In This Update:
• News Corp. Nears Deal to Buy Newsday from Tribune
• Nokia Signs Sony BMG for Free Music Offering
• Skype Launches Low-Cost Global Calling Plans
• Ning Raises $60 Million Fourth Round; $500 Million Pre-Money Valuation
• Microsoft Starts Testing Office Subscription Sales
• Blogging Software Firm SixApart Buys Social Media Agency Apperceptive
• 24/7 Real Media Launches B2B Ad Network
• Sony to Launch Online Video Service for PlayStation 3
• New Jersey Supreme Court Rules For Internet Privacy
• Venture Investment Falls in First Quarter
• ‘Cult of Sincerity’ to be First Full-Length Feature to Premiere on YouTube
• ISPs’ Error Page Ads Let Hackers Hijack Entire Web, Researcher Discloses
• Acer Making WiMax Laptop for Sprint
• Apple Files Patent for Virtual Shopping Complex
• Travel Ad Network Raises $15 Million First Round
• Motorola Invests in VirtualLogix
• Health Plan One Takes $6.5 Million Series A
• TeachStreet Raises $2.25 First Round for Local Teacher Search

News Corp. Nears Deal to Buy Newsday from Tribune
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Tribune Co. is closing in on an agreement to sell its Long Island newspaper Newsday to News Corp. for about $580 million, according to individuals familiar with the situation. Final details are being hammered out and a deal could yet fall apart, but Tribune and News Corp. have informally agreed on key aspects, including the price, structure and governance, these people said. Under the terms being discussed, Newsday would be part of a joint venture with News Corp.’s New York Post and various non-newspaper assets owned by News Corp., people familiar with the matter said. News Corp. would own the bulk of the combination, with Tribune retaining a stake of less than 5%.
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Nokia Signs Sony BMG for Free Music Offering
REUTERS via NEW YORK TIMES
Nokia will offer free 12-month access to music from artists of Sony BMG, the world’s second-biggest label, to buyers of its particular music phones, the world’s top cellphone maker said on Tuesday. Last December, Nokia unveiled a similar deal for its “Comes With Music” phones with the top record label Universal. “Comes With Music is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected markets,” Nokia said in a statement. Nokia gave no financial details. Disclosure: Nokia is a client of Progress Partners.
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Skype Launches Low-Cost Global Calling Plans
INFORMATION WEEK
Skype on Monday launched an aggressive $9.95-a-month international calling plan for U.S. customers that includes landlines and some cell phone calls to 34 countries. The action by the eBay unit comes just days after eBay’s chief executive John Donahoe indicated the auction company will seek to find and improve synergies between the VOIP calling unit and eBay’s core auction operation. Donahoe indicated that eBay would “reassess” Skype if its “synergies” with the auction company aren’t strong. “This move is a natural step for Skype,” said Stefan Oberg, Skype’s VP and general manager for telecoms, in a statement describing the new calling plans. “We’re making it even easier for the Skype community to call their friends and family who are not yet on Skype.” It was not immediately clear, however, whether the new calling plan will represent a direct synergistic relationship between Skype and auctions.
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Ning Raises $60 Million Fourth Round; $500 Million Pre-Money Valuation
PAIDCONTENT
Ning, the make-your-own social network company, has raised a $60 million fourth round from unspecified institutional investors investors, valuing the company at $500 million, pre-money. The company last raised $44 million last summer, which then valued the company at $170 million. On his blog, founder Marc Andreesen explains: “We raised the money to enable us to keep scaling given our accelerating growth (over 230,000 networks on Ning now, growing at over 1,000 per day) and to make sure we have plenty of firepower to survive the oncoming nuclear winter. At current growth rates, we don’t need it to get to cash flow positive, but having lived through the last crunch, it’s good to be conservative with these things.” He also noted that the round was led by Allen & Co.
