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Minor Controversy: Zuckerberg Wants Young Kids on Facebook

Liz Gannes — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:51:13 +0000

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview this week he would like to create a safe and educational social networking environment for kids younger than 13. (According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million such American kids already use Facebook by lying about their age.) “That will be a fight we take on at some point,” Zuckerberg reportedly said of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which mandates parental permission and other protections for young users. And here we thought China was Facebook’s next big controversy…

Kayak Hires First-Ever CFO Ahead of Pending IPO

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:11:34 +0000

Six months after filing to go public, online travel service Kayak has gotten around to hiring its very first CFO: Bill H. Smith, previously VP of global finance for Novell, where he worked for 13 years. Earlier this year, Kayak’s plans faced a delay as the Justice Department examined (and ultimately okayed) Google’s acquisition of ITA Software, but the Norwalk, Conn.-based company is likely encouraged today by LinkedIn’s frothy IPO.

PopCap Plans IPO for November as It Emphasizes Mobile and Social Games

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:24:02 +0000

Making good on its announced intentions, Seattle’s PopCap Games, a casual game maker known for titles like Bejeweled, confirmed it is preparing to go public as soon as November, according to a company spokesperson. Popcap has been busy recently beefing up its mobile and social game offerings, today launching the first social version of Plants vs. Zombies on the Chinese social networking site Renren. It also has released its first Android games via an exclusive in the Amazon Appstore.

San Francisco Adopts Microsoft's Cloud-Based Email

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:45:05 +0000

Microsoft has struck a deal with the city of San Francisco to provide Microsoft Exchange Online, its cloud-based email system, for the city’s workforce, beating out competing products from Google and IBM. It was the latest move in a steadily unfolding battle with Google to land government cloud contracts. In 2009, Google won a round by landing a Google Apps contract with the city of Los Angeles.

Yahoo Confirms Purchase of 5to1

Voices — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:35:41 +0000

As tipped a week ago by All Things D’s Kara Swisher, Yahoo is buying 5to1, a self-serve premium advertising platform for major media publishers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a figure of $25 million has been tossed around. After the transaction closes in Q2, the 5to1 team will join Yahoo’s Ad Marketplaces group.

You, Too, Can Edit the Atlantic. Now About That Paycheck…

Peter Kafka — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:31:20 +0000

Ever have the desire to edit a big Web site, for free? Clever Gabe Snyder figures there are a few of you out there: He’s asking readers of the Atlantic Wire, a buzzy offshoot of the print magazine’s main site, to play along with his staff as they chat about what the site ought to be covering, in real time. You’ll need a Disqus account to take part.

Travelzoo's New CFO is Ex-eBay Controller Glen Ceremony

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:23:36 +0000

Travelzoo has appointed former eBay Controller Glen Ceremony to the position of CFO, starting June 15. Travelzoo’s current CFO, Wayne Lee, will stay on board until July. The discount travel company said Lee is stepping down to take time off with his family and pursue other opportunities. Before joining eBay in 2004, Ceremony held positions at Electronic Arts and PWC.

A New Guest At The Nortel Patent Party?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 17 May 2011 21:41:09 +0000

The queue to bid in the auction for Nortel’s collection of patents grows longer by the day. Earlier this month we learned that Research In Motion and patent risk solutions provider RPX were considering participating in the auction. Today comes word of a new potential bidder: Ericsson AB. People familiar with the company’s plans tell Bloomberg that it’s mulling an offer for Nortel’s IP, perhaps in concert with Google, Microsoft or Intel.

Samsung Mobile Scraps May 24 Launch Event in New York

Ina Fried — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:51:12 +0000

Whatever it was that Samsung planned to launch on May 24, it will be a little while longer before it gets launched. Samsung Mobile said on Monday that it is postponing the New York event it had slated for that date. It’s not clear if the event would have been for the U.S. launch of the already announced Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or some other device. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” Samsung said in an email to reporters. “We will be in touch soon with more details.”

Winklevoss Brothers Shot Down by Court Again

Liz Gannes — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:36:35 +0000

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected (PDF) a request by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to rehear their case against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. The Winklevii had petitioned for an “en banc” hearing, in which eleven judges hear the case rather than the usual three. The usual three had already unanimously rejected the Winklevoss’ claims that their settlement with Facebook be thrown out due to securities fraud. The only step left is the Supreme Court…or returning to a life as millionaires with chips on their shoulders. (Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.)

SanDisk Acquires Enterprise Storage Player Pliant; Shares Soar

Arik Hesseldahl — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:06:38 +0000

SanDisk, the flash memory producer, said today it will spend $327 million to acquire Pliant, a developer of flash-memory-based storage products for use in corporate computer systems. Shares in the company rose by $1.63, or more than 3.5 percent, to $48.13 on word of the deal, despite the fact that SanDisk said one-time items related to the acquisition will reduce its per-share earnings by as much as 3 percent in its fiscal year 2011.

Netflix Adds Miramax Movies

Peter Kafka — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:00:04 +0000

Netflix has finalized a previously reported deal to bring “several hundred” old Miramax movies like “Pulp Fiction” to the rental service. The deal is non-exclusive and doesn’t cover new titles, since the holding company that owns Miramax hasn’t made any movies since it bought the library from Disney last year. The Wall Street Journal originally pegged the deal’s value at $100 million over five years.

