Tech Journal
TechJournal is a web log that profiles, documents, interviews and reviews the latest internet startup companies and the newest technologies and pretty much anything to do with the World wide web 2.0 and its users.
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Tags: acquisitions, mergers
IAC, the owners of Ask.com, has just acquired in full the company, Lexico Publishing Group LLC -- the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com, in an all-cash transaction.
"Lexico is a lean and fast-growing business with rapid top- and bottom-line growth, and is a natural addition for Ask.com," said Jim Safka, CEO of Ask.com. "More than 30 percent of all searches conducted on Ask.com are in the reference category. In fact, 'dictionary' was the second-most searched term on Ask.com in 2007. At the same time, Lexico's consumers frequently seek out a search engine immediately before and after using one of Lexico's sites. This acquisition expands Ask.com's reach and aligns perfectly with our customers' needs."
In return, Lexico was glad that they got a nice break with this acquisition.&...more
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Tags: CNET, CBS, blogs, acquisitions
[image from Mashable] CNET Networks, the company behind CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, CNET News, UrbanBaby, BNET, CHOW and Search.com, have been acquired by media giant and oldie, CBS fir $1.8 billion.
At first this would have sounded like a great big buy out that would rival Time Warner's acquisition of AOL or the possible merger of Yahoo and Microsoft, or the Google acquisition of YouTube. However, this comes as a diappointment to many people keeping tabs on the business side of CNET.
Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer at CBS Corporation, said this about the acquisition:
“There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks. CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous pla...more
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Tags: Icahn yahoo microsoft microhoo
Carl Icahn, an internet billionaire who has shares in virtually everything online, has called for a proxy fight against Yahoo to replace the current board of directors and ultimately let make way for teh Yahoo-Microsoft merger.
In a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock, Icahn as well as big investors in Yahoo, is leading the fight to replace the current Yahoo board with a slate of 12 of twelve executives they think would do the job of making the Microhoo merger a reality. Icahn disclosed that he has bought 59 million shares of Yahoo and is totally disappointed by the way the Yahoo board handled the takeover of Microsoft.
Of course the motivation for the proxy fight and the merger is that Icahn will definitely make a couple of hundred million if Mcrosoft buys Yahoo for $33 a share.
Mark Cuban is one of Icahn's nominee...more
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Facebook has announced that they are building a Jabber/XMPP interface for their Facebook IM service.
The Facebook IM service allows users to instant message their friend who are currently online browsing through Facebook. The great thing is, everybody in your friends list is already your contact on Facebook IM which takes out the hassle of adding friends into an IM client.
There were some rumors about Facebook taking the chat service out of the browser sometime but now they announced that they definitely will. Users will be able to chat with their contacts on Facebook with a IM client on the desktop without the need to log into the social network in the browser. Think Google Talk IM client and the integrated Google Talk in Gmail.
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Tags: zoho
I actually discovered this last week when we were trying to use Zoho to open an MDB file. However, I did not report it because I thought it wasn't new, something I probably missed while on vacation.
Anyway, it's new and it's great. Zoho is now allowing users to sign in their Yahoo accounts. This is in addition to the existing feature that uses your Google account. I find this really great because believe it or not, a senior programmer here in the office does not have his Gmail account! So the Yahoo account came in handy. Besides, Yahoo is still the biggest provider of free email in the world.
Now you can login to Zoho with your Google or Yahoo! accounts. Below the Zoho...more
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Tags: videos, stumbleupon
Stumbleupon , a website discovery service just added 6 new content providers for their video vertical. The new providers are, College Humor, Funny or Die, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Veoh and vbs.tv. These are in addition to their already existing providers Youtube, MYSpace and Metacafe.
With the addition of the new providers, StumbleUpon's video lineup provides more videos to discover. Having been acquired by eBay, StumbleUpon’s video feature may be yet another opportunity for the company to further its more
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Tags: acquisitions, hp , eds
HP has just acquired technology outsourcing firm EDS confirming that they wereplanning a merger. Reasons as to why HP did purchase EDS are explained in the press release. However, without the flowery words, it may be because HP is not doing well with their outsourcing branch, or HP is taking a huge step into the future.
HP is known for printers and computers. However, there is just so much they can get from that business so they too are into outsourcing, providing IT services to companies who can't afford or find it more efficient than doing it in-house.
Some say that HP just wants to get even with IBM. Whichever the reason, HP's merger with EDS will surely give them a foothold in the outsourcing market against IBM and Accenture.
PRESS RELEASE [more
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It's official. There were rumors that HBO and Apple would come up with a partnership sometime and now that time is here.
In a nutshell, HBO will sell “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Deadwood” and “Rome,” “Flight of the Conchords” and “The Wire,” among others, on the iTunes store. All 94 episodes of “Sex in the City” will be available (a mere $187 for the whole run!) at $1.99 each while more popular shows like the “Sopranos” and “Deadwood” will cost $2.99. [TechCrunch]
PRESS RELEASE [Apple ]:
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, California—May 13, 2008—HBO a...more
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Some interesting peice of news from South America, a hacker calling himself "Anonymous Coward" managd to steal personal information of 6 million Chileans from the Educatin Ministry, the Electoral Services, and the Military servers.
The hacking happened sometime Friday and was discovered and removed from public access Saturday. Police Chief Jaime Jara confirmed that authorities were investigating the theft of the leaked data, which he said included identity card numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mails and academic background.
Among the data was a list of students who receive preferential public transportation rates which included one of the two presidential daughters. The list however only contained a name, a school, and a picture.
It is not also clear if any financial or banking information wsa lost in the att...more
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Tags: mobile, blackberry
BlackBerry maker RIM (Research in Motion) and Microsoft are both gearing up to reach broader audiences with their respective products this year. RIM just hours ago officially introduced its newest smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold. up.
The Redmond- and Waterloo-based companies have announced today a partnership that will bring BlackBerry owners easy access to Windows Live services - most especially Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail.
Microsoft purports that th...more
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