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If there was any doubt that social gaming has hit the big time, it was dispelled recently when gaming giant EA acquired Playfish, one of the top players in the market, for $400 million, taking some people by surprise. It may turn out to have been a bargain for EA as the biggest name in social gaming, Zynga, is getting valuation estimations at the $1 billion mark and may be headed for an IPO next year, though the company dismisses any talks about going public for the foreseeable future.

The sum had previously surfaced with talks of a possible acquisition from EA. The gaming company eventually decided to go with the cheaper version buying Playfish for about three to four times its yearly revenue. Now Bloomberg cites several analysts who believe that the social gaming company may well be worth $1 billion and may hit that mark if it aims for an IPO mid-2010. This would make it the third-biggest video gaming company in the US, not bad for a company founded just a couple of years ago.

Zynga is the biggest social games publisher by a fair margin and has just announced reaching $100 million unique monthly users. It also gets about $200 million monthly active users across all the social networks it operates. That’s a massive number considering that the largest social network in the world, Facebook, is at about 325 million… (read more)

Google hasn’t been making too much inroad into display advertising, certainly not to the extent of its success with search ads. But it’s not giving up any time soon and, if it can’t deliver on its own, it could always buy a company that can. And this is exactly what it did with the acquisition of Teracent, a display advertising startup which creates automated, customized ads in real time.

“We think that this technology has great potential to improve display advertising on the web. That’s why we’re pleased to announce today that we’ve entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Teracent. The transaction, which is subject to various closing conditions, is expected to close this quarter,” Neal Mohan, vice president, Product Management, and Joerg Heilig, engineering director, wrote.

Google hasn’t disclosed any financial details, but it’s likely a small acquisition, nothing like the recent $750-million AdMob deal. Teracent has raised only $5.8 million from investors so far and it already had a growing business. Interestingly, Yahoo was one of its big-name clients and is using Teracent technology to offer its Mobile SmartAds. Google hasn’t said anything about this, but it’s likely that the partnership will be ending soon enough.

“Teracent’s technology can pick and choose … (read more)

IMAX theaters have become an increasingly important part of the movie business’s continuing success over the past few years, as theaters have realized that (1) you can’t “pirate” the IMAX experience and (2) people are often willing to pay more for it. But, it appears that at least one theater began to wonder why it had to pay IMAX so much for such an offering, and decided to set out on its own to build a competitor. The only problem is that this theater, Cinemark, has been a customer of IMAX, so now IMAX is suing Cinemark for trade secret violations and breach of contract (sent in by Eric Goldman).

The details of the case certainly look like a business deal gone bad, and also involve Cinemark preemptively going to Texas (of course) to file a patent action against IMAX, asking the court to make clear that it does not infringe on IMAX’s patents. There may very well be breach of contract issues involved here, so IMAX may have a decent case on that front. But what’s more interesting is the question of whether or not there are trade secret violations here. We don’t talk about trade secret protections as much around here, because they really don’t come up that often. But IMAX is claiming that it shared proprietary trade secret info with Cinemark as part of their relationship, and that info was used by Cinemark to build its competing service.

Perhaps much more interesting, however, is the fact that, at least according to the IMAX lawsuit, the Cinemark XD quality has been reviewed poorly compared to IMAX (I looked around and actually found the reviews to be mixed, with many saying that the two are comparable in terms of experience). Cinemark is a much bigger company than IMAX, and had direct access to all of their technology — and, even so, at least some are saying that the end result doesn’t measure up. I’m reminded again of how silly it is to claim that big companies can always “steal” good ideas from smaller ones. It’s simply not that easy. Beyond just the basic quality issues, IMAX really has built up a great brand name, and many people do think specifically about going to see “IMAX films.” Cinemark can chip into that, but it’s going to take a lot of marketing effort. And, really, what’s wrong with a bit of competition? IMAX has had the market to itself for years, and some competition between two different methods of “immersive” movie-going experiences seems like it should only create a better situation for consumers.

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Getting a jump on all the other retail stores, JC Penney Black Friday Deals start at 4:00 am on November 27, 2009. On sale are items in every department from jewelry to clothing, housewares and bedding. There is no part or corner in the stores that customers will not find significant savings on many items.

