Update: YouTube has officially announced Vevo. Original article 03/05: The number one video site in the US and the world's largest music label are said to be cooking up a deal and a new service. YouTube and Universal Music Group are reportedly in talks to create a premium online music video service. YouTube has been the go to site for music videos for many people for years. The problem with that is that the music videos there are not legally supposed to be there. This often leads to them getting pulled and makes it frustrating for users, and hard for them to rely on the site for finding the music videos they're looking for. In the later part of last year, MTV launched music video site MTVmusic.com. A quick look at Compete data illustrates quite a decline in interest in that since its launch. There's no decline to be found with YouTube though, and perhaps that is why a music video site makes good sense there. People are going to continue searching for music videos with YouTube. Why not provide them? The site would operate separately from YouTube.com, but I would have to imagine it would receive heavy promotion from YouTube itself, driving the users looking for music videos to it. It should be more popular than music video pioneer MTV's site right out of the bag. Yinka Adegoke with Reuters reports, "The deal would ideally be broadened out to include videos by artists at the other major music labels -- Sony Music, EMI Group and Warner Music Group -- in a concept similar to the TV shows available on NBC Universal and News Corp's Hulu.com." Keep in mind, the whole deal is only in talks at this point. So let's not make too much where there isn't anything. That said, there is a name that the potential service is being referred to as - Vevo.

music youtube video videos service group universal deal people launch quot makes said looking decline talks users nthere often later

Everyone - and we know there must be a lot of you - who would rather not hear more about potential Microsoft-Yahoo deals should get ready to abandon the Internet for a little while.  It looks like a fresh round of rumors is on the way, led by a report that the two companies are discussing partnerships.  Interestingly, Steve Ballmer and Carol Bartz are supposed to be personally involved, which implies that some rather high-powered negotiations are taking place.  But it's been said that a flat-out acquisition isn't on the table this time. Kara Swisher wrote, "According to a variety of sources, the talks between the pair and other execs at both companies are preliminary and wide-ranging, focused on what kind of commercial relationship Yahoo and Microsoft could have in the future."  And search and advertising deals may be receiving a special amount of attention. Logic seems to dictate that the corporations are aiming to arrive at a deal in either the very near or rather distant future.  After all, Microsoft's already preparing to spend $100 million to promote its new search brand. So again, brace yourself for all sorts of rumors as the situation develops (or doesn't).

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There are some big changes happening with YouTube. You've probably read recently that YouTube has teamed up with Universal on a site called Vevo that is supposedly going to be the Hulu of music videos. YouTube has also been getting involved with other content partners like MGM, Disney, and most recently, Sony Pictures, with which it is in talks with for full-length feature films.  YouTube is reportedly also in the process of switching to a more Hulu-like design. ClickZ recently reported: According to two sources familiar with Google's plans for YouTube, the new design will do away with the current navigation scheme -- which funnels users into "videos," "channels," and "community" categories. That layout will be replaced with a tabbed navigation with clearly defined sections for professional content. The new design will offer four tabs: Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips, and movies from Google's network and studio partners, all of which will be monetized with in-stream advertising. Meanwhile the Videos channel will house amateur and semi-pro content of the sort major brand advertisers have shied away from. YouTube will still have the user-generated content it has become known for of course. ClickZ's Zachary Rodgers was told that they'd be putting up walls between all the user-generated stuff an the "brand-safe content." YouTube's player will also be more like Hulu's (below) in the sense it will show markers where ads will appear in the progress bar. It sounds to me like YouTube is going to become kind of like YouTube-meets-Hulu. I wonder if TV shows will enter the mix. Perhaps Hulu should think about offering a user-generated content area.

youtube content quot hulu videos user shows nyoutube generate recently design google tabs movy become clickz away brand navigation partners

A proposed buyout of eBay's Skype by the Internet calling services co-founders and a group of private - equity firms is not likely to be completed. Niklas Zennstrom & Janus Friis The private equity firms involved in the potential purchase of Skype include KKR, Warburg Pincus, Providence and Elevation Partners, along with the founders of the Internet calling service, according to a Wall Street Journal blog post. Founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis approached eBay about buying back Skype, which bought the service for 2.6 billion in 2005. eBay signaled it was open to an offer, and the Scandinavian billionaires turned to a group of private-equity firms to back them, a person familiar with the situation said. The proposal by the private-equity firms and co-founders would involve eBay committing $1 billion to the deal, along with financing. eBay reportedly rejected the founder's offer because it was well below the price it wanted to sell Skype for. The two sides are not close to an agreement and a deal involving the private-equity firms is not likely to happen, according to sources familiar with the situation. eBay has indicated it was open to parting with Skype, after initially planning to integrate the phone service with its marketplaces business. Skype is eBay's largest acquisition and has been a disappointment for the ecommerce company. It has indicated it would be open to the sale of Skype for the right price and has acknowledged it has little synergy with the rest of its core business.  

