It’s well known that Facebook has had its eye on Twitter (as well as several billion dollars if it ever wants to be acquired). Now, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has joined!
theodp writes “Over the past 20 years, there’s been much speculation about what the convergence of computers and TV would ultimately look like. Paul Graham says that we now know the answer: computers. ‘Convergence’ is turning out to essentially be ‘replacement.’ Why did TV lose? Graham identifies four forces: 1. The Internet’s open platform fosters innovation at hacker speeds instead of big company speeds. 2. Moore’s Law worked its magic on Internet bandwidth. 3. Piracy taught a new generation of users it’s more convenient to watch shows on a computer screen. 4. Social applications made everybody from grandmas to 14-year-old girls want computers — in a three-word-nutshell, Facebook killed TV.”
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It (might have) worked in New Zealand, so Ireland is giving it a go. Starting today, avatars on Facebook and Twitter will go black to oppose “graduated response” rules sought by the major record labels.
Forget about rivalries with MySpace and LinkedIn. Facebook’s real competition is coming from upstart microblogging site Twitter By Sarah Lacy Every time monthly Web traffic numbers are released, you can expect at least a half-dozen blogs to run a graph …
rar42 writes “Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently being debated by the UK Parliament, would allow any Minister by order to take from anywhere any information gathered for one purpose, and use it for any other purpose. Personal information arbitrarily used without consent or even knowledge: the very opposite of ‘Data Protection.’ An ‘Information Sharing Order’, as defined in Clause 152, would permit personal information to be trafficked and abused, not only all across government and the public sector — it would also reach into the private sector. And it would even allow transfer of information across international borders. NO2ID has launched a Facebook group to challenge this threat to data protection.”
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Twitter liked the sound of 0 million but balked when Facebook said its stock was worth -9 billion. Twitter’s team knew that Facebook was letting employees sell stock on the secondary market at company -4 billion. “We said it’s not worth it,” the person says. “Don’t treat us like children.”
waderoush writes “Nothing like the open source computing movement has ever caught fire in biology or pharmaceuticals, where intellectual property is king. But drawing inspiration from the people who make Linux software, and the social networking success of Facebook, Merck’s cancer research leader has nailed down million to launch a nonprofit biology platform called Sage, which aims to make it easier for researchers around the world to pool their data to make better drugs. ‘We see this becoming like the Google of biological science. It will be such an informative platform, you won’t be able to make decisions without it,’ says Merck’s Eric Schadt, a co-founder of Sage. He adds: ‘We want this to be like the Internet. Nobody owns it.'”
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nandemoari writes “It seems the world’s most popular social networking site was just moments away from acquiring another — and few of us ever knew about it. A Facebook executive has revealed that a planned takeover of Twitter only fell apart because of a disagreement over stock valuations. Despite the rather miserable economy, Facebook is still looking to buy out other firms and says it could make a billion dollars a year from advertising. Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist who put up some of the money behind Facebook, discussed the deal in a Business Week interview. Thiel says the two sides agreed a 0 million purchase price and that Twitter would receive the payment in Facebook stock rather than cash — which is a common solution in large takeovers where there simply isn’t the money available for a buyout.”
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NEW YORK (AP) – Facebook is trying its hand at democracy. The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world’s sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a “meaningful …
An anonymous reader writes “Three months after being awarded 3 million in a lawsuit against Atlantis Blue Capital for violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Facebook earlier this week filed a federal complaint against ‘Spam King’ Sanford Wallace in San Jose District Court. Las Vegas night club manager Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw are also named as defendants in the suit.” These filings do not mark the first time Wallace has faced legal action; last May, MySpace won a 0 million judgment against him.
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