Children’s cloths are marked down as much as 60% on selected items. Arizona bottoms and tops are also at 60% off their regular retail prices. At 50% off are the entire stock of accent rugs, area rugs, bath accessories, bath rugs, memory foam pillows, memory foam toppers and shower curtains there is so much to chose from.

Dockers Luxelon Polo sweaters and crew are marked 55% off and the entire stock of dresses are reduced by 50%. Men’s Levi 505, 514, 527, 550, 559 and 569 jeans are all on sale for $32.99.

This is not a store known for electronics, but there is a selection and they too are on sale like the Discovery Kids Digital Camera for $28.88 and the Sharper Image key chain for a mere $9.88.

The total list of jewelry that is on sale is too much to list but the ½ carat diamond 14k gold over sterling silver bracelet, earrings and necklace are only $79.99 each. The ½ carat diamond ring set in 10k gold is on sale for $149.99. The one carat diamond bridal ring is at $799.99 for one day only. 

Free with any purchase from the selection of JC Penney Black Friday Deals, there is a Disney Snowglobe added to your shopping bag.

The Walgreens Black Friday Sales are active on November 27, 2009 the entire day. In most places this is a 24/7 drugstore and more. Since they never close the deals start at midnight. If after your Thanksgiving dinner is over and you wish to start early, Walgreens is open and ready for your shopping pleasure.

There is a misconception that this is only a place for film developed and a prescription filled. Walgreens has developed over the years into the modern version of the old dime stores from years ago. There is a little of everything there. With 6,479 stores covering 49 states, odds are there is one near you.

Besides drugs, these stores offer food items, health and beauty products along with electronic equipment. As part of the black Friday sale there is a Maylong 4.3” FD-420 GPS navigation for Dummies on sale for $79.99. If a TV is on the shopping list, then the Thursday sale item is the Venturer 15” LCD Digital TV for $99.99 and on Friday the Digital Prism 7” Portable LCD TV for $79.99.

For the children there are numerous toys and games that are always available and instead of fighting the crowds at the bigger retail stores for those seasonal items, Walgreens has a fine selection. On Friday there are selected items on sale at no cost. These include 100 light set with clear or multi color for the price of $0.00 along with a 4 foot inflatable penguin or snowman. These are part of the B1G1 promotion. 

Walgreens Black Friday Sales is more than just a place for the one item you forget at the big retail stores, plus there is never a long line at checkout.

The Best Buy Black Friday Sales start at 5:00 am on November 27, 2009. If you find cannot wait till Thanksgiving, best Buy is opening their online doors Thursday at 2:00 am with the same deals that will be offered the following day. Because of the sheer size of Best Buy, if you make a purchase online, it is advised to make your selection as an in-store pickup and print out a copy of the ad with you to the store. All stores will be extremely busy and this will help reduce any problems that might occur.

The sale items that will be offered online are supposed to be the same as what is being offered in the stores but may vary from location to location. Check with the availability of the product you want to purchase before you select it.

Presently online there are selected items that are marked at below black Friday prices. A few examples are the Motorola H710 Noise cancelling Bluetooth headsets for $39.99 and the Dell 10.1” netbook with Intel Atom Processor, 1GB of memory and 160 GB harddive for just $379.99.

The Pre-Black Friday 4-day Sale at best Buy stated November 22 and will run thru Wednesday the 26th of November. Many of the items will still be at this reduced price on Friday but some will have to be raised. The opportunity is now to find the best items at the lowest price while supplies last at the pre Best Buy Black Friday Sales going on now.

Hello out there to everyone on the big WWW! It is that time again after three months or so for another episode of the highly acclaimed, IPTV show Bauer-Power!

In this episode, Paul talks about Ubuntu 9.10, as well as some controversies with Karmic Koala, plus the release of Bauer-Puntu 9.10. Sundance talks about beta software that sucks including Twitter and Facebook plug-ins for Xbox, Google’s Chrome OS, and Office 2010. Along with our ramblings, we have also created a public service announcement for those who wear blue tooth headsets all the time, and have put together a random montage of bikini’s, time travel, fast cars, egg nog, and Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

This will probably be the last episode in this format. I spoke to my co-host Sundance about it, and he agrees that our shows are way too long for internet attention spans. We will go with a one how-to topic/one funny bit segment format per month now. Our goal is to get every new show down to 10 minutes or less so we can broaden our reach as far as video hosting sites go. Right now our videos are way too long for Youtube, and that is probably the best site to be.