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StumbleUpon is no longer part of eBay. Many have wondered why it was even part of it to begin with, but that pondering can now be put aside. The company has now been returned to its creators for an undisclosed amount. "We are grateful to eBay for its guidance. However, we realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses. It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths," says StumbleUpon co-founder Garrett Camp. "This change makes it possible for StumbleUpon to continue to innovate and focus on becoming the Web's largest recommendation service." Camp is taking over the role of CEO of StumbleUpon. It's interesting that he talks about innovation, because that is exactly what StumbleUpon needs to do right now. The recently launched DiggBar is breathing down its back, despite the controversy with webmasters it has sparked. A statement from eBay says: “StumbleUpon remains a fast-growing company with potential for continued growth in the online discovery market. As eBay Inc. expands its leadership in online payments and ecommerce, it has become apparent that there are few long-term, strategic synergies between StumbleUpon and the eBay Inc. portfolio. The separation of the two companies is the right move to further StumbleUpon’s success while eBay Inc. continues to focus on strategies to connect buyers and sellers across its many platforms.” Mashable's Adam Ostrow speculates, "This could be the first step of eBay dissolving what has essentially become a holding company for a number of startups that don’t really fit into its main auction business. Interestingly enough, the founders of Skype are also interested in buying back their company. They have reportedly been in contact with a number of private equity firms, looking to make a bid.

ebay stumbleupon company quot focus says online camp synergy business become term between this makes continues contact sellers recommendation talks

The founders of Internet telephone service Skype, currently owned by eBay, are interested in buying back the company they sold four years ago. Niklas Zennstrom & Janus Friis Co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have been in contact with a number of private equity firms in order to make a bid for Skype, the New York Times reported. eBay purchased Skype from the two men in 2005 for $2.6 billion, and later received bonus payments that brought the final price to $3.1 billion. Zennstrom and Friis are trying to raise around $1 billion in equity from private investors. A source familiar with the situation said a potential deal could have eBay putting up the rest of the financing with a seller's note making the transaction worth more than $2 billion. eBay has acknowledged that Skype has few synergies with the rest of its ecommerce and payments business. John Donahoe, eBay's CEO, has shown interest in selling Skype for the right price. Analysts have been in favor of eBay spinning off or selling Skype, a move that has the potential to return more cash to shareholders. Skype has over 405 million registered users, up from 53 million when eBay acquired it, and the service had $145 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008.  

skype ebay billion million founders friis payments equity rest price zennstrom selling interest potential service private janus nebay buying internet

eBay has plans to purchase a controlling stake in South Korean online retailer Gmarket for $413 million, at a 32.5 percent premium. The move by eBay would help the online auctioneer to become a significant player in South Korea's customer- to-customer online market by taking control of its key rival. ebay will buy a 34.2 percent stake in Gmarket from its current top shareholder Interpark and Korean firm's chairman, at $24 a share, according to unidentified sources. eBay has been in talks to purchase Interpark's stake in Gmarket since last summer. Cowen and Company analyst Jim Friedland issued a report at the time, writing, "We do not think that eBay is interested buying the entire company given its poor track record in operating wholly owned assets in Asia." "However, we think it signals that eBay believes market share losses and margin declines at Internet Auction (eBay Korea) are irreversible and that the company is considering alternative strategies to benefit from Korean e-commerce growth." South Korea's antitrust watchdog gave eBay conditional approval for the deal. Gmarket currently has around 10 million registered users in South Korea. The site, along with its rival Internet Auction Co., controls 87 percent of the country's online customer-to-customer market. On Monday, Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, downgraded eBay's stock to a sell citing a decline in its core auction business.  

ebay korea customer online gmarket korean stake auction quot market company percent south share million internet retailer interpark analyst nebay

In a roundabout way, the use of Gmail is about to become much more common in the UK.  Virgin Media and Google announced a deal this morning that'll allow four million home broadband customers to benefit from the service's perks while using either new or existing email addresses.  The upgrades, which will include stuff like larger inboxes and better email search, come courtesy of a deployment of Google Apps Partner Edition.  This should be the largest deployment to date, netting Google some revenue and a great deal of exposure. Doug Lucas, Strategic Partner Development Director for Google, stated as a result, "Virgin Media is one of the UK's leading ISPs and this is a great partnership between two companies focused on innovation.  We look forward to rolling out new features for the benefit of all Virgin Media's customers." And Virgin Media will benefit, too, of course.  By offering better and more reliable email service, it should be able to make customers happier (and perhaps more numerous).  Also, since Virgin Media was maintaining @blueyonder.co.uk, @ntlworld.com, and @virgin.net email addresses (and @virginmedia.com addresses are now becoming available), handing over the reigns to Google should spare the company a fair amount of confusion. Finally, here's one more interesting tidbit: a formal release claimed, "[T]he two companies continue to work together to explore a range of additional services and applications."

