Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real-estate search engine.
It is unclear what price Google would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia's valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that.
Rumors about Google's interest in the real-estate search market--and specifically in Trulia--have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.
But Google has pulled the trigger on a number of acquisitions of innovative start-ups recently and, sources said, will continue to do so.
Trulia--which is based in San Francisco and allows people to search for a range of data about homes for sale in particular ZIP codes or cities nationwide--is one of the more obvious candidates for the search giant's local and mobile efforts.
Its business and that of its competitors--which is largely based on advertising and lead-generation--has been growing quickly, despite the economic downturn in housing.
More interestingly, Trulia is deeply integrated into Google Maps, an arena the company recently targeted for growth with a series of announcements about new search features.
Trulia has raised about $33 million since 2005, with investors that include high-profile Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital.
Interestingly, Accel and Sequoia recently made bank when Google bought AdMob for $750 million.
Trulia's clearest competitor is the larger Zillow, located in the Seattle area. But, sources said, Google is more interested in Trulia, given its location in the Bay Area and lower valuation.
Zillow has raised about $87 million from Benchmark Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, PAR Capital Management, and Legg Mason.
Redfin, another Seattle-based rival, has raised about $31 million from its own well-known collection of VCs.
This week, Google's interest in Yelp, the local review site, also became public, in a deal that could cost upward of $600 million.
It is all part of a buying spree that Google has engaged in of late, with six acquisitions costing $1 billion so far.
Story Copyright (c) 2009 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.
Additional stories from AllThingsD
The latest version of the popular Revo Uninstaller utility now removes 64-bit apps and throws in a host of other new features.
The VS Revo Group this week unveiled the new $40 professional edition of its Revo Uninstaller, a utility that can cleanly rid your system of unwanted software. Available in the past solely as freeware, Revo Uninstaller will now come in two flavors--the free edition and the pro. The free version hasn't been updated since the spring and so lacks many of the new features found in its professional cousin.
Shenel Emin, a product manager at VS Revo Group, told me the company plans to develop both versions, but for now, the pro edition is the priority. Emin explained that users continually requested a variety of useful and much-needed new features, all of which required additional resources to develop, so a paid version was the way VS Revo chose to go.
Okay, so why even use a third-party uninstaller when virtually every Windows app has its own uninstall routine? Well, most built-in uninstallers don't do a good job cleaning up after themselves. They'll often leave behind files, registry keys, and leftover junk that just clog your system and ultimately makes it slower and less reliable. A good uninstaller can keep Windows in better shape by removing all the forgotten bits and pieces of an application.
One of the top features of Revo's new pro version is its ability to remove 64-bit software. As more people jump to 64-bit operating systems, especially with the release of Windows 7, this type of support was essential for Revo to keep pace.
But the pro edition has a few other tricks up its sleeve. The utility can now scan for and remove leftover pieces of programs that you've already uninstalled or that weren't fully removed. The new Junk Files Cleaner gets rid of temp files and other unnecessary items. For greater accuracy, Revo Uninstaller will now monitor the installation of any program, so it knows exactly which files and registry entries need to be deleted if you decide to remove the program down the line.
As a safeguard, the pro version creates backups of registry keys, files, and folders before it gets rid of them. It also runs a full back-up of your entire registry each time you remove an application. Revo now makes it easier for you to restore applications that you decide you want back. Just select the deleted software and you can choose to recover any of its files or registry entries.
Revo Pro includes cleaners for specific types of software. A Windows Cleaner will purge your Recent Documents history, Search history, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files. The Browser Cleaner empties out the cache, cookies, and temporary files of any installed browser. And the Microsoft Office Cleaner clears the recent documents history for Word, Excel, and other MS Office apps.
Two other new features--Evidence Remover and Unrecoverable Delete--can protect you by permanently removing specific applications and files that you don't want recovered. Finally, the Autorun Manager lets you peek at some of the items in your start-up routine, so you can prevent certain ones from loading to free up memory.
Revo Uninstaller Pro is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. A 30-day trial is available at the Revo Web site.
The folks who run Amazon's EC2 cloud service must be happy the week is nearly over.
The cloud-based EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) was kept jumping this past week by two incidents: a compromised internal service that triggered a botnet, and a data center power failure in Virginia.
