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August 8, 2008

In This Update:

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Progress Partners client, Wavexpress, has partnered with NBC Sports and Microsoft to offer HD coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in Windows Vista Media Center. To download the application and watch Olympics events,visit: http://www.tvtonic.com/olympics/install/?referrer=pp

Google Admits Its AOL Investment May Be Impaired
REUTERS
Google Inc’s 5 percent stake in Time Warner Inc’s AOL unit may be worth less than the $1 billion the Web company paid for it in 2006, Google warned in a regulatory filing on Thursday. “We believe our investment in AOL may be impaired,” Google said in its latest quarterly financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Google said it would continue to review its investment for impairment, and financial write-downs could be required in the future. In a deal announced in December 2005 and which closed the following year, Google paid $1 billion in cash for a 5 percent indirect equity stake in AOL.
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Blinkx Bids $41 Million for Ad Network MIVA
PAIDCONTENT
Video search index Blinkx wants to buy pay-per-click ad network MIVA, formerly FindWhat, for million. The London- and San Francisco-based firm has offered $1.20 per share, valuing Miva at $41.13 million, a 54 percent premium on yesterday’s $0.78 close and funded by cash from both companies. Blinkx reckons the acquisition would allow it to more quickly roll out the technologies it’s developed over the last year – probably most notably, its own video advertising proposition, AdHoc. Blinkx launched AdHoc in June 2007 but it seems MIVA can offer Blinkx greater distribution.
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Verizon Wary About White Space, Favors Licensed Spectrum
ARS TECHNICA
One of the wireless giants has weighed in on whether the Federal Communications Commission should OK unlicensed devices that can send and receive broadband through unused TV channels. Verizon Vice President Thomas Tauke weighed in: “Generally we have favored licensed spectrum,” Tauke said at a press conference, “but we are continuing to look at what the potential may be here.” On the other hand, he said he wanted to be certain that these applications, currently being evaluated by the FCC, don’t interfere with Verizon wireless products or anything else. “Nobody has passed the test” just yet.
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Time Inc. Buys School Fundraising Business from Readers Digest for $110 Million
PAIDCONTENT
Time Inc. has bought out QSP, a school and youth groups fundraising company that was part of Reader’s Digest Association, for $110 million in cash. RD is owned by PE firm Ripplewood Holdings. Time Inc “sees fundraising as a growing area for subscriptions across the magazine publishing industry and envisions benefits to operating QSP’s large direct-selling force in North America.” In other words, it will focus QSP on selling magazine subscriptions as a way to raise funds, something the company was already doing in addition to other incentives/gifts such as food items.
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Apple Removes $1,000 Featureless iPhone Application
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their Apple gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000. Now that the phone is affordable enough for a wider audience, a new status symbol has emerged: a seemingly useless application called I Am Rich. Its function is exactly what the name implies: to alert people that you have money in the bank. I Am Rich was available for purchase from the phone’s App Store for, get this, $999.99. Apple apparently had some problems with I Am Rich. After initially approving it for distribution, the company has since removed it from the store
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Cablecos Ponder Networked DVRs in Wake of Cablevision Ruling
ARS TECHNICA
Time Warner cable has just acknowledged in an earnings call that it would love to roll out a legal-for-now network DVR, assuming that the recent Cablevision appeal stands. After being tangled for several years in the court system, the Cablevision lawsuit was settled by an appeals court this week, and the court ruled in favor of the “network DVR.” The gear for this system would actually remain in the cable company’s back office, cutting down substantially on upfront hardware investment and support costs; customers would access it though their remote controls. Each household would still need to choose which shows to record, though.
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Time Warner to Sell GameTap, Take $18 Million Charge
DIGITALMEDIAWIRE
Media conglomerate Time Warner disclosed in its quarterly report that it now plans to sell off Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap broadband video games service, a decision the company said in the report will cost it $18 million. GameTap debuted in 2005 and was marketed with a reported budget of $50 million. The site now offers some 1,000 games and related content, charging consumers $10 per month or $60 annually for the service.
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New Report Says Tiered Broadband Bad, Unlikely
GIGAOM
The Free Press issued a report yesterday casting doubt on the theory of network congestion that has been cited by ISPs as the reason behind P2P blocking or broadband caps, and offering more rational solutions for dealing with sporadic congestion. It also claims that tiered broadband and limitation pricing – in which a carrier charges per gigabyte fee after users exceed a certain cap – is unlikely to become reality.
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Elaborate Facebook Worm Virus Spreading
TECHCRUNCH
Facebook malware attacks to date have largely consisted of getting user credentials via phishing sites and then spreading spam and additional phishing attempts. But a new worm is disseminating through Facebook that aims to install trojan software on a user’s machine. The worm spreads when a compromised user’s account is used to send message to others with a title such as “LOL. You’ve been catched on hidden cam, yo:” and a link to a random URL. The linked website is a YouTube-like page that shows a video player along with what looks like a standard browser message to update your Flash installation. Clicking on the button begins a malware installation of a file called “codecsetup.exe.”
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Search Closing in on E-Mail as Most Popular Online Activity
IDG via NEW YORK TIMES
Almost half of all Internet users now use search engines on a typical day, according to a new study released Wednesday, that showed search engines are drawing ever closer to the all-time dominant Internet application e-mail. The percentage of Internet users who turn to search engines has been steadily increasingly from one-third in 2002 to 49% now, according to the report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Sixty percent of Internet users use e-mail on a typical day, according to Pew’s statistics.
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Nokeena Networks Raises $8.7 Million for Faster Streaming Video
THE DEAL
Born as a technological puzzle, Nokeena Networks Inc. has raised its first round of venture capital to commercialize technology that it says will help solve the problem of how to better deliver and store online video. The Santa Clara, Calif., startup, which until now has remained under the radar, has raised $8.7 million in a Series A round led by Clearstone Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, said Sumant Mandal, a managing director with Clearstone. “Nokeena’s video delivery system is going to change the cost curve for most video publishers, especially as high-definition video comes online,” Mandal said.
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Xpanity Raises $1.5 Million for Co-Browsing
ALARM:CLOCK
Israel’s Xpanity says that it is raising a $6M round. The company had raised $300K from its founder plus an additional $1.2M from angels. Xpanity launched an IM chat tool that allows Web surfers of like minds to chat amongst themselves while looking at the same page. Xpanity says that its app is just the starting point. Xpanity’s goal is to use the same technology that categorizes user’s content interests with their advertising interests.
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