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Facebook market makers' losses at least $100 million

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:05:29 -0400

(Reuters) - Claims by four of Wall Street's main market makers against Nasdaq over Facebook's botched IPO are likely to exceed $100 million, as they and other traders continue to deal with thousands of problems with customer orders. A technical glitch delayed the social networking company's market debut by 30 minutes on Friday and many client orders were delayed, giving some investors and traders significant losses as the stock price dropped. The exchange operator is facing lawsuits from investors and threats of legal action from brokers. ...

Facebook options debut a wild card for volatility

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:26:53 -0400

(Reuters) - Investors can hope the debut of options on Facebook Inc goes more smoothly than the long-awaited debut of the social networking service's stock on May 18. While the stock's puts and calls are expected to be popular, the big wild card is volatility and ultimately, the options price. Traders will get a fresh start on options on the Internet giant when the contracts are offered on U.S. options exchanges on May 29. ...

Corrected: Dish, TV networks take fight over ad zapper to judges

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:03:03 -0400

(Reuters) - A legal battle erupted between DISH Network and some of the major broadcast networks Thursday as the two sides traded lawsuits over the satellite distribution company's "Hopper" DVR, which threatens to bring down the television business model by allowing viewers to skip over commercials entirely. Dish Network Corp asked a Manhattan federal judge to declare that its "Auto Hop" feature does not infringe any copyright owned by the four major U.S. television networks: Walt Disney Co's ABC, CBS Corp's CBS, News Corp's Fox and Comcast Corp's NBC. ...

Story by Pultizer Prize winner serialized on Twitter

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:59:25 -0400

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan for the New Yorker is being serialized in 10 installments on Twitter, according to the magazine. The New Yorker said the first installment of the story, a spy thriller called "Black Box, went out on Thursday night. "The story is written in terse dispatches of 140 characters or less, which will be tweeted, through The New Yorker Fiction Department's Twitter handle, @NYerFiction, in ten nightly installments between 8 and 9 P.M. E.T," it said in a statement. ...

Ukrainian pianist plays her way to YouTube stardom

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:59:27 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - A little-known Ukrainian pianist who has had 43 million views on YouTube of her performing everything from Liszt to Schubert said on Friday for an encore she will play London's Royal Albert Hall -- and the world is invited to watch on the Internet. Valentina Lisitsa, who has been playing piano since the age of 3, began her rise to Internet stardom five years ago, when she posted a Rachmaninov etude nicknamed "Little Red Riding Hood" on the Internet. Perhaps in part bolstered by her flashing long fingers and blonde tresses, that video clip has had 1. ...

Google+ trends: Towel Day, Britney Spears's first day on 'X Factor USA'

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:59:10 -0400

Google+ users are celebrating “Towel Day” on May 25 in honor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams.

Twitter index: Kylie 'Timebomb' video, Justin Bieber 'Die In Your Arms' single, Facebook Camera

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:08:54 -0400

Microbloggers are furiously tweeting “#KylieTimebomb” after Australian pop star Kylie Minogue teased that she would post a link to her new single and accompanying music video “Timebomb” if they kept on tweeting.

SAP to buy Ariba, boosts cloud bet

Thu, 24 May 2012 23:02:52 -0400

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Top European software company SAP AG plans to buy Ariba Inc in a deal valuing the business and commerce network company at $4.3 billion, its latest maneuver against Oracle in the fast-growing Internet-based computing market. SAP is taking aim at Oracle, the world's No. 2 maker of business management software, as they vie with Salesforce.com Inc in the multibillion dollar cloud-computing services market, one of the industry's hottest area of growth. Shares in Ariba, which were halted briefly, leapt 20 percent to SAP's offer price of about $45 per share. ...

Citadel lost $30 million in Facebook fiasco: source

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:45:59 -0400

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citadel Securities' market-making business lost around $30 million due to Facebook Inc's botched initial public offering on Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's U.S. stock exchange, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday. The losses at Citadel Securities, which has assets under management of around $1 billion, are in line with losses at Knight Capital Group, which said on Wednesday in a regulatory filing it suffered a pre-tax loss of $30 million to $35 million. ...

Facebook market makers' losses total at least $100 million

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:49:19 -0400

Geeks Are Still Being Bullied By Dictionaries

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:21:33 -0400

Just in time for Geek Pride day, some folks on the Internet have started to get a little defensive over the term "geek," as they should, since lots of official language arbiters still consider it a derogatory term.