On Wednesday, security researchers for CA found that a variant of the infamous password-stealing Zeus banking Trojan had infected client computers after hackers were able to compromise a site on EC2 and use it as their own C&C (command and control) operation.
Don DeBolt, Director of Threat Research for CA Internet Security Business Unit, told CNET that the botnet first came to light while his firm was reviewing spam and found one with a URL for a piece of malware called xmas2.exe, described in a blog. After examining the file, DeBolt discovered it was a variant of the Zeus bot that was calling home to a computer inside Amazon Web Services, which houses EC2.
As a keylogger, Zeus is known to specifically capture bank account information, noted DeBolt, and was trying to perform the same crime in this case. The bot was also attempting to report the IP addresses of any clients that were infected via spam. The cybercrooks reportedly snuck their way into EC2 by gaining access through a site hosted on Amazon's service.
Once the bot was discovered, DeBolt and his team contacted Amazon to provide all the information from their client-based analysis. Since then, the files that were serving up the botnet on Amazon's side are no longer active.
... Read moreOn2 Technologies has filed an update with the SEC on its proposed merger with Google, hoping to put to rest some key questions.
On2, which makes video compression software, announced Monday that the update includes certain key highlights about the merger and some frequently asked questions.
On2 agreed on August 5 to be acquired by Google for $106.5 million, a deal already approved by its board of directors. The terms call for each share of On2 to be exchanged for 60 cents worth of Google common stock.
With its board anxious for investors to approve the deal, On2 outlined some of the risks to itself and to shareholders if the acquisition is prevented. On2's merger-related expenses have already exceeded $2 million, an amount it would be responsible for if the deal is stopped, it said. With cash reserves of only $2.2 million, such a debt could certainly hurt the company.
Without Google's acquisition, On2 said it might have to grab additional financing to run its business, which could include the sale of certain assets, the issuing of debt, or the release of even more shares.
On2 also admitted that it's had trouble hiring and retaining skilled, qualified employees, a challenge that might be resolved if employees knew they'd be working for a Google instead. Otherwise, if the merger does not move forward, On2 believes its revenues would be impacted by its failure to attract or keep good employees.
To address any conflicts of interest, On2 said none of the members of its board would serve as directors, officers, or employees of Google or receive any money from Google in connection with the merger.
On2 also released an FAQ, hoping to address any concerns on the part of shareholders. Since the Google offer, the board has received no other offers or inquiries from other firms about an acquisition, the company said. The FAQ also goes into great detail about On2's board and key executives and their involvement in the merger.
On2's board has set a special meeting for December 18 for shareholders to vote on the deal, and is urging them to approve it. Proxy cards have also been sent out. If the majority of stockholders okay the merger and all other conditions are met, then it should become effective within two days after the meeting, said On2. Google has said it plans to make On2's technology part of its own Web platform.
The merger initially triggered some On2 shareholders to file lawsuits against the company in August, alleging that the deal undervalued On2 and that certain provisions prevented On2's board from considering other offers. But those suits were settled on October 26, though are currently awaiting final approval by the court.
Under terms of a memorandum of understanding in the settlement, On2 agreed to provide additional disclosures in its final proxy statement and prospectus. However, On2 said the settlement implied no wrongdoing on its part, there was no monetary damage, and the company would have released the same information in its proxy statement regardless of the lawsuits.
Although a judge recently ruled in favor of Apple in its copyright infringement case against Psystar, the two companies have reached a new settlement, according to Computerworld and other reports.
Details are sketchy at this point, and there's no confirmation from Apple, but Psystar claimed in a motion filed Monday that a partial settlement has been reached.
"Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple's copyright claims in exchange for Apple's agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded," noted Psystar's motion filed in federal court in San Francisco. "Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this Court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple's copyright claims."
Psystar also seems to be looking for a loophole against any injunctions. Apple had asked the court to prevent Psystar from selling clones not just with Leopard, but also Snow Leopard, which was released after the lawsuit began. But in its filing, Psystar argued that it should be allowed to sell its Rebel EFI utility, which lets customers install Snow Leopard on clones sold by the company, thus moving the legal burden away from Psystar.
Psystar's motion also indicated that another motion with further details would be filed Tuesday with Judge William Alsup.