You can add our show to your iPod/iPhone by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed here: http://bauer-power.blip.tv/rss

Please visit the links to our sponsors!

• Blockbuster
• GoDaddy
• Amazon

As always, we welcome your feedback, so please hit us up in the comments!

Google Chrome extensions are here for everyone. Well, almost, for everyone who’s a developer. The extensions gallery which we’ve been getting hints of for more than a week now is finally open for business, but for the moment, only to allow developers to upload their extensions. The gallery went live just as Google updated the dev channel to Chrome 4.0.249.11, a small update which fixes a couple of things.

“During the last few months, our team has been working hard to support extensions in Google Chrome’s beta channel. Today, we are getting one step closer to this goal; developers can now upload their extensions to Google Chrome’s extension gallery. We are making the upload flow available early to make sure that developers have the time to publish their extensions ahead of our full launch,” Lei Zheng, a software engineer at Google, wrote.

This is one of the last steps before launching extension support in the beta version and launching the dedicated gallery. But Google can’t launch an empty gallery, so it’s giving developers a chance to upload their creations. For the most part, it should be a seamless process, at the very least developers have to submit the code and an icon, but they also have the option to include some text, screenshots of the extension in action, and even a YouTub… (read more)

If you are stressed and would like to work with me please email me at [email protected] or call 661-877-7800.  My programs are inexpensive and personally suited to your specific needs.  This is not therapy, it is a step by step educational  process that I take you through in order to Destress Yourself.

ABOUT DESTRESS YOURSELF DOT COM & ME

If you are suicidal please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or 911.

I hope to hear from you because if you are stressed I know I can help.

Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to have fun and be playful…

Elizabeth

Beijing’s excellent Caijing magazine has suffered crippling blows to its staff, after seeing the departure of its top writers.

Yet the remaining editorial team, apparently now just 20 people compared to 200 not too long before, isn’t giving up. Their latest issue makes it clear that they’ll fight to keep Caijing alive:

Caijing, via China Realtime Report: Overnight, an editorial team that took 12 years to put together up and left. It was this team that achieved a leading position in the industry, and turned Caijing magazine into a top brand. Ms. Hu Shuli, the representative figure of this team, also won applause from both our readers and public, thanks to her sharp personality and her commitment to ideals. I deeply regret the separation from a partner of so many years.

the last two weeks I have spent a lot of time pondering this – why is it that this magazine, that holds such a special place in China, has to fact such a severe challenge? I’m still not sure whether I have found the answer yet. But one thing I understand very clearly is that the responsibility that I bear and the responsibility borne by the SEEC [Stock Exchange Executive Council], the owner of the magazine, is not is not alleviated by one bit, instead, it is heavier than before.

…

In my heart, Caijing doesn’t only belong to its founders and managers. Neither does it belong only to you — our most respected readers. Caijing also belongs to the social justice and conscience that you represent, and Caijing belongs to a more reformed and more open China.

Time will only tell if Caijing can live up to it’s past reputation, and even perhaps exceed it. Deep down, what made the magazine great was the freshness of its critical commentary regarding sensitive Chinese issues. Such critical analysis doesn’t take 200 people, nor does it take 20. It just takes one willing writer. If Caijing can realize this, and continue with it’s tradition, then their smaller numbers won’t matter. Just crank out a few quality pieces per month and we bet readers will stay loyal.

