Saudi Prince Buys Stake in Twitter

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has bought $300 million worth of stake in Twitter, which is unofficially 3.5% of its total worth. Alwaleed bin Talal heads Riyadh based Kingdom Holding Company, which is one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia. Prince is a nephew of Saudi king Abdullah and is one of the top business magnates in the world.

Twitter has raised a lot of money from investors including DST Global earlier this year and has claimed that it expected to raise at least $800 million from investors in 2011. After this giant investment by Saudi Prince, we can assume that Twitter has surpassed the $800 million mark.

According to some sources and other news portals, Saudi Prince is planning to expand his public holding business via social networking website. That is a pretty good tactic as in the recent years, social media has revolutionized the business sector throughout the globe. It should be noted that Twitter has played a significant role in the Arab uprisings this year as the protesters communicated mostly through ‘tweets’.

Twitter has not disclosed any details of this investment but this news can be read on the Kingdom Holding Company’s official website, which in our opinion is plainly advertising this investment.

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Facebook to sue Mark Zuckerberg?

No, we are not talking about Facebook’s CEO. This Mark Zuckerberg hails from Israel and is an entrepreneur who owns Like Store, a social marketing company which sells Likes to other companies for their brand pages on Facebook. Born as Rotem Guez, he legally changed his name on the 7th of December and according to some sources, he is planning to change his family’s name as well.

This is the second time Facebook has threatened to sue Israeli Zuckerberg. His company, Like Store, was found to be violating Facebook’s terms of service by the social giant’s law firm Perkins Coi, and was instructed to shut down their page on the social network.

And surprisingly, this Israeli entrepreneur also filed a lawsuit against Facebook earlier this year when he was prohibited access to his profile page. It is true that Facebook can sue Like Store on the basis of said violations to the terms of service, but it will be funny when we will see news headings citing the social network’s founder’s name.

On the other side, Rotem Guez(Mark Zuckerberg) is in no mood to abandon either his name or his company. He has even made a website by the name of markzuckerbergofficial.com and a fan page on Facebook by the name of I’m Mark Zuckerberg which has got more than 3000 likes.

So the question now is plain and simple, Will Facebook sue Mark Zuckerberg?

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Salesforce.com Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Rypple

Salesforce.com has acquired Rypple, a provider of social software to the big tech giants like Facebook. The terms of the acquisition have not been made public yet. With this acquisition, Salesforce.com has entered the venture of human resource software and this is being seen by many as an attempt to challenge the huge user base of SAP AG and Oracle Corp, both of which occupy the top positions in this sector.

According to the official website of Rypple, it helps managers ensure their teams get the continuous feedback they need to stay aligned, learn faster, and consistently achieve their goals. Plus since most of its clients are the big players in the tech and social industry, we cannot doubt about its capabilities.

According to Executive Vice President of Salesforce.com John Wookey, they are developing HR software which can be used by various companies for recruiting, training and monitoring their employees. Salesforce.com will become a major player in the social media after this acquisition.

On the other side, when asked about this acquisition, the executives of both Oracle and SAP AG declined to comment.

Both Oracle and SAP AG see Salesforce.com as a major rival as they have spent a lot of money and resources in past to compete with Salesforce.com in the area of web based programs.

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HTC To Invest In Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics

HTC is about to invest $300 million in Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics, maker of the famous Beats By Dre headphone line. This deal will eventually make Dr. Dre the richest rapper in the Hip-Hop world.

Dr. Dre is already one of the wealthiest rappers and producers in the world. He is the man behind famous names like Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and many more. This deal will make him more richer and ultimately the wealthiest rapper alive.

HTC wants to beat its competitors Samsung and Apple Inc. in the mobile market where the company is slowly losing its influence due to some patent infringement issues.

HTC will have 51% shares in Beats Electronics and will use its technology and influence to market its products more efficiently. Beats Electronics has got a huge number of fans worldwide and seeing this, we can say that HTC’s sales will increase for sure.

Dr. Dre’s worth is nearly $125 million right now and he is one of the few artists who have registered a net worth of $100 million or more. Following this huge investment by HTC, Dre’s worth will rise rapidly and who knows, maybe he’ll cross the $200 million mark.

On the other side, HTC will also be benefited as Dr. Dre’s name is a brand in itself.

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Angry Birds Developer To Trade In Baby Merchandise

The most widely used game which is present in every single smartphone and tablet will be soon seen on baby merchandise. Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, has decided to move into the baby product business.

Rovio is keen to expand its business and seeing the success of its Angry Birds game, it can be said that the gaming company will succeed in its goal. Angry Birds toys are already available in the market and they too are being liked by a lot of people.

The Finland based company was started by 3 students and was sponsored by Nokia and HP in its initial stage but now it has become a multi-million dollar company.

Ville Heijari, vice president of franchise development, said that the company’s top priority will be game development for sure but at the same time it wants to enter merchandising venture as it is one of the fastest growing businesses.

Baby Merchandise will include a lot of products like a 42-inch square blanket having images of angry birds. Apart from baby products, Rovio will also provide flip-flops, bags and the iPhone cases with images from its game.

Will you get your baby an Angry Birds product?