Apple's lawsuit against Psystar began in July 2008 after Psystar started selling Mac clones with OS X installed on them. Apple has argued that its end user license lets people install its operating system on Apple computers only.
On November 13, Alsup ruled in favor of Apple, finding that Psystar's use of OS X on its clones was not "fair use" as the company contended and further finding that Psystar violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by "circumventing Apple's protection barrier."
Since then, Apple has been keen to shut down Psystar's Mac clone business permanently, calling for an injunction against the company and potentially millions of dollars in damages, substantially more money than the clone maker has.
Alsup's findings and Apple's fervor in going after Psystar raise the question of why Apple would agree to any kind of settlement at this point. A hearing was set for December 14, with a full trial scheduled to start in January. But if the latest news from Psystar is true, then the company may be able to avoid further courtroom drama.
Neither Psystar nor Apple has responded to requests for comment. We'll provide further details of this latest development as court documents become available.
Global company IBM seems to have found a way for its employees to get past language barriers and communicate.
IBM employees are currently using text translation software that can instantly convert documents, Web pages, and even instant messages between English and 11 other languages. The software, christened "n.Fluent," is being "crowdsourced" or tested among IBM's 400,000 employees across 170 countries.
As IBMers use n.Fluent, the software learns from its mistakes and improves itself. As the entire company potentially taps into n.Fluent, volunteers within IBM refine each translated word for greater accuracy. In just two weeks this past summer, volunteers tackled around 1.3 million words, averaging around 100,000 per day. Overall, n.Fluent has translated more than 400 million words for Big Blue staffers.
The software works as a plug-in or add-on to other applications, making it fairly seamless to use. Plug-ins translate instant messages on the fly. Text from a word processing document or other presentation is copied into one field of the software, with the immediate translation popping up in another field. IBMers can use n.Fluent on their desktops, laptops, and even smartphones.
This "universal translator" can currently tackle English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic.
"To become a smarter planet, the world needs a shared vocabulary for collaboration -- particularly the business community," said David Lubensky, an IBM researcher managing the n.Fluent project, in a statement. "We see n.Fluent as just such a tool, helping to expand commerce, cement relationships and make the world that much smaller, one word at a time."
Of course, free language translators, such as Google Translate, are already available. But IBM sees n.Fluent as a better alternative. The software is more secure as it runs behind a firewall. It's also adept at handling business jargon. Right now, n.Fluent is only being used internally. But like many of IBM's research projects, it's likely to find a home outside of Big Blue's walls.
IBM spokesman Ari Fishkind said there's no fixed date as to when it might be available externally. "It would be a reasonable assumption that there's a demand in the market for a translation tool that has very good security," he said. "And also this kind of tool is uniquely tuned for a business environment that has almost a language in itself."
Other language translation tools can convert individual words. Key to n.Fluent's success will be how it handles entire sentences and paragraphs as well as colloquialisms. But the company's field tests are geared toward those goals.
"The whole point is to continually refine the idioms and the syntax and the context by people who use the language every day," said Fishkind. "And that's part of this crowdsourcing idea where hopefully at the end of the day we're going to have a system that is not only intelligible but also fluent and fluid."
Sony is planning a new online store a la Apple's iTunes, but with a few twists.
Announced at a strategy meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, the new service will hawk music, movies, books, and other downloadable content geared for its various electronics, including TVs, mobile phones, music players, and computers.
The service, which Sony aims to launch next year, will link the company's devices and digital content that it produces--setting it apart from other online stores.
"That's the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else," Kazuo Hirai, Sony executive vice president for networked products and services, said in an interview with the Associated Press. "That I think is where our core competence lies, and that's a differentiator for Sony."
Hirai also spoke about the new service with BusinessWeek, saying that it won't just sell products but also tap into social networking by letting people upload their own photos or videos and connect with each other.
"It's not just access content, stream it, and enjoy," Hirai told BusinessWeek. "What are your friends watching right now? There's a screen that says all the programming that's available. It highlights all the things that your friends are watching, for example. It's a community experience."
Called the Sony Online Service for now, it will model itself after the company's successful PlayStation Network, a free service that has captured 33 million registered users who download movies, access social networks, and grab games for the PS3 and portable PSP console. Hirai said that gamers will be able to access the new online service directly through their PlayStation Network accounts.
