But the only thing any of the assembled journalists she’s had contact with have wanted to discuss is Autonomy, the British software firm that HP acquired in 2011 and on which it blamed the majority of an $8.8 billion write-down.

The magnitude of the accounting improprieties, Whitman said in interviews with The Guardian and The Telegraph, were such that HP had to report its findings to regulators on both sides on the Atlantic. She also ruled out any notion that HP is interested in selling off Autonomy — such rumors are apparently still in the air in the U.K. — calling it “critical to our strategy.”

Here’s Whitman in an interview she did with the BBC, which starts with her being asked whether it was “wise” for HP to attack Lynch and the rest of Autonomy’s former management team.

Earlier today, Yahoo said it had acquired the trendy and decidedly stylish news reading app Summly, along with its telegenic and very young entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio.

Yahoo said it plans to close down the actual app and use the algorithmic summation technology that the 17-year-old D’Aloisio built with a small team of five, along with a major assist from Silicon Valley research institute SRI International, throughout its products.

While Yahoo did not disclose the price, several sources told me that the company paid $30 million — 90 percent in cash and 10 percent in stock — to buy the London-based Apple smartphone app.

And despite its elegant delivery, that’s a very high price, especially since Summly has been downloaded slightly less than one million times since launch — after a quick start amid much publicity over its founder — with about 90 million “summaries” read. Of course, like many such apps, it also had no monetization plan as yet.

What Yahoo is getting, though, is perhaps more valuable — the ability to put the fresh-faced D’Aloisio front and center of its noisy efforts to make consumers see Yahoo as a mobile-first company. That has been the goal of CEO Marissa Mayer, who has bought up a range of small mobile startups since she took over nine months ago and who has talked about the need for Yahoo to focus on the mobile arena above all.

Mayer met with D’Aloisio, said sources, although the deal was struck by voluble M&A head Jackie Reses.

Said one person close to the deal, about the founder: “Nick will be a great person to put in front of the media and consumers with Mayer to make Yahoo seem like it is a place that loves both entrepreneurs and mobile experiences, which in turn will presumably attract others like him.”

Having met the young man in question, who was in San Francisco in the fall on a fundraising trip, I can see the appeal. He’s both well-spoken and adorkable, as well as very adept at charming cranky media types like me by radiating with the kinetic energy of someone born in the mobile world (you can see that in full force in the video below with actor and Summly investor Stephen Fry).

Still, D’Aloisio is very young and presumably has a lot of other entrepreneurial goals and that’s why he agreed as part of the deal to only officially stay 18 months at Yahoo, multiple sources told me. In many cases, startup founders strike such short-term employment deals with big companies, agreeing to stay for a certain determined time period.

He will also remain in England, where he lives with his parents, said sources. In addition, only two of Summly’s employees will go to Yahoo with D’Aloisio.

That’s $10 million each, along with a nifty app Yahoo will not be using as is (too bad, as it would up the hip and fun factor of Yahoo’s apps by a factor of a gazillion if it were maintained).

“It works out on a lot of levels,” said another person close to the situation. “Nick is a founder that will make Mayer and Yahoo look cutting edge.”

Cue the parade of PR profiles of the young genius made millionaire, helping Yahoo become relevant again.

I have an email for comment into the always friendly D’Aloisio. But I don’t expect a reply, since he has apparently been specifically instructed by the martinets of Yahoo PR not to talk to me any longer — well, for 18 months at least! (Don’t worry, Nick, I don’t blame you and will still listen to whatever you are pitching next, since you are so dang compelling and I enjoyed using Summly!)

Until then, here’s the faboo Summly video, with the best chairs ever:

Summly Launch from Summly on Vimeo.

Yahoo has bought Summly, the mobile news reader app founded by a young British entrepreneur.

In a statement, the London-based company said it had bought the tiny outfit, which will close its app. The price was not disclosed (although I will try to find out soon enough). But the company had been seeking additional funding recently at a big valuation, in stark contrast to its small size (less than one million downloads), staff (five) and business model (zero revenue).

