical!”) and the Google (GOOG) Android mobile operating system (“It’s for manly men!”).

In any case, coming for the holidays, Windows Phone 7 should prove to be a welcome respite from enduring the tiresome bickering of those two behemoths.

Here’s the video of Microsoft’s sheikh effort, followed by a recent, more-hipster video of Xbox Live on the Windows Phone 7:

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