Yahoo takes aim at Facebook’s patent-accumulation strategy
A month ago, we marveled at how Facebook had stitched together a defence against Yahoo’s patent attack with what might best be called an “old, new, borrowed and blue” legal strategy.
It turns out Yahoo’s lawyers were thinking the same thing: in a new complaint, they take direct aim at Facebook’s rush to build a patent war chest (which most recently involved a $550m purchase from Microsoft.) Read more
How Facebook built its legal defence against Yahoo
Two researchers from Dutch electronics group Philips, a professor at New York University, an independent inventor in San Jose – and a certain Mark Zuckerberg.
These are some of the people whose assembled brainpower Facebook has drawn on to defend itself against Yahoo’s patent infringement case. If successful, it will count as one of the most effective legal defences mounted by a young internet concern that until recently had little in the way of patent reserves to draw on. Read more
News feeds become better reads
RSS readers used to be the standard way for web users to collect and consume news from different sources, but the advent of tablets has brought personalised photo-rich magazine-style experiences rather than long RSS lists of headlines.
With traditional journalism in decline, the seven news aggregators reviewed here make a case that bots and social networks may be able to take the place of good editors by automatically providing a rich and more personalised news experience. Read more
Yahoo’s new CEO mulls options
Tech news from around the web:
Yahoo‘s new chief executive Scott Thompson has a long to-do list waiting for him at the troubled internet company, according to several reports. Bloomberg suggests that Yahoo is interested in acquiring the Weather Channel, WebMD and AutoTrader.com, according to an anonymous source, as part of a “tax-efficient asset swap” with Alibaba and Softbank. Read more
Yahoo could name PayPal president as CEO
Tech news from around the web:
Yahoo, the struggling internet company, is on the verge of appointing a new chief executive, writes Kara Swisher of AllThingsD, with Scott Thomson, president of eBay’s PayPal business, expected to get the nod. An announcement could come as early as Wednesday. Yahoo has been without a permanent CEO since firing Carol Bartz last September. The company has been run by its board and Tim Morse, its former chief financial officer, while looking at a range of strategic options including a sale of all or part of the company. Read more
Yahoo welcomes another big investor into the tent
Yahoo just moved another step forward in its bid to control the end-game that has been taking shape around its future.
Silver Lake has agreed to enter into confidential discussions with the US internet company, making it the latest private equity firm to go this route – and potentially robbing Alibaba and Softbank of an ally as they consider making a play for Yahoo themselves. But it’s still far too early to call it “game over”. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Google is preparing a launch in the next two weeks of a music-download store that would work closely with its Google+ social network, according to The Wall Street Journal. The music service would recommend songs in an online library to Google+ contacts, who in turn would be allowed to listen to those songs once for free, two people close to the service told the WSJ. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Twitter is now worth ‘an even $8bn’, chief executive Dick Costolo told the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, Business Insider reports. The company recently raised $800m across a two-part round of funding.
Reliance Industries is looking to start rolling out 4G services in India as early as the beginning of next year and reach countrywide deployment by mid-2012, India’s Economic Times says. The company has also started talks with media and entertainment companies to acquire content for its wireless broadband offerings. Read more
Ebay plans PayPal partnership in China
Ebay chief executive John Donahoe said the Chinese government won’t let foreign-owned internet companies win in that country, but added PayPal will nonetheless bend to fit new rules and stay in the market. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
Research by Barclays has found that the Amazon’s Kindle E-readers will outsell the full-colour Kindle Fire in 2012, PaidContent reports. Barclays estimates that Amazon will sell 15.3m Kindle Fire tablets and 23.5m Kindle e-readers next year. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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