U2

Yahoo’s Product Runway: Are You In or Out?

Kara Swisher in Media on November 2, 2011 at 10:41 am PT

I am here at Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif., to check out “Product Runway,” which is the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s attempt to show that it can still innovate.

October. Oc … to … ber. Repeat After Me: Apple iPhone 5 to Launch in October.

Kara Swisher in Mobile on August 12, 2011 at 4:51 pm PT

Dear Everyone: Chillax, because, as we said, you’ll have to wait until October.

Voices

Elevation Partners Keeps Internet Hits Coming With Pandora

Daniel Hausmann, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on August 26, 2010 at 3:14 pm PT

Private equity firm Elevation Partners is continuing to invest in big-name venture-backed Internet businesses, this time putting a deal together for online radio service Pandora Media. The technology and media investor – which counts U2 front man Bono as a managing director – signed a letter of intent to buy a stake in a secondary sale from existing shareholders, a person familiar with the deal confirmed. TechCrunch reported the deal earlier.

Liveblogging Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting (Morning Session): It's a Beautiful Day?

Kara Swisher in News on July 29, 2010 at 8:24 am PT

BoomTown took the corporate All Things Digital jet–aka Virgin America, seat 10A–up to Redmond, Wash., today to attend Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting, which also includes a passel of media drones like me. I liveblogged the event all day, which was essentially a cavalcade of top execs from the software giant taking the stage and showing off their wares. Before it started, U2′s “Beautiful Day” was playing over the sound system, which it was not up here in the Pacific Northwest this morning–it was kind of cold and gloomy, a la “Twilight”–but hopefully sparkly for Microsoft execs.

YouTube Nabs a Sit-Down With Barack Obama

Peter Kafka in Media on February 1, 2010 at 7:39 am PT

Yet another tie-up between Google and the White House: A one-on-one interview between Barack Obama and YouTube. The crowd-sourced questions are a sort-of novelty, but it’s worth nothing that this is yet another live-streamed event for the clip site.

Voices

Three's A Trend: First Facebook, Then Zynga, Now Yelp

Scott Austin, Lead Editor, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Wall Street journal in News on January 28, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Yelp Inc. now has another thing in common with social-networking site Facebook Inc. and online gaming company Zynga Inc. Besides being a fast-growing, venture-backed Internet company, the local-business review site has opted to receive an investment from a private equity firm that gives its employees a chance to partly cash out–and the company more breathing room to remain private.

Court Kills Preposterous Pirate Beatles Site

Peter Kafka in Media on November 18, 2009 at 4:05 pm PT

It’s official: You still can’t buy the Beatles’ songs on the Web, despite the efforts of a site that attempted to do so by rewriting copyright law on the fly. In other news: Have you seen this clip of Richard Pryor reading the alphabet on Sesame Street? Awesome.

UTube: 10 Million Streams for Bono and Co.’s Live Show

Peter Kafka in Media on October 29, 2009 at 4:22 am PT

What happens when one of the biggest bands in the world Webcasts a live concert on the world’s biggest video site? You get a lot of video streams. Close to 10 million, says YouTube, adding that Sunday’s live Webcast of U2′s Rose Bowl concert was the single largest event it has streamed so far.

Investors Bet on Another Real-Time Start-Up. Next Up for Hot Potato: Product, Users.

Peter Kafka in Media on October 23, 2009 at 12:16 pm PT

Here’s a good way to get your hands on scarce venture capital money: Create a start-up geared around Twitter-like “real-time” sharing and conversations. The newest entrant: Hot Potato, a buzzy start-up that’s supposed to let users converse about a particular event, whether they’re attending it in person or watching from afar. When it’s up and running, that is. The five-man crew doesn’t have users or a product just yet. But it has just raised around $1 million.

Voices

Susan Boyle Album Tops Amazon Pre-Orders

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 21, 2009 at 2:30 pm PT

A month ahead of its release, Susan Boyle’s album has more advance orders on Amazon.com than any CD in the retailer’s history, it said. The Sony album, titled “I Dreamed a Dream,” goes on sale on Nov. 23. Ms. Boyle sang the song by the same name on “Britain’s Got Talent,” and the video of her unexpectedly strong performance made her a world-wide phenomenon after it landed on video-sharing sites like YouTube.