Of course, Sony has been down this road before in 2005 with its late Sony Connect music service. The aborted iTunes clone was done in by internal politics and a failure to connect with consumers, forcing the company to shut it down in 2007.
But with a new, more cohesive management team put in place by CEO and president Howard Stringer, Sony is hoping to avoid the in-fighting that helped kill Connect.
Sony needs a shot in the arm at this point. Though the company pioneered the portable music concept 30 years ago with its Walkman, it has struggled to compete in the Digital Age. Continuing a string of quarterly losses, Sony took a $292 million net loss in its recent second quarter. Despite cost cuts and layoffs, the company is projecting a total loss of $1.3 billion for the full fiscal year.
Electronic Arts has closed the door on its game developer unit Pandemic Studios.
EA shut down Pandemic as a separate unit on Tuesday, laying off 200 employees, according to published reports, but moving a small core team to EA's Los Angeles headquarters. Those exiting include Pandemic's two founders, Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick.
An Electronic Arts spokesperson confirmed the news to CNET, but called it a consolidation rather than a closing, saying that the company merged Pandemic with EA's nearby LA campus. The core team of developers integrated into EA will continue to work on Pandemic properties.
An internal memo by EA Games Label Senior Vice President Nick Earl also confirmed the closing, as reported by the Web site Kotaku.
"I want to make it clear that the Pandemic brand and franchises will live on," wrote Earl in the memo. "In the months ahead, we will announce plans for new games based on Pandemic franchises. This type of change can be difficult. But the situation calls for us to act decisively, to take control of our destiny and to run a stronger, more focused development operation. That's how we will continue to make great games in our LA studios."
The EA spokesperson also confirmed that the Pandemic brand and franchise are still alive and well, and that EA is still very committed to it.
Started in 1998, Pandemic Studios was later bought by Electronic Arts in 2007 as part of a deal for which EA paid $860 million for both Pandemic and Bioware. Pandemic is behind the design of many popular titles, including Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries, and Full Spectrum Warrior. The studio's most recent game for EA, The Saboteur, will hit stores next month.
On the plus side, Bioware seems in little danger of closing. With its slew of blockbuster games, such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins (which triggered more than a million downloads of premium content in its initial week), Bioware has proved to be one of EA's more successful studio purchases.
Hit by weak game sales, EA has been hurting since last year when it warned that 2009 would be a tough one. The company said at the time that it would need to cut staff, trim product lines, and close studios. EA initially announced job cuts of 10 percent of its workforce, then later revised that to 11 percent. In January, EA also jettisoned Pandemic's studio in Brisbane, Australia.
Electronic Arts has indeed struggled this fiscal year, announcing higher losses and lower sales for its first quarter and again for the second quarter, ended September 30.
The continued downturn forced the company earlier this month to announce additional job cuts of 1,500 employees beyond the initial 11 percent. With the layoffs scheduled to occur by March of next year, the game maker hopes its actions will trim annual expenses by at least $100 million.
"Laying off employees and closing facilities is never pleasant--we have a lot of compassion for those impacted--but these cuts are essential for transforming our company," said EA CEO John Riccitiello in an earnings call following the announcement of the cuts.
Correction at 4:50 a.m. PDT November 18: Cammie Dunaway incorrectly described Wii's October sales figures compared with other next-generation game consoles. Wii sales were nearly the total of its rivals combined.
Stung by lower Wii sales and a couple of down quarters, Nintendo may be a bit off its game this year. But Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, keeps focused on the company's strengths and positive numbers.
The recession and a paucity of blockbuster titles have taken a bite out of the overall video game industry this year, with revenue down from record levels in 2008. Nintendo certainly hasn't been immune. For the first half of the year, earnings fell about 50 percent from 2008, while Will sales dipped.
In the midst of this atmosphere, I spoke on Thursday with Dunaway, known to many video game buffs for her high-spirited appearances at E3.
Though I asked Dunaway about the company's revenue decline, lower console sales, and potential competition, she continually championed Nintendo's assets, including its Wii and DS consoles and recent popular games like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus, as well as new titles like Super Mario Bros.
Dunaway's optimism about Nintendo may have been borne out by the latest results. Though overall video game revenue fell in October, the Wii bounced back to recover its spot as the top selling console, according to NPD.
