Data Point: Tech’s Billion-Dollar Deal Club

The ink is barely dry on the FacebookFB -7.46%-WhatsApp headlines and the social network dropped another stunner of a deal: $2 billion for Oculus VR.

The deal for Oculus, which makes a virtual-reality headset called Oculus Rift, is just the latest 10-figure tie-up for the nation’s tech giants. Go back to 2006 and you can findGoogle'sGOOG -2.36% deal for YouTube, then a head-turning $1.6 billion.

In recent years, hefty deals are heating up, data compiled by Statista show. Facebookalready is shelling out $19 billion for the messaging app WhatsApp, while Google earlier this year dropped $3.2 billion for the smart-device gadget maker Nest.

– Brian R. Fitzgerald

(Source - http://blogs.wsj.com)

Mark Zuckerberg Says WhatsApp Worth More Than $19 Billion - Messaging Service Not Expected to Make Money for 'Years'

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said WhatsApp, which his social- media company agreed to buy last week, was "worth more than $19 billion."

Mark Zuckerberg Guillaume Paumier

The mobile-messaging startup was "a great fit for us," Zuckerberg said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. "Already almost half-a-billion people love using WhatsApp for messaging and it's the most engaging app we've ever seen exist on mobile by far."

The cash-and-stock acquisition would be the biggest by Facebook, the world's largest social network, and the most expensive for an Internet company in more than a decade. The deal gives WhatsApp roughly the same valuation asGap and more than half the market value of microblogging service Twitter.

Mr. Zuckerberg, who also bought photo-sharing service Instagram for about $700 million in 2012, has been adding applications such as messaging and news to court smartphone and tablet users.

The WhatsApp deal will help Facebook play a more important role in getting more people connected, Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Mountain View, California-based WhatsApp, which is popular in Europe, lets users send messages through its service on mobile devices based on different operating systems including Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone and BlackBerry's software.

WhatsApp competitors

Unlike traditional text messages, which consumers pay for through their mobile-phone plans, WhatsApp is free for the first year, and costs 99 cents a year after that. It also competes with Tencent Holdings' WeChat in China, KakaoTalk in Korea and Line in Japan, as well as Facebook's own application, Facebook Messenger.

While Mr. Zuckerberg declined to comment when asked whether he would make a bid for Snapchat, he said that after a large deal such as WhatsApp, "you're probably done for a while."

While WhatsApp had low revenues, it would be worth more because of its strategic value, huge business potential to double its users and its fit with Facebook.

Mr. Zuckerberg also said he's seeking three to five phone companies as partners in an effort to connect billions of people to the Internet that don't yet have access.

Carriers joining the initiative would roll out networks and provide data service for free to people who can't afford it, he said. That would provide services including social networks, messaging, food and weather information that could eventually bring in revenue for carriers and Internet companies.

Internet partners
"I want to show that this model works, that's why we're looking for partners who are serious about this," he said. The undertaking will probably be loss-making for years. "If we do something that's good for the world, we'll eventually come up with a way to make money from it."

Last August, Facebook said it's forming Internet.org, a group with other technology companies to expand access to the Internet for the 5 billion people who have yet to get online. The group includes partnerships with mobile-device makers Samsung Electronics and Nokia Oyj, and chipmaker Qualcomm. The group, which follows Facebook's own efforts to expand Internet access in emerging markets, intends to develop projects and mobilize industry and governments to enable more people to move online.

Mr. Zuckerberg said concerns about data security and government intervention should not affect growth of the Internet.org initiative.

"The governments have a responsibility to protect folks and also to be transparent about what they are doing," he said. "I think they were way over the line in not being transparent enough."

-- Bloomberg News --

Instagram Acquired By Facebook For $1 Billion

The social network announced Monday that it is buying photo-sharing service Instagram, a two year-old San Francisco-based company that has attracted more than 30 million users, for $1 billion in a cash and stock deal.

