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With Tumblr in the Bag, a Triumphant Marissa Mayer Takes a Victory Lap
Our Long National Nightmare of Staring at Pete Cashmore’s Beautiful Face Is Now Over
‘Hipster High School Drop Out’ David Karp Hits the Morning Show Circuit With Marissa Mayer
You could wrap yourself in a grey hoodie, but there’s no way to avoid the David Karp-Marissa Mayer PR charm offensive. Taking a breaking from reading US Weekly to moms, ABC News’ Good Morning America had the pair on earlier today to discuss their “match made in digital heaven.” Anchor George Stephanopoulos breathlessly proclaimed the $1.1 billion deal “could change” the way we use the Internet and labeled Mr. Karp as a “hipster high school dropout” before introducing them for an in-studio interview. Read More
NYC Judge Rules Airbnb Stay Illegal, Fines Host $2,400
Temporary apartment renting service Airbnb has had its share of tussles with New York law. In 2011, the city instituted an illegal hotels statute that makes it illegal for users to rent out their apartments for less than 29 days, effectively rendering Airbnb hosts subject to fines. Last September, the city council jacked up the fines that could be levied upon illegal hoteliers advertising their wares through Airbnb from $800 to $2,500. Read More
Booting Up: Everybody’s Got an Opinion About the Tumblr-Yahoo Deal
Marco’s confident Tumblr made the right call: “This is clearly what David believes is best for his product. On such big decisions, he hasn’t been wrong yet. This time, though, I don’t have any doubts.” [Marco.org]
Dave Winer, on the other hand: “When you sell your company, no matter what promises were made, you sold it. It’s theirs now. They will do what they want to with it. Promises don’t matter.” [Scripting News]
Sounds like former Tumblr president John Maloney is just irked he’s being left out of the story. [Twitter]
Fab is reportedly raising a round somewhere in the ballpark of $250 million to $300 million, pushing the company’s valuation north of a billion dollars. [Wall Street Journal]
The Senate, meanwhile, says Apple dodged, oh, about $44 billion in taxes. [Politico]
Yahoo! Opening New Office in Times Square, Wants to Expand NYC Presence by 60 Percent
Yahoo! is taking over New York, whether you like it or not. After the long-awaited announcement that the old school web giant had purchased Alley darling Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion, the company held a press event in Times Square to make another big declaration: Yahoo! will be consolidating its local offices into a giant hub in the old New York Times building. It’s no Googleplex, but it’ll do. Read More
Where My Dogs At? Not Caring About This New Pet App Because Dogs Can’t Use Smartphones
Dogs, creatures that lack opposable thumbs and thus the ability to read or operate any device, now have a social network–sort of. Where My Dogs At, a new, grammatically incorrect app, that locates nearby dog-friendly locales and rates them with user reviews. Think Yelp for animals that make that noise a lot. Read More
Let’s Not Pop All the Bottles at Once: This Tumblr Deal Isn’t a Total Cinderella Story
In Pride and Prejudice, before achieving her happy ending with Mr. Darcy, Lizzie Bennett receives a marriage proposal from Mr. Collins, a toadying little man who offers a lifetime of a) stability and b) teeth-grinding annoyance. She turns him down, and her friend Charlotte promptly snaps him up. A 27-year-old woman of limited means in 18th century England, she’s realistic about her options and grabs her best bet with both hands.
Let’s not kid ourselves that Yahoo! is anything other than a Mr. Collins. Read More
11 Internet Week Events You Don’t Wanna Miss!
This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.
Get ready for some boozing ‘n schmoozing, people! Its that time of the year again. That’s right. Internet Week, a week-long festival celebrating all things Internet (business + culture + media + tech) is back in New York City!
It’s our very own version of South by South West, and with over 45,000 folks expected to attend almost 400 events around town, it’s safe to say things are gonna get a little crazy. There’s tons of awesome events, but to make your life easier, here’s my selection of 11 that you really, positively, absolutely shouldn’t miss! (You’re welcome.) Read More
Activist Group Whines to the FTC For You About Snapchat’s Not-So-Deleted Photos
Remember that nearly life-ending revelation that the photos sent from Android devices on Snapchat don’t disappear? As in, they sit in some not-so-discreet folder called “RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS,” where they’re just waiting to be shown to the world. Well, a privacy watchdog is taking action for you by filing a complaint with the government in an effort to stop the nuisance.
On Friday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The 8-page document lambastes the California-based app for its “deceptive business practices,” since it claims the photos are deleted when in many cases they are not. In Snapchat’s privacy statement, it does hedge that it “cannot guarantee that the message contents will be deleted in every case.” Read More
World Nutella Day Cancelled After Nutella Owner Ferrero Sends Cease & Desist
Each year on February 5th, lovers of the crack-laced hazelnut spread Nutella gather to create delicious recipes and spoon-feed each other scoops directly from the jar in celebration of World Nutella Day. But it appears that this year’s festivities may have been the last. Read More
Never Leave Your Apartment Again: Seamless and GrubHub Are Merging
After rumors swirled the past few days that food delivery companies GrubHub and Seamless were in talks to merge, the news is now official. Bloomberg reports that the companies are combining in an effort to out-deliver their competitors in the fast-growing online ordering sector.
Matt Maloney, CEO of Chicago-based GrubHub, will lead the merged entity while New York-based Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky will be its president. Financial details have not yet been released but neither company is paying to acquire the other. The company will be rebranded, although a new name hasn’t been selected. Read More
