Author: Rafat Ali

Rob Glaser has landed at his next gig, relatively quickly. He is joining one of the bluechip VC firms Accel Partners, as a Venture Partner, focusing on digital media technology, social media, and mobile service investments. He will remain at his homebase in Seattle, and will surely be looking at the startups based there.

Glaser was at RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) for 16 years, before he stepped down as CEO in January this year, though he still remains the chairman there. Accel has a long history with Glaser: they invested about $6 million in his then-called Progressive Networks in 1995, a year after he founded it.

Glaser as a VC would be a very interesting ride to watch. He hasn’t been the easiest of bosses to work for over the years, as has been well documented, and has been more than hands-on over his time at Real, so being a VC would require lot more patience than he has been used to in the past. Real was always been an early adopter and pioneer in different digital sectors, even if Glaser’s long-term execution record has been mixed. He also has a big picture view of the digital media industry, having dabbled in almost all possible sub-categories over the years. And you certainly can’t accuse of him of not trying to take on big media and entertainment, as evidenced by his legal fights over the years; disruption as a VC would serve him well.

He told PEHub that he will not work Accel full time. “I’m still chairman of Real, am helping some entrepreneurs start a couple of companies and still have a bunch of charity work like my family foundation. So it will be significant, but not fulltime.”

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Rob Glaser, Founder of RealNetworks, Joins Accel Partners

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/—Accel Partners, a leading global venture capital and growth equity firm operating in Silicon Valley, Europe, Israel, China and India, today announced that Rob Glaser has joined the firm as a Venture Partner.  At Accel, Rob will focus on digital media technology, social media, and mobile service investments.

Rob currently serves as Chairman of RealNetworks, which he founded in 1994.  Rob has been a member of the Accel Partners family since it invested in Real (Nasdaq: RNWK) in 1995.  In addition to his role as Chairman, Rob served as Real’s CEO from February 1994 through January 2010, leading the company from scratch to over $500 million in revenue.  Real went public in 1997. 

Rob’s extensive experience as a digital and social media pioneer should prove to be an asset for Accel’s renowned and growing technology portfolio. Jim Breyer, a Managing Partner in Accel’s Palo Alto office, said “We have been delighted to work with Rob as an entrepreneur and CEO since 1995.  His thought-leadership in the world of digital media and the consumer internet are well known, and we are very excited to have him join the Accel team in his new role as Venture Partner.”

“After years of working with Accel as an entrepreneur, I look forward to working side-by-side with the Accel team to help identify companies which will benefit from the same kind of resources and partnership RealNetworks was so fortunate to have,” said Rob. “There are a wealth of promising startups in the world of digital media and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Accel to help them succeed.”

Prior to founding RealNetworks, Rob worked for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) for 10 years in a number of executive positions, including Vice President of Multimedia and Consumer Systems.  Before joining Microsoft, Rob founded his first company, Ivy Research, in 1981 to make games for the newly launched IBM PC.  Rob has also been an early stage investor in several successful technology companies including TellMe, PlanetOut (NSDQ: LGBT), and SmileBox. Rob’s relationship with Accel is part-time, enabling him to keep time open for other engagements, including continuing to serve as Chairman of RealNetworks.

Rob is a 1983 graduate of Yale University, with a B.A. and M.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Computer Science. 

About Accel
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of excellence and innovation in venture capital, and is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California; London, UK; and Bangalore, India as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership.

With over $6 billion under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including Actuate, Acopia, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, BBN, Brightcove, ComScore (NSDQ: SCOR), Etsy, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, Maven Networks, metroPCS, NextG Networks, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, RealNetworks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT), Webroot, Wily Technology, XenSource and Zimbra. For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at http://www.accel.com or find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/accel.
SOURCE Accel Partners

Related

• Rob Glaser Out as RealNetworks CEO; Robert Kimball President and Acting CEO
• RealNetworks’ Management Change: Memos From Rob Glaser And Robert Kimball

As I start my transition out of ContentNext, I am also “transitioning” into travels. First mini-stop (prior to the actual world travels in July-Aug-Sep): Iceland for a week, starting tomorrow. As part of that I am in Reykjavik for a day, and then go up to the northwest part of the country in Westfjords, up to the Arctic Circle. And no, nowhere near the volcano. If anyone in the media/internet/tech community wants to meet up in Reykjavik, either on May 27th or 31st evening, let me know at rali AT paidcontent.org.

