January
Pearson buys a small stake in Nook Media, wants a fast track for digital education
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/28/pearson-buys-a-small-stake-in-nook-media/
Publishers often want to work closely with e-book outlets — possibly a little too closely — but it’s rare that they involve themselves directly. Pearson is taking that uncommon step by making a 5 percent, $89.5 million investment in Nook Media, the joint venture between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft. Some of the reasoning won’t be made public until Barnes & Noble provides holiday sales results on January 3rd, but Pearson is clear that it’s furthering its online education plans: it wants Nook Media’s distribution skills to make a “seamless and effective experience for students.” Just when we’ll see this harmony is still up in the air, though. Nook Media has yet to outline what Microsoft’s partnership means for e-books and e-readers, let alone how Pearson factors in. We’re not expecting a sea change until companies start speaking up.
Continue reading Pearson buys a small stake in Nook Media, wants a fast track for digital education
Filed under: Microsoft
Source: PaidContent
Instagram Can Now Use Your Photos in Ads
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5969237/remains-of-the-day-instagram-can-now-use-your-photos-in-ads
Instagram changes its terms of service, Facebook wants a piece of the SnapChat pie, and Rhapsody launches an iPad app.
- Privacy and Terms of Service Changes on Instagram Effective January 16, 2013, Instagram is updating its Privacy and Terms of Service documents. The new policies, which can be read on their blog, addresses sharing user information as a part of Facebook and new spam/abuse policies. The biggest change, found in the ‘Rights’ section of the new Terms of Service, gives Instagram the right to use your photos and profile information in ads without compensation. [Instagram Blog]
- Facebook to Launch Its Own Snapchat Competitor App Facebook is prepping to launch a service that will go head-to-head with Snapchat, a popular app that lets users send photos and short videos to one another—which are then automatically deleted after a brief increment of time. Facebook’s as-yet unnamed application will be, much like its Messenger and Camera apps, entirely self-contained and separate from the main Facebook app. Look for its release before the year’s end. [AllThingsD]
- New Rhapsody for iPad and iPad Mini: the Fastest, Most Visually-Stunning Rhapsody Experience Yet Premium music streaming service Rhapsody has released a new iPad app. Built for the ground up for the tablet with a visual-heavy interface, the Rhapsody app comes with a free 30-day trial for those looking to give it a shot. [Rhapsody Blog]
Photo by photastic (Shutterstock), a2bb5s (Shutterstock), and Feng Yu (Shutterstock).
Your Instagram Data Is Now Officially Facebook Data
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5969001/your-instagram-data-is-now-officially-facebook-data
A new Instagram privacy policy goes into effect on January 16th, 2013. The service will now be sharing your data with its new owner Facebook. Get used to it.
Basically, Instagram has updated a few of the subhead sections of its policy to reflect the fact that it is a part of Facebook now. Instagram can now share information like cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data,with “with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of.” According to the Instagram blog, it’s a wonderful thing for you:
Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.
Less spam? Great! Of course, this also means that Instagram is heaping its data over with the privacy nightmare that’s Facebook. The data will definitely be used to target better advertising at you on Facebook, and to serve you advertisements on Instagram whenever that starts happening. Here is the relevant section from the new policy:
Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences).
This was inevitable, but at least now it’s official. [Instagram via TechCrunch]
The Six Biggest Patent Deals Of 2012
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-lucrative-patent-sales-of-2012-2012-11
Tech patents have become a huge commodity in America.
Why buy a patent? Well, you’ll be able to sue anybody who infringes it.
You could also license it, and use the technology it covers all you want.
With these lucrative possibilities in mind, tech companies typically buy patents in big bundles.
And these patent bundles can go for jaw-drawing amounts.
Patent brokerage firm IPOfferings has now provided a glimpse into exactly how much a company will buy for the right to somebody else’s invention.
7. Adaptix’s $100 million sale to Acacia Research
In January, Adaptix sold Acacia Research 230 patents covering 4G technology, according to IPOfferings.
The deal was Acacia’s first major move to buy its own patent rights, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time. Previously, Acacia partnered with universities and other organizations to help them enforce patents.
Acacia has been criticized as a “patent troll,” or a company that makes most of its money from licensing patents or filing patent lawsuits.
However, Acacia CEO Paul Ryan previously told BI that people who use that term are just “name calling.”
6. Fujifilm Corp.’s $105 million sale to Universal Display Corp.
Fujifilm sold 1,200 patents covering OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology to Universal Display Corp. in July, according to IPOfferings.