virgin google media email quot customers deal address benefit company great deployment service partner becoming isps maintaining additional become between

Update: paidContent.org is reporting that eBay CEO John Donahoe says that the company is "still open to other offers" and that he will “maximize the value of Skype. Period." Any "reasonable offers" made between now and 2010 (when the proposed IPO is scheduled) will be evaluated. Original article: eBay announced today that it does indeed plan to separate Skype from the company. This is to begin with an IPO in the first half of next year. The specific time will be based on market conditions, the company says. "Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum," said eBay Inc.'s President and CEO, John Donahoe. "But it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential." "This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications," he continued. "In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines—e-commerce and online payments—and deliver long-term value to our stockholders." eBay says the decision to separate Skype is based on a timeline outlined by Donahoe when he became eBay's CEO in April 2008. Back then, the company said it would spend a year evaluating Skype and its potential synergies within the eBay portfolio before making any decisions about Skype's future. The news comes after a couple of days of back and forth on whether or not Skype was breaking away from eBay or not. Yesterday, it was announced that StumbleUpon is also breaking away. eBay announced a ton of new features to its popular, yet highly criticized marketplace today as well. Skype is expected to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011.

skype ebay quot company announc away potential synergy breaking base donahoe nquot online separate stand year growth said says focus

This has certainly been a huge week for eBay announcements. First, it was announced that StumbleUpon as being taken back by its founders. Then a similar scenario was announced for Skype. Then eBay announced a ton of changes to its marketplace. Now eBay has made another huge announcement in that it is spending $1.2 billion to acquire all outstanding shares of Korea's leading eCommerce business, Gmarket, which will be combined with eBay’s existing online marketplace in Korea, Internet Auction Company (IAC). "The combination of Gmarket and IAC establishes an exceptionally strong leadership position for eBay in one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and innovative e-commerce markets," says eBay CEO John Donahoe. "This deal creates strong operational synergies between the two market leaders, offers more opportunities for sellers and enhances our ability to serve complementary consumer segments." "We welcome eBay’s investment in Gmarket," says Gmarket president and CEO Young Bae Ku. "This transaction will provide us an excellent opportunity for our next growth stage in Korea and will also help accelerate our expansion strategies beyond Korea. We look forward to teaming up with eBay’s leadership both locally and globally to drive our future growth and expansion." An eBay company blog post says that Korea is the 6th largest eCommerce market in the world according to IDC research. That's behind the US, Germany, the UK, China, and Japan.

ebay quot korea gmarket s says announc ecommerce ebayrsquo nquot strong expansion growth this huge company billion largest opportunity marketplace

Update 2: In Google's earnings call, CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying: "Without commenting specifically about Twitter ... you could imagine that ... it could be a channel for product information, marketing information, real-time information for which you can hang advertising products, whether it’s a text ad or a video ad or so forth off of it ... It strikes me that’s a logical strategy for them to pursue and something that we would be very happy to pursue with them and all other players in that space.” (via SIA) Also, apparrently the "big day" was in reference to Ashton Kutcher breaking 1 million followers and going on Oprah. Update: Now Twitter CEO Evan Williams has posted a very curious Tweet: Related? (via SIA) Original article: Rumors and wishful thinking about Google buying Twitter are pretty much commonplace these days. Last week, TechCrunch got the buzz going in its latest round implying that the 2 companies were in late stage acquisition talks, but that was eventually dismissed as false. It was revealed a short time later however, that Twitter was talking to both Google and Microsoft about possible advertising deals, the product of which we have yet to see. The New York Times talked to Twitter investor Fred Wilson. "Mr. Wilson could not rule out an acquisition, conceding that 'money has a powerful impact on people' and that despite the Twitter co-founders’ desire to build a big company, they also have to answer to investors and employees," reports Times interviewer Claire Cain Miller. Other things Wilson said though are interesting in their own right. He says the most important thing for Twitter as far as metrics, is the "tweet view." This is anytime a tweet is viewed (in case you couldn't figure that out) - but that goes for Tweets viewed from anywhere - twitter.com, Facebook, or any other apps. "So, a partnership with Google or Microsoft, for example, could increase Twitter’s tweet views while also providing the bigger companies with a real-time stream of messages relevant to their audiences," writes Miller. Another partner from Wilson's firm likens the concept to past partnerships between Google and companies like AOL and Yahoo in Google's early days. So acquisition or no acquisition, there are Twitter/Google or Twitter/Microsoft real-time search possibilities. It's going to be quite interesting to see where this all leads.  

twitter google quot acquisition company tweet wilson microsoft view interesting talks times possible investor miller real days false conceding deals

