Mereja

Author: Joseph Tartakoff

  • Congressmen Call For FTC To Look Into Google Buzz—And AdMob Deal Too


    Googleville

    Nearly two months after Google’s rocky introduction of ‘Buzz,’ the sharing service remains under fire from privacy advocates; eleven congressmen have written a letter to the chairman of the FTC urging the agency to investigate complaints about the service—and, perhaps more ominously for Google (NSDQ: GOOG), also look into the company’s pending deal to buy AdMob. Google announced the AdMob deal in early November but it has been delayed.

    Google made significant changes to Buzz soon after it was introduced because of complaints that private information was being made public via the service. However, the congressmen say they “remain concerned that personal information was publicly disclosed without notice or choice and has yet to be appropriately secured.” Specifically, they ask the agency to look into an earlier complaint by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

    How does AdMob fit? Here’s how the congressmen put it: “At the same time the company faces challenges protecting consumer privacy, it appears that Google seeks more access to personal information through a deal to acquire AdMob … We understand that the Commission is in the process of reviewing Google’s acquisition of AdMob and we urge that the Commission scrutinize how the deal will affect competition and Google’s incentives to offer robust consumer privacy protections.”

    Google said soon after Buzz’s launch that “millions” were already using the service, but in terms of buzz, at least, it has definitely dropped off. TechCrunch noted earlier today—under the headline ‘Google Buzz Getting Smoked In The Sharing Race By A Dead Man’—that Buzz was sending less traffic to TC than Friendfeed. And another report today showed that while web searches for ‘Google Buzz’ spiked immediately after its launch they have since fallen off dramatically.

    Google says it isn’t sharing any new Buzz metrics. As for the letter, a spokeswoman says: “When we realized that we’d unintentionally made many of our users unhappy, we moved quickly to make significant product improvements to address their concerns. Our door is always open to discuss additional ways to improve our products and services moving forward.”

    Google Buzz Letter

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  • The (Short) History Of Twitter’s Plans To Make Money


    Twitter

    After being hounded for months about how it plans to make money, Twitter (finally) is set to provide an answer, likely at the company’s Chirp conference in mid-April. What’ll it be? The consensus is that an ad platform of some sort will be announced. But by our count, over the past 18 months or so, Twitter executives and investors have mentioned no fewer than five different possible sources of revenue. Here, in anticipation of the unveiling next month, is what Twitter has said about each, and which of those aspirations they’ve actually done something about.

    Advertising

    What they said: Twitter has said as far back as November 2008 that it would consider adding ads to search-result pages. More recently, though, executives have said that “traditional web banner advertising isn’t interesting to us,” and instead have said the ad model they will reveal will be “fascinating,” “non-traditional,” “really cool” and “amazing.” So specific! As of February, it was in the “test phase.”

    What they’ve done: Nothing—although head of product management and monetization Anamitra Banerji said in late February that the ad platform would likely launch in the next month or so.

    E-commerce

    What they said: Twitter board observer Todd Chaffee said in June that the company was considering e-commerce as a revenue stream. Since people are using Twitter to get product recommendations, he said, it would only make sense that people would be able to buy products via the site too.

    What they’ve done: Nothing.

    Premium accounts

    What they said: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in August that the company would charge users for “premium accounts.” In November, Stone said the plans were well on their way and that a pay-for-package offering that would include verified streams and analytics would launch by the end of the year.

    What they’ve done: The company has not started charging for premium accounts. However, it has rolled out free business-friendly features like “contributors,” which helps differentiate between multiple users of a single Twitter account.

    Mobile deals

    What they said: At our own EconSM conference last year, Kevin Thau, Twitter’s director of mobile business development, said the company would make money from handset deals and also by getting some sort of cut of the carriers’ data business.

    What they’ve done: Twitter has dozens of relationships with carriers—financial details of which are unknown. The company did, however, partner with Peek in November to launch a $99 device designed for the frequent Tweeter.

    Search

    What they said: Thau also said at our conference that Twitter would monetize search “in some way.”

    What they’ve done: Twitter has since licensed its stream of Tweets to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)—which are all using the data to add real-time results from Twitter to their search engines. The Microsoft and Google deals alone are believed to be worth as much as $25 million.