Last month, Nintendo sold 507,000 Wiis, compared with 320,600 Sony PlayStation 3s and 249,700 Microsoft Xbox 360s. Coming in second in video game hardware sales was Nintendo's portable DSi and DS Lite, with gamers scooping up 457,000 units.
Four of Nintendo's titles also did well in October, finishing in the top 10. The company sold 232,000 copies of Wii Fit Plus alone, and 209,000 of Wii Fit Plus bundled with the Balance Board. Wii Sports Resort scored with 179,000 copies sold, while Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the DS found 169,000 new customers.
I spoke with Dunaway by phone before before NPD released the October sales figures. But she certainly knew ahead of time that the numbers would look good for Nintendo.
Q: The question on everyone's mind is Nintendo's performance this year. For the first half, earnings were down about 50 percent. Sales for the Wii have dropped. Your president, [Satoru] Iwata, recently admitted that sales of the Wii have stalled. What do you pin as the reasons for this downturn, both for the company and for the Wii itself?
Dunaway: Let's talk about the U.S., and let's break it down into the separate platforms. So, speaking first about the Wii--what's important to understand is that in 2008, we sold 10 million units of the Wii, which was a record for any console ever in history. And so it's a high mark.
What's also important to understand is that the pacing of our software this year was quite different than it was in 2008. In 2008, our big titles were released early in the year. And this year's huge title, released a few weeks ago in October, Wii Fit Plus, is doing quite well. And then arguably, the largest title of the year, New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, only releases Sunday [November 15]. So we believe that going into the holiday season, consumers will continue to look for the products they see as representing the best value and the most fun.
Now on DS, we also had a record setting year last year, selling over 10 million units, and we are actually 16 percent above that pace year-to-date in 2009. So the combination of DS Lite and our new product DSi is really resonating with consumers.
Then on software, here in the U.S., our software for both Wii and Nintendo DS is actually up over a year ago. So despite the fact that our big titles are yet to come, we still have had a good year overlapping a tremendous year with our software.
Can you talk about some of the new titles Nintendo has in store for the holidays and next year? You mentioned Super Mario Bros. is a key title for the holidays. Are there others?
Dunaway: Looking to some of the additional titles for the holidays, New Super Mario Bros., for the first time enables four people to play a Mario game together. And it is going to be something that provides tremendous challenge to experienced gamers, and something a brand new gamer can jump in with their friends and family and enjoy. So that one will be a monster hit.
We also on the DS side have a new Zelda title--Zelda Spirit Tracks--coming on December 7. And Zelda titles are always strong performers, and it's a franchise that loyalists look forward to, line up to get copies of. And it's a title that we also think expanded market consumers will enjoy because of its heart. It's really about solving puzzles and going on an adventure, which is something that really anyone can have a good time doing.
Then as we go into next year, while we haven't announced timing, we have announced that we'll be launching a new Pokemon Gold and Silver, which has broken all records on its launch in Japan. [We're also launching] a title that will be great for loyalists called Sin & Punishment and a title called Endless Ocean that really provides a wonderful family experience on the Wii.
... Read more
Cisco Systems has bumped up its buyout offer to $3.41 billion for video conferencing company Tandberg.
The network giant's initial bid received a thumbs down from most of Tandberg's shareholders, who felt the initial $3 billion offer undervalued the company.
So far, more than 40 percent of Tandberg's stockholders, which includes investment firm OppenheimerFunds and Norwegian government pension fund Folketrygdfondet, have pre-accepted the new offer.
Cisco announced on October 1 that it was pursuing a $3 billion cash takeover of Tandberg, a major global supplier of video conferencing equipment with dual headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and New York City.
Increasingly important to companies looking to cut travel costs, teleconferencing is considered a growth industry. Cisco wants a bigger piece of that pie, and analysts didn't expect it to give up on Tandberg too easily.
The new bid expires December 1. Cisco said that if the bid isn't accepted by that deadline, it will withdraw the bid and look at other ways to expand its reach in the video conferencing market.
Cisco has been on a tear lately buying smaller niche companies, taking over a few firms earlier in the year and recently announcing plans to gobble up security software firm ScanSafe and wireless equipment maker Starent Networks.