(Update: Sources tell me Yahoo paid just about $30 million for Summly, mostly in cash, with 10 percent in stock, for three employees.)

AllThingsD.com reported in December that Yahoo was looking closely at the startup, with CEO Marissa Mayer meeting with its founder Nick D’Aloisio. As we noted then, Yahoo was aiming at trendy mobile “acq-hires” to give the sleepy Silicon Valley Internet giant some sizzle and improve its moribund mobile offerings.

Mayer has been buying up a range of similar small mobile startups, largely for their teams of talented and innovative engineers. And, at a recent employee meeting, its M&A head Jackie Reses said the Silicon Valley company was looking at two significant purchases and a half-dozen smaller ones.

Said Yahoo: “Founder Nick D’Aloisio and the Summly team are joining Yahoo! in the coming weeks. While the Summly app will close, we will acquire the technology and you’ll see it come to life throughout Yahoo!’s mobile experiences soon. We’re not disclosing purchase price or other terms of the deal.”

Yahoo mobile head Adam Cahan wrote a blog post about the deal, as did D’Aloisio, who also tweeted news of it:

@summly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo!! Excited for the next chapter of Summly! Thanks to all who have supported me.

— Nick D’Aloisio (@nickdaloisio) March 25, 2013

News readers have been getting snapped up of late. CNN acquired Zite for $20 million in 2011, while we reported that LinkedIn was in the midst of buying Pulse for upwards of $50 million.

The 17-year-old D’Aloisio created the high-profile news reading app, which garnered much attention in the last year in the mobile space, which is probably what attracted Yahoo to it.

As I wrote:

D’Aloisio — who looks like he could easily be a member of One Direction if this tech thing did not work out — is perhaps a perfect storm for Yahoo, which is seeking to show that it can attract innovative, young entrepreneurs to the company, while also looking to strengthen its nearly bare mobile cupboard.

Summly is all that and a bag of (fish and) chips, with a very slick app for the Apple iPhone that has become one of the more popular in the App Store since it was re-launched last month. The company has said it has been downloaded 500,000 times.

It deserves the attention, as it is a pleasure to use — think an even hipper version of Flipboard with some more sass. The handsomely designed app summarizes news stories — all using a natural language processing algorithm — in only a few sentences and in under 400 characters. Users can then swipe through topics and stories quickly and click in to be directed to the full story on the original news site.

Summly originally started as a prototype app called Trimit, which soon garnered attention and seed funding from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s investment firm. In no time, it had a range of other investors, ponying up about $1.5 million, including trendy ones like Ashton Kutcher and tech types like Zynga’s Mark Pincus, Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.

Since then, it has been striking content deals, including with News Corp. (which owns this site) and others, which seem to be attracted by its investor pedigree, its solid technology and — perhaps most of all — its media-darling founder.

To get an idea of the adorable hip factor involved, here’s a really clever video D’Aloisio did with actor Stephen Fry, who is also an investor in the startup:

Summly Launch from Summly on Vimeo.

Last week, I had a very erudite meeting with Louise Rogers, who runs one of the fastest growing social networking sites for educators — first in Britain and now operating in about 197 countries including the U.S.

The London-based TSL is a fascinating glimpse into how education is changing quickly online, catering to teachers who primarily share lesson plans, but also tips and techniques with others for free. It’s been signing up many thousands per month, who download 2.8 million plans weekly to help them better do their job — often in a resource-starved environment.

While running a number of English-language products, TSL struck a partnership called Share My Lesson with the American Federation of Teachers and its mainstay TES Connect service to expand here.

The company started a century ago as a newspaper supplement for teachers in the Times in Britain, which was owned by News Corp. at one point (which also owns this site) and was then sold to a private equity firm for $400 million and then sold again.

TSL, now largely online with $120 million in annual revenues garnered from a robust jobs listing service for teachers and other premium products, competes with other similar online services, like Curriki and LessonPlan.it.