Separately, I am in London for a few days, after Iceland, and I have some requests for putting up a farewell meetup of sorts. The date we’re planning is June 2nd evening, but we need a venue. If you have any ideas or offers on it, send them to our UK editor Robert Andrews, at robert AT paidcontent.org. Once we find a venue, we’ll put up a registration page for it soon.

In the end, all things do come to an end. The good and bad part is, it is never a definite marker, but all part of a process. And so it has been for me. After pouring exactly eight years of my life and a lifetime into this, I am leaving ContentNext and paidContent in early July. I will continue to advise the company for the rest of the year.

For most of you who know me, this isn’t coming as a huge surprise. I have been wrestling with this for months now, and the two-year mark under the Guardian and the eight-year mark since I launched the first site, seems appropriate enough as a closure point.

The last two years under Guardian have been illuminating, to say the least. Being part of a big company brings its own level of complexities; during a huge financial crisis, it makes for a roller-coaster ride. The high of the sale dissipated quickly, and pulling back and hunkering down isn’t fun, much less entrepreneurial. To Guardian’s credit, amidst the mothership’s own perfect storm, they stood by us, and we have survived, though much smaller.

I am leaving the company while the editorial is still at the peak of its reputation, even though we are half the team we used to be. It really is a miracle. And the edit leadership under our ME Ernie Sander and my longtime partner-in-crime and co-editor Staci D Kramer gets the full credit for it, as do our scrappy group of talented journalists. The business side is a rebuild-in-process that I hope Guardian continues to support in kind and spirit.

paidContent and the company has given me a lot: it saved my life, literally (subject of a book someday); it gave me an existence, purpose and sustenance, in that order. It gave me way more chances in life than I probably deserved. I burned the candle on both ends, and then in the middle. And to think that I entered this country little over a decade ago, and in that time, got a degree, worked at two dotcoms, started one, sold it, lived in Bloomington, Ind., NYC, London, Los Angeles and back in NYC, and am now moving on to the next phase of my career. Next phase of my life. 

As for my future, the honest answer is, I am in the middle of figuring it out. The good part is I have lots of choices; the bad part is that I have lots of choices. Very likely it will be another startup, in a larger media and marketing space. But in the immediate future, you will see my head pop up in places like Iceland, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Socotra Island (Google it!) and other parts of Central Asia. That’s the head-clearing trip of a lifetime, for the summer months after I finish here.

At the end, I really have to thank my family, friends, colleagues and readers, who cared enough to care. You all gave me and a bunch of us outliers a chance to do something magical for a long time. Please continue reading and supporting paidContent and ContentNext; I merely started the story.

Just because we can, and for no other reason. Long-time friend of ours Lisa Napoli is happy to offer readers free tickets for the Rock Bottom Remainders, on tour this week on the east coast.  The Remainders are a bunch of super-famous authors (including Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Scott Turow and Greg Isles) who’ve collectively sold 150 million books. They tour each year to raise money for various charitable causes, which this year includes Haitian earthquake relief.

We’ve got ten pair for the dates in each city.
APRIL 21—WASHINGTON, DC: Concert at the 9:30 Club—with special guest Roger McGuinn

APRIL 22—PHILADELPHIA : Concert at The Electric Factory

APRIL 23—NEW YORK: Concert at the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Theater in Times Square

APRIL 24—BOSTON: Concert at The Royale

Enter your name and e-mail in the form here and the organizers will contact you asap on information about picking up the tickets. The 10 free pairs per city will be given out on first-come-first-serve basis.

The gadget business has exploded in recent years—from MP3 players and videocameras that fit in a shirt pocket to tricked-out smartphones and sleek tablet computers—helping to create whole new sectors of the technology economy. But it’s not just the gadgets that have become a new force. So, too, have the hundreds of bloggers, reporters and reviewers who write obsessively about every facet of these devices. Just how influential is this army of gadget journalists, where do they get their best information, and is it really possible to penetrate a company like Apple? (NSDQ: AAPL)

And what are the prospects for gadget-media publishers, from start-up success stories like Engadget and Gizmodo to broader-based publications like CNET, Wired, the WSJ and the NYT that have doubled down on their coverage of devices? Is it better to focus on one niche of consumer electronics, or go broad? And what’s the potential for overseas expansion? All of this and more will be up for discussion at The State of Gadget Media next Wednesday, April 21, in NYC. Our round-table conversation will include top bloggers and publishers, as well as representatives from the consumer-electronics business and Madison Avenue.

