In This Update:
• AOL Acquires Patch and Going in Local Push
• Simon & Schuster Adds 5,000 E-Books to Scribd Store
• No IE Onboard Windows 7 in Europe
• Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million from Twitter
• Gaming Hardware, Software Sees Slump in May
• Facebook to Begin Mediating Intractable Web Name Disputes
• Rumors Swirl of Apple Investing in TomTom
• Small ISPs Want FCC to Ban ESPN 360 Model
• Microsoft’s Bing Is Attracting Window Shoppers, Not Converts
• Massive Layoffs Coming To MySpace – 25% or More May Be Cut
Sponsored by:
SVM Public Relations & Marketing Communications
The public relations and branding agency for innovation-driven companies. Headquartered in Providence, R.I., with representation in Boston and San Diego, SVM develops and executes compelling public relations and branding programs that utilize a complete range of communication disciplines to achieve bottom-line results for innovators in green technology, mobile broadband and life sciences. Please contact Bob Vetromile: vet@svmpr.com
AOL Acquires Patch and Going Inc. in Local Push
WALL STREET JOURNAL
AOL reaffirmed its strong interest in local today, announcing that it is purchasing Patch.com, a 25-person hyperlocal service invested in by new CEO Tim Armstrong when he was still at Google, and Going.com, an events-driven social network and self-serve ticketing platform aimed at 20-somethings. Patch.com is currently in five suburban New Jersey towns, with three Connecticut towns and an additional New Jersey town launching soon. It expects to be in a dozen communities by the end of the year. The site launched in December 2007. Going.com is in 30 markets, and launched in September 2006. It is based in Boston.
Disclaimer: Progress Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to Going, Inc. in its acquisition by AOL.
Simon & Schuster Adds 5,000 E-Books to Scribd Store
PAIDCONTENT
Simon & Schuster, the publisher behind Angels & Demons and He’s Just Not That Into You, has agreed to add its 5,000 e-book offerings to social publishing site Scribd. The books will be sold in the Scribd Store, which began beta tests last month. Unlike Amazon in the case of the Kindle, Scribd lets the content owners keep 80 percent of the revenues from e-books sold through its store, which was one of the main attractions for Simon & Schuster, said Ellie Hirschhorn, EVP and chief digital officer for the book publisher, in an interview with paidContent. In addition to the 5,000 e-book titles, she noted, users will be able to browse through 7,000 Simon & Schuster books not currently available electronically.
No IE Onboard Windows 7 in Europe
BBC
Bowing to European competition rules, Microsoft Windows 7 will ship without Internet Explorer. The company said it would make it easy for PC makers and users to get at and install the web browsing program. In response the European Commission expressed skepticism over the move and whether it would allay accusations of Microsoft abusing its market position.
Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million from Twitter
NEW YORK TIMES
These days, lots of companies are talking about their “Twitter strategy,” but few have figured out how to measure what amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter does for their businesses. Dell has shown that it can go directly to the top line. Dell said Thursday night that the company had earned $3 million in revenue directly through Twitter since 2007, when it started posting coupons and word of new products on the microblogging site. In the last six months, Dell Outlet earned $1 million in sales from customers who came to the site from Twitter, after taking 18 months to earn its first $1 million.
Gaming Hardware, Software Sees Slump in May
ARS TECHNICA
While the video game industry hasn’t been hit nearly as hard by the recession as other businesses, we’re starting to see sales slide from last year. “The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1 billion since August 2007,” NPD Analyst Anita Frazier wrote. “May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general.”
Facebook to Begin Mediating Intractable Web Name Disputes
NEW YORK TIMES
As has been widely noted in the blogosphere this week, Friday night Facebook will begin allowing users to register their own plain-language Facebook domain names, like facebook.com/bits.Until now, Facebook’s profile pages were delineated by an awkward string of letters and numbers (”http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500019730&”), which isn’t handily printed on business cards and doesn’t play well in search engines like Google. Anticipating a frenetic land rush for the best names, Facebook says it will assign the new addresses on a first-come, first-serve basis, starting Friday at midnight, Eastern time. It is allowing trademark holders to fill out forms protecting their marks and says it will internally mediate all disputes.
Rumors Swirl of Apple Investing in TomTom
ELECTRONISTA
Dutch shares of native GPS device maker TomTom spiked on Friday morning after speculation rose that Apple is mulling getting a stake in the company. Following Apple’s WWDC presentation Monday that saw TomTom introduce an iPhone GPS app and a matching car kit, some investors claim to have heard that TomTom being singled out and its tight integration of software with the iPhone are advance evidence of Apple wanting to invest a minority amount in the European firm. The rumor is not universal, however, and some openly doubt the likelihood of such a deal. Apple has historically shied away from partial deals, making this unlikely, but does face competition in the GPS arena from cellphone designers that also have alliances with GPS firms.
Small ISPs Want FCC to Ban ESPN 360 Model
ARS TECHNICA
Small cable operators say they worried about content providers charging ISPs “discriminatory” access fees, which they say Disney does with ESPN360.com. They want the FCC to stop the practice before it spreads, turning the arguments about net neutrality in the other direction. The American Cable Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop Internet video content providers from charging ISPs wholesale access fees to their sites “at discriminatory rates, terms and conditions.” The ACA filed their request as feedback in the agency’s proceeding on its National Broadband Plan. The trade group represents about 900 small and medium sized cable/ISP operators, many serving rural areas.
Microsoft’s Bing Is Attracting Window Shoppers, Not Converts
PAIDCONTENT
Data from Compete puts a damper on reports that Microsoft is eating into the competiton with Bing: People are using Microsoft’s revamped search engine, but they’re using it in addition to—not instead of—Google and Yahoo. The average number of queries per searcher on Microsoft’s search engine is also down since its relaunch—a sign that, at least for now, “millions” are “dropping by just to perform a couple of trial queries.”
Massive Layoffs Coming To MySpace – 25% or More May Be Cut
TECHCRUNCH
MySpace is about to have a major wave of layoffs, according to multiple sources close to the company. One source describes the number of people affected as “massive”, while another source says that the layoffs will likely affect between 300 and 500 employees. It’s unclear if these numbers apply to MySpace alone or its parent company Fox Interactive Media, but MySpace makes up around 1600 of the 2900 employees in FIM, so it’s likely that the social network will be hit hard. Last summer MySpace let go of 5% of its staff, and as many as 45 employees were laid off last month.
Tags: AOL, Apple, Bing, Blogging, Broadband, Dell, Disney, eBook, European Commission, Facebook, Going, Kindle, Microsoft, MySpace, New York, Patch, RIM, TomTom, Twitter, Windows, Yahoo
0 Responses to “June 12, 2009”