Here is my video interview with Rogers about how it all works — listen and learn:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130303/in-the-ever-crowded-online-learning-space-tsl-education-aims-at-teacher-lessons-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130211/a-second-u-k-regulator-is-looking-into-autonomys-pre-hp-books/ http://allthingsd.com/20130211/a-second-u-k-regulator-is-looking-into-autonomys-pre-hp-books/#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:02:29 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=293587 Regulators in the U.K. are looking into the finances of the British software firm Autonomy during the years immediately prior to its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council announced the investigation today in a statement on its website. This would make it the second regulatory body in the U.K. — the first is the Serious Fraud Office — to begin investigating the company. Correction: Actually not true. While HP has reported its findings to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, that agency has never confirmed an investigation. The U.S. Department of Justice is also said to be investigating Autonomy’s books. HP alleged last year that Autonomy had used accounting tricks to inflate its value.

HP paid north of $11 billion for the company in 2011, then turned around and wrote down about $5 billion of its value as part of a larger $8.8 billion write-down announced in the fall. It was the second of two significant write-downs at HP during 2012, the first being the $8.9 billion write-down for the IT services firm EDS, acquired in 2008.

The council said it will investigate Autonomy’s accounting statements for the period between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2011. HP announced the deal to acquire Autonomy on Aug. 18 of that year.

The regulator is responsible for, in its words, “promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment,” and also sets corporate governance and accounting standards in the U.K.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130211/a-second-u-k-regulator-is-looking-into-autonomys-pre-hp-books/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130114/special-projects-head-shakil-khan-moves-on-from-path/ http://allthingsd.com/20130114/special-projects-head-shakil-khan-moves-on-from-path/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:30:17 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=285399

Shakil Khan — the well-known head of special projects for the popular Spotify music service, who took the same kind of job at Path last year — is departing the personal social networking site.

He will remain a special adviser, and is also an investor in the San Francisco-based startup.

The globe-trotting Khan (pictured here), who arrived at the startup only last March, had worked with Path on a number of efforts, especially in expanding its international presence. Path recently hired Shindo Kimihiko to turbocharge the company’s efforts in the fast-growing Asian markets.

A Path spokeswoman confirmed the departure after I inquired, and the London-based Khan also emailed me this statement:

When I joined Path, the company was just 20 people, only available in a handful of languages and the resources were mainly U.S.-focused. During my time there, we launched in 17 languages, established great teams in marketing, localization, growth and international and doubled the number of staff. As more than 50 percent of Path’s usage is now international, I’d say that my original objective of helping Path to think in more international terms and capitalize on global opportunities is done :) Moving to the next stage of Path’s growth, I remain as a Special Advisor to the company, as well as continuing to spend time with my other investment companies, including Spotify, SecondMarket, Summly, Blackjet and a couple of exciting startups at incubation stage.

Path recently announced that the service — which has raised $55 million in funding — had five million users.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130114/special-projects-head-shakil-khan-moves-on-from-path/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20121212/the-leweb-conference-sold-to-reed-midem/ http://allthingsd.com/20121212/the-leweb-conference-sold-to-reed-midem/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:59:59 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=277218

Reed Midem, an international trade show organizer, has bought a majority stake in the well-known European Internet conference, LeWeb.

The event, which now has two annual gatherings, recently attracted 3,500 people in Paris, hosting such Silicon Valley speakers as Instagram’s Kevin Systrom and Nest’s Tony Fadell, as well as a range of European execs and others. LeWeb also has a London-based conference.

In an interview this morning, LeWeb’s co-founder Loïc Le Meur said that the sale will allow the business to expand.

“We want to keep the growth going, being in more places and more countries,” said Le Meur, who started LeWeb with his wife, Geraldine Le Meur, in 2004 with just 200 attendees. “We needed a partner that could help us do this.”

The Le Meurs will continue to run LeWeb, although it is not clear for how long. Le Meur also declined to say how much Reed paid for the large stake in the conference.

Reed, which did not have a tech-focused event, runs well-known shows such as Mipcom for the television industry and Midem for the music sector.

“LeWeb fits very well with Reed MIDEM. We share the same ambition for developing premium international events where participants network and build relationships, do business, launch new products and discover the latest innovations,” said Reed Midem CEO Paul Zilk in a statement.