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  • Twitter’s Stone Teases New Details About Those Money-Making Plans Coming Next Month


    Twitter

    About that Twitter ad platform that was supposed to launch at South by Southwest but never materialized there … Well, co-founder Biz Stone tells CNBC that “later this month (we’ll be) revealing exactly how we plan to make a sustainable source of income so we can build a business.” He likely means next month—since that’s when Twitter has scheduled its Chirp conference, which includes “monetization” on its agenda. How exciting! We’ve been waiting so long! The only hint Stone gives: “We’re going to roll out something that we think is appropriate for not just Twitter users but also for the ecosystem. When we develop this monetization platform it’s not just going to be for us. It will actually extend to all these apps that are out there everyone is using.”


    (via BusinessInsider)

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  • Microsoft’s Bing Adds Foursquare To Maps


    Bing Foursquare

    To add to Microsoft’s growing list of partners in its battle to take on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in the search market: Hot location startup Foursquare. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) says that users of Bing Maps will now be able to “see foursquare check-ins, badges, and mayorships in Bing Maps and see tips from any foursquare customer and zoom to the location for visualization.” The deal comes as Microsoft has been making a major push to make its Maps product more competitive with that of Google; it launched a complete overhaul of Bing Maps in December (adding new ‘Streetside’ images to match Google Maps’ own Street View) and has also integrated data from local blogs, Twitter, Flickr and other sites with the product.

    There’s no mention that the relationship is exclusive, but—for at least the time being—it gives Microsoft a partner that Google does not have. It also gives Bing—the big underdog here—some startup cred. Already, Microsoft was able to announce deals to include real-time feeds from both Twitter and Facebook before before Google did so (It also has a partnership with WolframAlpha that Google does not have).

    Microsoft announced the FourSquare tie-up, as part of a series of spring updates to Bing. Other changes include UI tweaks (which highlight some of the structured data Bing pulls for some queries), as well as a new car search feature.

    As it did with its predecessor, Live Search, Microsoft appears to be going with a strategy of announcing both a major spring and fall update for Bing. This fall saw a number of new features added to the search engine, including the real-time search tie-ins, a visual search feature and a new video search page beefed up with MSN Video.

    It all seems to be paying off; Microsoft has managed to post nine straight months of market share gains: Its share of the search market is now at 11.5 percent, up from 8 percent prior to its remake last June.

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  • Google’s List Of China Partners Shrinks


    Sheep

    No surprise here: Google’s Chinese partners are abandoning the company in the aftermath of its decision to stop censoring its search engine there. China Unicom won’t include Google’s search engine on its Android phones, the FT reports (Google was developing new phones with Unicom that would incorporate its e-mail and web services, although it put that work on pause shortly after it first threatened to pull out of the country).

    Other partners that have curtailed their relationship with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) include portal Tom.com, which is no longer featuring Google as the default search engine on its site, and big online forums site Tianya, which Google owns a stake in.

    So who might be the next to let Google go? The NYT reported yesterday that the Chinese government was putting pressure on China Mobile to end its deal with Google. That would be a major loss, considering that while Google has always lagged far behind rival Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) in the overall search market, it has managed to match Baidu’s mobile search share, in large part because of its relationship with China Mobile.


  • Placecast Gets $3 Million More For Location-Based Ads


    Shopalerts

    Location-based ad startup Placecast has added $3 million in additional funding. The company says it will use the cash to expand its ‘ShopAlerts’ service, which sends people promotional text messages when they’re near a specific retail location. (It’s all opt-in). This is a double hot space—with both Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) buying up mobile ad networks and with ‘location’ seemingly replacing ‘real-time’ as the buzz word du jour.

    And indeed, in its announcement, Placecast takes the highly unusual step of mentioning a specific company that theoretically could be interested in acquiring it. Talk about chutzpah! (From the e-mail a representative sent us: “The 451 Group’s mobile analyst, Thomas Rasmussen believes the next mobile ad M&A will happen with a location twist. He predicts someone like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will want to buy a company like Placecast.”)

    This is an add-on to the $5 million round the company raised only five months ago. The cash is coming from existing investors, Quatrex Capital, ONSET Ventures and Voyager Capital.

