In This Update:
• Facebook Signs Search and Advertising Deal with Microsoft
• Amazon to Power Upcoming MySpace Music Downloads
• Clear Channel Shareholders Approve Buyout
• Nextwave Sells AWS Spectrum to T-Mobile USA for $98 Million
• Italy to File Charges Against Google Executives
• Fox to Help Theaters Enter Digital Age
• Hasbro Sues Makers of Facebook App Scrabulous
• Yahoo Music, DRM License Key Servers Going Dark
• Microsoft Engineers Invent Energy-Efficient LCD Competitor
• Netflix Posts Slight Rise in Net
• Users May Help to Vet Android Apps
• Web Video Coming to Verizon FiOS TV
• Havas and Publicis Expect Ad Cuts in Autos and Finance
• IYogi Raises $9.5 Million Second Round for Personal Offshore Tech Support
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Facebook Signs Search and Advertising Deal with Microsoft
MASHABLE
Microsoft and Facebook have signed a search and advertising deal. The partnership involves integrating Microsoft Live Search on Facebook, which will include the software giant’s search advertising. Microsoft Live Search will launch on Facebook sometime this fall, according to the report. Currently, Microsoft serves contextual advertising on Facebook, and the company made a $240 million investment in the social network back in October.
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Amazon to Power Upcoming MySpace Music Downloads
TECHCRUNCH
The as-yet unlaunched MySpace Music will likely partner with Amazon to handle all music ecommerce transactions, multiple sources claim. Apple and Rhapsody are also bidding for the business, however, and one source says a final decision hasn’t yet been made. The project, which combines the music from three of the four major labels (Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) with $120 million in cash from MySpace along with MySpace’s existing music properties, is set to launch in September.
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Clear Channel Shareholders Approve Buyout
NEW YORK TIMES
Clear Channel Communications shareholders on Thursday approved a $17.9 billion takeover by the private equity funds Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, ending a 20-month effort to take the radio and billboard operator private. Clear Channel said that about 97 percent of the shares voted were cast in favor of the deal. The parties plan to consummate the merger on Wednesday, July 30.
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Nextwave Sells AWS Spectrum to T-Mobile USA for $98 Million
RCR WIRELESS
Nextwave Wireless Inc. sold nearly two-thirds of its advanced wireless services spectrum for $150.1 million. The spectrum went to four different buyers. The largest chunk landed in the hands of T-Mobile USA Inc. for roughly $98 million. The deal gives Nextwave a tidy profit of $47 million; the company acquired the spectrum it sold to T-Mobile USA for just over $51 million during the 2006 auction. T-Mobile USA, which spent $4.2 billion for spectrum during the is relying on that spectrum to launch 3G services.
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Italy to File Charges Against Google Executives
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Italian prosecutors are preparing to file charges in a 2006 case against four Google executives over a video uploaded onto the Internet provider’s Italian-language site showing a disabled teen taunted by peers, people close to the probe say. The development marks the latest in a string of legal and regulatory run-ins overseas for the U.S. Internet giant. After nearly two years of investigations, the magistrates officially ended their investigation this month and filed their findings with a Milan court, the people close to the probe said.
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Fox to Help Theaters Enter Digital Age
WALL STREET JOURNAL
News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox has agreed to help finance digital-cinema projectors around the country, setting the stage for next-generation movie theaters. The deal is contingent on other major studios reaching their own deals, a person familiar with the situation said. It would make digital-movie projectors standard in the nation’s largest theaters.
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Hasbro Sues Makers of Facebook App Scrabulous
PAIDCONTENT
Hasbro, the maker of Scrabble, is suing the creators of Scrabulous, the popular Facebook app. In a statement, the company says the suit was filed against Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla in the Southern District of New York, and it adds that it has filed a DMCA takedown notice with Facebook, demanding that the app be removed now.
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Yahoo Music, DRM License Key Servers Going Dark
ARS TECHNICA
Yahoo Music just announced that it will be closing its online music store, and tht it’s pulling the plug on its DRM server — that means that as of September 30, everyone who bought Yahoo Music will lose the ability to recover it from backup or transfer it to a new PC.
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Microsoft Engineers Invent Energy-Efficient LCD Competitor
IEEE SPECTRUM
Researchers from Microsoft say they’ve built a prototype of a display screen using a technology that essentially mimics the optics in a telescope but at the scale of individual display pixels. The result is a display that is faster and more energy efficient than a liquid crystal display, or LCD. The most common display technology, the LCD, is inefficient. The display is lit from the back, and less than 10 percent of the light reaches the surface of the screen. By contrast, the telescopic pixel design uses reflective optics. Each pixel functions as a miniature telescope.
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Netflix Posts Slight Rise in Net
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Netflix Inc.’s second-quarter net income climbed 3.8% on a jump in customers as subscriber-acquisition costs hit a record low. The online DVD rental company posted net income of $26.6 million, or 42 cents a share, up from $25.6 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue jumped 11% to $337.6 million.
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Users May Help to Vet Android Apps
COMPUTERWORLD
Google may use a user-driven rating system to help keep bad or harmful Android applications off mobile phones. The search giant is in talks with mobile operators about offering phones based on its Android open-source platform, said Rich Miner, group manager of mobile platforms at Google, in an interview at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit on Wednesday. However, the carriers want reassurance that users won’t install troublesome applications, Miner said.
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Web Video Coming to Verizon FiOS TV
ZATZ NOT FUNNY
Verizon is currently beta testing web video on their set-top boxes and their initial marketing partners include Veoh, Blip.tv, Break.com, and YouTube. Unlike TiVo which taps directly into YouTube’s H.264 content, Verizon utilizes their Media Manager PC software as an intermediary. Sites are indexed on a regular basis and when a video is selected from the DVR, the PC software automatically transcodes and streams content on the fly.
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Havas and Publicis Expect Ad Cuts in Autos and Finance
WALL STREET JOURNAL
French ad firms Havas SA and Publicis Groupe SA said that automotive and financial companies are paring back their marketing plans. The outlooks came as Havas reported first-half revenue and Publicis posted first-half revenue and profit.
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IYogi Raises $9.5 Million Second Round for Personal Offshore Tech Support
VENTUREBEAT
iYogi, an Indian company that provides outsourced, personal tech support for $119 per year, has raised a $9.5 million second round of funding to undercut its Western competitors and try to become a global brand. iYogi offers support both over the phone and online, although currently only handles problems with Windows software.
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