Yahoo! Board Approves Billion-Dollar Tumblr Deal

By Sam Gustin – Tumblr has long been considered a major prize, so it’s no surprise that Yahoo! isn’t the only one interested in the company. Tumblr has also reportedly held talks with both Facebook and Microsoft, according to Forbes. Of course, Tumblr CEO David Karp may decide to hold out — he’s reportedly raising a new venture capital round that values the company at $1 billion. Or he may opt for a “strategic investment,” in which Yahoo! or some other big company invests in Tumblr, which would then remain independent. Tumblr has already raised $125 million at an $800 million valuation. more> http://tinyurl.com/cmjo8aw

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Apple vs. Google is the Most Important Battle in Tech

By Sam Gustin – In the 1990s, Microsoft Internet Explorer battled Netscape Navigator in the great Web browser wars. In the 2000s, Google and Yahoo locked horns over Internet search — and we know how that turned out. Today, the latest high-stakes tech conflict is between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system for supremacy in the smart phone market.

Each of these clashes defined an era of Internet history. Apple vs. Android is no different. Everyone agrees that the struggle for Internet advantage is shifting to the mobile realm, and iPhone and Android have surged to the front of the pack with diametrically opposed business models. Neither of these players will be vanquished anytime soon — these battles take years to play out — but the company that gains the upper-hand will be best-positioned to take advantage of the massive structural shift from desktop PCs to smart phones and tablets. more> http://tinyurl.com/9lvcckc

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Time to Admit What We Already Knew: Online Ads Stink

By Derek Thompson – Let’s start at the top of the list. Yahoo! is a content behemoth, with 300 journalists and 700 million monthly visitors in 30 languages, and a business model that is broadly considered hopeless. “Yahoo has what all media companies want, which is a large audience,” David Carr wrote for the New York Times. “The company just doesn’t know what to do with it.”

Speaking of having a large audience without knowing precisely what to do with it, let’s move down the list to Twitter, a bonafide attention hog with 140 million active users and $140 million in revenue in 2011. If revenue triples this year and Twitter doesn’t add a single active user (both unlikely scenarios), the company will make $3 per active user, which would bring it in line with another company — Facebook. more> http://tinyurl.com/ck5qxnr

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The Patent Mafia and What You Can Do To Break It Up

By Alan Shimel – The lawsuits are raging all across the tech world. Oracle sues Google, Yahoo sues Facebook, they counter-sue. Others threaten, others buy more patents and the circle goes round and round.

Don’t be fooled by the lawsuits between these tech titans though. The real cost that the patent mafia extracts from the tech world is on the smaller companies who can’t afford to battle the Apples and Microsofts of the world. Their choices are far simpler. They can abandon their innovations or they can choose to pay and allow the Mafiosos to wet their beaks. Also, don’t be fooled about who the real losers are here. The the real losers are you and me.

While companies are certainly entitled to the fruits of their inventions, many of these patent rackets are based on patents improperly issued, improperly enforced or improperly applied. more> http://tinyurl.com/btn3v4y

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Facebook grabs 750 patents from IBM to shield itself from Yahoo

Patent 573907 (Photo credit: Michael Neubert)

By Sean Ludwig – Facebook has purchased 750 patents from IBM to help it battle Yahoo’s recent troll-like patent lawsuit, according to Bloomberg.

Facebook battled 22 patent suits against it last year. Facebook buying 750 patents from patent-leader IBM could be a sign that it is either concerned about Yahoo or the Yahoo suit simply woke the company up that it would be a target for major suits as well.  more> http://is.gd/c1wLa7

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