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Microsoft Starts Testing Office Subscription Sales
REUTERS
Microsoft Corp started testing a new way of selling its Office software suite on a subscription basis, packaging it with security software and free online services. Microsoft on Friday launched a new test program code-named “Albany” that will allow consumers to download and install Office 2007, which includes Word processing and Excel spreadsheet, and then receive updates for a subscription instead of a more traditional one-time license fee. Consumers will also receive Windows Live OneCare, a Web-based security software, and online applications including Windows Live Mail and Office Live Workspace
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Blogging Software Firm SixApart Buys Social Media Agency Apperceptive
PAIDCONTENT
SixApart, the blogging software firm with products like MovableType, Typepad and Vox, is now moving up the value chain into offering advertising and consulting services, and has bought New York City-based social media creative agency, Apperceptive. The financial details were not disclosed. Apperceptive has worked with Six Apart for the past two years, and its clients include Huffington Post, Washington Post, Gothamist, Boing Boing, Major League Baseball, and others.
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24/7 Real Media Launches B2B Ad Network
CLICKZ NEWS
Digital marketing company 24/7 Real Media is getting into the ad network game with a business-to-business offering of its own. The network, BBN, launches with four publishing partners: Cygnus Business Media, Nielsen Business Media, Reed Business Information, and The McGraw-Hill Companies. The network, announced yesterday, starts off with access to more 200 business-to-business (B2B) Web properties, including CPA Technology Advisor, as well as nearly 10 million unique monthly users. Ari Bluman, SVP of North American sales and operations for 24/7, a unit of The WPP Group, said BBN would fill an underserved niche among ad networks, despite the growing number now available to advertisers.
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Sony to Launch Online Video Service for PlayStation 3
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sony is preparing to launch an online video service through its game console PlayStation 3 as early as this summer, studio executives familiar with the plan say. The company has been in licensing talks with studios in recent weeks, according to these executives, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of continuing negotiations. The initial version of the service would include movies and television shows flowing from the Internet to the PlayStation 3. It would follow two other disappointing online ventures backed by Sony in recent years: Movielink, which attempted to become the online equivalent of the video store for mainstream Hollywood movies before being sold last year to Blockbuster Inc.; and Sony Connect, the company’s response to Apple Inc.’s iTunes download service. It shut down in March.
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New Jersey Supreme Court Rules For Internet Privacy
NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER
The Supreme Court of New Jersey became the first court in the nation yesterday to rule that people have an expectation of privacy when they are online, and law enforcement officials need a grand jury warrant to have access to their private information. In state proceedings, the ruling will take precedence over what attorneys describe as weaker U.S. Supreme Court decisions that hold there is no right to privacy on the internet. “The New Jersey Supreme Court is the first in the nation to recognize a reasonable expectation of privacy when using the internet anonymously,” said Trenton-based attorney Grayson Barber, who represented six privacy rights organizations as a friend of the court. “‘I think this reflects the reality that most people do expect a measure of privacy when they are using the internet anonymously.”
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Venture Investment Falls in First Quarter
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Venture investment in startups fell last quarter, according to a report released Monday by the National Venture Capital Association, but it’s too early to tell how much of that is tied to an ailing economy. “The second quarter will help start to tell the picture of what 2008 will be like,” said Emily Mendell, vice president for strategic affairs at the association. Only five venture-backed companies went public last quarter, the group said. Since April 1, there have been no such initial public offerings, upon which venture capitalists depend to recoup their money from a company and invest it in something new. In the second quarter, the group is looking for at least 10 IPOs and for venture investment to stay in the $7 billion range. Otherwise, she said, “We start to get concerned.”
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‘Cult of Sincerity’ to be First Full-Length Feature to Premiere on YouTube
CINIMA TECH
‘Cult of Sincerity’ is the first full-length film to debut on YouTube. When users watch the full-length version on YouTube, there’s a lengthy, infomercial-like intro that explains that, if you sign up for an account on the music site AmieStreet.com, the filmmakers get $2. (You’ll also get two free songs from AmieStreet.) If you actually buy a $3 credit on AmieStreet to get more music, you get a free downloadable version of the film.
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ISPs’ Error Page Ads Let Hackers Hijack Entire Web, Researcher Discloses
WIRED
Seeking to make money from mistyped website names, some of the United States’ largest ISPs instead created a massive security hole that allowed hackers to use web addresses owned by eBay, PayPal, Google and Yahoo, and virtually any other large site. The vulnerability was a dream scenario for phishers and cyber attackers looking for convincing platforms to distribute fake websites or malicious code. The hole was quickly and quietly patched Friday after IOActive security researcher Dan Kaminsky reported the issue to Earthlink and its technology partner, a British ad company called Barefruit. Earthlink users, and some Comcast subscribers, were at risk. Kaminsky warns that the underlying danger lingers on. “The entire security of the internet is now dependent on some random ad server run by some British company,” he said.
