Guess what movie BoomTown is being force-marched to this weekend by the Swisher boys?
Not just “Gnomeo & Juliet,” but the debut of the Justin Bieber movie hagiography “Never Say Never” in 3-D is much on the list I was presented without any ability to negotiate terms.
Now I’m a BeLieber.
Everyone knows Myspace is for sale and that its owner, News Corp. very much wants to unload the troubled social networking site. That said, it’s not negotiating a deal via press releases either.
Facebook is exploring permitting a tender offer up to $1 billion of its employee shares, after being approached by a number of big institutional investors about investing in the company, according to sources close to the situation.
The new approximate valuation? An eye-popping $60 billion, sources said, which is a significant increase to a recent $1.5 billion investment round led by Goldman Sachs that had pegged the social networking behemoth at a $50 billion valuation.
After he was appointed the new president of Microsoft’s important Server and Tools Division from his top engineering post at its come-from-behind Bing search unit, Satya Nadella now finds himself a leader of a business that also needs to keep catching up too.
In a wide-ranging interview with BoomTown yesterday, Nadella talked about both his four-year stint at Bing and how he looked forward the challenges of his new job.
Sonos–the maker of innovative wireless music systems that has been boosted by its Apple iPhone and iPad Controller app–is set to roll out one for Google’s Android mobile operating system.
The Sonos Controller for Android will officially introduce the app at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, although the Santa Barbara, Calif., company is announcing it today.
While BoomTown usually does a video here, this photo that was just released of actress Meryl Streep in the guise of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is freaky.
As in freaky accurate.
Andreessen Horowitz has invested more than $80 million in Twitter via purchasing stock in secondary markets.
When called about it by BoomTown, a spokeswoman at the high-profile Silicon Valley venture firm confirmed the purchase.
The move is an interesting one, since Andreessen Horowitz was not part of the recent $200 million round on venture funding at the San Francisco microblogging company, led by Kleiner Perkins and which valued it at $3.75 billion.
Satya Nadella, the Microsoft exec who has been in charge of its Bing search effort, has been promoted to president of its Server and Tools Business.
He replaces Bob Muglia, a longtime exec who was ousted recently in CEO Steve Ballmer’s effort to shake things up at the company and stress the company’s technical expertise.
Posted at 6:15 AM PT 
Memo to tech CEOs everywhere: Now that’s how to write an internal memo.
That would be the 1,300-word one that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop apparently penned for employees at the Finnish telecom giant, which inevitably leaked to the media.
In it, he uses the harsh but cogent metaphor of a burning oil platform to take a bracing opening shot at turning around Nokia.
This is YACVOY–Yet Another Cat Video on YouTube–but it is, as most of them are, a goody.
Plus, who doesn’t love slo-mo?
Words cannot describe this hysterical and deliciously warped version of AOL’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post by Next Media Animation of Taiwan.
Except BoomTown has hit replay 10 times now.
It takes getting Taiwanesed to an entirely new level of surreal.
One of the more interesting pieces of news that got pushed deep down in stories in the noisy swirl around AOL’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post was the move of its CEO Eric Hippeau back to the investor side.
He’ll be going to Lerer Ventures, which is run by HuffPo co-founder, chairman and major investor Kenneth Lerer, and is contemplating a big expansion of its efforts.
BoomTown talked to both about it today.
Here is my appearance yesterday on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” where I pontificate about AOL’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post.
My take: News is the winner!
Which is just what I’d say.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is the gift that keeps on giving–at least to Greg Coleman.
He’s the Chief Revenue Officer at the Huffington Post–for which the Internet giant just forked over $315 million to acquire–who will get a multimillion dollar payout from the deal.
Except Coleman is the same guy whose three-year contract as AOL’s onetime sales head was paid out by Armstrong after he was replaced after only three months.
Excellent!
Although they did not do their patented line–”Schwiiiing”–Wayne and Garth (also known as Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) of faux cable show “Wayne’s World” were back on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
And it was a welcome visit.
... Is Google evil? It doesn’t matter. They’ve reached the point of corporate ambition and changing corporate culture that means they’re going to be perceived as if they are.”
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