Check out Caijing here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Trip Proves That Obama’s "Nice Guy" Foreign Policy Has Been A Flop
• China Begs Banks To Cut Back On Lending
• China: The Vampire Squid Of Commodities

   Have you encountered any syncing problems on your PS3’s after installing the latest firmware update 3.10? If yes, don’t worry, you’re not…

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tags: economic, report, economy, lebanon, finance, financial, pdf, lebanese, bank, beirut, middle east, north africa

Looks like the courts got one right concerning a trademark claim involving famed movie dog Rin Tin Tin. It seems that some movie makers wanted to make a movie about Rin Tin Tin, which seemed reasonable enough. However, Rin Tin Tin Inc., a company that continues to breed “Rin Tin Tin dogs” for movies objected to the use of the name, saying that since they held the trademark on Rin Tin Tin, the movie was infringing. Thankfully, the judge disagreed, noting that the movie is about Rin Tin Tin, and thus was descriptive and a perfectly reasonable use of the name.

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Bill Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund is now the most heavily invested in U.S. government-related debt that it’s been since 2004.

63% of the mammoth fund’s $192.6 billion in assets are now parked in debt backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. taxpayer.

It’s a clear sign that Mr. Gross doesn’t see interest rates or inflation rising any time soon. It also shows that he isn’t worried about foreigners ditching U.S. bonds due to American budget concerns either. (Since such an event would trigger rising interest rates, hurting government bond prices)

Unfortunately his benign inflation and interest rate outlook also means that he doesn’t see the U.S. economy accelerating beyond the modest rebound it has staged already. Note he’s also cut his mortgage exposure to the lowest level since 2004 as well.

Bloomberg: “With unemployment in the double digits and likely to stay close to that for the next six months despite job creation ahead, the Fed has no where to go, [ie., Can’t raise interest rates]” Gross, co-founder and co- chief investment officer of Pimco, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Nov. 19 from Newport Beach, California.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Bill Gross: It’s Time To Buy Utilities
• Bill Gross: Systemic Collapse Would Be A "Gray Swan" Event (DUK, T)
• Bill Gross: Assets Are $15 Trillion Overvalued And Fed Will Keep Rates At 0% Forever To Keep The Fantasy Alive

With the buzz surrounding climate talks in Copenhagen next month, the news about climate change is rather grim. For example, researchers have documented Greenland has lost “1500 cubic kilometres of ice between 2000 and 2008, making it responsible for one-sixth of global sea-level rise. Even worse, there are signs that the rate of ice loss is increasing.”
1/6 of sea-level rise translates to “0.75 millimetres per year”. That may not sound like much, but year after year the effect is cumulative.

Insect Resistance to Bt Crops can be Predicted, Monitored, and Managed

Since 1996, crop plants genetically modified to produce bacterial proteins that are toxic to certain insects, yet safe for people, have been planted on more than 200 million hectares worldwide. The popularity of these Bt crops, named after the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, comes from their ability to kill some major pests, allowing farmers to save money and lessen environmental impacts by reducing insecticide sprays.
However, since insects can evolve resistance to toxins, strategies must be implemented to ensure that Bt crops remain effective. A new study published in the December issue of Journal of Economic Entomology entitled “Field-Evolved Insect Resistance to Bt Crops: Definition, Theory, and Data” (http://www.entsoc.org/btcrops.pdf) analyzes insect resistance data from five continents, as reported in 41 studies, and concludes that existing theories and strategies can be used to predict, monitor, and manage insect resistance to Bt crops.

According to lead author Dr. Bruce E. Tabashnik, “Resistance is not something to be afraid of, but something that we expect and can manage if we understand it. Dozens of studies monitoring how pests have responded to Bt crops have created a treasure trove of data showing that resistance has emerged in a few pest populations, but not in most others. By systematically analyzing the extensive data, we can learn what accelerates resistance and what delays it. With this knowledge, we can more effectively predict and thwart pest resistance.”

Among the authors’ conclusions are:
· The refuge strategy (growing non-Bt crops near the Bt crops) can slow the evolution of insect resistance by increasing the chances of resistant insects mating with non-resistant ones, resulting in non-resistant offspring.
· Crops that are “pyramided” to incorporate two or more Bt toxins are more effective at controlling insect resistance when they are used independently from crops that contain only one Bt toxin.
· Resistance monitoring can be especially effective when insects collected from the field include survivors from Bt crops.
· DNA screening can complement traditional methods for monitoring resistance, such as exposing insects to toxins in the lab.
· Despite a few documented cases of field-evolved resistance to the Bt toxins in transgenic crops, most insect pest populations are still susceptible.
With Bt crop acreage increasing worldwide, incorporating enhanced understanding of observed patterns of field-evolved resistance into future resistance management strategies can help to minimize the drawbacks and maximize the benefits of current and future generations of transgenic crops.

