In This Update:
• Microsoft Withdraws Bid for Yahoo
• Yahoo to Stay Focused on Alternatives: Source
• Microsoft Pushes for Regulation of Online Behavioral Marketing Data
• Google takes down open-source project after DMCA complaint
• Scientists Developing Eye-Tracking Interface for Gamers
• Cox set to Build 700MHz Wireless Network
• Report: Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.
• Nokia Seeks US Share with More Phones
• High Tech Inspires Rural Boom
• ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Simplifies Song Purchasing
• BitTorrent Directory Mininova Heads Toward 5 Billion Downloads
• Aniboom Signs Major Online and Mobile Distribution Deals
• Christian Video Sharing Site GodTube Gets $30 Million Funding
• Plusmo Raises $4.41 Million First Round For Mobile Widgets
• Sports and TV Apps for Facebook Maker Watercooler Raises $4 Million

Microsoft Withdraws Bid for Yahoo
NEW YORK TIMES
Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after it raised its offer by $5 billion but Yahoo rejected it as still too low. The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and Yahoo’s chief and co-founder, Jerry Yang, according to a person familiar with the talks. At the meeting, which also included Yahoo’s other founder, David Filo, and a Microsoft president who oversees its online unit, Kevin Johnson, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft’s offer to $33 a share, or a total of about $47.5 billion, from $29.40 a share. Mr. Yang told Mr. Ballmer that Yahoo would not accept an offer below $37 a share, this person said.
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Yahoo to Stay Focused on Alternatives: Source
REUTERS
Yahoo Inc will stay focused on evaluating strategic alternatives after Microsoft Corp walked away from a $44.6 billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday. Yahoo is not looking for offers, the source said, but added that the board is open to considering options that maximize shareholder value. Yahoo has discussed tie-ups with both Time Warner Inc’s AOL division and Google Inc, different sources earlier told Reuters. A partnership with Google, in which Yahoo search results would carry advertising from Google, may be announced as early a next week, another source told Reuters.
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Microsoft Pushes for Regulation of Online Behavioral Marketing Data
ADVERTISING AGE
Microsoft is pushing for regulation of the data that online companies collect for marketing purposes, leaving rivals angry and perplexed. Almost every other internet-ad company is squarely against government regulation, fearing it’ll lead to the elimination of advertising’s most valuable trait — the ability to target individuals. Specifically, Microsoft is supporting of two state proposals — one in New York and another in Connecticut — that would regulate how internet companies track online consumers’ web-surfing data.
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Google takes down open-source project after DMCA complaint
COMPUTERWORLD
Google Inc. has removed an open-source project that enables the proprietary CoreAVC high-definition video decoder to run in Linux following a complaint from the codec’s developer — but the project could soon return. “In response to a complaint we received under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed project ‘coreavc-for-linux,’” Google said in a brief statement posted on the project hosting section of its Google Code Web site for developers. CoreAVC-for-Linux was an open-source project led by Google that developed patches that allow Linux applications, such as mplayer, to use the CoreAVC codec. A cached version of the project’s Web page said video performance was the main motivation for creating Linux support for CoreAVC.
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Scientists Developing Eye-Tracking Interface for Gamers
NEWSCIENTISTTECH
Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes. Since the 1990s, gaze technology has helped people with conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND), cerebral palsy and other “locked-in syndromes” to control 2D desktop environments and communicate using visual keyboards. Users typically guide a cursor with their eyes, staring at objects for a time to emulate a mouse click. But that is too laborious to let users to match the speed and accuracy of real-time 3D games, says lead researcher on the project, Stephen Vickers, of De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. His team is developing the software as part of the EU-funded project Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN).
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Cox set to Build 700MHz Wireless Network
ELECTRONISTA
Wins by Cox Communications during the recent 700MHz auction will let the company set up its own wireless data network. The cable provider successfully obtained licenses in the frequency range that essentially overlap its existing markets, allowing it to switch on a wide-area broadband service that can handle all of its customers. The service is most likely to be based on 700MHz WiMAX and operate on platform-agnostic level that doesn’t require locked devices. The network may draw on collaborations with Sprint and its upcoming Xohm WiMAX service, as Cox is already part of a joint venture for cable service with the telecoms provider. However, Sprint’s existing service typically operates on much higher frequencies and so wouldn’t be directly compatible with a future Cox mobile Internet platform.
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Report: Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.
NEW YORK TIMES
Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels. Tiny TV, the kind that is watched on a cellphone, is spreading beyond Japan and South Korea, where it has been available for about three years. Mobile operators across Europe and the United States are investing in new broadcasting towers, mobile devices, and television programming and promotions, even though it is not yet clear that profit will follow. On Sunday, AT&T Wireless, with 71.4 million phone customers, started AT&T Mobile TV in the United States. The 10-channel service, costing $15 a month, includes Pix, a channel with movies from Sony Pictures. AT&T will sell cellphones made by LG Electronics and Samsung that can receive the TV broadcasts.