Oracle is acquiring Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in cash at a rate of $9.50 per share in cash. "We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing," Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement. "We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined." The two companies have long been partners - for over 20 years as Sun Chairman Scott McNealy pointed out. And now Oracle will own Java and Solaris. "This is a fantastic day for Sun's customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe, joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of the technology marketplace," said Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz. "From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on earth, powering billions of consumers on mobile handsets and consumer electronics, to the convergence of storage, networking and computing driven by the Solaris operating system and Sun's SPARC and x64 systems," he added. "Together with Oracle, we'll drive the innovation pipeline to create compelling value to our customer base and the marketplace." The acquisition is expected to close sometime this summer. Sun's board of directors has unanimously approved it.

quot oracle year nquot billion acquisition nthe gaap expect operating across java microsystems innovation solaris partners cash we value share

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, is partnering with European mobile provider Orange. The partnership will see Orange devices carrying co-branded content for customers in France, the UK, Spain, and Poland. "At Orange we are committed to giving people maximum access to the widest range of digital technologies and to simplifying the way people use these technologies to access information," says Orange's Paul-François Fournier. "By bringing our customers a new way to access content from Wikipedia, one of the world’s most recognised and popular internet brands, we are delivering on this commitment." Some things that the partnership will specifically cater to include: - creating specific Wikipedia channels on Orange mobile and web portals - enriching sections of the Orange web and mobile portals with links to relevant Wikipedia information - developing mobile and web-based widgets which enable customers to access Wikipedia content directly from their Orange mobile or web homepage "The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to spreading knowledge to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible," said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "Orange's leadership in mobile and focus on innovation makes them an ideal partner to help us extend our reach. The Foundation welcomes partnerships that help us carry out our mission and that respect the valuable contributions of the Wikimedia community" A second phase of the partnership will involve Orange and Wikimedia creating a range of services. There's no word yet on just what these services will be however. They will expand into the rest of Orange's customer base around Europe though.

orange wikimedia mobile quot wikipedia foundation access partnership people customers content portals base possible services information technology creating range enable

AOL is reportedly buying back a 5% stake owned by Google, and it has a new CEO in Tim Armstrong, formerly of Google. A spinoff from Time Warner is also anticipated. These ingredients may make for a bright future for the company. What does this mean for AOL and Google's relationship? "It remains to be seen whether Google's repurchasing of its AOL stake also means it will discontinue partnering with AOL to deliver its search advertising," says John Letzing at MarketWatch. "According to a deal secured at the time of its investment, Google has been applying its expertise to serving up AOL's search advertising and splitting the resulting revenue." Nielsen has AOL listed as the number 4 parent company/division, and the number 5 web brand in the US. In January, AOL launched its MediaGlow business unit consisting of a slew of sites. Many of these and other AOL sites are ranked among the top five in their respective categories in terms of unique visitors according to comScore. Just this week, they launched a new "old-school" political site. Still AOL's ad revenue fell 17% in the first quarter according to MarketWatch, despite indications of strong performance of AOL homepage ads. Also launched this week was Socialthing, a new platform that connects social networks with other sites. This allows for easy syndication of content through networks like AOL's own Bebo, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. This could be a popular service in the realm of social media. But what about search? "AOL has made moves which show that the company is getting very serious about search, and may one day step out of the shadow it has cast upon itself as being a "Google regurgitator," Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal said earlier this month. It is being run by a former Google executive keep in mind. "Furthermore, AOL controls some rather interesting search technology, ranging from semantic search to multimedia search," adds Baker. He mentions social video network Truveo, Relegence, Yedda Semantic Search, and Quigo. One more piece of interesting info that Baker points out is that AOL's search share grew more than Microsoft or Yahoo's after last year according to Nielsen Online stats. The point is, AOL's as much of the conversation as either of those two. And it may be independent soon.

search google quot according social stake launch sites baker company interesting advertising revenue week semantic nquot networks marketwatch warner away

Rumors have been swirling for about a month or so, but today the news is official. Disney and Hulu have entered a partnership that will see Disney content appearing on the increasingly popular online video site. "We’re honored to welcome the Disney team in our mission to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content, when, where and how they want it,” said Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. "With the addition of shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and many more to Hulu, we continue to aspire to deliver a service that users, advertisers and content owners unabashedly love." "From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today’s Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey, said Robert A. Iger, president and CEO, The Walt Disney Company. "Disney and Hulu share a focus on delivering the highest-quality entertainment experience and we look forward to working with Hulu to build value for our consumers, our brands and our shareholders." Content included in the deal: - Full-length episodes of ABC primetime programs like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Samantha Who?, Scrubs, Private Practice and popular late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live - Full-length episodes of hit ABC Family series like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek - Popular series from ABC Daytime and SOAPnet like General Hospital and The View - Classic series from ABC’s library like Hope and Faith, Less Than Perfect, Commander in Chief, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Dancing with the Stars - Select hit programs from Disney Channel like Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas and Ferb which can be easily accessed from a new DISNEY location in the Channel section of Hulu.com - Popular library titles from The Walt Disney Studios - Short-form content including webisodes, sneak peeks and episode recaps from ABC Entertainment, ABC Family and SOAPnet Unfortunatley it doesn't look like there's any ESPN content included, but who knows what will come up the partnership in the future. Either way, it is more sought after content for Hulu, and that means viewers will only increase. The deal puts three Disney seats on Hulu's board. Other current board members will remain as well.

