Yahoo’s Mayer Has Met with Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit

How much is the Silicon Valley Internet giant willing to spend on turbocharging its video prospects?
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Groupon Gets Average Grades on Analysts’ First Report Cards

Wall Street analysts are particularly concerned about how the 3-year-old daily deals company will evolve over the next couple of years.

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Moody’s Downgrades Nokia

Moody’s Investor Service Inc. Wednesday downgraded Nokia Corp.’s debt rating two notches, heaping more pressure on the troubled mobile-phone maker as it struggles to realign its business strategy and regain traction in the lucrative smartphone business.

Flixster Update: Warner Bros. Very Interested, as Yahoo Drops Out of Bidding for Social Movie Site

Warner Bros. appears to be the frontrunner in various talks to buy Flixster, the social movie site, while Internet giant Yahoo has dropped out due to price concerns. Sources said the reason for interest from the Time Warner-owned studio is due to a spate of recent digital efforts, including its expansion of a movie rental experiment on Facebook.

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Apple: JMP Says Hold on Hon Hai Deceleration

Shares of Apple are down sharply after JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna today cut his rating on the stock to Market Perform from Outperform, writing that the crisis in Japan threatens to compound what seems already to have been a deceleration in production at Appleā€™s main contract assembler, Hon Hai Precision.

100 Percent Fresh Exclusive!: Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes in Acquisition Talks With Yahoo and Others

Flixster–the popular social movie site whose brands include the Rotten Tomatoes premium reviews site, as well as BuddyTV–is in early acquisition talks with several suitors, including Yahoo, said sources close to the situation. The price being discussed for the San Francisco-based start-up is between $60 million and $90 million, said several sources, in talks that are “substantive.”

Facebook Is Best U.S. Place to Work (According to Its Employees)

Facebook employees think their company is a great place to work. In fact, among users of the jobs site Glassdoor, the social networking powerhouse was the top-ranked U.S. employer for 2010.

Consumer Reports Slams AT&T (Again)

Consumer Reports has been taking swings at AT&T’s cellphone service for a while now. But the carrier finds itself once again in its crosshairs. The January 2011 issue ranks cellphones and services, and carries this headline on the cover: “Best and worst providers (Sorry AT&T).”

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Videogames as Free-Speech Issue

Videogame designers at ZeniMax Media Inc.’s Bethesda Softworks destroyed a virtual U.S. Capitol, Jefferson Memorial and other landmarks in the Mature-rated “Fallout 3,” which depicts the ruins of post-apocalyptic Washington. They didn’t bother to obliterate the U.S. Supreme Court. But in the real world, that’s where the $10.5 billion videogame industry faces its greatest threat.

LinkedIn Buys ChoiceVendor

A Palliative for Palm

No Christmas in Palm-ville