Software, Tech Trends & More

Yahoo, IBM, and Microsoft compete for India’s Unique ID project

acoleman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:03:17 +0000

India is taking on a huge task to ID their citizens, and since there are some 1.2 billion of them it won’t be easy. Indian Tech Czar Naden Nilekani is behind the project that aims to give every Indian citizen a unique ID number, which is much like the US social security number.

The technology needed to store and categorize these numbers has not been chosen yet but we do know that Yahoo and Microsoft are among those competing for the role. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates expressed a desire to take part in the project earlier this year, and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz lobbied the Indian Prime Minister this week to consider Yahoo for the project. It is also being reported that IBM has made an offer as well.

Bartz has stated that Yahoo has no commercial interest in the deal, and that their assistance would be entirely non-profit. Microsoft and IBM have not stated their stance yet.

TechCrunch

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100,000 units sold for Motorola Droid launch

acoleman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:16:35 +0000

The much anticipated launch of the Motorola Droid arrived last week, and with it a high expectation of the public response. Although the earliest reports indicated that Verizon stores had a lackluster turnout for launch, this week we have received the official numbers and the Droid made a solid debut.

Verizon sold some 100,000 Droid phones over the past weekend, which was more than half of all the Motorla Droids stocked. Although it isn’t as impressive as the iPhone 3GS launch, which sold some 1 million units, it is quiet an achievement for Verizon.

The numbers are oddly reminiscent of the launch of another phone that was seen as an iPhone competitor, the Palm Pre. The Pre sold almost the same amount for its weekend release but has somewhat dwindled in popularity since.

Mashable

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EA acquires Playfish for $300 million and a $100 million earnout

acoleman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +0000

If you still think that social gaming is irrelevant, guess again! Today Electronic Arts has closed their acquisition of the social gaming startup Playfish, for $275 million in cash. EA also payed $25 million in stocks, as well as $100 million in earnouts, which comes to a $400 million total deal.

Playfish is based in London and has developed games for Facebook, MySpace, and number of other social media sites. They claim to have some 60 million monthly users, and their top games include Pet Society, Restaurant City, and who has the Biggest Brain.

The EA acquisition of Playfish shows a serious shift in the direction of gaming. Social gaming has become more and more popular with the growth of social networking. EA will be one of the first major console publishers to step into the social gaming realm. Many more may be soon to follow.

A few of the other top social gaming companies include Zynga and Playdom.

TechCrunch

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Settlement reached on eBay sale of Skype

acoleman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:20:42 +0000

The on-line auction site eBay has announced that the Ebay/Skype lawsuit has reached a settlement, and that the selling of Skype’s controlling interest will continue.

The conflict began when Skype owners expressed their discontent with how eBay was handling their business. During this time eBay proceeded to sell Skype to a group of investors and Skype filed a lawsuit in response.

When eBay purchased Skype in 2005 they failed to purchase a key p2p technology needed to power the service. Still owned by Skype owners they have since threatened to end the licensing that powers the p2p technology.

The settlement will now allow eBay to sell Skype, while still holding 30 percent of the company. Skype owners Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will own a combined 14 percent, and Skype will now own the key p2p technology it needs to run its service.

Mashable

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Microsoft cuts 800 jobs

acoleman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:25:57 +0000

Microsoft announced today that they will be cutting 800 more jobs worldwide, in order to cope with the decline in demand for their products. The latest cuts complete a round of layoffs first announced in January which total 5,000.

CEO Steve Ballmer originally stated that the number of layoff would be around 5,000, however today’s cuts have now taken that total beyond the original estimate. Microsoft stated “We are working closely with affected employees to help them through this difficult transition.”

The news of these latest cuts comes just after Microsoft reported a drop in profits and revenue. It marked a significant decline for the company since the success of its previous year. Microsoft still employees some 90,000 individuals worldwide despite rough PC sales, and the downturn in the economy.

