« February 1, 2008
February 5, 2008 »

February 4, 2008

In This Update:
• Google Works to Torpedo Microsoft Bid for Yahoo
• AOL Acquires Online Desktop & Widgets Firm Goowy Media
• Yahoo Says Rhapsody will Handle Its Digital Music
• Microsoft to Open Boston-Area Research Lab
• Report: Phone Deregulation Proving Costly to Many Consumers
• Ericsson to Provide Mobile Broadband to Lenovo
• Lovefilm Buying Two Of Amazon’s European DVD Rental Businesses
• Cablevision Systems Launches New DVD/VOD Service
• Electronic Arts Expects Sony PS3 to Outsell Xbox 360 in 2008
• Attivio Raises $6.2 Million for Business Intelligence Meets Search
• Genius Raises $19 Million Second Round for Customer Tracking Technology
• YouTube Korea Crushed by Local Competition
• Report: Rental to Lead the Over-the-Top Online Video Pay Market
• Pay TV Firm ZillionTV Raises $4 Million First Round
• TubeMogul Raises $1.5 Million for Video Analytics

Google Works to Torpedo Microsoft Bid for Yahoo
NEW YORK TIMES
In an unusually aggressive effort to prevent Microsoft from moving forward with its $44.6 billion hostile bid for Yahoo, Google emerged over the weekend with plans to play the role of spoiler. Publicly, Google came out against the deal, contending in a statement that the pairing, proposed by Microsoft on Friday in the form of a hostile offer, would pose threats to competition that need to be examined by policy makers around the world.
Source>

AOL Acquires Online Desktop & Widgets Firm Goowy Media
PAIDCONTENT
AOL (NYSE: TWX), part of Time Warner, has bought a small widget and online desktop apps maker Goowy Media, for an undisclosed amount. Goowy was founded in 2004 and based in San Diego. In 2006, Goowy received an undisclosed amount of funding from Mark Cuban. Goowy offer AOL a software and analytics platform for widget creation and syndication, along with an in-built advertising solution. The company also has a consumer widget destination gallery, Yourminis.com. Previously, AOL had been working with Goowy for widgets for myAOL.
Source>

Yahoo Says Rhapsody will Handle Its Digital Music3
REUTERS
Internet media company Yahoo Inc said on Monday its music service will now be handled by Rhapsody America, an on-demand subscription service run by RealNetworks Inc and Viacom Inc. Yahoo, which previously said it would replace its in-house built Yahoo! Music Unlimited service, said it would migrate customers to Rhapsody over the coming months, while allowing subscribers to access their music library from a new Rhapsody account.
Source>

Microsoft to Open Boston-Area Research Lab
CNET
Microsoft on Monday said it plans in July to open its sixth research lab, in Cambridge, Mass. The new lab will focus initially on “core computer science, especially more algorithmically oriented areas, and the social sciences, with a particular emphasis on building connections between these two areas,” Microsoft said, adding that there will also be a small team working on design issues. The lab will be run by Jennifer Tour Chayes, a veteran of Microsoft Research.
Source>

Report: Phone Deregulation Proving Costly to Many Consumers
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Talk is supposed to be cheap, but it keeps getting more expensive for millions of California customers because of a 2006 regulatory change designed to do the opposite. AT&T Inc. recently jacked up the price of call waiting, caller ID and other stand-alone features, the third rate hike in the last year. Those small fee increases add up fast, and they might only get worse. The hardest hit seem to be the elderly and the poor, who are most reliant on basic phone service. When California officials deregulated service in 2006, they expected local prices to stay level or drop. The idea was that traditional land-lines would compete for customers with high-tech calling options delivered over the airwaves, cable TV wires and the Internet. Instead, some prices have gone up.
Source>

Ericsson to Provide Mobile Broadband to Lenovo
REUTERS
Sweden’s Ericsson said on Monday it was working with Lenovo, the world’s No. 3 PC maker, to provide mobile broadband modules based on high speed packet access (HSPA) for Lenovo notebook computers. Ericsson said selected Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks will include mobile broadband modules beginning this year. Lenovo is Ericsson’s first announced mobile broadband module customer, the company said.
Source>

Lovefilm Buying Two Of Amazon’s European DVD Rental Businesses
PAIDCONTENT
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is selling its UK and German online DVD rental businesses to London-based Lovefilm for an undisclosed sum and making a cash investment that sees it become the DVD and download distributor’s largest shareholder. The pair are also striking a marketing agreement that will see Amazon promote Lovefilm services on its UK and German sites.
Source>