Here is a video message from the Le Meurs, as well as the official press release:

LeWeb Reed MIDEM Press release US

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20121212/the-leweb-conference-sold-to-reed-midem/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20121020/facebook-exec-joanna-shields-departs-for-economic-role-in-london/ http://allthingsd.com/20121020/facebook-exec-joanna-shields-departs-for-economic-role-in-london/#comments Sun, 21 Oct 2012 02:26:19 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=262032 Joanna Shields, Facebook’s VP and managing director of the social network’s operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, has left the company to become CEO of Tech City Investment Organisation, a high-tech economic development group in London, the Telegraph reports. Prior to joining Facebook in 2010, as CEO of Bebo Shields assisted its sale to AOL. “Joanna has been a tremendous contributor to our EMEA organization and her leadership and passion will be missed,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20121020/facebook-exec-joanna-shields-departs-for-economic-role-in-london/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120906/exclusive-synacor-to-offer-tv-everywhere-authentication-via-social-ids/ http://allthingsd.com/20120906/exclusive-synacor-to-offer-tv-everywhere-authentication-via-social-ids/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:02:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=248108

Synacor, the behind-the-scenes tech company that provides authentication services to television companies, will be launching a new identification platform for pay-TV services that will allow users to use social IDs rather than passwords across multiple devices.

While it is common for consumers to do so for a range of Web services, Synacor Cloud ID will be the first to allow customers to use social logins from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for cable TV authorization.

The Buffalo-based Synacor is a leader in white-label authentication services for many “TV Everywhere” events, including 2012 March Madness, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and, most recently, the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

To do so, the company has worked with many pay-TV providers, as well as channels, including Dish Network, Charter, HBO Go, CNN and the Cartoon Network.

It has not announced any done deals as yet, said a spokesman, but the goal is obviously to work with the big ones, such as Comcast, Dish and Time Warner Cable.

Such a move is an important one, as Peter Kafka wrote recently:

“That’s one of the fundamental precepts of the ‘TV Everywhere’ plan that the cable guys are using to hold off disruption, and in practice it’s a hassle. It requires digging up your cable bill so you can find your account number, and starting up yet another online account and password. Not rocket science, but certainly not one-click easy.”

Here’s the full press Synacor release:

Pay-TV Industry First: “Social Login with TVE Authorization” — Consumers Login Using Their Favorite Social Account and Simultaneously Authorize with Their Pay-TV Billing Account

BUFFALO, NY (PRWEB — September 6, 2012) — Synacor, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNC), leading provider of next-gen startpages, TV Everywhere solutions and cloud-based services, today announced an expanded Cloud Identity Management platform, broadening its cloud-based services suite for consumer electronics companies, wireless carriers, programmers and app developers in addition to Pay-TV providers. Synacor’s Cloud ID works whenever and wherever consumers must be authenticated, authorized and/or registered, and on any device.

Synacor’s Cloud ID offering features an industry first: Social Login with Pay-TV Authorization. To authenticate for access to online Pay-TV content, consumers can now login with their favorite social account like Facebook, Twitter or Google, while simultaneously authorizing with their pay-TV provider or billing account. Synacor Cloud ID brings the convenience of social login to TV Everywhere consumers with the trust of entitlement verification for TV authorization.

“Synacor’s experience and scale providing web authentication and identity integrations is a strategic advantage over other cloud identity providers,” said Michael Bishara, Synacor GM for TV Everywhere. “Synacor successfully provided authentication for NBC Universal’s TV Everywhere 2012 Summer Olympics on behalf of nearly 40 pay-TV customers, spanning all 50 states, reaching 25 million subscribers — the largest TVE Olympics footprint. Synacor is now leveraging our experience to provide cloud identity services for additional customer verticals that require registration, authentication and authorization capabilities.”

Synacor’s Cloud ID Management Platform already provides authentication services for TV Everywhere, Messaging and Value Added Services, but has been expanded to provide a full suite of Identity Management Services. These expanded capabilities will enable consumer electronics companies, app developers and programmers to provide a Secure and Trusted Identity Management solution to their end-consumers.