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Facebook Can Cause Serious Mental Health Problems In Kids ?

A study done by Dr. Larry D. Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, shows that the excessive use of social networking site Facebook can cause serious mental health problems like aggressive tendencies and antisocial behavior in kids.

The title of the study was “Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids” and is based on the findings by Dr. Rosen, who is studying the effect of technology in our day-to-day life for more than 25 years.

Rosen also said that the parents today think that by using a monitoring tool, they can limit their child’s social activity. But they are completely wrong as their kids are more technically advanced than them and usually find a way to work around that monitoring tool.

Though its negative impacts are more, the study shows that social networking has also made youngsters more efficient at communication skills and they can easily communicate with their teachers through social media.

The thing here is that like everything in this world, social networking has both pros and cons. It depends on the end users how to use a platform they have been provided with.

Do you think social networking is valuable or is it just a way to kill your time?

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Hackers Target Citigroup Japan

The world’s largest financial services network has been attacked by the hackers in Japan. Some hackers stole personal information of 92,048 Citigroup Inc. Japan credit card customers according to a report. Citi said that customer account numbers, names, addresses, personal identification numbers and card security numbers were stolen.

This is not the first time that Citigroup has suffered from Data Theft. According to a Citi disclosure in June, hackers stole nearly $2.7 million from its North American customers. Citi covered customer losses by paying $2.7 million to the affected customers.

According to some security experts, who are familiar with the matter, this attack was done by a third party vendor who had access to Citi’s internal systems. This means that there is a chance that perpetrators might have got some inside help.

Citi has started contacting all the affected customers and is advising them to change their security codes. But will this advice from the world’s largest financial services provider enough?

Citibank is one of the major banks of the world and is a consumer banking venture of financial services giant Citigroup. Till now Citi has not provided any details about the security breach or how the perpetrators managed to access its internal systems.

It seems that Citi indeed was “sleeping” when the information of customers was being stolen.

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Google+’s Real Name Rules Are “Abuse Of Power”: A Microsoft Researcher

A Microsoft researcher by the name of Dana Boyd openly criticized the “Real Name” policy of Google+ calling it an “abuse of power” by the tech giant. This news comes amidst the so called “bogus patents” feud between Google and Microsoft.

According to the “real name” policy of Google+, users cannot use pseudonyms or nicknames in their profiles. Earlier, Google+ used to delete the accounts which were found to violate this policy but now a days it has started giving the users a chance to provide their real name if they don’t want their account suspended.

Dana Boyd said that,” ‘Real names’ policies aren’t empowering; they’re an authoritarian assertion of power over vulnerable people.” She stated that the people who use pseudonyms are the ones who are most marginalized by power structures.

Though the statement of Dana Boyd is genuine but it has come at a time when Microsoft and Google are playing the “blame game” openly.

Furthermore, Microsoft is also rumored to launch its social platform in the coming months. Hence this statement though not of Microsoft, is being seen as a declaration of social war.

We think that this “Real Names” policy is rubbish and there is no need of such kind of dumb “policies” especially on a leading social network.

Do you agree with Dana Boyd or support this “policy” of Google+?

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Gmail Introduces Preview Pane

Gmail has introduced a new feature in the form of Preview Pane which will enable users to browse emails when they are replying to some other at the same time. This feature was long awaited and was finally launched yesterday.

Preview Pane may be a new feature for PC users but it has been there for a while in Gmail’s tablet apps. Users of iPad and Android based tablets are familiar with Preview Pane.

This feature is now available in Gmail Labs and its design is almost identical to that of its counterpart used in tablets.

When a user activates Preview Pane, a three window panel opens up with Preview Pane in between the navigation and email panes.

Users can customize Preview Pane as per their need with the help of a settings button which is present at the top right corner of Gmail.

Users with high resolution screens will get the most of this feature but those with normal resolution need not to worry as Preview Pane will work fine with their screens also.

Though this feature sounds good but a lot of work is needed to make it better. We’ve used this feature and drawn a conclusion that it is still a beta product and it needs a lot of testing. It does not work well with Gmail labels if used in 3 panel mode.

Will you be using this feature?

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Google Accuses Microsoft And Apple Over “Bogus Patents”

The “battle of patents” between tech giant Google and its rivals Microsoft and Apple Inc. is in news again. Google has accused its rivals of buying some technology patents with a soul motive to hold back Android.

Google’s lawyers claimed in a blog post that Microsoft and Apple are playing dirty game of using so called “bogus patents” against Google’s Android.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond stated that Android’s success has forced its rivals to unite and to use cheap tactics against the open source OS.

He further stated that patents are meant to safeguard intellectual property and to increase innovation but now-a-days they are merely being used by some companies to stop others from succeeding in their goals.

Google has lost a lot of patents in past months, mostly owned by Novell and Nortel, which relate to the technologies that can be used in smartphones especially in the Android OS. Most of these patents were bought by an alliance between a number of tech companies which was lead by Microsoft and Apple.

Google’s accusation seems genuine for the time being as fighting with an individual competitor is one thing but fighting a battle against an alliance of its competitors is a very tough thing and chances of Google winning this battle are nearly zero.

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