The deal marks an attempt by Facebook to maintain dominance in an area that has proved one of its stickiest and most popular features: photo sharing. At the end of last year, Facebook users were uploading more than 250 million photos a day, on average, according to Facebook's filing with the SEC. The social network's members also spend nearly a fifth of their time on the site browsing photos, a 2011 comScore study found.

Instagram has, in just two short years, developed an offering that has proved attractive and compelling to a diverse group of users, and Facebook no doubt hopes to capitalize on the photo sharing app's expertise, particularly in mobile.

In an update posted on his Facebook profile, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that the "talented team" at Instagram will be joining Facebookto help the social network add new features to its photo-sharing offerings.

"For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family," the Facebook CEO explained. "Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests."

Zuckerberg also wrote, "We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure."

(Source - http://www.huffingtonpost.com)

A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work

By Andy Baio March 13, 2012 | 3:44 pm |

While most of the tech world was partying at South by Southwest in Austin yesterday, Yahoo announced it was filing a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly infringing on 10 patents from their 1,000+ patent warehouse.

I’m no fan of Facebook, but this is a deplorable move. It’s nothing less than extortion, expertly timed during the SEC-mandated quiet period before Facebook’s IPO. It’s an attack on invention and the hacker ethic.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a small supporting role in this story. None of the patents I co-invented are cited in the Yahoo complaint, but a handful of applications I worked on with Yahoo were granted patents, weaponized now to use against people like me.

Here’s how the process worked, in my case:

In 2005, Yahoo acquired Upcoming.org, the collaborative events calendar I’d launched two years before.

Back then, the Web 1.0 behemoth seemed on the verge of turning things around. A series of smart moves — high-profile hires, the Oddpost and Flickr acquisitions, the launch of the Yahoo! Developer Network, and their Research Lab — was breathing new life into things. Two months after we were acquired, Del.icio.us and Webjay joined us in the Yahoo fold.

After we moved in, we were asked to file patents for anything and everything we’d invented while working on Upcoming.org. Every Yahoo employee was encouraged to participate in their “Patent Incentive Program,” with sizable bonuses issued to everyone who took the time to apply.

Now, I’ve always hated the idea of software patents. But Yahoo assured us that their patent portfolio was a precautionary measure, to defend against patent trolls and others who might try to attack Yahoo with their own holdings. It was a cold war, stockpiling patents instead of nuclear arms, and every company in the valley had a bunker full of them.

Against my better judgement, I sat in a conference room with my co-founders and a couple of patent attorneys and told them what we’d created. They took notes and created nonsensical documents that I still can’t make sense of. In all, I helped Yahoo file eight patent applications.

Years after I left I discovered to my dismay that four of them were granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.

I thought I was giving them a shield, but turns out I gave them a missile with my name permanently engraved on it.

I was naive. Even if the original intention was truly defensive, a patent portfolio can easily change hands, and a company can even more easily change its mind. Since I left in 2007, Yahoo has had three CEOsand a board overhaul.

The scary part is that even the most innocuous patent can be used to crush another’s creativity. One of the patents I co-invented is so abstract, it could not only cover Facebook’s News Feed, but virtually any activity feed. It puts into very sharp focus the trouble with software patents: Purposefully vague wording invites broad interpretation.

In their complaint, Yahoo alleges that Facebook’s News Feed violates “Dynamic page generator,” apatent filed in 1997 by their former CTO related to the launch of My Yahoo, one of the first personalized websites. Every web application, from Twitter to Pinterest, could be said to violate this patent. This is chaos.

Software patents should be abolished, plain and simple. Software is already covered by copyright, making patent protection unnecessary.

Ask any programmer — developing software is as creative and unique as writing poetry.

Yahoo’s lawsuit against Facebook is an insult to the talented engineers who filed patents with the understanding they wouldn’t be used for evil. Betraying that trust won’t be forgotten, but I doubt it matters anymore. Nobody I know wants to work for a company like that.

I’m embarrassed by the patents I filed, but I’ve learned from my mistake. I’ll never file a software patent again, and I urge you to do the same.

