by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Google plans to buy back $750 million of its common stock to offset dilution from shares to be issued in the pending all-stock acquisition of AdMob, CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg yesterday.
by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Eric Schmidt is brimming with Bay Area pride.
In the 33 years that the Google CEO has lived in the Bay Area, Schmidt says he has watched a long list of regions try–and fail–to create technology capitals of Silicon Valley’s scale.
Google is a scourge to many newspaper executives, who blame the Internet behemoth for taking all their ad money and readers. CEO Eric Schmidt gave another spirited defense of why it’s the Internet, not Google, that is hurting newspapers, and how his company is trying to help.
Earlier this month, Apple rejected an application for the iPhone called Google Voice. The uproar set off a chain of events—Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt resigning from Apple’s board, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigating wireless open access and handset exclusivity—that may finally end the 135-year-old Alexander Graham Bell era. It’s about time.
Google’s Eric Schmidt “resigned” from Apple’s board because Chrome and Android were encroaching on Apple’s core business, or so Steve Jobs says. But what if the opposite were true? What if Apple is encroaching on Google’s core business? Later this month, Apple is expected to break ground on a massive new data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
by Arik Hesseldahl, Technology Writer, BusinessWeek.com
Now that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has left Apple’s board, the path is clear for the company’s next likely director, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, to join.
by Julia Angwin, Editor, Digits, The Wall Street Journal
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Thursday evening that, for six years, he resisted the idea of building what became the Chrome browser and (soon) operating system, before succumbing to the enthusiasm of Google Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
by Julia Angwin, Editor, Digits, The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Google CEO Eric Schmidt had an awkward encounter this morning at the Sun Valley mogulfest this morning — and after Google detailed plans Tuesday to create software it hopes will challenge Microsoft’s dominant Windows operating system.
Not from Google; even your biggest detractor would give you credit for the technological marvel and prosperous business you have helped create in Mountain View. But your position on Apple’s board of directors now looks completely untenable given Google’s intention to release a lightweight operating system for personal computers called Chrome OS.
The Newspaper Association of America is meeting in San Diego this week and they’re preaching up at their own choir loft with angry, self-righteous fire and brimstone about their plight.
by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
For those wondering what Eric Schmidt thinks of Twitter, the Google chief executive made his views clear on Tuesday. It’s “a poor man’s email system,” said Schmidt at an investor conference in San Francisco.
by John Markoff, Technology Writer, The New York Times
The cellphone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer. With the dominance of the cellphone, a new metaphor is emerging for how we organize, find and use information. That metaphor is the map.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Digits
Google today reported a year-over-year decline in fourth-quarter profit, hurt by $1.09 billion in write-downs related to AOL and Clearwire. Operating earnings rose, however, and revenue climbed 18 percent to $5.70 billion from the year-earlier period. Google’s revenue, excluding traffic-acquisition costs, was $4.22 billion, above the Thomson Reuters estimate of $4.12 billion. Earnings per share, excluding certain items, was $5.10, beating estimates. The company also announced plans for an options exchange program for workers whose stock options are underwater.
Is YouTube making Google a political player? The video-sharing site, with its stratospheric bandwidth bills and questionable new ad formats, may never pay Larry and Sergey back in cash for the $1.65 billion they shelled out to buy it in 2006. But it doesn’t have to. YouTube, having conquered online video, is taking over political broadcasting.
by Miguel Helft, Internet Reporter, Business Desk, New York Times
When Google released its Flu Trends service earlier this week, the Drudge Report flashed a headline that read: “SICK SURVEILLANCE: GOOGLE REPORTS FLU SEARCHES, LOCATIONS TO FEDS.”
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