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  • Yahoo Extends iPhone Push To Search


    Sketch A Search 2

    Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is adding two search apps to its iPhone roster: A new ‘Sketch-a-Search’ app lets users find local businesses close to a certain location simply by drawing a boundary on a map, while the Yahoo Search app lets users search Yahoo on their phones (There are some extras too, like voice search).

    The new apps come as Yahoo has been adding iPhone apps for many of its properties. In September, the company introduced iPhone apps for Yahoo Finance, Flickr, and Fantasy Football. And just last week it bought Citizen Sports, a startup that owns several sports-related iPhone apps.

    A year ago, when Yahoo rolled out a new mobile homepage the company said it was hoping to eliminate “app fatigue”—which it described as the experience of going into and out of several applications. That goal, however, now seems to be kaput—and executives have said the company is making a bigger investment in building apps for high-end devices, as well as in the mobile browser.

    Yahoo announced the new search apps at CTIA, which my colleague Tricia Duryee is covering. She’s meeting with Yahoo representatives this afternoon and should have more then.

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  • Amdocs Buys MX Telecom For $104 Million


    Amdocs

    Billing firm Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) has bought up mobile payments and messaging firm MX Telecom for $104 million in cash, the companies announced at CTIA today. Amdocs says the acquisiton will bulk up its Open Market business, which calls itself the “largest mobile transaction hub” in the U.S and provides services like SMS advertising and content delivery to phones. In addition to the U.S., MX Telecom has operations in Europe and Australia, and Amdocs says the deal “accelerates (its) plans for global expansion into key markets.”

    Amdocs has made several other sizeable acquisitions over the years, including buying up mobile ad and search firm Changing Worlds for $60 million a year-and-a-half ago, as well as Qpass for $275 million in 2006.

    Here’s the announcement.

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  • Skype Co-Founders Raise $165 Million For New Fund—Short Of Initial Goal


    Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis

    Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis have raised $165 million for their second venture fund which will mainly back European high growth tech startups. Zennström and Friis—who also started Kazaa and Joost—had initially aimed to raise $266 million for the fund a year ago but downplay the shortfall telling the Financial Times, “when we started we had a flexible number” and “we think we have exactly the right amount of money.”

    Zennström and Friis started their investment company—Atomico—four years ago. Over the last year, it has backed several startups, including mobile gaming firm Zattikka, music service Rdio, and social games site Playfire.

    In its announcement, Atomico loosely lays out the criteria for how it will use the new cash. Zennström: “We will seek to invest in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building exceptional businesses. We will target companies that we believe have the potential to generate significant growth, transform their industries, and deliver strong returns.”

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  • T-Mobile USA Confirms Partnership Talks With Clearwire


    Deutsche Telekom's head office in Bonn, Germany

    T-Mobile USA is indeed looking for a U.S. partner to help finance a high-speed data network. T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson said Thursday that his company—which has admitted it is losing business because many of its customers cannot even get 3G—is looking “at JV opportunities for additional spectrum” and has talked with both cable companies and also with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). There have been reports since September that T-Mobile USA was in partnership discussions with Clearwire, which is located only a few miles away from its Bellevue, Wash.-area headquarters.

    Earlier reports stated that Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel would also be involved in some way, since it owns 51 percent of Clearwire. There have also been reports that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) was considering purchasing Sprint outright. But in his remarks Dotson downplayed any direct combination with that company saying, “What you never want to do is take one company that is going through challenges and take another company going through challenges.”

    Other possible partners for T-Mobile USA include MetroPCS and AT&T (NYSE: T).  Deutsche Telekom has also been said to be mulling either an IPO or spinoff of the fourth-largest U.S. carrier.

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  • Yahoo Expands Its Search Distribution Partnership With Telefonica To Spain


    Yahoo_Mobile_Search_Ad

    Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) may have lost its search deal with T-Mobile in the U.S. earlier this month—but it is still picking up search partners—at least in Europe. The company is replacing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) as the exclusive search engine on the mobile portal of Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Espana, the biggest mobile operator in Spain. Under a two-and-half year old partnership with Telefonica, Yahoo was already the exclusive search engine on Telefonica’s mobile portals in 15 other countries. But the partnership notably left out two of Telefonica’s largest markets—Germany and Spain.

