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July 3, 2008

 In This Update:

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Publicis to Buy Kekst Public Relations Firm
NEW YORK TIMES
Publicis Groupe, said Wednesday that it had agreed to acquire Kekst & Company, a public relations firm based in New York that has been behind the scenes of some of the largest and most contested takeovers in history. Founded by Gershon Kekst in 1970, Kekst & Company has long been the adviser to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the giant private equity firm, and is working for Anheuser-Busch in its response to an unsolicited takeover bid from InBev. Terms of the deal with Publicis were not disclosed, but people briefed on it said it was worth as much as $150 million.
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RealNetworks Acquires Listen.com
PAIDCONTENT
RealNetworks has acquired the critically-acclaimed online music service Listen.com (with its Rhapsody music service) in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $36 million. The acquisition follows RealNetworks’ strategic investment in Listen.com announced in February.
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Microsoft Launches Office Subscription Service
CNET
Microsoft on Wednesday announced that Circuit City will be the first to offer a new Office subscription service, first known by its Albany code name and now dubbed Equipt. The idea behind the subscription service is to convert more new PC buyers into Office buyers. It plays on the fact that although most people don’t buy Office at the same time as a computer, many do purchase a security software subscription. Equipt bundles a subscription version of Office Home and Student with Microsoft’s OneCare antivirus product for $69 a year.
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Judge Orders YouTube Must Give All User Histories to Viacom
WIRED
Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users’ names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google’s liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement. Viacom filed suit against Google in March 2007, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for allowing users to upload clips of Viacom’s copyright material.
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Google Talk Launches for iPhone
GOOGLE MOBILE BLOG
Google has unveiled a web-based version of its Google Talk instant messaging client specifically built for the iPhone. Just as with the web=based version, the iPhone version runs entirely in the browser.
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UK Government Opens Data for Mash-Up
BBC
The UK government has launched a competition to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects. It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of criminal justice, health and education. To help with the task, the government is opening up gigabytes of information from a variety of sources, including mapping information, medical information, neighborhood statistics, and a carbon calculator.
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Judge Denies Akamai Injunction Against Limelight in Patent Case
DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE
Content delivery network Limelight Networks said on Wednesday that a federal court has denied rival Akamai Technologies’ request for a permanent injunction against the company, which a jury previously ruled has infringed Akamai’s patents. U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel also denied Limelight’s motions for a new trial, judgment as a matter of law, and obviousness.
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Roku Netflix Player Releases Source Code
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
The Netflix Player continues to gain in popularity. Roku has finally released the GPL code for their Netflix Player. Also, today Roku announced that it would roll out a software update allowing it to stream from other “big name” online services.
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Study: Many Dial-Up Users Don’t Want Broadband
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
Despite some cheaper high-speed Internet offerings from phone and cable companies, broadband is still too expensive (or scarce) for many Americans, according to the latest findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Of the 10% of U.S. households that still use dial-up access, more than a third say they use it because they can’t afford faster service. And another 14% still use dial-up because it’s the only option available to them. But 19% say “nothing would persuade them to upgrade.”
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Firefox Sets New Record, Cracks 19% Market Share
COMPUTERWORLD
Mozilla Corp. used the launch of Firefox 3.0 last month to boost its browser market share to over 19%, an Internet measurement company said today. Most of Firefox’s overall gains appeared to come from rival Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), according to data from Net Applications. Mozilla also said on Wednesday it set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. Over 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3 in the period following its official launch, the company said in a statement.
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Atrinsic Acquires Ringtone.com for $6.25 Million
DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE
Digital advertising and entertainment network New Motion, Inc. (NASD: NWMO), which does business as Atrinsic, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the assets of Ringtone.com, a mobile entertainment portal, for $6.25 million in cash. New York-based Atrinsic, whose brands include Altnet, GatorArcade, Bid4Prizes and iMatchUp, said the deal will allow it to re-enter the $4 billion global ringtone space.
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European Mobile VoIP Firm Nimbuzz Raises $15 Million Series B
PE HUB
Nimbuzz, a Rotterdam-based mobile VoIP and IM provider, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Naspers/MIH led the round, and was joined by return backer Mangrove Capital Partners. Nimbuzz offers a free application that combines IM and VoIP and is available for mobile phones, PC and Web. Numbuzz supports applications including Skype, MSN, GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, ICQ and 23 social networks including MySpace and Facebook.
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Interactive Web Video Firm PLYmedia Raises $6 Million
TECHCRUNCH
PLYmedia, the developer of an interactive Web video platform that enables the addition of advertisements, subtitles, pop-up bubbles and other layered content to existing video, has landed $6 million to $6.5 million in new financing, a source with knowledge of the deal said. Investors are reported to be Greylock and Elron Electronic Industries.
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