For years, Yahoo was mostly harmless. Management foibles and executive shuffles only hurt shareholders and employee morale. But in the last few years, the company’s incompetence has begun to hurt the rest of us. First, with the wholesale destruction of internet history, and now by attacking younger, smarter companies.

Yahoo tried and failed, over and over again, to build a social network that people would love and use. Unable to innovate, Yahoo is falling back to the last resort of a desperate, dying company: litigation as a business model.

That it’s Yahoo makes it even sadder. The complaint isn’t really wrong when it asserts that: “For much of the technology upon which Facebook is based, Yahoo! got there first.”

But being first with something generic that would have been invented by someone (like the wheel) — as opposed to something few could have imagined (like the Segway) — is a big difference.

Ask any start-up CEO — execution is everything.

As Facebook founder Jesse Eisenberg cum Mark Zuckerberg says in The Social Network, “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.”

Illustration: From one of the patents I helped Yahoo obtain.

Homepage photo: Schill/Flickr

Andy Baio is a writer and tech entrepreneur in Portland, OR. He blogs at Waxy.org, and writes the Wired column "Codeword" every Tuesday. He works with Expert Labs, helped build Kickstarter, founded Upcoming, made the album Kind of Bloop, and other stuff too.
Follow @waxpancake on Twitter.

(Sources - http://www.wired.com)

Yahoo saman Facebook

2012/03/13,

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! hari ini menfailkan saman di Mahkamah California terhadap Facebook selepas mendakwa gergasi rangkaian sosial terbesar itu mencabuli 10 paten yang dihasilkan perintis Internet berkenaan.

Yahoo! dalam tuntutan saman setebal 19 muka surat yang difailkan di Mahkamah Daerah Amerika Syarikat bagi Utara California menuduh Facebook melanggar paten dalam beberapa bidang termasuk pengiklanan, hak persendirian dan pesanan.

"Yahoo! sudah melabur begitu banyak dalam penyelidikan dan pembangunan selama bertahun-tahun dengan berjaya menghasilkan banyak ciptaan teknologi dipatenkan tetapi syarikat lain yang melesenkannya,” katanya.

“Teknologi ini adalah asas perniagaan kami yang melayani lebih 700 juta pelawat unik bulanan dan membuktikan semangat inovasi sejak Yahoo! ditubuhkan,” katanya. - AFP

(Sumber - http://www.bharian.com.my)

Facebook shares some secrets on making MySQL scale

Whеn уου’re storing еνеrу transaction fοr 800 million users аnԁ handling more thаn 60 million queries per second, уουr database environment hаԁ better bе a upset special. Many readers mіɡht see thеѕе numbers аnԁ rесkοn NoSQL, bυt Facebook held a Tech Talk οn Monday night explaining hοw іt built a MySQL environment competent οf handling everything thе companionship needs іn terms οf scale, performance аnԁ availability.

Over thе summer, I reported οn Michael Stonebraker’s stance thаt Facebook іѕ trapped іn a MySQL “fate οf poorer quality thаn death”bесаυѕе οf іtѕ dependence οn аn outdated database paired wіth a complicated sharding аnԁ caching аррrοасh (read thе comments аnԁ thіѕ follow-up post fοr a bevy οf opinions οn thе validity οf Stonebraker’s stance οn SQL). Facebook declined аn official comment аt thе time, bυt last night’s night talk proved tο mе thаt Stonebraker (аnԁ I) mіɡht hаνе bееn incorrect.

Keeping up wіth performance

Kicking οff thе event, Facebook’s Domas Mituzas shared ѕοmе stats thаt illustrate thе importance οf іtѕ MySQL user database:

• MySQL handles pretty much еνеrу user interaction: Ɩіkеѕ, shares, status updates, alerts, requirements, etc.
• Facebook hаѕ 800 million users; 500 million οf thеm visit thе site day аftеr day.
• 350 million mobile users аrе constantly pushing аnԁ pulling status updates
• 7 million applications аnԁ web sites аrе integrated іntο thе Facebook platform
• User data sets аrе mаԁе even Ɩаrɡеr bу taking іntο tab both scope аnԁ time

Anԁ, аѕ Mituzas pointed out, everything οn Facebook іѕ social, ѕο еνеrу proceedings hаѕ a ripple effect thаt spreads beyond thаt specific user. “It’s nοt јυѕt аbουt mе accessing ѕοmе object,” hе ѕаіԁ. “It’s аƖѕο аbουt analyzing аnԁ ranking through thаt include аƖƖ mу friends’ activities.” Thе result (although Mituzas noted thеѕе numbers аrе somewhat outdated) іѕ 60 million queries per second, аnԁ nearly 4 million row changes per second.

