Nevertheless, if a deal were to happen, it would be the second-biggest ever acquisition in technology, well ahead of Facebook’s $19bn (£13bn) purchase of WhatsApp in 2013 and behind only the $106bn AOL-Time Warner merger of January 2000.
Twitter is valued at about $33bn. Google has around $60bn in the bank, though a lot of that is stashed overseas to avoid taxes on repatriation; a share- or debt-funded acquisition might be simpler.
Despite multiple attempts by Google down the years to build something similar, it can only look on in envy at Twitter’s 300 million users logging on every month, sending over 500m tweets every day on the topics that interest huge swathes of the world.
Some think Google’s problem with “social” is that its data-driven culture tends to be blind to the tweaks that make people love social networks. But as mobile use becomes dominant, social networks offer the most valuable advertising space. In the fourth quarter of 2014, 69% of Facebook’s advertising revenue came from mobile ads, up from 53% a year before; and revenues were up 49%.
Most recently Google+, launched in June 2011, tried to add more precision to Facebook’s simple idea of “friends” by letting you create “circles” – such as family, friends, colleagues and special interest groups – with whom you could share different content.
What Google could bring to Twitter:
1) huge number of advertisers already using Google AdWords and AdSense
2) global reach
3) potential inclusion by default in Android mobile software
4) integration with YouTube for short and long video
5) resilient systems
What Twitter could bring to Google:
1) highly engaged social network
2) users’ instant “sentiment data”
3) different dimension to “search”
4) mobile-optimised platform for advertising
5) positive reputation on privacy
Data privacy the tide is turning in Europe, but is it too late?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/06/data-privacy-europe-facebook#img-1
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/06/data-privacy-europe-facebook
This article is about the way in which one has barely any privacy anymore. And only the rich seem to deserve privacy.
Privacy is a right for all – not just the filthy rich
Many fall into the trap of seeing privacy in an overly atomistic, individualistic, selfish way; the preserve of the filthy rich. And it is, if we see it as separable from collective freedom, or as absolute over other rights – of freedom of expression, opinion and association; freedom to protest; freedom to resist. But this is not privacy’s ask.
No safe harbours: Schrems and the emboldened Court of Justice
On 24 March in Luxembourg, the Court of Justice of the European Union heard Austrian Max Schrems’ lawsuit against Facebook over the storage, security and treatment of European users’ data. In particular, it explored cooperation between Facebook and US intelligence agencies in sharing private information through Prism and other clandestine surveillance programmes.
The Schrems case is politically charged, thrust into the tense commercial and intergovernmental relations between the EU and US over data privacy, and particularly the imperilled ‘safe harbour’ regime, which has governed cross-border data transfers for the past 15 years.
Opening the gates: Vidal-Hall and UK compensation claims
The UK is not particularly known as a stronghold of data protection and privacy. But that may have changed with a significant Court of Appeal case on 27 March – Vidal-Hall, which concerned claims by Apple Safari browser users against Google over secret tracking and collation of their browser-generated information and its sale to advertisers.
Barcode printer domino agrees 1bn takeover by Japanese brother
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/11/barcode-printer-domino-1bn-takeover-japanese-brother-group
This is about a Japanese brother taking over the domino printing.
Under the terms of the offer agreed by the boards of both companies, Domino shareholders will receive 915p a share in cash, a 27% premium to Tuesday’s closing share price of 721p. But on Wednesday the shares jumped to 946p on news of the offer as the market speculated on the possibility of an international bidding war led by US groups. Domino shares closed the day at 941p
Domino, which was founded in 1978, has more than 2,300 staff across 16 countries and a distribution network covering 140 countries. It issued a profit warning last June, saying that its 2015 results would be hurt by pricing pressure in Asia and other developing markets as well as higher spending on research and development.
Brother’s portfolio includes laser and inkjet printers, sewing machines, machine tools, industrial parts and online karaoke systems. Founded more than 100 years ago in Nagoya as a sewing machine company, Brother now has a market value of $4.5bn (£3bn) and employs 33,000 people globally. It came to the UK in 1968 when it bought the Jones Sewing Machine Company in Manchester. Brother sponsored Manchester City football club for a decade from 1989.
Government under fire over alleged BBC licence fee talks with News Corp
MPs accused him of being "lighthearted" about their concerns for local radio – Vaizey used one reply to come up with a jingle for BBC Radio Oxford – and former Labour culture minister Ben Bradshaw said he was acting like a cheerleader for the corporation.
"With due respect to the minister his speech could have been written by BBC management," said Bradshaw.
"My job is to be a candid friend of the BBC, I don't apologise for supporting it," said Vaizey.
"It is certainly not my job to tell the BBC what to do, it would be quite wrong for a minister to tell the BBC to close down a particular service or save a particular service. That is a job for BBC management."
Google hits back at News Corp - with a GIF of a laughing baby.
Google has hit out at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in a strident attack accusing the Wall Street Journal of “inaccuracies” – and featuring an animated GIF of a laughing baby.
News Corp has been a vocal critic of the tech giant’s dominant position in search, with chief executive Robert Thomson accusing it last year of being a “platform for piracy”.
Google’s latest blogpost, titled “Really, Rupert?” , said that Thomson had accused it of creating a “less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society”. “Given the tone of some of your publications, that made quite a few people chuckle,” wrote Rachel Whetstone, Google’s senior vice-president of communications and policy, following the comment with an animated GIF of a baby laughing.
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