disney hulu content s popular quot sery deal family desperate channel housewives greyrsquo walt lost includ length shows programs full

It's always interesting to see what domains are sold for big money. The other day, the domain Ad.com was sold for $1.4 million at a live auction. This was by far the most money spent on a domain at the event, which saw 91 domains sold for a total of $2,133,350. The average selling price per domain was $23,443. Here is a list of the top sellers and how much they sold for: Ad.com - $1,400,000 BottledWater.com - $45,000 Athletic.com - $40,000 Vixen.com - $32,500 Shutter.com - $25,000 Diets.net - $21,000 OnlineTelevision.com - $20,000 NonProfits.com - $20,000 Jonesboro.com - $19,000 SteakKnives.com - $18,000 HomeMortgage.net - $17,000 Debug.com - $17,000 CampingSupplies.com - $16,000 Ycg.com - $14,000 Punks.com - $13,000 Antihistamine.com - $13,000 MedicalProblems.com - $12,000 SiameseCats.com - $12,000 Bionic.com - $12,000 Filet.com - $11,000 GardenOfEden.com - $11,000 Sham.com - $11,000 KingCrab.com - $10,000 HeadShot.com - $10,000 Moniker, the organization holding the auction has extended it to on online auction, which is taking place until May 7th. There are still some interesting domains on the auction block, and it will be interesting to see what they go for. These include: FindJobs.com ComedyClub.com CreditCardDebt.com BailOutMortgage.com ColdandFlu.com DiscountClubs.com Encinitas.com Migraine.com PhishingFilters.com Plans.com Relatives.com RepairMyCredit.com Viajes.com (Spanish for “travel”) I would think ColdandFlu.com would be a particularly interesting one to keep an eye on given the timing with the whole swine flu thing and all.

auction sold interesting domains domain money live ndiscountclubs timing nheadshot holding nfilet ncomedyclub price ncoldandflu extend coldandflu taking auctionit nfindjobs

Here we go again. More rumors of Twitter being acquired by some company. This time it's not Google, Microsoft, or Facebook. It's Apple. I'm taking this (as should everyone else) with a baseball-sized chunk of salt at this point, but when these rumors start to swirl, we can't just ignore them entirely. So here's what the rumors are based on. Owen Thomas of Valleywag writes: A source who's plugged into the Valley's deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position says Apple and Twitter are in serious negotiations, with the goal of unveiling a deal by June 8, when Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference launches in San Jose. Twitter turned down a $500 million offer in cash and stock from Facebook, in part because Twitter's investors couldn't agree on whether Facebook's stock was worth as much as Facebook said it was. But Apple could easily pay cash. A source familiar with the thinking of Twitter's board says the company would be hard-pressed to refuse an all-cash offer in the range of $700 million. In addition, Mike Arrington at TechCrunch writes: Today, though, rumors popped up that Apple may be looking to buy Twitter. “Apple is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter and is hoping to announce it at WWDC in June,” said a normally reliable source this evening, adding that the purchase price would be $700 million in cash. The trouble is we’ve checked with other sources who claim to know nothing about any Apple negotiations. If these discussions are happening, Twitter is keeping them very quiet indeed. We would have passed on reporting this rumor at all, but other press is now picking it up. There you have it. That's it. Twitter is saying nothing of such a deal. Twitter has said repeatedly that it is not looking to sell. You never know when it's going to actually happen, but it's one of those things that you just have to wait and see before you can really believe it.

apple twitter rumors facebook cash million said source negotiations deal says press nothing june stock company looking writes offer start

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said there are still possibilities to work with Yahoo to "create a better search product." Ballmer was speaking to students at Standford University, which has led to speculation he may be meeting with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to discuss a potential deal. Steve Ballmer When asked about Microsoft's failed bid to buy Yahoo last year, he said a partnership would have been "valuable." "I'm glad we went down the road," Ballmer said. He repeated earlier comments about the potential opportunities of a search deal with Yahoo, which would likely attract more customers and advertisers. He said not being the leading search engine had some advantages. "Because we're not the market leader we can experiment with new business models like cashback, we don't have to stay locked into the current user interface, and we have the luxury like a startup to try new things." Touching on the economy Ballmer said funding may be scarce, but there was money still available for startups with good ideas. " I don't think the contraction will be strong enough that really big ideas aren't going to get funding," Ballmer said. Earlier this week Microsoft announced 3,000 layoffs, which is part of its announced plan to cut its workforce by 5,000 jobs over an 18-month period.  

quot said ballmer yahoo search microsoft deal potential announc funding ideas year interface scarce startup contraction money students standford jobs