“Synacor provides end-consumers a seamless authentication, authorization and registration experience while providing our customers all their administrative needs such as Account Management, Auditing and Reporting,” said Synacor co-founder and EVP George Chamoun. “As identity management moves from the enterprise to a distributed model, companies such as pay-TV, consumer electronics and app developers need a trusted and tested partner to serve as their conduit for ID services. With more than a decade behind us, innumerable integrations and millions of authentications across hundreds of devices, Synacor is that Cloud ID partner.”

Synacor Cloud ID spans the entire ecosystem, offering an end-to-end or distributed component solution, and existing in Synacor’s cloud or the customer’s. Synacor’s key advantages include the following:

Scale — Delivering millions of authentications, including authentication for Synacor’s pay-TV customers’ 25 million subscriber footprint for the 2012 Summer Olympics and on an ongoing basis for TV Everywhere, Synacor is the scale player in Cloud ID management.

Gateway — Synacor is the bridge connecting hundreds of identity systems for authentication, authorization and user profile information while leveraging industry-standard technologies such as SAML, OAuth, OpenID, and Social IDs, creating a multipronged gateway that both identifies as well as entitles based on a consumer’s rights profile, and integrated with the preferred ID technologies of Synacor’s customers.

Social Login — An industry first. Synacor’s Social Login feature creates a trusted connection among content providers and pay-TV providers, allowing consumers to bind their pay-TV credentials to their favorite and frequented social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Google, allowing for a seamless sign-on process, and using the credentials most consumers remember.

Multi-Platform and Multi-Language — Synacor Cloud ID is accessible on desktop, mobile, tablet and across a range of connected devices, as well as being fully localized for user interfaces in multiple languages.

Trusted Framework — With a decade of success, Synacor is a tested and trusted connection in the distributed, cloud-based model of Identity Management and Services. Synacor’s fraud prevention technology monitors for suspicious account activity across multiple devices, streams and providers. Synacor delivers its solution from three data centers in the United States and in Europe. Synacor customers are in full control over their data, yet can leverage Synacor’s experience.

Synacor has provided authentication services for key TV Everywhere events including 2012 March Madness, 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and most recently the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Synacor has completed integrations with numerous pay-TV providers, as well as many pay-TV channels. Pay-TV providers include DISH Network, Charter, CenturyLink, Mediacom, Suddenlink and WOW! among others. Integrations include HBO GO, Max GO, CNN, TBS, TNT, tru TV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Epix, Comcast Entertainment Group (E!, Style, G4), Fox, Speed2, BigTen and a number of other TV channels.

For more information on Synacor’s cloud-based services including Cloud ID, TV Everywhere and Cloud Messaging Services, please visit synacor.com or email sales@synacor.com. Synacor reaches over 23 million households, tallying a monthly average of 20 million unique visitors and 3.7 billion ad impressions.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120906/exclusive-synacor-to-offer-tv-everywhere-authentication-via-social-ids/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120621/naturalmotion-lands-11-million-to-build-better-looking-mobile-games/ http://allthingsd.com/20120621/naturalmotion-lands-11-million-to-build-better-looking-mobile-games/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:00:53 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=221618 London-based NaturalMotion Games, known for making mobile games with high-end graphics, has raised $11 million from Benchmark Capital. One of the company’s hit titles, My Horse, challenges players to virtually care for realistic-looking horses. NaturalMotion has also opened up a U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, where it will be hiring aggressively. Benchmark’s General Partner Mitch Lasky is joining the company’s board.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120621/naturalmotion-lands-11-million-to-build-better-looking-mobile-games/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120620/hoteltonight-arrives-in-london-just-in-time-for-the-olympics/ http://allthingsd.com/20120620/hoteltonight-arrives-in-london-just-in-time-for-the-olympics/#comments Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:15:20 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=222086 HotelTonight is expanding internationally, starting with London — just in time for the Olympics.

