eBay announced that a group of venture capital funds and investors will buy Skype in a deal that values the company at $2.75 billion (US). The investor group will buy approximately 65% of Skype with eBay retaining 35% ownership. Skype was acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion plus payouts totaling an estimated $3.1 billion in a transaction The New York Times calls “one of the worst technology transactions of the decade.”
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TechCrunch reported that a group of venture capital and private equity firms are joining forces in an effort to acquire Skype, a software application and service that enables video and voice calls, instant messaging and file sharing.
In 2005, eBay purchased Skype, but made a huge mistake in the terms of the deal by failing to acquire ownership of the software that defines Skype. Instead, eBay licensed the software from Joltid Limited, a company owned by Skype’s founders. This mistake continues to haunt eBay, who now finds itself in a legal battle over the software licensing, which I covered earlier this month.
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Facebook announced that they have agreed to acquire FriendFeed, but the terms of the agreement were not released. It appears the twelve member FriendFeed team will join Facebook, but Facebook’s press release indicates that their long term plan for FriendFeed product has not yet been made.
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Business, Social Media
The New York Times reported back in May that the Federal Trade Commission was investigating the violation of antitrust laws related to Apple and Google sharing two board members on their boards of directors. Apple may have crossed another line by creating a software monopoly for the iPhone. This issue has yet to catch the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.
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The ThinkPad W700ds is outfitted with a second 10.6 inch slide-out/retractable screen that expands the display area by 39 percent according to Lenovo who acquired the ThinkPad line from IBM. Additional screen real estate is always a benefit, especially for mobile users who are used to dual screens on their desktop computer.
The W700ds comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect in a high end mobile workstation. Check here for the full technical specifications.