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Nokia Seeks US Share with More Phones
REUTERS
Nokia is going to introduce many new phone models through U.S. carriers in coming months to grab a bigger share of the lucrative cell phone market, the Finnish phone maker said on Monday. Nokia sells 40 percent of all phones sold globally, but in the United States its share has been staggering around 10 percent as the Finnish firm has dropped own production of phones using CDMA. A Nokia spokesman said the company would introduce a number of new models in the United States this year — including CDMA phones, models tailored for the U.S. carriers and phones sold globally.
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High Tech Inspires Rural Boom
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Microsoft, Yahoo and Intuit have built a new kind of farm — huge data centers called server farms — stimulating development. Rural America — particularly the inland Northwest, where wind- and water-generated electricity is some of the cheapest in the nation — is suddenly coveted by technology companies. They construct sprawling buildings with massive computer servers, the hidden muscle and bone that process the seemingly weightless, rapidly growing data of people’s everyday lives. The technology that supports technology is strikingly old-fashioned: cast-iron pipes, reinforced concrete, sheet-metal ductwork.
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‘Grand Theft Auto’ Simplifies Song Purchasing
BILLBOARD via REUTERS
The emerging effort to use videogames as a channel for selling music is entering its next phase with the recent release of “Grand Theft Auto IV.” Phase I has proved a phenomenal success, with “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero III” selling millions of songs through their respective platforms. But it has been a limited victory. Both are music-based rhythm games that use master recordings and cover songs to let gamers “play” along to the tunes using special controllers shaped like musical instruments. Purchased songs can be used only as elements of the game itself. They can’t be transferred to an MP3 player or stored in users’ digital music libraries. But “Grand Theft Auto IV” includes a feature that lets players tag any song in the soundtrack in order to receive more information about the title and artist, as well as store tagged tracks in a custom playlist on the Amazon digital music store for later purchase.
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BitTorrent Directory Mininova Heads Toward 5 Billion Downloads
TECHCRUNCH
The Pirate Bay may get all the headlines, but BitTorrent directory Mininova continues to grow. Stats from the site above (some are public, some via a non-published link) show the site is quickly racing towards 5 billion downloads after having only passed 4 billion February 18 . On comparison, Mininova comes out ahead on traffic. The Pirate Bay doesn’t offer a download figure, only concurrent users, with the site having passed the 10 million user mark in January. Both Alexa and comScore rank Mininova in front of The Pirate Bay, Alexa ranks The Pirate Bay at 101 to Minivova’s 52. comScore records over 30 million monthly page views for Mininova to Pirate Bay’s 24 million.
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Aniboom Signs Major Online and Mobile Distribution Deals
CENTERNETWORKS
Animation network Aniboom is announcing a variety of new online and mobile distribution partners today. First up are the online distribution partners. They include: Dailymotion, Metacafe, Veoh Networks, blip.TV and blinkx. The company reports that their YouTube channel is currently seeing over two million views a month. These new distribution partners will expand Aniboom’s reach by over 140 million viewers. On the mobile side, Aniboom has partnered with MobiTV’s mobile service in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, through Thumbplay in the United States, and through Buongiorno SpA, Cellfish, Jamster, and Player X in Europe. They are also launching a call-to-action for creators to develop animated content for the mobile platform. Aniboom will also focus on higher conversion rates for mobile content on the Aniboom network.
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Christian Video Sharing Site GodTube Gets $30 Million Funding
PAIDCONTENT
GodTube, one of the fast growing Christian online video sharing and social networking sites, has received a big $30 million funding round from hedge fund GLG Partners, paidContent.org has learned. The valuation for this round was around $150 million. It has previously raised about $2.5 million from private investors, including Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries. GodTube was launched in summer last year in Dallas, and has since been among the fastest growing websites online…it now says it has about 2 million users a month. As for its business model, its Godcaster program is being used few hundred churches, thus generating subscription revenues, and allows them to stream live video of their services online. In the coming months, the company will also launch a white-label social networking service to churches as well. Also, the site sells both religious and secular advertising.
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Plusmo Raises $4.41 Million First Round For Mobile Widgets
ALARM:CLOCK
Santa Clara-based Plusmo has raised $4.41M in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Plusmo launched in June 2006 with funding from the founders, several ex-Googlers including Felicis Investors’ Aydin Senkut. Plusmo says they average about 10M mobile page views monthly.
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Sports and TV Apps for Facebook Maker Watercooler Raises $4 Million
ALARM:CLOCK
Watercooler claims to be the largest distributed community online for TV and Sports fans. With over 20M registered users, Watercooler connects people who are passionate about TV and Sports on Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, Friendster, and Bebo. Moreover, the nature of the apps is to engender long play so those users are racking up impressive page views – in the hundreds of millions per month. The company had raised $4M in first-round funding from Canaan Partners last October.
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