    In November, Yahoo replaced Google as the default search provider for Telefonica subsidiary O2 Germany—and now it’s closed the loop with its deal in Telefonica’s home country.

    Still unclear is what will happen to Yahoo’s 80-plus mobile distribution deals once its search partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) goes into effect. Yahoo will use Bing as its exclusive search platform for PC-based searches. However, the mobile search relationship isn’t exclusive, with Yahoo allowed to choose other partners if it wants to. Discussions are ongoing.

    Here’s the announcement.

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  • Yahoo Buys Social Sports Startup Citizen Sports


    Yahoo Times Square

    Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has hinted for several months that it would be buying more companies and it’s finally made an acquisition—buying up social sports startup Citizen Sports, which it says will compliment Yahoo Sports, the top sports site in the U.S.

    And, indeed, the move immediately gives Yahoo clout in the social networking and mobile sports spaces, where it has been weak. Citizen Sports owns a series of popular sports apps on the iPhone and on social networking sites, including what it says is the most popular fantasy football app on Facebook. By contrast, Yahoo has long been the top player in the online fantasy sports market, but only last September did it release a fantasy football iPhone app and, as far as I can tell, it does not have any sports apps at all on Facebook.

    In its announcement, Yahoo says Yahoo Sports content will be integrated into Citizen Sports’ apps. Together, the company says, Yahoo Sports and Citizen Sports will create a “more personally relevant experience, drive deeper user engagement and create opportunities for advertisers to interact with audiences in new environments.”

    Financial terms of the acquisition were not released, although AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher—who predicted the deal earlier this week—put the price at between $40 million and $50 million. Citizen Sports had raised roughly $10 million in a funding round four years ago, back when it was operating under the name ProTrade Sports.

    This is Yahoo’s third acquisition under CEO Carol Bartz. Going ahead, the company has said it is interested in three general areas—deals that would add “important technology and the people behind it,” content-related deals, and geographic buys that would let the company move into or strengthen its position in a market.

    Here’s our earlier report on what Yahoo may buy next.

    The release:

    SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)—As part of its ongoing commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Citizen Sports (http://www.citizensports.com), a company that brings the world of sports to fans’ favorite social networking sites and mobile devices through innovative applications. This acquisition will strengthen Yahoo!‘s social strategy of enriching, aggregating and distributing social content from across the entire Web, and offering a highly customizable social experience.

    “Yahoo! is in a unique position to combine our deep expertise in content and aggregation technology to offer a highly personalized social experience,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!. “Sports has been among the earliest online categories to experience rapid social proliferation, and the combination of Citizen Sports leading products with our world-class sports experience on Yahoo! Sports is a win-win for sports fans globally.”

    Millions of people across the globe use Citizen Sports’ array of social and mobile products to play fantasy sports, fill out brackets, check live scores and read up-to-the minute news on sports including football, hockey, soccer, baseball, racing, rugby, hockey and cricket. Yahoo! Sports’ content will be integrated into these products, creating a seamless experience for sports fans wherever they are. On Yahoo! Sports, users will be able to broadcast their allegiances, create or join a conversation with friends and fans and cheer for their teams through Citizen Sports’ applications. This integration will further transform Yahoo! into a more personally relevant experience, drive deeper user engagement and create opportunities for advertisers to interact with audiences in new environments.

    As the #1 destination for online Sports with more than 39 million monthly unique users in the U.S.*, Yahoo! Sports provides people with the most timely, relevant and comprehensive sports news, information and programming. Citizen Sports’ network of popular applications for Facebook, MySpace (NYSE: NWS), hi5, iPhone and Android span professional, college and high school sports.

    “Citizen Sports was founded with the intent to enable fans to access news, scores and fantasy games on the platform of their choice,” said Mike Kerns, founder and CEO of Citizen Sports. “We look forward to becoming a part of Yahoo! and bringing our social experiences to their 600 million users around the globe.”

    Citizen Sports was founded by Mike Kerns and Jeff Ma in 2004. Since then the company has brought together millions of sports fans from around the world to enjoy sports and connect with their friends. Citizen Sports is based in San Francisco.

    Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the second quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.

    * February 2010, comScore (NSDQ: SCOR), U.S.