Facebook shards, οr splits іtѕ database іntο numerous distinct sections, bесаυѕе οf thе sheer volume οf thе data іt stores (a number іt doesn’t share), bυt іt caches extensively іn order tο write аƖƖ thеѕе transactions іn a rυѕh. In fact, mοѕt queries (more thаn 90 percent) never hit thе database аt аƖƖ bυt οnƖу upset thе cache layer. Facebook relies heavily οn thе open-source memcached MySQL caching tool, аѕ well аѕ іt custom-built Flashcache module fοr caching data οn solid-state drives.

Keeping up wіth scale

Speaking οf drives, аnԁ hardware generally, Facebook’s Mаrk Konetchy took thе thе boards аftеr Mituzas tο share ѕοmе data points οn thе growth οf Facebook’s MySQL infrastructure. Although hе mаԁе sure tο point out thаt thе “buzzkills аt legal” won’t Ɩеt hіm share actual numbers, hе wаѕ аbƖе tο point tο 3x server growth асrοѕѕ аƖƖ data centers over thе past two years, 7x growth іn raw user data, аnԁ 20x growth іn аƖƖ user data (whісh includes replicated data). Thе median data-set size per physical host hаѕ increased nearly 5x ѕіnсе Jan. 2010, аnԁ maximum data-set size per host hаѕ increased 10x.

Konetchy credits thе ability tο store ѕο much more data per host οn software-performance improvements mаԁе bу Facebook’s MySQL team, аѕ well аѕ οn better server technology. Facebook’s MySQL user database іѕ composed οf approximately 60 percent hard disk drives, 20 percent SSDs аnԁ 10 percent hybrid HDD-plus-SSD servers running Flashcache.

Bυt, Facebook wаntѕ tο bυу fewer servers whіƖе still improving MySQL performance. Looking forward, Konetchy ѕаіԁ ѕοmе primary objectives аrе tο automate thе splitting οf large data sets onto underutilized hardware, tο improve MySQL compression аnԁ tο ɡο more data tο thе Hadoop-based HBase data store whеn appropriate. NoSQL databases such аѕ HBase (whісh powers Facebook Messages) weren’t really around whеn Facebook built іtѕ MySQL environment, ѕο here ƖіkеƖу аrе unstructured οr semistructured data currently іn MySQL thаt аrе better suited fοr HBase.

Wіth аƖƖ thіѕ growth, whу MySQL?

Thе logical qυеѕtіοn whеn one sees rampant growth аnԁ performance requirements Ɩіkе thіѕ іѕ “Whу stick wіth MySQL?”. Aѕ Stonebraker pointed out over thе summer, both NoSQL аnԁ NewSQL аrе arguably better suited tο large-scale web applications thаn іѕ MySQL. Perhaps, bυt Facebook begs tο differ.

Facebook’s Mаrk Callaghan, whο spent eight years аѕ a “principal member οf thе technical staff” аt Oracle , сƖаrіfіеԁ thаt using open-source software lets Facebook rυn wіth “orders οf magnitude” more machines thаn people, whісh means lots οf money saved οn software licenses аnԁ lots οf time рƖасе іntο working οn nеw features (many οf whісh, including thе rаthеr-сοοƖ Online Schema Change, аrе discussed іn thе talk).

Additionally, hе ѕаіԁ, thе patch аnԁ update cycles аt companies Ɩіkе Oracle аrе far slower thаn whаt Facebook саn ɡеt bу working οn issues internally аnԁ wіth аn open-source community. Thе same holds rіɡht fοr general support issues, whісh Facebook саn resolve itself іn hours instead οf waiting days fοr commercial support.