The deal doubled the patent portfolio of Universal Display, a lighting and display company based in New Jersey, according to Fujifilm.
OLEDs are used to make increasingly popular high-contrast, low-energy screens, Science Daily has reported.
5. Real Network’s $120 million sale to Intel
In January, Real Network sold 190 patents to Intel covering technology for media players, according to IPOfferings.
The deal also included 170 patent applications (patents that haven’t been approved) and some video streaming software, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
The patent acquisition built Intel’s portfolio for technology that allows streaming on smartphones and laptops, according to the Journal.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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The data is compiled from over 3,000 merchants and almost half a billion transactions over four years.
It probably won’t surprise you that November offers the biggest discounts (an average of 5.99%), followed by post-holiday January (4.95%), but the calendar also warns you that March is a dismal time to shop if you’re looking for sales (2.76%).
The best days to buy are Tuesday and Thursday. Forget big savings on Sunday.
And new companies (just opened or under two years old) offer the biggest deals versus established ones. So don’t wait to shop at a new site.
Here’s the whole graphic, which includes which states offer the best deals (click to expand, right click to save):
Keep in mind that there are specific days and months that are best for particular shopping categories (see our best time to buy anything guide or this handy infographic). If you’re just planning your shopping in general, though, consider waiting until the days and months with the highest discounts.
Discounts…Get the Inside Scoop | SumAll via DailyFinance
over one billion in June
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/04/netflix-users-view-one-billion-hours-of-video-june/
Despite all Netflix’s misgivings up until early this year, the service has got its users watching more video than ever. CEO Reed Hastings recently took to Facebook to announce that subscribers have watched over one billion hours of content in a single month, for the “first time ever.” As Tech Crunch points out, that’s about one hour of video-viewing per day against the five hours that the regular ole tube garners. Hastings also mentioned he’s excited about the service’s exclusive rights to House of Cards and Arrested Development, declaring that they’ll help to “blow these records away.” If you’ll recall, back in January the company claimed 26 million streaming subscribers worldwide, compared to just over 10 million who opted for discs — it’ll be very interesting to see how these fluctuate given its newer takes on content.
Netflix users clock-in more viewing hours than ever: over one billion in June originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Twitter Makes Its Biggest Partnership Deal Ever
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/pepsi-and-twitter-make-a-global-music-partnership
Pepsi and Twitter have made a year-long global campaign that is the biggest partnership a marketer has made with Twitter to date. It will include video (live streaming and original), pop-up concerts to be announced on Twitter, compiling trending topics into a weekly video digest, and free music downloads at @Pepsi.
Here’s what Jaguar had to say about being depicted bartering sex for selecting a creative agency on “Mad Men.”
Brands are now seeking influential Instagrammers to promote their events and products. Here are some crazy examples.
After BMW’s Mini completed its ad review, which started in January, the company decided to stick with its incumbent agency: Butler Shine Stern & Partners.
Discovery Channel TV show “Dirty Jobs” has inspired a line of cleaning products of the same name. The cleaning products’ promotional campaign has an estimated cost of between $20 and $25 million.
Mobile marketing tech firm FunMobility is set to release an integrated mobile marketing suite that is designed to help brands amp up user engagement June 12.
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The SEC Is Looking Closely At Groupon, Says Report (GRPN)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/uh-oh-the-sec-is-looking-closely-at-groupon-says-report-2012-4
The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into why Groupon revised its first quarterly earnings report as a public company, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Groupon made the revision on Friday after market close, when the company discovered that a higher number of customers than usual returned their coupons unused in January, says the report. The revision increased Groupon’s loss by $22.6 million.
Groupon’s stock plunged almost 17% today.
The Journal reports that the company’s chief accounting officer Joe Del Preto discovered that the number of refunds in January was higher than all of Groupon’s models had predicted.
According to the Journal, Groupon did not have enough money in its reserves to cover the refunds.
The SEC has not launched a formal investigation, says the report. Groupon’s top execs have reportedly examined the situation and are confident that only certain types of coupons are being returned.
So this could all blow over and turn out to be no big deal. But drawing the attention of the SEC is never a good thing. Especially when Groupon had to amend its IPO filing twice after the SEC complained.
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See Also:
- Groupon’s Andrew Mason: We Were ‘Toughened Up’ By Quiet Period
- Groupon Eyes Foursquare Territory And Acquires Location Database Startup, Hyperpublic
- San Francisco Puts Hackers To Work Fixing The Horribly Broken Taxi System
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Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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