(Reuters) - Facebook Inc is set to raise up to $18.4 billion in its IPO and become the first U.S. company to be worth more than $100 billion at its debut, as investors bet on a big pop in the stock when it begins trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. Frenzied demand, especially from individual investors hoping to buy into an Internet juggernaut that touches hundreds of millions of people every day, is expected to drive Facebook well above its initial public offering price of $38 a share, which was already at the top end of its target of $34
Read More
If there’s a significant week-long event occurring in New York City, you can bet that Mayor Michael Bloomberg will make a showing at some point. So it was no surprise when I got a call last night about a mysterious Bloomberg press conference scheduled for this morning at Internet Week New York. At the event’s swanky SoHo headquarters, Bloomberg announced a new online map — the Made in New York Digital Map — that makes it easy to find the city’s tech startups and job opportunities. Given that new NYC startups and incubators are seemingly popping up every day, the map
Read MoreUSA is doubling down on its commitment to digital media this year, with a broad portfolio of ancillary projects—six, covering the network's slate of originals—to boost viewership, attract mega fans, and provide deeper ad integrations for the shows' partners while the series are running. This year, the company has not one but four major automotive sponsors (Ford, Toyota, Lincoln and Lexus) buying tie-in digital integrations, and Capital One on a fifth.
Read More
From Foursquare to Tumblr, lots of today's hot tech companies are being grown in New York City. The fifth annual Internet Week NY, which began Monday and will run through May 21, is designed to, among other things, recognize companies like them and help foster startups shooting for similar success. "The cool thing about Internet Week NY is it's entirely programmed and curated by the city's internet community," said Internet Week co-chairman David-Michael Davies. "We have about 225-250ish events happening throughout the city and they really range. We have some art events happening in galleries in SoHo, we have conferences happening
Read More
U.S. social-media advertising spending may rise to $9.8 billion in 2016 from $3.8 billion last year, as companies seek to harness new tools that help reach people who interact online, researcher BIA/Kelsey said. Higher ad spending at Google Inc. (GOOG)’s YouTube and LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) boosted BIA/Kelsey’s forecast from six months ago. In November, BIA/Kelsey projected 2011 social-media advertising revenues would reach $3.4 billion -- $400 million less than the figure released today. “We’ve slightly accelerated our numbers for 2012 and 2013 because of the growth we’ve seen with social video, with YouTube as a driver,” said Jed Williams, an analyst and
Read More
Report by Todd Zander, Vice President of Mobile and Emerging Media for WebMD Health Corporation Last week the Mobile Media Upfront 2012 event convened mobile agencies, brands, technologists and publishers to reflect on the state of mobile advertising, identify all the pain points and challenges, and offer solutions and ideas on how to take mobile buying into the next phase of growth and adoption. Collectively the agency panelists seemed to agree that mobile is a powerful force and it's not going away anytime soon. But contradictory perspectives and opinions were pervasive among the buying community. One agency exec said that mobile advertising
Read MorePsystar’s ill-advised campaign against Apple has ended in an utter rout. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the Ninth Circuit’s rejection of the Mac clone maker’s claims that Apple violated antitrust law by refusing to license Mac OS X to third-party hardware manufacturers. In doing so, the sourt let stand an earlier ruling barring Psystar from peddling PCs with the Mac OS X operating system preinstalled, circumventing the technological measures Apple uses to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X and assisting others in doing so. Which means this is likely the last we’ll be hearing from Psystar, which was already bankrupt when it embarked on this little adventure , though the company’s legal counsel continues to put on a brave face. “I’m sure that the Supreme Court will take a case on this important issue eventually,” K.A.D. Camara of Houston law firm Camara & Sibley, told CNET . Somehow, I doubt that. Recall that Psystar was found to have violated Apple’s exclusive reproduction right, distribution right, and right to create derivative works by installing Mac OS X on its hackintoshes in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Read More
Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerbergFacebook users are increasingly accessing the online social network via their mobile devices, a trend the company expects to capitalize on through advertising as it prepares for its IPO. In March, the average Facebook mobile user engaged with the social network for more than 7 hours, according to comScore. That's a lot of head-down time to which Facebook has to respond. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who was on the road last week talking with investors about the company's growth strategy, said his top priorities this year are to transform Facebook's mobile and advertising experiences and further integrate online apps
Read More
(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) Chief Executive Scott Thompson is stepping down after a controversy over a fake computer science college degree on his biography, the third CEO to leave the company in three years, according to a source familiar with the situation. The move is a victory for hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC, which is Yahoo's largest outside shareholder and brought the discrepancy in Thompson's educational background to light. Thompson's interim replacement, effective immediately, will be Yahoo's global media head Ross Levinsohn, the source said. Yahoo was not immediately available for comment. Emails sent to Thompson's official Yahoo
Read More