The San Francisco company, which allows people to book last-minute hotel deals for the same day at steep discounts, said that it will also be adding additional cities in the U.K and other Western European markets in the near future.

The company said its iOS and Android apps have been downloaded more than two million times, up from 300,000 just a year ago.

By offering deals in more than 40 U.S. cities, plus Toronto and Vancouver, B.C., you can expect downloads to continue to rise, but it also makes HotelTonight more competitive with some other last-minute apps, like Priceline’s Booking.com Tonight application. Although we’ve found that while Priceline’s app has a big selection in a lot of cities, it doesn’t necessarily offer huge discounts.

HotelTonight’s pitch is to provide ways to sell unfilled rooms without impacting a hotel’s brand. And for procrastinators, it offers the ability to find rooms at a discount of up to 70 percent off, starting at noon for the same evening.

HotelTonight recently raised $23 million in a third round of capital, led by US Venture Partners with participation from Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and First Round Capital.

As part of the expansion, HotelTonight also said it was opening a London office and hired Heather Leisman as Managing Director of Europe. Most recently, Leisman ran the supply, operations, customer service and merchandising functions at Jetsetter, a Gilt Groupe company.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120620/hoteltonight-arrives-in-london-just-in-time-for-the-olympics/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120617/index-ventures-raises-442-million-in-new-fund/ http://allthingsd.com/20120617/index-ventures-raises-442-million-in-new-fund/#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:21:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=221002 Index Ventures said it had raised 350 million euros ($442 million) in a new sixth venture capital fund, which will be aimed at early-stage investments in the U.S., Israel and Europe. The London-based Index, which raised its last fund in 2009, opened an office in San Francisco last year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120617/index-ventures-raises-442-million-in-new-fund/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120605/nbcs-olympic-web-video-plan-live-legal-and-painful/ http://allthingsd.com/20120605/nbcs-olympic-web-video-plan-live-legal-and-painful/#comments Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:37:04 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=216664

Warren Little/Getty Images

During the last summer Olympics, NBC wouldn’t show some of the most exciting events live on the Web, because it wanted to protect its ratings for its taped TV highlights.

Four years later, the programmer has wised up, and will livestream every single event. This is great news, with only one catch: If you want to see all of it, you’ll need to pay for cable TV.

Actually, make that two catches: You’ll also need to prove to NBC that you pay for cable TV (or telco TV, or satellite TV).

That’s one of the fundamental precepts of the “TV Everywhere” plan that the cable guys are using to hold off disruption, and in practice it’s a hassle. It requires digging up your cable bill so you can find your account number, and starting up yet another online account and password. Not rocket science, but certainly not one-click easy.

The TV guys, to their credit, don’t pretend that it’s easy, either.

“It’s painful, we know, but it’ll be worth it … trust us,” says an NBC Olympics explainer (thanks to Zach Seward’s excellent Cord Cutter’s Diary for the tip).

NBC isn’t the only network to acknowledge, with a wink and a nudge, that the process is a headache. Last summer, when Fox (which, like this Web site, is owned by News Corp.) moved its prime-time stuff behind a TV Everywhere pay wall, it helpfully pointed out that the process was less unpleasant than being waterboarded.

The networks say they do take all of this seriously, and argue that it has gotten easier to sign up for TV Everywhere stuff. (Here’s an amusing “Family Guy” video explaining the process.)

At a cable-industry panel I moderated last month, Disney executive David Preschlak said that the programmer has been refining the login process for its excellent Watch ESPN service/app in the last year. One small but effective change Disney has made: It now asks users to “verify” that they are paying customers, instead of telling them to “authenticate,” which is the industry’s semi-ominous term. Logins shot up dramatically after Disney swapped the terms out, Preschlak said.

One way to make all of this a whole lot easier would be to route verification/authentication from a third-party service that just about everyone uses, like Facebook, and use that service’s credentials as a login. And Facebook likes this idea a whole lot, and has been talking about it for a couple of years. But the Comcasts and Verizons of the world have yet to buy in.

So if you want to be sure you can stream Usain Bolt in real time this summer, start digging through your mail now.

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