Microsoft executives are busy laying off thousands, hiring thousands, releasing Windows 7, and checking the blogs for the latest rumors from Apple. They are also busy acquiring companies—well, one company at least. On Thursday, Microsoft announced its acquisition of a small company named Big Park. Big Park is a 50-person firm located in Vancouver, Canada. They claim to “create the best 15 minutes of your day…anytime, anywhere.” Although the company is only two years old, it apparently has something that Microsoft wants—not the least of which is a hot new game that will be available solely through the Xbox 360. The whole situation is complicated by the issues surrounding Don Mattrick. Don Mattrick was the president of the giant gaming corporation, Electronic Arts (EA). He has his fingerprints all over the Sims, Harry Potter, and Need for Speed. Sure, he got a bit of flak during E3 2008, for not disclosing long-awaited information from Bungie Studios about their latest and greatest. Mattrick co-founded BigPark two years ago, and has since joined the beau monde of Microsoft as the Senior Vice President of the gaming division. He left the management of BigPark to his erstwhile EA colleagues, who seem to be doing a fine job. Now, they are part of the same big happy Microsoft family. Microsoft was sure to defend itself from any allegations of underhandedness when it made the acquisition. They made the statement that “Mattrick’s role as an investor in BigPark was fully disclosed to Microsoft before he joined the company, and his ongoing involvement as chairman of BigPark was approved pursuant to the Microsoft Standards of Business Conduct.” In his official statement on the acquisition, Phil Spencer, who oversees the gaming division, said, “We believe BigPark has tremendous potential to create new properties and innovative gaming experiences for our platforms, one of which we're looking forward to showcasing at the E3 Expo in June," That would be the Xbox 360 game.

microsoft bigpark company gaming latest acquisition mattrick join ldquo xbox create president busy least game park thousands years statement rdquo

Video ZEO firm EveryZing has closed an $8.25 Million round of funding from its existing investors, which include Fairhaven Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners and BBN Technologies. EveryZing has also added GE and NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund as an investor. EveryZing will also be deploying its universal search and publishing solutions across a number of NBCU's Internet properties. The goal is to improve the video search experience for some major media sites. CNBC would be one such site. "EveryZing's core technology advantage and robust product offerings will assist us in taking full advantage of the content across many NBCU brands, ultimately enhancing the audience experience,” said Scott Drake, VP of CNBC Digital. "For example, CNBC's users and viewers will be able to jump to the exact mention of their favorite guest, company or topic within the video and quickly consume the content most relevant to them." It would not be surprising to start seeing more partnerships like the one NBCU has created with EveryZing as online video continues to take off in popularity and becomes a more important element to the web in general. "The consumption and demand for online video continues to explode," explains EveryZing CEO Tom Wilde. "As such, media companies must continue to fully leverage their unique content assets in order to extend and enhance their business models. We are thrilled with this opportunity to have NBCU as a customer and Peacock as an investor." The deal also brings to mind the importance for any business offering online video content to make their libraries easily navigable so usable. Ease of use and finding what they are looking for quickly are two elements that will keep users coming back. It's something that should not go overlooked if you don't want to get lost in an ever-growing sea of online video content.  

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YouTube and ESPN have entered a new partnership together. YouTube's Chris Dale gave WebProNews a few details about it in a quick phone call. ESPN will be featuring content that is apparently going to be in line with their television programming, although from the sounds of it there won't be any live streaming, so don't look to watch games on here (at least for the time being). ESPN360 content could be an option down the road, but it's too early to tell at this point. ESPN 360 is the network's online video offering that actually does offer live streaming of some sporting events (to those whose ISPs support it). ESPN 360 One interesting aspect of the deal is that ESPN gets to bring their own video player onto the YouTube site. This is not the first time YouTube has allowed a third party to integrate their own video player into the site, though it is one of the first. For example, YouTube has allowed such with Sony's Crackle. Dale says they allow this because they want partners to be able to keep the look and feel that their own respective users have gotten used to. He says they want them to "feel at home." ESPN's content will also come with pre-roll ads. Dales tells me that these ad spots will feature messages from ESPN's own sponsors. He also pointed out that the partnership with ABC/Disney (of which ESPN is a part) has resulted in the Movies and TV shows sections of YouTube, which were announced recently.

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One could argue that Yahoo's not good at making friends; its recent interactions with Microsoft and absence from several "most trusted companies" lists (lists that named Google, mind you) represent decent evidence of this.  So now, Yahoo almost appears ready to just pay for pals as one exec expressed an interest in buying "social" firms.  Indeed, Ari Balogh, who's both Executive Vice President of Products and Chief Technology Officer, said according to Reuters, "I can guarantee you there will be some acquisitions, and we will do some stuff in-house."  Which makes it sound like there's more of an emphasis on the first option than the second. And although at this moment, Yahoo's stock is at about half the level of its 52-week high, it's still got a whopping market cap of $20.59 billion. The main question is what, then, Yahoo might want to acquire.  MySpace and Facebook are obviously off the table.  Twitter didn't even choose to sell to the deeper-pocketed and more popular Google.  LinkedIn seems to be thinking about an IPO. So we'll keep an ear open for any (plausible) whispers.  Carol Bartz, meanwhile, will want to be very careful that she doesn't go down a path leading to some disaster like Google's Lively.

