From Bloomberg News | Tampa-based Ewinwin Inc., which maintains a site where businesses promote their products and set prices based on the number of customers who place orders, has filed suit again Chicago-based daily coupon site Groupon, claiming it is infringing on four of its patents. The four patents were issued in 2006, 2007, and in March and April. Get the full story>>
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U.S. judge closes part of Goldman secrets trial
A U.S. judge closed to the public parts of testimony in the trial of a former computer programmer accused of stealing secret high-frequency trading code from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said from the bench on Thursday that she was granting a government application to seal parts of testimony of three witnesses, all of them employees at Wall Street’s most influential bank.
Prosecutors allege that programmer Sergey Aleynikov stole critical parts of Goldman’s top-secret high-frequency trading program in June 2009 before going to a new job with Teza Technologies LLC, a speed-trading start-up firm in Chicago. Get the full story »
Motorola Mobility to make tablets in 2 sizes
Motorola Mobility is planning to make tablet devices in two different sizes, Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said Wednesday.
Jha has previously voiced interest in the tablet space, but offered a few more details during an investment bank conference. Motorola Mobility will make both a 7-inch and a 10-inch tablet because “we view both formats as being quite meaningful,” Jha said. Get the full story »
FTC pushes for new online privacy protections
Consumers may soon have new tools to protect their privacy online.
On Wednesday, the federal government released a much-anticipated report advocating safeguards for online privacy, including a “do not track” list, which would keep browsers’ web surfing private. The list would be similar to the “do not call” list that has helped curb telemarketing phone calls.
David Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, said Wednesday that consumers bear too heavy a burden for protecting themselves online. He said the FTC has grown frustrated with the pace of self-regulation and the escalating technological “arms race,” and that advertising networks often circumvent the privacy protections consumers use. Get the full story »
Groupon buys 3 Asia sites as part of shopping spree
Chicago-based Groupon has offices at 600 W. Chicago, pictured here on Nov. 30, 2010. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Daily deal startup Groupon is on a shopping spree of its own, even amid feverish speculation that Google is on the verge of making a big offer for the Chicago company.
Groupon said late Tuesday it has bought three daily deal sites based in Asia, moving the company into Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Taiwan. Terms of the deals with uBuyiBuy, Beeconomic and Atlaspost were not disclosed. Groupon’s first foray into Asia was in August, when it acquired a Japanese rival. The company said it is now in 35 countries.
Closer to home, Groupon has acquired Ludic Labs, a Silicon Valley technology company, for an undisclosed amount. Groupon said Ludic Labs’ most well-known products are Offer Foundry, an advertising and promotional platform for local businesses, and Diddit, a Web-based community where members can browse through local activities and attractions. Ludic Labs and Groupon have both raised money from Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Get the full story »
Cyber Monday sales top $1B for first time
Americans jumped on deals and promotions offered online on Cyber Monday, spending $1 billion and making it the busiest online shopping day ever, according to new data. Get the full story »
Google ready to launch e-books venture
Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.
The long-delayed venture — Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer — recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the month and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director. Get the full story »
FCC to take up net neutrality at December meeting
U.S. telecommunications regulators plan to tackle at a Dec. 21 meeting contentious Internet traffic rules intended to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing some traffic.
The Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday a tentative agenda for its next meeting that included an order to adopt regulations “to preserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, competition and free expression.” Get the full story »
Reports: Google to offer up to $6B for Groupon
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason with Mayor Richard Daley, Aug. 31, 2010. (Brian Cassella/ Chicago Tribune)
Google Inc. is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy online discount-coupon sensation Chciago-based Groupon for up to $6 billion in its largest-ever acquisition, signaling a willingness to use some of its huge cash hoard to buy growth.
A deal, reported by several media, would give Google an important window into a fast-growing $91 billion local advertising market.
But Google’s shares fell 4.5 percent, partly on concern it may shell out too much for a business likely to face increasing competition. Reports of the deal came as the European Union announced plans to investigate Google’s search practices. Get the full story »
Yes, Netflix a bandwidth hog; but who should pay?
A movie selected from among Netflix's "Watch Instantly" titles begins to download on a home computer screen in New York, Nov. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/James H. Collins)
Netflix is clogging up the Internet. There’s a debate raging about who should pay for it — but ultimately, it’s going to be you.
The latest skirmish is a fracas between Comcast, which connects users to the Internet, and Level 3, which signed a deal three weeks ago to host and deliver Netflix’s streaming videos to networks like Comcast’s. Comcast ultimately delivers those videos to its paying broadband customers.
Get the full story »
Cyber Monday online sales surge 20%
Online sales on Cyber Monday surged nearly 20 percent from last year, according to findings from an analytics group released Tuesday.
“Cyber Monday came in as the biggest shopping day of the year so far,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics, a unit of IBM Corp.
Get the full story »
WikiLeaks sets sights on major U.S. bank
A big U.S. bank is the target of the next megadata dump by WikiLeaks, the online site that this week released a trove of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables from around the world. In an interview with Forbes, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange compared the upcoming release, scheduled for next year, to the damaging emails that came out after the collapse of Enron Corp. He did not identify the bank.
That’s not stopping others from speculating.
Get the full story »
Ancestry.com, Sears partner to archive catalogs
Curious about what the popular clothing items were back in Sears’ 1905 catalog, or how gadgets have changed over the past century. Well, Hoffman Estates-based Sears has partnered with Ancestry.com to archive the retailer’s fall and spring season catalogs from 1896 to 1993.
Retailers are counting on Cyber Monday
A worker at online retailer Zappos. (Isaac Brekken/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. retailers who saw strong online sales as the holiday selling season kicked off over the weekend aim to cash in further on that momentum with Cyber Monday, one of the biggest days for Web commerce.
The term Cyber Monday was coined five years ago for the day many people return to work after U.S. Thanksgiving Day and make online gift purchases on their computers.
More recently, retailers have been increasingly offering online deals on Thanksgiving itself and through the holiday weekend, as consumers regularly shop on the Internet. Get the full story »
