In This Update:
• Google to Invest Significant Sums in Renewable Energy Research
• U.S. Online Shoppers Set Record on “Cyber Monday”
• Disney to Make Up To 20 Startup Acquisitions in Next 24 Months
• Privacy Groups Ready FTC Complaint Against Facebook
• Rumor: News Corp. to Buy LinkedIn
• FCC Plan to Regulate Cable Stalls
• TiVo, Nero Developing Computer TiVo Interface
• ESA: Games Industry Outgrew US Economy by 4 to 1
• Google Provides Details of Anonymous Blogger In Israel
• Internet Video Provider Brightcove Drops UGC
• Flexible Optic Fiber Promises Cheaper Last Mile
• Chinese Video-Sharing Site Youku Lands $25 Million
• Video Ad Agency Spotzer Raises $14.8 Million for US Expansion

Google to Invest Significant Sums in Renewable Energy Research
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Google Inc. says it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop renewable energy as part of an ambitious plan to clean the environment and reduce the company’s own power bill. The Mountain View company said Tuesday that it will open its deep pockets to foster innovation in solar, wind and geothermal technology in the hopes of making green energy cheaper than power produced by burning coal. To start the initiative, Google said that it will invest tens of millions of dollars in renewable power, spread over research and development and related investments, in 2008. Google also hopes to license any technology spawned from the effort to other companies so that they, too, can reduce their reliance on more polluting forms of energy while saving money.
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U.S. Online Shoppers Set Record on “Cyber Monday”
REUTERS
U.S. online shoppers spent a record $733 million in a single day on “Cyber Monday,” according to market research firm comScore Inc. Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving and is considered the start of the online holiday shopping season when consumers return to work and seek deals not found in bricks and mortar retailers. The spend was 21 percent up on the same day last year, according to comScore. The number of online buyers rose 38 percent from a year ago while the average dollar spend per buyer slipped 12 percent partly due to deep discounting.
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Disney to Make Up To 20 Startup Acquisitions in Next 24 Months
TECHCRUNCH
A new group has been created within the corporate strategy group at Disney, and they are gearing up to make a number of consumer Internet acquisitions over the next 24 months. They’re already in early stage discussions with at least a couple of startups, and have introduced themselves to a number of venture capitalists to generate leads. The group is led by two vice presidents, Leigh Zarelli and Matt Pillar. Zarelli, based in New York, was previously at IAC and was one of the cofounders of Gifts.com. Pillar, a former managing partner at Catalytic Capital, is based in Burbank (near Los Angeles). Consumer facing content companies that will fit in to Disney’s overall strategy will be targeted. Their goal, according to our source, is to complete up to twenty deals over the next 24 months.
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Privacy Groups Ready FTC Complaint Against Facebook
ONLINE MEDIA DAILY
Adding to the backlash against Facebook’s new advertising programs, privacy groups are preparing to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission against the social networking site. The digital civil rights group Electronic Privacy Information Center intends to file a complaint by January about both Facebook’s new SocialAds and Beacon programs. The Center for Digital Democracy, which currently has a complaint pending at the FTC about behavioral targeting, also intends to pursue regulatory action against the company. EPIC plans to protest both Facebook’s SocialAds–which tells members which of their friends have signed on as “fans” of the advertisers– and Beacon ads, which notifies members’ friends about their off-site purchases.
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Rumor: News Corp. to Buy LinkedIn
VENTUREBEAT
A rumor surfaced last week, in Techcrunch UK that News Corp. is looking at buying business networking site LinkedIn. A well-placed source has confirmed with VentureBeat that these talks are serious. LinkedIn has declined to comment. News Corp.’s strategy: Somehow integrate LinkedIn’s network with the Wall Street Journal as well as its other newspapers around the world, hopefully figuring out how to recoup News Corp.’s newspapers’ declining classified ad revenue in the process.
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FCC Plan to Regulate Cable Stalls
WALL STREET JOURNAL
US cable companies have dealt a significant blow to the FCC’s plan to expand its control over cable firms including Time Warner and Comcast, after they rejected its figures as unreliable. In a compromise reached on Tuesday, the two sides have agreed to postpone by months the decision by FCC chairman Kevin Martin to hold a vote on the issue. However, the FCC approved some other rules that the operators will have to comply with within 60 days. These, Martin says, will make it significantly less expensive for independent programmers to lease channels.
