Microsoft already has a stake in Nook Media, and now it is reportedly seeking to buy out the entire company. In Nook, Microsoft sees a shot at competing against Amazon and Apple — in a way it might not be able to do from scratch. Read more »
It’s now common practice for canceled shows to find their way to fans via digital means, but there’s a big difference between uploading unaired episodes and truly coming back to life. Read more »
All-you-can-read digital magazine app Next Issue Media is expanding from iPad to Windows 8. The company partnered with Microsoft and hopes that users will want to read digital magazines across their devices. Read more »
It’s only been a couple of months since Barnes & Noble downgraded guidance for its Nook business. Now the company is doing so again. Unfortunately, Nook Media is supposed to be the profitable part of the company. Read more »
Microsoft’s Los Angeles studios is working on interactive TV content for the Xbox Live platform. First shows are set to launch before the end of the year. Read more »
Sure, consumers still buy a whole lot of DVDs – but they’re also starting to spend money on movie rentals on their Xboxes and Windows 8 devices. Read more »
After a two-year investigation into Google’s search business, the feds finally issued a decision. The outcome is a clear win for Google — here’s an easy Q&A about what happened and what it means. Read more at GigaOM »
The FTC finally concluded its two-year investigation into whether Google’s treatment of its competitors broke antitrust laws. The result is a minor change to the way Google uses patents but that does little to change the company’s search listings. Read more at GigaOM »
Microsoft invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook business. As the following chart shows, that probably wasn’t a great idea: Production problems, slowing ebook sales and other factors are contributing to the Nook’s troubles. Read more »
Barnes & Noble will sell its Nook e-readers in the UK starting this October, but at the beginning they will only be available through a website, nook.co.uk. B&N says it will announce partnerships with “leading retailers” soon. Read more »
Apple is doubling down on efforts to protect the term “app store” at a time when it feels increasingly threatened by Amazon’s push into the app and mobile market. Amazon’s Appstore for Android is much smaller than Apple’s App Store but it brings in good revenue. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Mark Penn, the spin king/pollster who worked with Bill Clinton during Monica-Gate and advised Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, is now taking on Microsoft where he will head up “special projects” and focus on the consumer sector, reporting to CEO Steve Ballmer. Read more at GigaOM »
Microsoft this year joined a growing number of companies that forbid users from filing class action lawsuits. The new policy, however, has failed to stop at least one disgruntled Xbox user. Read more »
Fifteen years after buying WebTV, Microsoft is once again trying to bring the wide-open Internet to the living room. Here’s a look at Internet Explorer for Xbox and other highlights from Microsoft’s E3 presentation Monday. Read more »
The European Commission today announced it had found four possible “abuses of dominance” by Google, and suggested the search giant propose a package of “remedies” in coming weeks. Read more »
Although Microsoft invested $300 million in a Barnes & Noble spin-off on Monday, this isn’t the first time Microsoft played the e-book game. Typical for the company, it often has great ideas, but it errs on the timing: Microsoft debuted e-book software back in 2000! Read more »
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble are teaming up to take on Amazon and Apple. The $300 million investment in the Nook subsidiary of Barnes & Noble gives Microsoft about 17.6% ownership of this business unit and values it at about about $1.7 billion, more than Barnes & Noble itself. Read more at GigaOM »
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble are forming a strategic partnership that combines the Nook and college businesses into a new company. Microsoft is making a $300 million investment in the new company and Nook e-books are coming to Windows platforms. Read more »
Taking money to plug a company is a cardinal sin of journalism and can even be against the law. Yet, astro-turfing — spinning paid opinion as popular sentiment — remains a thriving trade all the same. Read more »
The 650 patents that Facebook acquired from Microsoft are “web-related” said a source with knowledge of the deal and listed some specific examples. The source said the portfolio includes patents related to: instant-messaging, e-commerce, LTE, mobile, handsets, search and advertising. Read more »
Facebook announced today that it will pay $550 million for the right to 650 patents and patent applications from Microsoft.
Microsoft acquired those patents and hundreds of others in a deal with AOL earlier this month. Read more »
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong insists the $1 billion patent deal with Microsoft is about profiting while simplifying the company, not the start of the last sell off. Read more »
Maybe Keith Olbermann should have given more thought to setting up his own outlet following his departure from MSNBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) last year. Read more »
This year is only the beginning. That was the essential message Tuesday from Yahoo’s head of video and original programming, Erin McPherson,… Read more »
The BBC has overcome Microsoft’s wish for iPlayer to be bundled with its paid Xbox Live Gold subscriptions.
The catch-up TV service on Tues… Read more »
With HBO’s new video teaser for the April 1 launch of its HBO Go service on Xbox Live, the big question is: Which of the top cable, satellit… Read more »
Say this about TV Everywhere — it’s not making the complicated world of TV video streaming any easier to figure out. On Tuesday, cable netw… Read more »
Cudo, the Microsoft-backed Australian daily deal site that offered a $99 Chinese e-reader bundled with a CD of pirated e-books (Stephen King… Read more »
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows was a fact of life for an entire generation raised on the PC. But we live in a different world now, and perha… Read more »
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows was a fact of life for an entire generation raised on the PC. But we live in a different world now, and perha… Read more »
Australian daily deal site Cudo, which is backed by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), has a great deal for you if you like pirated e-books. Stephen Ki… Read more »
One year after it dramatically altered the course of its history by signing a landmark deal with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to use Windows Phone… Read more »
Madison Avenue’s upfront ad markets are the place where TV broadcasters and cable companies sell the bulk of their billions of dollars in co… Read more »
The White House announced major privacy initiatives this week amidst a growing hubbub over how technology companies use consumers’ personal… Read more »
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has cleared up some of the confusion regarding its plans for Windows 8 computers that will use ARM processors, the fi… Read more »
Is 2012 “the year of mobile?” No sir. Mobile is simply too disruptive to have just one year. After all, who remembers the year of the TV or… Read more »
Today brings news of yet another round of capital-intensive cost-cutting for the challenged mobile phone maker Nokia: the company today anno… Read more »
For the most part, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has found the mobile industry willing to bow to its patent-licensing strategy. Barnes & Noble (NYS… Read more »
When you read the headlines of how ubiquitous smartphones are becoming, and how in some countries the mobile device is overtaking the PC in… Read more »