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Acer Making WiMax Laptop for Sprint
INFOWORLD via YAHOO
Acer on Monday showed off a new Acer Aspire with a built-in WiMax module that it plans to sell through Sprint Nextel and other companies. The Acer Aspire 5920 is already being manufactured by notebook PC contract maker Quanta Computer and could be available by the end of this year. The notebook will be sold along with WiMax service in a manner similar to the way mobile phones are sold along with service packages, said Trisha Pan, a product marketing manager at Acer, on the sidelines of a WiMax news conference in Taipei.
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Apple Files Patent for Virtual Shopping Complex
TECH DIGEST
A patent filed by Apple suggests they could be looking to building a virtual shopping complex where customers, represented by avatars, can shop and interact with one another and with staff. The drawings in the patent surely don’t do justice to how Apple would eventually make the virtual world look, but do raise some interesting concepts, such as having different avatars for those with differing statuses — such as a first time shopper, an expert in a particular subject, or members of shop staff. They may also be tagged to display information about their expertise, their real geographical location, and such like.
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Travel Ad Network Raises $15 Million First Round
PAIDCONTENT
Travel Ad Network has completed a $15 million first round funding led by Rho Ventures, Village Ventures and individual investors, the company tells us. The ad network, founded in 2003, plans to use the funds to support general growth efforts, including the development of new products and establishing itself in additional, though unspecified markets. The company, based in New York City, also has offices in Canada and the UK. TAN’s vertical ad net, which is focused mainly on travel sites that cater to upscale consumers, drew 9.3 million uniques in March, according to comScore-ranked fifth behind Expedia, Travelport, Travelocity and Southwest Airlines. In the past year, though, TAN’s experienced strong traffic growth and is up 97.9 percent over March ‘07’s 4.7 million uniques.
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Motorola Invests in VirtualLogix
DEALBOOK
Motorola is among the latest venture investors in VirtualLogix, a software company whose technology aims to make cell phones smarter and more powerful. Motorola, the mobile phone giant, said Monday that its venture capital arm joined Cisco Systems, Intel and Texas Instruments as a major investor in VirtualLogix. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but, according to Motorola Ventures’ Web site, its typical investment is $3 million to $5 million. VirtualLogix’s virtualization software allows multiple operating systems to run on one device.
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Health Plan One Takes $6.5 Million Series A
TECHCRUNCH
Health Plan One has taken $6.5 million Series A in a round led by Pequot Ventures that also included Greycroft Partners, Kevin Hill, Chan Wheeler and Bill Sullivan. Shelton, CT based Health Plan One offers an online marketplace for health insurance where consumers can research and select health insurance plans from a wide range of providers. Users enter their specific details and receive free health insurance quotes and can compare features among multiple options rather than researching individual plans from different sources. The site also provides support from licensed sales representatives.
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TeachStreet Raises $2.25 First Round for Local Teacher Search
PAIDCONTENT
TeachStreet, a local search start-up that helps users find local instructors, has raised a $2.25 million led by Madrona Ventures, Bezos Expeditions and various individuals, including former Amazon.com executives Jeff Blackburn, Michael George, Jason Kilar (currently CEO at Hulu.com), Kim Rachmeler, Joel Spiegel and former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford. The Seattle-based site, which is just launching today, uses yoga instructors as a key example of what can be found on the site. So far, the site just seems to target the local Seattle market, though it plans to use the funding to expand into more cities. TeachStreet was founded by Dave Schappell, a former Amazon exec and a former VP of Marketing at JibJab.
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Tags: Amazon, Apple, Avatar, Cisco, Dell, EBay, EMC, EMI, Google, Intel, IPO, ISP, iTunes, Local, Microsoft, Motorola, Music, Nokia, Seattle, Series A, Sony, Sprint, U.S., Venture Capital, Video, WiMAX, WPP, Yahoo, YouTube