Minneapolis

Voices

MSFT's $2.3B Bond Sale: 'Year Of The Shareholder,' Says Bloomberg

Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily in News on February 4, 2011 at 3:58 am PT

In response to Microsoft’s plan to sell $2.25 billion of bonds in maturities of 2015, 2020, and 2040, Bloomberg’s Sapna Maheshwari and John Detrixhe this afternoon write that the offering signals 2011 is, “more the year of the shareholder than the year of the bondholder.”

Shopkick Checks In With Target–CEO Cyriac Roeding Talks About Social Shopping

Kara Swisher in News on November 16, 2010 at 10:28 am PT

The idea of being rewarded for being a consumer is getting a lot of heat of late, as retailers seek to take advantage of the fast-moving social phenom among consumers, especially young ones. Thus, a wide range of efforts to combine location-based mobile apps with purchasing, both online and offline. Today, another company in the space, shopkick, announced it had added another store–Minneapolis-based Target–to its list of retailers deploying its platform and mobile app that gives you points for simply walking in a store.

Exclusive: Yahoo Eyes CafeMom for $100 Million Acquisition

Kara Swisher in News on August 17, 2010 at 10:14 am PT

According to numerous sources, Yahoo is eager to close a deal to acquire CafeMom, a social-networking and community site aimed at mothers, in a move aimed at turbocharging its often-meandering strategy in the important women’s space. The price being offered, said sources, is hovering at $100 million, about the same amount Yahoo recently forked over for Associated Content. The deal might not happen, of course, but several sources said the pair have been deep in negotiations in recent weeks.

TicketFly Rounds Up $3 Million to Fight Ticketmaster

Peter Kafka in Media on May 12, 2010 at 8:30 am PT

Average concertgoers go to two shows a year, and there’s a very good chance some of the money they spend on those shows goes to Ticketmaster, which dominates the ticketing business. So here’s a company that wants a piece of that: TicketFly, a New York-based start-up that wants to–gasp!–use the Web to update the archaic business.

Just the Toilet Paper, Mayonnaise and Kindle for You Today, Sir?

John Paczkowski in News on April 22, 2010 at 7:06 am PT

Amazon’s Kindle will soon make its brick-and-mortar debut. On Wednesday afternoon, Target said it will begin selling the e-reader this weekend, confirming rumors that have been circulating for a couple weeks.

Maybe Newsday Made Its Pay Wall a Little Too Strong

Peter Kafka in Media on January 26, 2010 at 5:16 pm PT

That pay wall that Newsday put around its Web site last year? Crazily effective–at keeping people from buying an online subscription. Since the wall went up three months ago, only 35 people–as in not quite three dozen–have paid the $5-a-week fee for Web access. What does this tell us about the New York Times plan? Not much.

Want to Work at a Newspaper? Better Brush Up on Your Twitter.

Peter Kafka in Media on July 8, 2009 at 6:10 am PT

Want to work for the Minneapolis Star Tribune? Make sure you can demonstrate mastery of Facebook and Twitter. The daily is looking for a political reporter and insists that the new hire shows up with Web 2.0 bona fides.

Analyst: 750,000 iPhones Sold Last Weekend

John Paczkowski in News on June 22, 2009 at 4:40 am PT

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster was right. The iPhone 3GS didn’t sell as well as the iPhone 3G did during its launch weekend last year. But it did quite a bit better than he thought. In an investment note issued this morning, Munster estimated the company sold 750,000 iPhones over the weekend.

Here’s One Way to Get People to Pay for Music: Labels Win $2 Million Verdict in Downloading Trial

Peter Kafka in Media on June 19, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

Don’t want to pay $1 for a song on iTunes? Try $80,000 a pop. That’s what a federal jury in Minneapolis has told a woman to pay the music industry for illegally downloading 24 songs, bringing her total bill to $1.92 million. Her response: “Good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip.”

Newspapers: Please Buy a Kindle. Unless We Can Sell You a Paper Instead.

Peter Kafka in Media on May 6, 2009 at 9:12 am PT

Even under the best of circumstances, Amazon’s new Kindle DX wouldn’t “save the newspaper business.” But since the newspapers are desperate to protect their dying print business, this thing may never get off the ground at all.