| eBay takes $900m hit for Skype buy
Don't call it a bust just yet but it's fair to say eBay executives aren't thrilled with what they're getting out of Skype, which the auction king bought for $2.6bn two years ago. eBay has now said it will take a $900m so-called impairment write-down against the value of Skype. This means eBay has been forced to reassess the value of the internet telephony company relative to its overall business today. By recording a charge, the company is essentially saying it has taken a loss on its original investment. In what looks like an attempt to shake things up at Skype and move the division in a new direction, eBay also said Skype co-founder and chief executive Niklas Zennstr�m has stepped down. His departure was expected. Zennstr�m, who helped start Skype in 2003, has joined forces with Skype co-founder Janus Friis to start an internet television service called Joost.
Mobile Advertising: Still in Wild, Wild West Phase
"I don't want to increase the line and have customers be frustrated because someone's fumbling trying to find a coupon" in a text message, said Anthony Macaluso, Single Touch's chief executive. "What we need to do today is not change the behavior of the retail point of sale or the behavior of the customer." Free Report from Keynote Systems 2007 Trends and Observations of the Mobile and Connected World examines how technologies, from the Web to the mobile phone, are specifically impacting key vertical industries, from financial services to new media. Download yours here. .
SHLACHTER, PEROTIN, FUQUAY & CO.
Sometimes, American entrepreneurs see opportunities ripe for the plucking in less-developed places, only to find out why doing business in alien cultures can involve monumental challenges never taught in business school. Slone has had uncanny timing. (Notice we didn't say luck.) After the 65-year-old chief executive of Touchstone Communications opened a call center in the heart of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, he happened to be visiting when the South Asian country was struck by a devastating earthquake, when the prime minister resigned and when President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule. And Slone returned to Islamabad on Dec. 27, the day opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, about 15 miles away. Needless to say, his several hundred call center employees were unable to show up because of night curfews -- they start work about 7 p.m.
Lekota arrested for speeding south of Joburg
The organisation says the recent boom in generator sales has brought a life-threatening hazard into homes and workplaces.
It says unsafe use could result in the loss of lives adding at least 65 people have died in the US from generator-related carbon monoxide poisoning in the last two years.
Ocsa's Dr. Terry Berelowitz says people should always take precautions and follow the necessary safety procedures when using these generators. Back to headlines .
HP's Michael Sutton: Web 2.0 and the New Wild West for Attackers
"The Web is really the Wild Wild West of attackers today," said Michael Sutton, security evangelist for HP quality management. "This condition is now out of the shadows because security experts can actually show proof of the kinds of attacks coming through these Web 2.0 holes. Now we have much better statistics to demonstrate the kind of attacks being made." The Spyware problem is bigger than you think. Spyware is more insidious and costly than viruses because it's designed to go undetected. Learn about a better way to protect your company. Click here for a free trial of Webroot� AntiSpyware Corporate Edition - the standard in anti-malware solutions. .
Southwest Missouri mayor charged in Internet child sex sting
The problem is we don't have near enough Jim Murrays and we have way too many children on computers," Dobbs said. Murray was Diamond's chief of police from 1995 to 2000, when he retired. After getting a home computer around 2000, he discovered chat rooms and was angered when he was offered pictures of young girls. From there, he developed an interest in Internet sting operations. "It irritated me that anybody would find satisfaction in looking at pictures of little girls unless they were their children or grandchildren," Murray told The Joplin Globe in a 2006 interview. He remains on the Diamond force as a detective in charge of Internet investigations. It is just the latest career change for Murray, who taught elementary school for 27 years before moving into law enforcement in the 1990s.
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