Flipped Off: Flipboard Blocked in China

Liz Gannes — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:12:08 +0000

The Chinese government has blocked local access to the social news app Flipboard, according to CEO Mike McCue. It’s at least consistent with China’s attitude toward the services whose content Flipboard delivers: Twitter, Facebook and Flickr have all been blocked. iPads are quite popular in China, with analysts estimating hundreds of thousands of them have been sold there. McCue said Flipboard was being used in China by “lots of folks” before it was blocked.

Sony Slowly Begins to Bring PlayStation Network Back Online

Tricia Duryee — Sat, 14 May 2011 23:59:40 +0000

Sony is starting to bring its PlayStation and Qriocity services back online after hackers attacked nearly a month ago. In an announcement on Saturday, it said both the PlayStation Network, which allows users to play downloadable games, and its Qricocity music and television network, will begin a phased restoration beginning in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Our Unbloggable Nightmare Is Over: Blogger Outage Ends

Liz Gannes — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:14:20 +0000

Blogger is back online, after 20.5 hours during which users could not create or edit posts. The Google-owned service attributed its outage and reliability problems, which started Wednesday night, to “data corruption” that was introduced during scheduled maintenance. However, some entries from the past two days are still missing; Google said they are in the process of being restored. Now it’s off to the races for an onslaught of blog posts about the dark day and silent night when users couldn’t publish.

Wal-Mart Stores Acquires Minority Stake in Chinese E-Commerce Company

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:45:55 +0000

Wal-Mart Stores is acquiring an undisclosed stake in the holding company of Yihaodian, a three-year-old e-commerce company in China. Wal-Mart did not say how much it was investing, but that it was a minority stake. Yihaodian specializes in online grocery sales, as well as in categories such as baby, consumer electronics and apparel. Other hot retailers in China are Dangdang, which recently went public, 360buy and Alibaba.com, which is in a heated dispute with its partial owner Yahoo.

Case Closed: LimeWire Settles With Labels For $105 Million

Peter Kafka — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:25:33 +0000

And now the long-running LimeWire saga is really over: The file-sharing site, forced to shut down by a Federal court order last fall, has agreed to pay the big music labels $105 million to settle a copyright case. The two sides had spent the past couple weeks in a New York courtroom, where a jury was set to decide damages; LimeWire agreed to a separate settlement with music publishers in March.

About That Music Recovery…

Peter Kafka — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:50:42 +0000

If you were looking for some reason not to get too excited about a reported uptick in music sales, here you go: Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music label, says revenue decreased 5 percent in the last quarter, after accounting for currency effects. The label said digital revenues were up 17.6 percent.

DailyMotion Vet Joy Marcus Joins DFJ Gotham

Peter Kafka — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:22:34 +0000

Joy Marcus, who used to run U.S. operations at France’s DailyMotion, has a new gig: She’s joining DFJ Gotham as a venture partner, where she’ll concentrate on the firm’s digital media portfolio. Marcus’ resumé also includes stints at Time Warner, Barnesandnoble.com and MTV.

In Pursuit of Openness: Facebook Admits It Tried to Smear Google on Privacy

Liz Gannes — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:00:51 +0000

At a time when Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is being praised for her political deftness, the company appears to have made a serious PR blunder in trying to plant anti-Google privacy stories. Facebook admitted to the Daily Beast Thursday night that it was the client behind an exposed whisper campaign by a PR firm to plant stories about Google social products scraping user data–a concern various people have determined was overblown. More background here and here. Update: Facebook and the PR firm put out statements.

Cisco's Quarter Tops Expectations

Voices — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:28:08 +0000

Cisco shares initially started moving up in after-hours trading following quarterly results that exceeded analysts’ predictions. The company reported adjusted net income of $2.3 billion, or 42 cents per share, on sales of $10.9 billion, a five percent increase year-over-year. Analysts had been looking for 37 cents a share, on revenue of $10.87 billion.

Cisco's Quarter Tops Expectations

Voices — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:28:08 +0000

Pageonce Raises $15 Million to Build Apps to Help People Manage Their Bills

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:00:54 +0000

Pageonce, a company that has created a way for consumers to track where they spend their money, has a little more money to spend themselves. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has raised $15 million, bringing its total raised to $25 million. The round was led by Morgenthaler Ventures with participation from Pitango Ventures and Pageonce’s Chairman Liron Petrushka. Already, 4.5 million use the ad-supported smartphone apps to track bills and bank account balances. The money will be used for adding new features, hiring and to boost consumer awareness.

Is That a Vibrating Pack of Proximity-Aware Electronic Cigarettes In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

Liz Gannes — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:00:54 +0000

Bet your analog cancer stick can’t do this: Electronic cigarette maker Blu Cigs will next month release an edition of its nicotine-vapor pack that vibrates and flashes a blue light when 50 feet or less away from another pack. The $80 product will give would-be smokers a buzz, help them meet people, and then automatically exchange social networking profiles. Though the New York Times seemed to have trouble finding people who think this is a good idea, I’d love to see what Don Draper would do with it.

Google Takes $500M Charge Related to DOJ Ad Probe

Voices — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:15:51 +0000

Google’s latest 10-Q filing with the SEC became public today and revealed the company had taken a previously undisclosed $500 million charge in the quarter that ended March 31 “in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers.” No further elaboration was forthcoming.