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Time Warner said Thursday that its board is moving ahead with plans to separate its AOL division and make it an independent, publicly traded company. "We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL," said Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The separation will also provide both companies with greater operational and strategic flexibility. We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company." Jeffrey L. Bewkes Time Warner owns 95 percent of AOL, and Google holds the remaining 5 percent. As part of the spinoff Time Warner will purchase Google's 5 percent stake in AOL in the third quarter of this year. The AOL spinoff will be structured as tax-free to Time Warner stockholders. The transaction is contingent on the satisfaction of a number of conditions, including completion of the review process by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the final approval of transactions terms by Time Warner's Board of Directors. Time Warner says it aims to complete the transaction around the end of the year. "Becoming a standalone public company positions AOL to strengthen its core businesses, deliver new and innovative products and services, and enhance our strategic options," said Tim Armstrong, AOL Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  "We play in a very competitive landscape and will be using our new status to retain and attract top talent. Although we have a tremendous amount of work to do, we have a global brand, a committed team of people, and a passion for the future of the Web."  

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Sony Music Entertainment has struck a deal with eMusic to sell songs from Sony Music's back catalog on the eMusic website. Sony Music is the first of the four major labels to reach an agreement with eMusic to sell songs. Beginning in the third quarter, eMusic will offer its U.S. subscribers classic recordings from all Sony Music labels, such as Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, LaFace and RCA. Artists include Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Leonard Cohen and Outkast. Daniel C. Stein The agreement covers music that is two years old or more. Additional terms of the deal were not released. eMusic subscribers pay $11.99 a month for its basic plan to download 30 songs or a about 40 cents a song, well below prices on iTunes. Songs are in the MP3 format and are free from copying restrictions. Danny Stein, CEO of eMusic, said he has been in talks with the major labels about adding their music for a number of years. Talks are ongoing with Warner Music, Universal Music Group and EMI. He said many of the independent labels have been asking the company to raise its prices. "We are excited to bring Sony Music's vast catalog of music to eMusic's customers," said Danny Stein, eMusic CEO and Chairman. "First and foremost, eMusic is about a quality customer experience. We are eager to bring eMusic's in-depth approach and curatorial excellence to these incredible recordings -- as we have done for independent labels for the last 10 years."  

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Disney Online announced today that it has completed its purchase of Internet assets of Toronto-based Kaboose Inc. for $18.4 million. The websites include Kaboose.com, BabyZone.com, AmazingMoms.com and ParentZone.com, among others. The acquisition has led to the creation of a new group of properties, the Disney Online Mom and Family Portfolio, which will be led by Emily Smith, vice president, Disney Online. The reach of the new portfolio of sites makes it the top online destination for moms, according to comScore. Sites under the new umbrella include Disney Family.com, FamilyFun.com, Kaboose.com, BabyZone.com, AmazingMoms.com and iParenting.com. Our new portfolio of mom and family-targeted sites creates an unmatched line-up of Web properties that offer parents a wide-range of high quality content, information and community," said Emily Smith, vice president, Disney Online. "The addition of Kaboose and BabyZone further solidifies Disney Online's leadership position in reaching moms online, and BabyZone in particular greatly boosts our pregnancy and pre-conception audience reach, which continues to be one of the most active online demographics." The online moms audience is an increasing area of focus for Disney Online. The majority (80%) of moms go online daily and spend an average of 13 hours a week on the Internet according to an Intelligence Group survey. Disney Online Family sites reached 2.6 million unique visitors in April, while Kaboose sites reached 3.6 million unique visitors. The new portfolio of sites will reach nearly one in five moms online.

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Intel has announced today that it is acquiring software-maker Wind River Systems for $884 million. Wind River makes embedded devices. Embedded systems and mobile devices include smart phones, mobile Internet devices, other consumer electronics (CE) devices, in-car "info-tainment" systems and other automotive areas, networking equipment, aerospace and defense, energy and thousands of other devices. Intel says Wind River will become part of the company's strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices. "This acquisition will bring us complementary, market-leading software assets and an incredibly talented group of people to help us continue to grow our embedded systems and mobile device capabilities," says Renee James, Intel vice president and general manager of the company's Software and Services Group. "Wind River has thousands of customers in a wide range of markets, and now both companies will be better positioned to meet growth opportunities in these areas." "Our combination of strengths will be of great benefit to Wind River's existing and future customers," said Ken Klein, Wind River Chairman, president and CEO. "As a wholly owned subsidiary, Wind River will more tightly align its software expertise to Intel's platforms to speed the pace of progress and software innovation. We remain committed to continuing to provide leading solutions across multiple hardware architectures and delivering the same world-class support to which our customers have grown accustomed." The acquisition has been unanimously approved by Wind River's board of directors, and the deal is expected to close before the summer is over. Renee James, head of Intel's Software and Services Group, will assume control of the Wind River division.