Although the release of Windows 7 has been an overall success, Microsoft is seeing the first real negative growth since its founding 34 years ago. It is being reported that there may be more cuts in Microsoft’s future.

Guardian Tech

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Dell finalizes a $ 3.9 billion offer for Perot Systems

acoleman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:59:08 +0000

You may remember that we reported on a story in September, in which Dell made a bid to acquire Perot Systems. Today Dell announced that they have completed their $3.9 billion offer for the consulting service. Dell will now own more than 90 percent of Perot Systems.

The acquisition will create a new business unit known as Dell Services, which will offer IT services to customers. Dell will now be able to provide a number of new services including, technology hosting, consulting, and application outsourcing.

Former Perot CEO Peter Altabef will be president of dell services, and will report to Dell chairmen and CEO Michael Dell. Altabef stated “Dell Services will be a powerful organization with the extensive capabilities and global reach to address the needs of organizations of all types.”

Dell is planning to expand its IT services with their acquisition of Perot Systems. They expect the deal to be finalized very soon.

CNET

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Amazon closes $1.2 billion Zappos acquisition

acoleman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:00:27 +0000

This morning Amazon announced that they have officially closed their Zappos acquisition deal for a reported $1.2 billion. News of the acquisition first broke in July of this year, with the original evaluation set at $928 million.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh stated “I’m happy to say that we officially closed the deal at the split second between Halloween (10/31/09) and All Saints’ Day (11/1/09). From a practical point of view, we’ve switched out our previous board of directors with a new management committee that is composed of people from Zappos as well as Amazon.”

The Zappos management team will remain intact, and the company will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary. With Amazon’s closing price on Friday, 10/30/09 - the shares Zappos would get were then valued at roughly $1.2 billion. This represents a $272 million difference for Zappos.

TechCrunch

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Twitter lists now open to all Twitter users

acoleman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:54:58 +0000

Although Lists were officially rolled out on Thursday, Twitter had to disable them due to technical issues. Yesterday the list feature was only available to about half of the Twitter community. Today however, all Twitter users are now enjoying the feature.

You are now able to build your own lists on the micro-blogging site, as well as see which lists you are being included in. One of the top trending topics for days, Twitter users were a bit discouraged when Lists were delayed. The feature is up now and ready, so you can stop writing your nasty letters to Twitter.

Now that the Lists feature is available what do you think of it? Like it, or hate it? Have you been included in a list? Have you started any of your own? Let us know what you think.

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Nintendo profits drop due to poor Wii sales

acoleman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:14:51 +0000

Nintendo is reporting some sagging numbers today for their first-half earnings. Poor sales and a price cut on the Wii have been blamed for a 52 percent drop in earnings. Nintendo is also reporting that sales have dropped 34 percent.

During the first half of their fiscal year Nintendo sold 5.75 million Wii consoles, which is a huge decline from the same period last year when they sold 10 million units.

In September Nintendo slimmed down the price of the Wii console from $250 to $199.99; a decision that came amid competition from the PS3 Slim. Nintendo is facing competition from Microsoft as well, because of their recent price cuts for the Xbox 360.

A lack of popular video game titles has also been attributed to Nintendo’s poor numbers. Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus are the only real gems that they have released in the past few months. Nintendo hopes to rebound with this years holiday sales, and the release of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

CNET

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GameStop to 15,000 employees for Holiday boom

acoleman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:16:37 +0000

Today GameStop announced that they will be hiring 15,000 seasonal employees for this holiday season. This is common for the video game retailer, as they hire part-time employees for the holiday rush every year.

GameStop hires a number of temporary employees from September through December each year. The number of applications for part-time seasonal help is expected to be much larger than in previous years, due to the downturn in the economy. The new hires for this year’s holiday season will increase their employee base to 46 percent.

GameStop is major retailer for gamers to purchase their favorite video games. In 2008 the company ranked third in video game sales. Wal-Mart and Best Buy were first and second. GameStop stock rose two percent today.

Associated Press

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