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  • News Corp’s IGN Cuts Jobs Across The Board


    IGN Entertainment

    News Corp.-owned IGN Entertainment, which includes both the video game network of the same name, as well as sites like AskMen, is going through a major round of layoffs. In an all-staff memo sent today, IGN president Roy Bahat says that while the company has been “doing well—we’re profitable and our audience continues to grow,” it’s “still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity.” He says jobs are being cut “in every part of the company.” The memo—which we obtained our own copy of and which is included in its entirety after the jump—was first posted by Joystiq.

    The layoffs reemphasize the uncertainty surrounding the status of News Corp.‘s digital media group. Over the last several months, the company has sold several of its digital properties, including Rotten Tomatoes (which was part of IGN), Photobucket, and Digital Publishing Group.

    News Corp.‘s digital media group is also reportedly shopping its Fox Mobile Group, which went through a deep round of layoffs of its own last year. Then, of course, there’s the recent executive shakeup (and sale rumors) at MySpace.

    This is the second set of job cuts at IGN in less than a year. News Corp. cut between 50 and 75 people at its non-MySpace digital operations, including IGN, last June, although the company never specified how many of those layoffs were at IGN.

    News Corp (NYSE: NWS). representatives aren’t sharing details.

    The full memo sent this afternoon by Bahat:

    Today’s a hard day at IGN.  We’ve had to reduce the size of our organization and are eliminating roles today in every part of the company.  We are making every effort to be compassionate and fair to the people whose roles we’ve eliminated.

    We’re doing this to reduce costs.  While we’ve been doing well – we’re profitable and our audience continues to grow – we’re still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity.  Over the past couple of years, we have been focusing IGN on areas where we can not only grow, but be best in the world: serving gamers online, and serving advertisers looking to reach men.  To do that successfully, we have to be as efficient as possible in our core businesses.  The difficult actions we’re taking today get us to where we need to be.

    We are losing colleagues who played an important role getting us to where we are—#1 in games and men’s lifestyle, and growing 40% over last year in the total size of our audience.  We are deeply grateful to our colleagues for everything they’ve done.  We as a company are absolutely headed in the right direction, and while today will be hard, it won’t stop us.

    We’ll have an All-Hands meeting later today to discuss this, and give you a chance to ask questions.  Greg will be sending out a note with the exact timing, please be on the lookout for that.

    It probably goes without saying, but please keep this absolutely confidential to IGN.  If you are approached by any member of the press, please direct them to Kris Sharbaugh.

    Thank you,

    Roy

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  • The CliffsNotes To Google’s Mobile Lesson


    The Mobile Internet, According To Google

    Google (NSDQ: GOOG) whittled its mobile businiess down to the basics for its third ‘educational’ webcast of the year Monday. The company’s three main points:

    1) Simple data plans, more powerful mobile browsers, and better smartphones are driving usage of the mobile internet. Specifics: Google alone has seen mobile search traffic jump five-fold over the last two years and there are now 50 million active users of Google’s mobile maps.

    2) Google will invest in mobile apps. Executives showed off Google’s new mobile product search as well as ‘Goggles,’ which lets people search by taking a picture from their phones.

    And 3) Google’s goal is to make mobile advertising easy. As an example, engineering VP Vic Gundotra demonstrated how an advertiser could target mobile phones simply by selecting a different radio button on a website.

    Now for the hard parts, which came up during the question and answer session. Will mobile searches take away share from desktop ones? Answer: No (Think of a person going out to lunch who pulls out his or her phone on the way to make a search, Gundotra said).

    As for the importance of the AdMob acquisition—which is in regulatory limbo—Gundotra said he was limited in what he could say but did mention that the mobile ad network space is “highly competitive as (Apple’s) acquisition of Quattro demonstrates.” And when it comes to Apple’s lawsuit against Google partner HTC, Google’s Mario Queiroz said that while Google wasn’t a party in the suit, “we stand behind the Android operating system and the partners who (we) have worked very closely (with) to develop it.”

    CFO Patrick Pichette implied in response to yet another question that the company would maintain its Android business in China even if it shut down its search business in that country, as is widely expected. “China is another great market in which Android should flourish,” he said.

    Class dismissed.