HP’s webOS team may join Google

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:00:50 -0400

HP’s open source webOS team, known as Enyo, will reportedly be leaving the company and joining Google, according to The Verge. The computer giant in December announced its failed webOS mobile operating system would move to an open-source model under the name Enyo, with version 1.0 slated for release in September 2012. The website’s sources claim the entire Enyo team will not be headed for Google, but Matt McNulty, the head of the project, will be among those departing. This wouldn’t be the first time the Internet giant has hired former webOS workers; Android’s current design chief Matias Duarte oversaw the creation of the user interface for the operating system while working at Palm. It is unclear if the Enyo team

Facebook reportedly in talks to acuire Web browser maker Opera

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:55:04 -0400

Following Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, it looks like the company has no intention of slowing down. According to a report from Pocket-lint, the social networking giant may be looking to enter the Web browsing market by purchasing Opera Software. The move would put Facebook in direct competition with Microsoft and Mozilla, and it would certainly apply increased pressure to Google as well. Opera’s mobile browser has seen strong growth in recent years, however the same cannot be said for its desktop version, which lags far behind Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. A Facebook browser could potentially allow users to stay up to date with their social life using built-in plug-ins and features integrated into the browser’s UI. Read

Yahoo! ditches digital newsstand for iPads

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:37:27 -0400

Yahoo! shuttered its fledgling digital newsstand for iPads on Friday in what it said was the start of a product purge intended to make the floundering Internet pioneer more nimble.

Facebook options debut a wild card for volatility

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:26:53 -0400

Comcast plans to charge customers for exceeding bandwidth cap

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:45:20 -0400

Comcast recently announced that it may soon begin charging additional fees to broadband Internet subscribers who go over their monthly bandwidth allowances. The cable operator currently suspends customers’ service if they repeatedly go over their 250GB monthly data allowances rather than charging any penalties. Instead of capping broadband customers at 250GB per month, however, Comcast plans to raise the cap to 300GB and charge $10 for each 50GB block of data above that limit, Digital Trends reported. The change is currently being tested with select customers but if successful, the company plans to implement the change across its network. Comcast began capping data in 2008, and it claimed the measure was necessary in order to manage its network. Read

'Call Me Maybe' Mashup of 75 Videos Will Haunt You

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:22:44 -0400

Carly Rae Jepsen’s catchy "Call Me Maybe" continues to win over the hearts of countless Internet music lovers, topping Billboard's Digital Songs chart this week and the iTunes Store singles chart last week.

Pandora now controls over 70% of top U.S. Internet radio market

Fri, 25 May 2012 01:15:31 -0400

Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy recently announced that the music streaming service had surpassed 150 million users in the United States and was the second most downloaded app in the history of Apple’s App Store. According to the company’s recent earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, Pandora grew to a record 51.9 million active users, representing a 53% year-over-year increase. The service has a commanding 71.7% share of the top U.S. Internet radio market and controls almost 6% of the total U.S. radio listening market. The company’s total revenue jumped 58% year-over-year to $80.8 million, $70.6 million of which came from advertising and $10.2 million from subscription plans. While advertising revenue increased 62% year-over-year and subscription revenue increased

New Google data show Microsoft's piracy problems

Thu, 24 May 2012 20:54:45 -0400

Google's Internet search engine receives more complaints about websites believed to be infringing on Microsoft's copyrights than it does about material produced by entertainment companies pushing for tougher online piracy laws.

Boomshakalaka! Blake Griffin Mashed With NBA Jam Is YouTube Gold

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:07:24 -0400

Coaching tip: Combine the best basketball video game ever with footage of today's most electrifying dunker to create Internet gold.

Five things to do before giving your teenager a smartphone

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:49:00 -0400

For many parents, it is not a matter of if your teenager gets a smartphone but when. According to a recent report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly 25 percent of children between the ages of 14 and 17 already have one. And ownership levels across all demographics are only going up.

Google reveals copyrighted material claims

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:42:20 -0400

Google on Thursday began revealing details about requests for links to be removed from Internet search results on the grounds they lead to copyrighted material posted without permission.

New FBI unit tasked with making Web and mobile communications easier to spy on

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:35:39 -0400

The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently formed a new unit tasked with developing technologies that enable more effective means of monitoring Internet, mobile and VoIP communications, CNET reported. The secretive new unit, reportedly called the Domestic Communications Assistance Center, aims to develop new surveillance technologies that make it easier for law enforcement to spy on suspects as they communicate using modern technology. Joined by agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI reportedly formed the DCAC because it believes technology has developed too quickly, leaving law enforcement without the tools necessary to effectively monitor these new communications channels. Read

New Google data shows Microsoft's piracy problems

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:30:14 -0400

Meet The Facebook Conscientious Objectors

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:50:17 -0400

Now that Facebook's a big nasty corporation, it's not only attracted a lot of bad press, it's inspired more direct action. In the run-up to the IPO and its messy aftermath we've read a few declarations of expatriatism, including one today from The New Yorker's Steve Coll. In no way does this indicate a coming mass exodus. These people aren't starting movements, rallying the people of the Internet like Quit Facebook Day tried (and failed) to do back in 2010. ...