Register here to be part of the discussion—and to have a shot at winning one of two great prizes. During the event, we’ll give away an iPad and a Tungsten W phone case (the latter is a $500 value, and has built-in biometric security).

The Twitter hashtag is #gadgetmedia

Special thanks to our State of Gadget Media sponsor: Tungsten W

What has the spring brought with it? A more open Apple? (NSDQ: AAPL) Yeah, sure, keep dreaming. But, at least one long awaited wish is coming true, sometime tonight or tomorrow: Apple has approved the first third-party browser for iPhone, to go beyond its crappy native Safari browser. And the winner is, again surprisingly, not Mozilla, but the scrappy Opera, for Opera Mini. It has gone live, apparently, in European iTunes app store, and will surface in U.S. later tonight or tomorrow. More details in the company release. Video of the browser demo embedded after the jump.

The whole point of Opera Mini is that it compresses pages—company says by as much as 90 percent—on Opera servers before loading them up in the user browser. And on a slower and/or a roaming connection, that a big bonus to have. The mobile browser is big in most countries except U.S.; the company says it has 100 million total Opera users, and exactly half of them, 50 million, use mobile browser Opera Mini.

So why did Apple approve Opera? Well, it doesn’t violate Apple’s SDK rules, in that it isn’t technically a browser in that it loads requested web pages directly. It uses Opera’s proxy servers to compress pages and then sends it to browsers. That’s a loophole that Opera is exploiting. Whichever way it happened, it happened. MobileCrunch has a hands on review of the new browser.

Updated: It is live in U.S. store as well.

In a move that will strike fear in the hearts of every Twitter client companies out there, the company Twitter has made its first client acquisition, though a focused one: it has acquired Tweetie, one of the most popular iPhone Twitter clients, according to a company blog post late Friday evening. Here’s the slightly thin rationale of why it bought one: “Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.” I use Ecofon and pretty satisfied with it; others I know use Tweetdeck for it and have also had generally good reviews for it.

Taking a page from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) playbook, it will make the Tweetie app free through iTunes, currently retailing at $2.99.  Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone. The company will also work with the developer of Tweetie, Loren Brichter, to build a Twitter iPad app. Here’s how it sees benefiting the developer and publisher community at large: “Developers, services, and publishers will be able to leverage the Twitter iPhone and iPad applications to create additional innovative tools and integrations for users.”

Does this foreshadow more land-grab moves on desktop and other mobile platforms?

Twitter investor Fred Wilson said as much in a controversial blog post that reverberated online last week. Loic Le Muer, creator of the popular Twitter-client Seesmic, told SAI in a story posted earlier today that being a Twitter-only client is dangerous these days because “if Twitter-only application is crucial enough to the use of Twitter, Twitter might just clone it and crush it,” the story says. TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth told SAI: “I’ve no idea what Twitter are planning but it wouldn’t suprise me if they now deem it important to own more eyeballs.” A large subset of this happened already, with this acquisition announcement, and the move earlier today, when Twitter announced its own “official” client for Blackberry.

And what could Twitter buy next? At the most basic level, it could make a move for something like Twitpic, the most popular photo app, or Twitvid, the video app. Then as it hones out its business model, it could look for Twitter analytics clients, and possibly some monetization or ad plays in the space. And at the risk of repeating, read Wilson’s post again more carefully, and you may find most of the hints there.

So day one of iPad launch almost over—though West Coast’s still in full swing—no estimates on how many iPads have sold, but it is instructive to see how the charts for iPad apps are doing. The big hope that it would be the savior of big media isn’t bearing out yet, though admittedly, it is too early. Most of the media companies, besides the select few Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) roped in for the launch—haven’t even launched their apps yet. One big trend that’s apparent: big media and entertainment companies are doing very well in top free apps, but are barely present in top paid apps, whether by number of apps downloaded, or by the gross revenues from their apps.

But wait a sec, wasn’t this supposed to be the platform for big media’s paid strategy? What happened? Again, stretching the analysis a bit in these early hours after the launch, one guess is that users realize they could get all the big media content on their browsers anyway, so what’s the point in paying for them, nevermind all the whizbang and interactivity the apps provide. The Safari browser is a full browser, like the iPhone/iTouch, but it is also a bigger, more legible screen. It doesn’t take rocket science to extrapolate from here. Well see if this holds true in a month or two, when a fuller array of apps available.