  • Mobile App Firm Snaptu Gets Funding


    Snaptu

    Mobile app startup Snaptu has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sequoia Capital. Snaptu’s free app lets users access a series of services, including Facebook, Twitter, the weather, and a news reader. The selling point: It works on any phone that runs Java (which means most). So far, Snaptu says it has been downloaded four million times. Some more details in the announcement.


  • Roundbox Buys IP Of ‘TV Companion’ Dashboard Startup Jacked


    Jacked

    Heavily-funded mobile broadcast software firm Roundbox is buying the technology and IP of Jacked, a startup which provides web-based dashboards that aggregate info related to live TV broadcasts. Roundbox says it will integrate Jacked’s technology into its ‘mobile broadcast suite’—which is used by broadcasters to deliver content, like video and TV listings, onto mobile devices. The dashboards will no longer exist separately.

    Jacked’s dashboards have primarily been used by sports fans to track stats and player information on their computers while watching live games (The company talked about expanding the dashboards to other types of broadcasts, although nothing seems to have come of those plans). Jacked was founded by former American Greetings (NYSE: AM) Mobile head Bryan Biniak, who is joining Roundbox’s advisory board.

    The company had raised about $7 million in funding from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners and Gabriel Venture Partners since its start in 2006. Roundbox, meanwhile, has raised at least $43 million, including $20 million in a third round in December 2008.

    Financial terms of the deal were not released.

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  • Putting The iPad Pre-Order Numbers In Some Context


    Apple iPad ibookstore Demo

    Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) was selling pre-orders for the iPad at a rate of about 25,000 an hour this morning, according to a Forbes Fortune piece. The methodology is very unscientific; it’s based on differences between the order numbers assigned to early buyers.

    But if it is accurate, here’s how it compares to some initial figures thrown around during the debut of the iPhone and iPhone 3G S: Pre-orders were not allowed for the first iPhone, but about 200,000 phones were sold in stores on the first day the phone was available. As for the iPhone 3G S there were reportedly “hundreds of thousands” of pre-orders.

    So, given that there are three weeks left to pre-order before the iPad actually hits stores, it seems plausible that, as some analysts have predicted, pre-release demand may in fact be greater than it was for the iPhone. We’ll see.

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  • HootSuite Buys Android Developer Swift App


    HootSuite

    Twitter client HootSuite, which recently raised $1.9 million in funding, has now made an acquisition, buying up Android app developer Swift App. HootSuite says that Swift App was behind the development of HootSuite’s own Android app, which was released last week. The company says the acquisition “means quicker development for the growing Android market.”

    HootSuite’s dashboard—which is also available via the web and an app on the iPhone—lets multiple people manage a single (or multiple) Twitter accounts and drives about 3.5 percent of all Tweets, according to Twitstat. Financial details of the deal were not released.

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  • Requests May Signal That FTC Will Block Google’s AdMob Purchase


    Gavel

    Google’s proposed (and now delayed) acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob appears to be drawing even more regulatory scrutiny from the FTC. Bloomberg cites sources who say that regulators now want “sworn declarations” from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) competitors about the $750 million deal. The key sentence in the Bloomberg report comes from a former FTC general counsel, who says that “agency officials typically collect declarations ‘when they think there is some significant chance’ the agency will ask a court to block a merger, or seek to modify a deal.”

    Google announced it was buying AdMob in early November and said at the time it expected the purchase to close within “the next several months.” Soon afterwards, there were reports that the FTC was reviewing the deal, and in December, Google said it had received a “second request” from the FTC—meaning that regulatory officials wanted more information about the buy and that it would therefore not be closing right away.

    The consensus was that the deal would close in February—although there have been no updates from either the FTC or Google. Here’s Google statement: “We’re continuing to talk with the FTC and provide the information that they’ve asked for, but we’re not going to discuss the details of that process.  We’re confident that they’ll conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes.”

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  • The Mobile Stats That Keep Microsoft’s Execs Up At Night


    Man In Bed

    Here’s why Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is launching a “completely new smartphone OS.” The latest smartphone platform market share figures were released today by comScore and Microsoft posted the steepest drop. The new Windows Phone 7 Series—due later this year—can’t come to market soon enough.

    image