Apple’s New iPad Will Be Sold in 56 Countries by the End of April

The rollout of Apple’s new iPad continues apace, with the company bringing it to dozens of additional countries in the next two weeks.
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Exclusive: LivingSocial Makes Giant Push Into Asia With Acquisition of South Korea’s Ticket Monster

As LivingSocial’s biggest acquisition to date, TMon will provide a key home base in Asia as the daily deals site expands globally in preparation for its IPO.
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News Byte

IPad 2 Hits Japan, India, Hong Kong Friday

The iPad 2 has a new Japanese launch date: Friday. Apple originally gave the iPad 2 a street date of March 25 in Japan, but canceled it after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that savaged the country. Today it said it’s added Japan to the second wave of international iPad 2 launches which includes Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Texas Instruments to Acquire National Semiconductor for $6.5 Billion

Two of the oldest names in the chip business are about to combine. About as long as I’ve known about electronics, I’ve known of the names Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor. Today, TI announced it will acquire National for $6.5 billion, representing a 77 percent premium over the $3.4 billion market cap it had as of the close of today’s regular trading.

IPad Debuts in 11 More Countries

This week is a big one for international iPad launches. By its end, the device will have debuted in 11 new countries: Poland, Taiwan, Denmark, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Malaysia, Finland and South Korea.

Yahoo Sticks With "It's Y!ou," Expanding Pricey Ad Campaign by Pushing "Hero Products" and Relevance

When Yahoo launched its massive advertising campaign–featuring the tag line, “It’s Y!ou”–earlier this fall with splashy events in New York and slick marketing rollouts all over the U.S., not everyone at the Internet portal loved it. “It’s not M!e,” joked a longtime Yahoo exec to BoomTown in an email, one of many like it that I got from inside the company, all of which worried about whether the motto and ad effort had enough punch and point to get Yahoo back on track. Well, Yahoo is sticking to its guns as it moves into the next phase of efforts to revitalize its brand with more specifics about its products and “relevance.”
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Friendster’s Cautionary Tale Ends in $100 Million Sale

There aren’t a lot of start-up stories in which a nine-figure sale is considered a bummer, but this is one of them: Friendster, the site that once defined social networking, has been sold to Malaysia’s MOL Global at a fraction of its old value.
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Voices

Web Censoring Widens Across Southeast Asia

Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism. Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet.

Friendster: The Orkut of Asia

If Orkut is the Facebook of Brazil, then Friendster is the Orkut of Asia. The company, which created the social-networking market only to forfeit it to Myspace and Facebook, is apparently doing quite well in Asia. So much so, that it’s used its success on that continent to secure some new venture funding and a CEO with a Google pedigree.