Click on the image below to see top charts in news, entertainment, lifestyle, sports, social networking, finance and reference categories, sectors where most of the media/entertainment companies play.

It only took 5 minutes, a disappointment really, after all the buildup. In reality, you don’t line up for iPad/iPhone/iPod coz you’re actually dying to buy it; you line up for the show, to be part of the moment, and camaraderie. And for us lining up to buy two iPads for our company at Best Buy on 23rd street in Manhattan, the wait for only two hours. At 10 AM, when the doors opened, there were only about 25 people lined up, a big change from the frenzy at Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) flagship store on 5th Av. So what do you do to build up excitement? You make up your own routine. So on the left, in pictures, the silliness.

 

Less than four days to go before the second coming of, well, the tablet gods, just in time to save the newspaper and magazine industries. But where are the dedicated iPad venture funds, designed to help fuel the ecosystem about which they know nothing, having never played with an actual iPad? Oh wait, did I speak too fast? A few are already putting out feelers, or even putting up real money.
—YCombinator, that slap-dash of a venture fund (sorry, I mean seed fund), is unofficially looking for iPad startups.
—AppFund has already launched, focused on “the development of Applications for Tablet devices such as the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad.” The fund has some known backers: CNET and E! founder Kevin Wendle and MusicNation co-founder Daniel Klaus. No word on how big the fund is (usually not a great sign), but they will invest anywhere from $5K to $500K.

—Then Vexiom Equity Partners, a VC firm I had never heard of before, announced a vFund, a “multi-million dollar fund to provide seed capital and expertise for launching iPad and other mobile tablet applications.” And they plan to one-up AppFund: they’ll invest between $10K to $1 million in startups.They were so excited about the opportunity that they misspelled their company URL in the release.
—Across the pond, UK regional development fund Northern Film & Media (NFM), who you would think as a govt. fund would be slow to move, announced an iPad apps fund the day after the gadget was announced!
—And if there’s a “paradigm-shifting” opportunity, can Kleiner Perkins be far behind with its InsertYourFavoriteInitialFUND? It looks like KPCB is set to announce something tomorrow morning. John Doerr will be there, with his mind-expanding exposition on “developments in the mobile content revolution.” Updated: Announced this morning: KPCB doubled the size of its iFund, to $200 million. Details here.
—Here’s my own iPad fund: Fund-My-iPad-Buy Fund.

Never accuse VCs of running in a herd. Really, never. For reference, see RSS Investors, iFund, BlackberryFund, fbFund, RefundFund, etc.

Tim Merel, a director at IBIS Capital, the media investment bank based in London, just came out with a very informative report on the deal activity in the gaming sector, and we’re publishing some highlights below, with the full report embedded after the jump.

On the pure console video games sector: The pure console sector will remain the largest, low growth sector, where major video games companies have converged on “fewer, bigger, faster” video game franchise refreshes. This makes perfect sense in the short to medium term, as it maximises earnings and minimises risks. However it is a high risk strategy in the long term, as churning out the 25th incarnation of most franchises won’t cut it. If the games business is all about innovation and new unimagined games experiences driving growth, the majors risk becoming like old media companies. Cash generative, but declining and cost driven.

On why the next console cycle may be the last: Downloadable content (as with Valve’s Steam) and actual delivery of PS3/Xbox360 quality games via broadband without a console (as with the anticipated OnLive launch) are challenging traditional game distribution and console hardware platforms. There are concerns about bandwidth requirements and usage restrictions, but increasing broadband speeds in developed markets should address these in the medium term. So while it appears that there should be an 8th console cycle starting in 2013-14, there are now question marks over whether there will be a 9th console cycle at all. If the next console cycle is the last, it would create potentially significant long term issues for Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and GameStop amongst others.

On casual online and mobile video game sectors, and what they mean for major publishers: Casual online and mobile games are both high growth investment opportunities, but the majors aren’t structured for these markets. Major publishers’ core competencies focus on management of $20m+ serial, high risk, complex developments, launches and commercialisation. In contrast, casual online and mobile games require rapid, multiple, small scale parallel development platform investments.

Large scale casual online/mobile M&A is high risk, as these markets are early stage and fragmented, with low barriers to entry. Social game acquisitions are particularly high risk because of their primary dependence on Facebook distribution. EA bought Playfish for $400M to leapfrog the market, yet despite strategic and operational synergies the risks remain significant. Then again, EA bought Jamdat in late 2005 for nearly $700M and now has 1/3 of the US mobile games market.