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TiVo, Nero Developing Computer TiVo Interface
ELECTRONISTA
TiVo and software developer Nero on Wednesday announced that they were jointly developing a TiVo interface for an upcoming version of Nero’s software, giving the suite digital video recorder-like features very similar to TiVo’s set-top boxes without the need for stand-alone hardware. The particular features have not been detailed but are targeted specifically at the increasing amount of home theater computers with TV tuners, Nero says. Neither company has provided details of what the software will require and deliberately keep the operating system requirements vague, though Nero has traditionally focused its development efforts on CD and DVD recording software for Windows systems.
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ESA: Games Industry Outgrew US Economy by 4 to 1
ARS TECHNICA
As gaming enters the mainstream and video game consoles become as ubiquitous in entertainment centers as DVD players, the industry has become an important economic driver of the United States economy. The economic effects of the video game business economically haven’t faced much serious study to date, but the Electronic Software Association took the task upon themselves with a new report. Titled Video Games in the 21st Century: Economic Contributions of the U.S. Entertainment Software Industry, it found that the US video game industry grew a whopping 17 percent from 2003 to 2006, far outpacing the 4 percent general growth of the US economy. Retail sales totaled $7.0 billion in 2005, and sales of games for both PCs and consoles grow from 74.1 million units in 1996 to over 250 million units last year.
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Google Provides Details of Anonymous Blogger In Israel
TECHCRUNCH
Google has provided the IP address of an anonymous blogger to an Israeli court voluntarily as part of a defamation case. The defamation case centers on allegations against three members of the Shaarei Tikva council posted on Blogger, including posts that suggested the council members took bribes, pretended to be disabled to gain tax advantages, and that the councilmen have links to organized crime. The councilmen asked the court to order Google to hand over the IP address details of the anonymous blogger but the court did not order Google to do so. Instead Google entered into an arrangement where by they would contact the blogger and give him or her 3 days to respond anonymously to the allegations. There was no response from the blogger so Google handed over the IP address to the court and plaintiffs despite there being no legal requirement for them to do so.
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Internet Video Provider Brightcove Drops UGC
READ/WRITE WEB
Brightcove has never really been more than a half-hearted consumer video play, opting instead to function as a content distribution network for a large number of high profile media partners. Today Brightcove informed members of its Brightcove.tv site that it will no longer be accepting direct consumer uploads on December 17, 2007. That signals that the company is apparently giving up completely on any dreams of competing with YouTube (or smaller sites, such as Vimeo) as a direct personal video hub. Instead, Brightcove.TV will become a hub for the distribution and promotion of its professional and network publishing partners.
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Flexible Optic Fiber Promises Cheaper Last Mile
ARS TECHNICA
Solving the “last mile” problem is a goal both the telecommunication and cable industries have pursued for years without discovering a single, easily implementable solution. Now, researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology think they have developed a new type of plastic optical fiber that could potentially be used to provide low-cost fiber connectivity from the consumer to the provider. Plastic optical fiber isn’t as fast as traditional glass, but its 2.5GB/s transfer speed still represents a meteoric leap beyond copper. Currently, the majority of optical fiber is prone to breakage (being made from glass), cannot bend, and can be difficult to connect. The Korea Times reports that the new plastic fiber can be easily bent and connected to additional lines, making it useful in hard-to-reach homes or apartments.
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Chinese Video-Sharing Site Youku Lands $25 Million
DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE
Youku.com, an online video-sharing website in China, has raised $25 million in a new round of financing led by Brookside Capital Partners, an investment fund affiliated with Bain Capital. Officially launched in December 2006, Youku allows people to watch and share short-form videos. The company currently delivers more than 80 million video views on a daily basis. It also has provided interactive marketing services to advertising clients such as Dell, Samsung, Shanda, Ford Motors, Rising software, Hewlett Packard and Giant Interactive.
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Video Ad Agency Spotzer Raises $14.8 Million for US Expansion
PAIDCONTENT
Amsterdam-based video advertising agency Spotzer has attracted a 10 million euro ($14.8 million) funding round to fund a US launch. Spotzer has a catalogue of stock ads that can be personalised, allows advertisers to buy spots on TV, the web and so on and can target along geographic and demographic lines. The financing is led by Sierra Ventures and the round was joined by yellow pages operator European Directories. A third round in March was led by Cyrte Investments, with previous investments from post-production house DutchView and individual investors.
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Tags: Brightcove, Cisco, Dell, Disney, ESA, Facebook, FCC, Financing, Google, IAC, LinkedIn, Renewable Energy, RIM, Social Networking, Spotzer, Time Warner, Tivo, Turn, Venture Capital, Video, Youku, YouTube