The full article is available at http://www.entsoc.org/btcrops.pdf.
Bruce Tabashnik, the lead author can be contacted at [email protected] or 520-621-1141.

The greater Boston area, no stranger to the Web CMS world (with companies like Percussion, PaperThin, Telerik US, and Refresh Software already based in the area), is about to add yet another content management mainstay to its denizens: Switzerland-based Day Software has announced it will move its US Headquarters to Boston (from Newport Beach, CA) on December 1.

Kevin Cochrane, Day’s chief marketing officer, explained the move by saying: “It’s just inefficient for us to be anywhere other than Boston," adding that “the majority of the partners we need to work with today in the Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 universe are in the Boston area…”

Day’s relocation of its US headquarters to an area known for high technology probably makes good business sense, but Boston is also a hotbed of tech startups, IPOs, and merger-and-acquisition activity (or was, before the economic downturn). One wonders if Day might also be relocating to Boston to have easier access to capital markets and/or potential suitors.

Certainly, many of Day’s activities over the past two years are consistent with those of a company primping itself in anticipation of sale — including installation of new leadership. The company got a new CEO, Erik Hansen (formerly with Interwoven), in May 2008. Later that year, Kevin Cochrane (another Interwoven alumnus) joined Day as its CMO. In August 2009, Day got a new Chairman of the Board when Barry Bycoff was elected to replace Michael Moppert.

In tandem with the personnel alignments, the company showed a convincing return to profitability in the first half of 2009 (following the release of Day Communiqué 5.1, and a sudden surge of  "sloshover" business from the disruptions caused by the Interwoven and Vignette buyouts).

Late in 2008, Day sold off its UK agency services subsidiary, MarketingNet, to advertising company WAA. Exactly the sort of thing that could be seen as a "trimming down" effort to clean up the balance sheet in anticipation of making the company suitor-ready.

Interestingly, before joining Interwoven, CEO Erik Hansen had been VP of Sales in EMEA for Netegrity, Inc. (the enterprise security software company which was acquired by Computer Associates in 2004). Netegrity, in turn, was founded by Day Chairman Barry Bycoff — who lives in Boston.

With the current economic down-cycle approaching (some would say it has actually passed) its nadir, there is bound to be a vigorous M&A market when investment capital finds its way back into the tech market. Companies positioned to catch the first wave of this capital may find themselves in an enviable position if too much capital chases too few opportunities. That may be exactly what Bycoff & Co. have in mind.

Who knows? 2010 may be an even sunnier year for Day than 2009 was — if that’s possible.

Despite some sweet talk from Hollywood about how important ACTA and its secret negotiations are to America (and, once again, no, the secrecy is not at all “normal,” as some industry lawyers would have you believe), it looks like some Senators are finally beginning to question how ACTA is being handled. Senators Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown have sent a letter to US Trade Rep Ron Kirk asking for ACTA documents to be made public. The letter points out that “the public has a right to monitor and express informed views on proposals of such magnitude” especially considering that “there are concerns about the impact of ACTA on the privacy and civil rights of individuals, on the supply of products under the first sale doctrine, on the markets for legitimate generic medicines, and on consumers and innovation in general.” The letter also takes on the bogus claims of state secrets in protecting ACTA documents:

We are surprised and unpersuaded by assertions that disclosures of basic information about the negotiation would present a risk to the national security of the United States, particularly as regards documents that are shared with all countries in the negotiations, and with dozens of representatives of large corporations. We are concerned that the secrecy of such information reflects a desire to avoid potential criticism of substantive provisions in ACTA by the public, the group who will be most affected by the agreement. Such secrecy has already undermined public confidence in the ACTA process…. We firmly believe that the public has a right to know the contents of the proposals being considered under ACTA, just as they have the right to read the text of bills pending before Congress.”

Unfortunately, these are just two Senators. Supporters of ACTA likely have many more who will blindly fight to keep ACTA secret and get it approved with little or no substantive input from those it will impact most.

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