To avoid the risks of large scale M&A, dedicated game funds (as opposed to the standard publisher model) offer a lower risk solution. These would focus on equity investment in casual online and mobile parallel development platforms, rather than individual games (effectively a VC A round). The strongest developments would then be backed with significant marketing and distribution support (as a B or C round). Corporate VCs Intel Capital and SAP Ventures have already done well with a VC style approach in their respective sectors, and Shanda Games’ Mochi Media has recently set up a small game fund of its own.

A fund like this should use a light structure and portfolio approach, with a high growth slate of parallel development platforms. The commercial winners would be backed to deliver a substantial return, with commercial losers closed with limited costs at risk. In practice, the initial focus should be on small scale (say $150M) game funds, investing $30m a year for 5 years. Fund sizes could then be increased if sufficient revenue and profit traction were delivered. Managed by small teams with experience across video games, direct investment, deal making, and software engineering/product development, what I really like about this approach is that it is lower cost and lower risk than big ticket M&A.

On why the MMO sector is both a good and bad place to invest: The MMO sector is interesting in that it’s both high growth and consolidated, while still being cash generative. It remains an early stage market with evolving dynamics, but there is a clear hierarchy of successful business models. High end retail MMO offers significant rewards, yet remains as hit driven and risky as the pure console sector. The businesses I like most are subscription and in-game item/micro-transaction supported (like Bigpoint) which have already delivered significant revenue and profit traction. The trick here is game balancing to ensure that the players who spend the most don’t spoil the game for free players.

The challenge for the MMO sector is that World of Warcraft (WoW) is so dominant that it skews the market, with fantasy almost the default genre. As there have been many copycat offerings, investing in yet another fantasy MMO looks like hard work. I think that the opportunity is investment in breakout MMOs in other game genres, with the prize being do to the MMO market what Nintendo’s Wii did to the console market. I met W. Chan Kim when he published his Blue Ocean Strategy book, and Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata has already shown that his approach can work extremely well in the video games market.

On the mobile video game sector and Apple’s iPad: Mobile games growth rates are even higher than online, and Apple promises to change everything as it focuses on becoming the mobile entertainment company. I believe that the iPad will have a far greater impact on video games, but take far longer to do so, than people expect, mainly due to the many copycat products already in development. To put this in stark relief, 58% of the 150,000 apps in the App Store are games, so there are already more iPhone/iPad games than all the different Android, Nokia, Blackberry, Palm and Windows mobile apps of any type combined.

Online and mobile business models are already converging, with some free games with in-game items sold for 99c grossing more than major publisher supported mobile games selling for $6.99 a pop. So the freemium model has already successfully transferred from online to mobile games.

On the independent console video game sector: Many independent console games companies are in a bad way, because of the stage of sector consolidation and the impact of the majors’ strategies cutting both development advances and third party work. Some good AAA houses are either sadly going to the wall or more happily exiting, such as the Warner/Rocksteady deal. VC/Private Equity firms generally won’t (and shouldn’t) invest in this space because of the risk profile.

On the in-game advertising sector: Lastly there is in-game advertising, which is still early stage. It is forecast to double in size, but is still a small part of the market. High growth rates to be sure, but a relatively small opportunity.

Tim Merel is a Corporate Finance Director with Digital Media, Video Games, Technology and Telecoms experience in industry, direct investment, financial services, growth company development and turnaround, across Europe, USA and Asia Pacific, with background in software engineering, law and business from Yale and Sydney University. When he’s not doing sensible things, Tim writes adventure stories and plays a mean guitar.

Our “State of Gadget Media” evening mini-event on Apr 21st here in NYC is shaping up well. The event is focused on what the name says: the insanely addictive world of Engadgets, Gizmodos, Wireds, CNETs, and other gadget news/rumor/review sites, and comes on the heels of the iPad coverage din.

Our confirmed speakers so far:
—Scott Ard, Editor-in-Chief, CNET
—Nick Denton, founder, Gawker Media
—Jesus Diaz, Senior Editor, Gizmodo
—Dr. Arnold Kim, Founder & Senior Editor, MacRumors
—Robin Liss, CEO, Reviewed.com
—Peter Rojas, CEO, GDGT
—Joshua Topolsky, Editor-in-Chief, Engadget

The panels will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., to be followed by a mixer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $100, and the venue, Edelman’s offices in NYC, can only hold 150 people, so register here early. Our thanks to Edelman for hosting the event at their office.