On thе performance front, Callaghan noted, Facebook mіɡht find ѕοmе appealing things іf large vendors allowed іt tο benchmark thеіr products. Bυt thеу won’t, аnԁ thеу won’t Ɩеt Facebook publish thе results, ѕο MySQL іt іѕ. Plus, hе ѕаіԁ, уου really саn tune MySQL tο perform very qυісk per node іf уου know whаt уου’re doing — аnԁ Facebook hаѕ thе best MySQL team around. Thаt аƖѕο helps keep costs down bесаυѕе іt requires fewer servers.

Callaghan wаѕ more open tο using NoSQL databases, bυt ѕаіԁ thеу’re still nοt reasonably ready fοr primetime, especially fοr mission-critical workloads such аѕ Facebook’s user database. Thе implementations јυѕt aren’t аѕ mature, hе ѕаіԁ, аnԁ here аrе nο іn print cases οf NoSQL databases operating аt thе scale οf Facebook’s MySQL database. Anԁ, Callaghan noted, thе HBase engineering team аt Facebook іѕ reasonably a bit Ɩаrɡеr thаn thе MySQL engineering team, suggesting thаt tuning HBase tο meet Facebook’s needs іѕ more resource-intensive process thаn іѕ tuning MySQL аt thіѕ point.

Thе total debate аbουt Facebook аnԁ MySQL wаѕ never really аbουt whether іt ѕhουƖԁ bе using іt, bυt rаthеr аbουt hοw much work іt hаѕ рƖасе іntο MySQL tο mаkе іt work аt Facebook scale. Thе аnѕwеr, clearly, іѕ a lot, bυt Facebook seems tο hаνе іt down tο аn art аt thіѕ point, аnԁ everyone appears pretty content wіth whаt thеу hаνе іn рƖасе аnԁ hοw thеу рƖοt tο improve іt. It doesn’t seem Ɩіkе a fate οf poorer quality thаn death, аnԁ іf іt hаԁ tο ѕtаrt frοm scratch, I don’t ɡеt thе impression Facebook wουƖԁ ԁο tοο much another way, even wіth thе nеw database offerings unfilled today.

Skype, Facebook Expand Video Chatting Capabilities

Posted on Thursday Nov 17th 2011 by Nicholas Kolakowski.

Having been integrated into Microsoft, Skype is now moving ahead with new Facebook integration and some new features for its Mac and Windows versions.

The latest versions of Skype for Mac and Windows now boast the ability to conduct Facebook-to-Facebook calls from within Skype. Starting such a call involves connecting the user's Skype and Facebook accounts, then selecting a Facebook friend with whom to chat.

"This new feature lets you maintain social connections with your Facebook friends and complements previously announced features such as being able to see when your Facebook friends are online," read a Nov. 17 posting on the official Skype blog.

Skype is also smoothing the video-rendering capabilities of Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac, and has added to Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows a group screen-sharing capability for any Windows users with a Premium subscription.

Microsoft purchased Skype for $8.5 billion earlier this year, turning the voice over IP provider into a business division headed by Skype CEO Tony Bates. Microsoft executives have repeatedly announced their intention to tightly integrate Skype's assets with Microsoft products, ranging from Xbox Kinect to Windows Phone, although support for "non-Microsoft client platforms" such as the Mac will apparently continue for the duration.

Microsoft ended up paying far more for Skype than its previous overlord, eBay, which had agreed in 2005 to pay $2.6 billion in cash and stock for the then two-year-old company. Four years later, a team of private investors-including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz-took it off the auction Website's hands for $1.9 billion in cash. Before the Microsoft acquisition, Skype had supposedly been raising money for an initial public offering, but that offering was delayed after the company appointed Bates to the CEO role in October 2010.

Microsoft also has a tightening relationship with Facebook, whose social-networking features (such as the increasingly ubiquitous "Like" button) have been incorporated into the Bing search engine.