Cablevision Systems Launches New DVD/VOD Service
BROADCASTING & CABLE
Cablevision Systems is adding a new digital-cable service that sells DVDs through its set-top boxes, offering to consumers as incentive the ability to watch those movies through video-on-demand after purchasing the discs online. The service, “Popcorn DVDs On Demand,” will sell a limited number of new releases the day they come out on DVD, as well as library films through partnerships with Universal and Warner Bros. From a company called Popcorn Home Entertainment, it’s launching as a channel on Cablevision’s digital-cable service in the metropolitan New York area only.
Source>

Electronic Arts Expects Sony PS3 to Outsell Xbox 360 in 2008
GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ
Electronic Arts has released estimates of what it thinks will be the range of hardware sales in North America and Europe through 2008, and while the Wii unsurprisingly leads, it’s the PlayStation 3 that will hold a strong second place. That will, according to the estimates, be particularly true in Europe, where EA expects the PlayStation 3 to sell between 5 and 6 million units across the year, compared to just 1.5-2.5 million for the Xbox 360. That means that while the company thinks the two will tie in North America on 4.5 to 5.5 million unit sales, the two sets of numbers combined give Sony’s flagship console a compelling 3.5 million lead.
Source>

Attivio Raises $6.2 Million for Business Intelligence Meets Search
INFO TODAY via PAIDCONTENT
Newton, MA-based Attivio, a startup founded by Ali Riaz, ex-COO of Fast Search & Transfer, has raised $6.2 million from unidentified VCs. Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) is a Norway-based enterprise search firm that is selling to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) for $1.23 billion. Attivio is also targeting the enterprise, with a service that can search and identify structured and unstructured content, such as e-mails, images and webpages, while integrating that data into business processes.
Source>

Genius Raises $19 Million Second Round for Customer Tracking Technology
VENTUREBEAT
Genius, a provider of technology for businesses to track the behavior of customers visiting their Web site, has raised $19 million more in financing. Genius lets a company’s salesperson track who is visiting a page (see image at left), and jump in to have an IM chat with a customer who seems close to making a purchase on the site – to either help close the purchase or answer any questions the customer might have. The financing round for the San Mateo, Calif. company was led by Accel Parnters. Previous investors, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Emergence Capital and Walden International, also invested. The four-year-old company previously raised $15.1 million.
Source>

YouTube Korea Crushed by Local Competition
KOREA TIMES
The launching of Korean-language service version of YouTube, the globally popular video-sharing service, has had little effect, statistics from a research firm showed Monday. According to Rankey.com, an Internet traffic monitoring firm, the number of daily visitors to YouTube English and Youtube Korean sites soared to 382,000 on Jan. 23, the day the Korean version opened – more than three times its average. But the number began to ebb away from the next day, and fell back to the normal level of 115,000 on Jan. 31. Even in the early stage, such a performance looks dismal for YouTube. Pandora TV, the No. 1 local video-sharing site, had an average of 997,000 daily visitors in the same period. Others such as Mncast, Mgoon, Gom TV and Afreeca had two to five times more visitors than YouTube.
Source>

Report: Rental to Lead the Over-the-Top Online Video Pay Market
ABI RESEARCH
As new solutions for bringing online video to the TV flourish, ABI Research believes that rental, download to own and subscription models will all see significant traction. However, the greatest number of downloads will be through rental, in particular for online movie rentals. Overall online pay video streams for over-the-top video downloads will grow from 215 million in 2008 to over 2.4 billion in 2012, with rentals accounting for approximately half of these. “The opening up of rental for video on iTunes is not surprising, given that is how most consumers looking for legal paid movie downloads will choose to acquire them,” says research director Michael Wolf.
Source>

Pay TV Firm ZillionTV Raises $4 Million First Round
PE HUB
ZillionTV Corp., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of next-generation pay television subscription services, has raised $4.01 million in Series A funding. Backers include Sierra Ventures and Concept Ventures. The company offers few details on its plans, though it appears to have previously been known as Vaenco, which is developing its own set-top boxes and a network for content delivery.
Source>

TubeMogul Raises $1.5 Million for Video Analytics
VENTUREBEAT
TubeMogul is an Emeryville, Calif. company that helps distribute videos across various portal sites like YouTube, and then reports back to its customers with analytics on their performance. The $1.5 million funding was TubeMogul’s first, provided by Knight’s Bridge Capital Partners.
Source>


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,