Novarra, the Chicago-based software company which makes mobile browsers for operators, has been acquired by Nokia (NYSE: NOK), for an undisclosed sum. Nokia will use Novarra’s mobile browser and services platform for its own low to mid range handsets, it says. The deal is expected to close in Q2, and new service offering utilizing the Novarra technology platform will be available later this year. Details in release.

Novarra, founded in 2000, last raised a big $50 million round in 2007, led by longtime backer JK&B Capital, with Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) as a strategic. Last year the company’s longtime CEO Jayanthi Rangarajan stepped down, and it reportedly laid off about 20 percent of staff, amidst business difficulties.

Related

• Mobile Browsing Firm Novarra Gets $50 Million Funding, From Qualcomm And Others

Set aside the afternoon-evening of April 21. That’s when we’ll be holding our The State of Gadget Media event, focused on what the name says: the insanely addictive world of Engadgets, Gizmodos, Wireds, CNETs, WSJ/NYT’s coverage, and other gadget news/rumor/review sites. It will consist of two panels and a Q&A, followed by a mixer. During the panels and Q&A, we’ll explore the challenges facing the gadget-media business, from both editorial and publisher’s perspectives, and will look at how consumer-electronics companies interact with this media sector, through advertising and PR.

The panels will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., to be followed by a mixer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $100, and the venue, Edelman’s offices in NYC, can only hold 150 people, so register here early. Our thanks to Edelman for hosting the event at their office.

At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit last week, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt was the biggest speaker of them all. And he surely made the desired impression, deftly handling some critical questions from the audience. His focus for the talk was on innovation, specifically on Google’s, and its efforts in the mobile space. His statement, that Google now starts all product development as mobile-centric, got a lot of play on Twitter. Some other choice tweets from his speech and Q&A are below, along with the full video:

—We now start with mobile centric app, not a desktop centric one.
—I am v worried abt loss of deep reading. Right now all it is all about short form.
—People who live online think differently, they are not as nationalistic or rigid. Possible to reach them with right message.

—Even now, tanks trump Internet, but people have long memories. they will speak eventually.
—Schmidt reacts to MSFT: “Oh Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), such a stellar company” rather derisively.
—People who are complaining about us are in minority & that will stay for many many years.

‘Tis the season of games: Ngmoco, the SF-based mobile phone games developer focused on iPhone platform, has raised a big $25 million round of funding on its third round. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, along with the company’s previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Norwest Venture Partners and Maples Investments. The two year-old company founded by former EAer Neil Young has has success in 2009 with games such as Rolando 2, Star Defense, Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs.

Along with this funding, it has also bought rival gaming firm Freeverse, for an undisclosed amount. The NYC-based company was founded about 15 years, and hit iPhone titles such as Skee-Ball, Moto Chaser, Flick Fishing, SlotZ Racer, Flick Bowling and NBA Hotshot, among many others. Freeverse will retain its own name, brand and management, under the Ngmoco umbrella. Details here.

PocketGear, the online mobile application store, is buying one of the oldest players in the smartphone apps store sector, Handango, for an undisclosed amount. The two stores put together now have applications for Android, Symbian OS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm (NSDQ: PALM), Linux, and Java powered mobile devices, and of course excludes the biggie, iPhone. To date, the stores have generated a combined $400 million in app revenues from customers, they say. Jud Bowman will remain as President and CEO of PocketGear and Alex Bloom, current CEO of Handango, will become COO of PocketGear.

PocketGear is headquartered in Durham, NC with offices in Munich, Germany and Irving, TX, and funded by Noro-Moseley Partners and Wakefield Group. It was spun off Motricity in 2008.

Both Bowman and Bloom shared a previous employer. In June 2008, PocketGear was spun off from Motricity. Motricity had just merged with Bellevue, Wash.-based InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) to focus on mobile content infrastructure and services, and wanted to stay out of the direct-to-consumer business. Jud Bowman, a Motricity co-founder, and former board member, bought the company for undisclosed terms. Meanwhile, Bloom, Handango’s CEO, had previously served as the general manager of Motricity’s smartphone business, where he oversaw the direct to consumer website, among other things.