Despite the massive Skype acquisition, most of Microsoft's recent corporate activity has centered on partnerships with Facebook, Nokia and the like. This spares Microsoft, despite its considerable financial reservoirs, from having to shell out billions on potentially risky takeovers; however, it also raises the specter of discordance in strategic aims between partners.

(Sources - http://mobile.eweek.com)

Analysis: Skype, better with Facebook than Google?

By Jennifer Saba

NEW YORK | Fri May 6, 2011 7:33am EDT

(Reuters) - As two Internet powerhouses slug it out to tie the knot with Skype, Facebook looks likely to be a more aggressive suitor than Google, and the world's largest social network may make for a better fit.

Reuters reported Wednesday that Facebook and Google are separately weighing partnerships with Skype, the popular web video telephony service used by millions around the globe for communication.

Talks with Facebook and Google are still preliminary, but any deal could involve an outright takeout or a joint venture partnership, two sources told Reuters.

A deal involving Skype, which is readying for an IPO, could be valued at $3 billion to $4 billion, the first source said. Skype's public offering is expected to raise about $1 billion, several other sources said.

Analysts and technology observers are betting on Facebook, in the belief the two make better companions and that Skype completes Facebook by providing assets it does not have.

"It's not surprising to me that both these companies are interested," said Eric Jackson, founder and manager of the investment firm Ironfire Capital. "It's a much more valuable asset to Facebook than to Google."

Google already has voice chat and video capabilities, though Skype is a more robust product, said Rory Maher, an analyst with Hudson Square Research.

It could incorporate Skype into Google Voice, and even get some social-media credibility after it failed in an attempt to do so with Buzz.

"There are benefits that Google has from combining Skype, but I think it's less clean than it is for Facebook," says Maher.

Conversely, Facebook has that much more incentive to snap up Skype because it would encourage people to spend more time on the site than they already do -- virtually the social network's raison d'etre.

"Communication is core to what Facebook users do," said Mo Koyfman, a principal at the venture capital firm Spark Capital. "Owning that platform would be very interesting."

Google, Facebook and Skype declined to comment.

THE ART OF SKYPE

Skype is still on track for an IPO later in 2011, raising as much as $1 billion by some estimates. That it has become the belle of the ball, attracting the interest of the Internet's two most dominant powers, bodes well for its debut.

Last year, Skype boasted about 124 million connected users every month by the end of June. But just 8.1 million were paying customers, using Skype to make calls to traditional phones at discounted rates.

The company was founded in 2003 and bought by eBay two years later for $3.1 billion. Ebay then sold a majority stake in Skype to an investor group in 2009, while keeping about a third of the company.

Now, both Skype and Facebook could tap new users worldwide while Facebook stands to gain a new revenue stream, Koyfman said.

Facebook had net income of $355 million in the first nine months of 2010 on revenue of $1.2 billion. It is one of a handful of Internet companies including Twitter, Groupon and Zynga that have stoked interest from investors eager to jump on the social media bandwagon.

And it has also put the big Internet guns -- including Google -- on alert.

Indeed, some speculate that Google could be bidding for Skype just to keep it out of the hands of other companies.

"Any deal that takes a great asset away from Facebook is a win for Google," suggested Ironfire Capital's Jackson.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Edwin Chan and Steve Orlofsky)

(Reference : http://www.reuters.com)

Facebook users hit 500 million!

SAN FRANCISCO, July 22 (Bernama) Facebook now has some 500 million active users, a milestone that strengthened its position as the world's largest and popluar social networking website, said the chief executive officer and the co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg.

"As of Wednesday (July 21) morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them," China's Xinhua news agency quoted Zuckerberg as saying, adding that the number of Facebook users doubled in the past year.

Its users hit the 250 million mark in July 2009.

To celebrate the new milestone, the website is launching a new application called Facebook Stories where users can share their stories and read hundreds of others, categorized by themes and locations around the world, Zuckerberg announced in the blog post. Founded in February 2004, Facebook is now a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

(Source : Facebook users hit 500 million)