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Yasni, a big name in people search in such countries as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, got its start in 2007. When the company saw that roughly 100,000 of its users were from the U.S., it decided to make a push, starting last November, into this country and the U.K. with targeted English-language versions. We chatted with founder and CEO Steffen Rühl back in December about the experience of expanding a web-based business outward from Europe.
Judge tosses Rambus suit against Micron; Apple faces yet another potential customer class action suit; Google wins Chinese trademark case; fashion model sues Google to find out who anonymously called her a "skank" in a blog; someone sues Oprah Winfrey's company for patent infringement; at least one patent suit in the Eastern District of Texas gets transferred to Ohio; and a small firm is suing 22 software and security companies for patent infringement.
On December 31, Dell announced that it was reorganizing around major customer segments and that CMO Mark Jarvis and Mike Cannon, president of global operations would be replaced. But don't feel too badly for them; even in a down economy, they are leaving with some green lining their pockets.
Google is facing some "challenges," as the corporate set says when wanting to avoid the word "problem." Only in this case, the real concept may be "quicksand pit." As the tech industry has seen throughout its history â€" including the likes of Wang, Netscape, AOL, and Packard Bell -- companies can ride high one day and wind up in a ditch the next. And, as some recent developments are showing, online advertising isn't the first industry where success is guaranteed to be everlasting.
There's an intriguing rumor floating about. SDTimes.com is reporting that according to multiple sources, "including one at Cisco," Google is working on its own router. When I contacted Google, the answer was the now-standard "It's our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation," which, if memory serves, is the same answer that used to be in play when asked if Google was developing a browser. Absent any other confirmation yet (and if you know and are willing to chat, please use the link to email me), there's significant circumstantial evidence that, if not true, the concept is credible.
At its last MacWorld, Apple announced new lower pricing on some music in its iTunes store â€" and an end to digital rights management (DRM) on all tracks. Forget about the state of Steve Jobs or who gave the keynote address. This is real news, as it is yet another bit of information suggesting that perhaps the recording industry has finally come to grips with the new market realities.
Microsoft makes an estimated $1.5 billion off XP licensing on "Vista Capable" machines, and sees a Chinese court sentence 11 software pirates; RIAA won't get to appeal mistrial on suit against Minnesota woman and drops MediaSentry, which used to get the evidence for its lawsuits against consumers; Facebook sues Power.com for copyright and trademark infringement; and Cree and Bridgelux kiss and make up.
For some time, China has been pushing to create its own telecommunications standards, for a number of reasonably obvious reasons. But now the country has decided to award a number of 3G mobile licenses, based not only on the Beijing-created TD-SCDMA standard, but on CDMA and WCDMA as well. From a purely practical consideration, this is a story so big that it will be hard to find something of greater relevance to the industry for some time.
Many music lovers may be using language considerably stronger than the Elizabethan term "zounds" if they own the 30GB models of the Microsoft Zune -- because at the start of today (midnight Pacific time), many of these units (no way to know the total yet) began failing.
There are rumors that Microsoft is planning some massive layoffs in the middle of January. The way the company is handling questions can only lead you to think that any reports have some basis in truth.
You can't have an industry without income, and the smaller the income, the smaller the industry. By that measure, anyone with something to lose in the technology industry should be nervous when looking at the revenue generation front. It's grim -- a lot more so than many companies are openly admitting. Ironically, that isn't all bad, because we're in the middle of seeing a massive rightsizing of spending, companies, and expectations.
A messy high tech court week at the end of the year includes Apple and Psystar having at each other; Platte River Associates president Jay Leonard pleading guilty to hacking charges; a Department of Justice restraining order against Microsemi; Verizon winning $33.15 in a cybersquatting case; ADAPTIX suing Sprint and Clearwire; Cygnus Systems suing Google, Apple, and Microsoft for patent infringement; RIM suing Motorola over interference in hiring; and Psion suing over use of the term 'netbook,' which it had trademarked.
Sirius XM got approval from shareholders for a reverse stock split and now is working on a plan to issue over 108 million new shares of stock. The latest financial moves by Sirius are necessary, given a stock price that's a little over a dime a share, potential Nasdaq delisting, $193.6 million in convertible bonds maturing in February as part of about $1 billion in loan repayments next year, and not enough cash. But there's a big question as to whether any of this will pull the company out of its death spiral.
Shortly after posting about HP's latest 10-k, I received an email from an HP internal PR person who wanted to talk about "a few points" with me. Apparently the company didn't like my take on its declining R&D spending and wanted to spin it as not being a decrease at all. Here's what they said and how I pointed out that whether they liked it or not, R&D spending there was dropping, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of revenue.
Hasbro drops suit against Scrabulous; Siemens settles Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution and SEC suit for ten figures; SAP largely unsuccessful in getting parts of Oracle suit dismissed; Australia says that companies can deliver legal notices via social networks; Kodak to get ITC to investigate LG and Samsung for alleged patent infringements; U.K. slams EA ad; Apple sued over Apple TV; and Polaroid files for bankruptcy because of "apparent fraudulent acts" by its parent company.