Related

• Motricity’s PocketGear Sold To CTO Bowman; Standalone Business Gets Outside Investment

‘Tis the season of games: Ngmoco, the SF-based mobile phone games developer focused on iPhone platform, has raised a big $25 million round of funding on its third round. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, along with the company’s previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Norwest Venture Partners and Maples Investments. The two year-old company founded by former EAer Neil Young has has success in 2009 with games such as Rolando 2, Star Defense, Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs.

Along with this funding, it has also bought rival gaming firm Freeverse, for an undisclosed amount. The NYC-based company was founded about 15 years, and hit iPhone titles such as Skee-Ball, Moto Chaser, Flick Fishing, SlotZ Racer, Flick Bowling and NBA Hotshot, among many others. Freeverse will retain its own name, brand and management, under the Ngmoco umbrella. Details here.

The long and rough road is still a long way to go, but they’ve at least started on it: Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo have received clearance for their search agreement, “without restrictions,” from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now focus on starting the process of implementing the deal, they have announced. The major clearances took more than six months, as the deal was first announced in July 2009. Now the two expect that rest of 2010 would be the transition time required to implement Bing/MSFT search on Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). The full global integration—including customers and partners—is expected to be completed by 2012, by the time Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and the rest of the world passes them by.

The two have created a new site Searchalliance.com, as the public and partner face of this transition (and it seems not to be working currently).

Although the deal previously was cleared by regulators in Australia, Brazil and Canada, the agreement required clearance by U.S. and European regulators before it could start. The two will still continue to work with regulators in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan to get the deal cleared there.

Here’s the release:

Yahoo! and Microsoft to Implement Search Alliance
Completion of U.S., European Review Clears Way for Agreement to Move Forward

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & REDMOND, Wash., Feb 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)—Microsoft and Yahoo!  announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.

Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!‘s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.

“This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Yahoo! gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer concurred with Bartz’s assessment. “Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone,” Ballmer said. “I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo! will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers as well as to advertisers and publishers.”

Consumer Search Experience

Under terms of the agreement, which was announced in late July 2009, Microsoft will provide Yahoo! with the same search result listings available through Bing, and Yahoo! will innovate around those listings by integrating rich Yahoo! content, enhanced listings with conveniently organized information about key topics, and tools to tailor the experience for Yahoo! users.

Yahoo! will focus on providing a compelling and innovative search experience that allows people to find and explore the things, people and sites that matter most to them. While Microsoft will provide the underlying platform, both companies will continue to create different, compelling and evolving experiences, competing for audience, engagement and clicks.

Transition Timeline

Yahoo! and Microsoft will work with advertisers, publishers and developers on a customized plan designed to make the transition as efficient and seamless as possible. Both companies will begin working closely with most partners well in advance of their planned transition to the Microsoft platform and will communicate important information to partners about the transition periodically via phone, email, webinars and a newly created website at http://www.searchalliance.com.

The companies will begin the transition of algorithmic search and have set a goal of completing that effort in at least the United States by the end of 2010. The companies also hope to make significant progress transitioning U.S. advertisers and publishers prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011 if they determine that the transition will be more effective after the holiday season. All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012.

Customer Relationships

Once the transition is in place, Yahoo! and Microsoft will each represent and provide customer support to different advertiser segments. Yahoo!‘s sales team will exclusively represent and support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers and their clients. Microsoft will represent and support self-service advertisers.

Regulatory Summary

Although the transaction previously was cleared by regulators in Australia, Brazil and Canada, the terms of the agreement required clearance by U.S. and European regulators before it could commence. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Yahoo! continue to work with regulators in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan to ensure that they have all relevant information necessary to evaluate the transaction before the deal commences in those specific jurisdictions.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (MSFT 28.71, +0.12, +0.42%)  is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!‘s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning risks and uncertainties with respect to Yahoo!‘s search agreement with Microsoft. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the expected benefits of the agreement with Microsoft may not be realized, and the response or acceptance of the agreement by publishers, advertisers, users, and employees and Yahoo!‘s strategic and business partners.

Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Mexico’s media giant Groupo Televisa is buying 30 percent of Nextel, for $1.44 billion as part of its quadruple play offer. Televisa can acquire another 7.5 percent of Nextel Mexico in the third or fourth year after this deal closes. Nextel Mexico is a subsidiary of NII Holdings, the international arm of Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel Corp.

This continues is expansion beyond its core TV franchise in the recent years, into cable, satellite and now telecom. It can now bid jointly with Nextel for new wireless spectrum, up for auction later this year, reports WSJ.