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AOL has acquired two local online media companies Patch Media Corp. and Going Inc. in an effort to further build on its current local network. Patch is a local news platform focused on smaller towns and Going is a local platform for people to find and share information about things to do in a number of cites. "Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today -- there's a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily," said Tim Armstrong, AOL's Chairman and CEO. Tim Armstrong "It's a space that's prime for innovation and an area where AOL has a significant audience and a valuable mapping service in MapQuest. Going forward, local will be a core area of focus and investment for AOL." Armstrong was an early investor in Patch he told AOL employees in a memo and recused himself from the acquisition process. He also said he stood to make a profit on the sale of Patch but decided to forgo that and just receive his seed capital in AOL shares when it separates from Time Warner. The separation is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Patch currently has a presence in five communities and has plans in the works to add a dozen more by the end of the year. Going is a local community catering to 20-somethings and is available in 30 U.S. cites with plans to add several more this year. AOL's network of local services is the largest online local network, reaching more than 54 million unique visitors per month.  

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It's been a little while since we've had a nice, juicy takeover story to follow, right?  Well, Google might make a move and fill the void, as its CEO, Eric Schmidt, announced during an interview that he's on the hunt again.  "We have been (looking to acquire)," Schmidt said while appearing on the Fox Business Network.  "We have been wandering around looking at all of the different companies."  Which makes it sound like Google's cash (the company currently has a market cap of $135.43 billion) is burning a bit of a hole in his pocket. Just don't bet on a deal involving an entity like Twitter or AOL.  Or even something occurring in the particularly near future.  According to Reuters, Schmidt admitted, "With the big ones we haven't come across anything we've particularly liked.  We are definitely talking to a number of smaller companies but we've done that routinely." It may be that, since the economy doesn't seem to be in any hurry to recover, Schmidt feels he has a bit of time to shop around and haggle. We'll see what happens.  Meanwhile, it appears that the U.S. government would prefer it if Google keeps its mitts off everything related to the book industry.

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Today eBay announced the completion of a tender offer for all outstanding common shares and American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of Gmarket. Back in April, eBay announced that it was spending $1.2 billion to acquire those shares. Gmarket is known as Korea's leading eCommerce business, and it will apparently be combined with eBay's existing online marketplace in Korea, Internet Auction Company. "The combination of Gmarket and IAC establishes an exceptionally strong leadership position for eBay in one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and innovative e-commerce markets," says eBay CEO John Donahoe said upon the original announcement. "This deal creates strong operational synergies between the two market leaders, offers more opportunities for sellers and enhances our ability to serve complementary consumer segments." eBay shares details of the transaction: Based on information provided by Citibank, N.A., the ADS Depositary for the tender offer, and Goodmorning Shinhan Securities Co., Ltd., the Common Share Depositary for the tender offer, a total of 50,496,693 common shares and ADSs, representing approximately 99.2% of the currently outstanding common shares and ADSs, were validly tendered and not withdrawn (including 557,006 common shares and ADSs tendered by guaranteed delivery procedures) in exchange for a purchase price of U.S. $24.00 per common share and per ADS, net to the seller in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes. All common shares and ADSs that were validly tendered and not withdrawn have been accepted for payment in accordance with the terms of the tender offer. eBay also announced that it will provide a subsequent offering period of 25 business days for all common shares and ADSs that weren't tendered in the initial offering period. that offering expires on July 20th, unless it gets an extension. Research from IDC indicated a while back that Korea is the 6th largest eCommerce market in the world. According to those findings, only the US, Germany, the UK, China, and Japan are ahead.

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Sometimes you just want to get rid of stuff, and Yahoo seems to be in that mindset right now.  Yesterday, the Sunnyvale-based company arranged to exchange one domain for a little bit of money and also decided to simply shut down another project. Yahoo Gallery is the still-in-beta service that will cease to exist in the near future; a message posted on the homepage gives it until July 14th.  Yahoo isn't directly promoting any other site as a replacement (Yahoo Gallery was designed to showcase applications with ties to Yahoo products, by the way), but users have at least been provided with a way of saving their work. Click Image To Enlarge The closure, as you can see from the above screenshot, will come as a result of "reprioritizing." As for the property that got sold, Contests.com was the domain name and $380,000 was its price.  Both Larry Fischer and MG Siegler noted that this sum seems rather low for such a premium-sounding site.  Fischer even added, "My question for Yahoo is WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SELLING THIS NAME?" Taken together, these developments are somewhat reminiscent of the GeoCities situation. Yahoo's at least making a quick job of cleaning out the corporate closet, though.

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