Archives

WSJ: Google IPO Could Happen As Early As Next Week

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:32am.
New York -- The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that search engine provider Google's planned IPO could be imminent, as the company will soon be required to disclose facts about its business to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that sometimes trigger a firm to simultaneously list their shares. Citing "people familiar with the matter," The Journal said Google may be compelled to release such information, required when private companies reach a certain size, as early as next week. Analysts have speculated that the search engine, which has in recent years has also become an online advertising powerhouse, could be valued as high as $25 billion.
tags: IPO | Google | Raise |

EMI Sues Electronic Arts Over Unauthorized Use of Song in Game Titles

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:29am.
New York -- Major record label EMI has sued leading video game developer Electronic Arts (EA) for copyright infringement, alleging the company included music owned by EMI without permission in its game titles "Madden NFL 2004," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004" and "MVP Baseball 2004." EMI claims EA sought licenses for the music in 2003 but then released the games before licenses had been granted; EMI says EA then renewed its license requests in February, after the games had been released. In its suit, EMI seeks a percentage of EA's profit from the titles, which the label estimated could be "tens of millions of dollars." "This entire lawsuit is related to a single song that samples lyrics from another song," Electronic Arts said in a statement. "Our use of that song was licensed directly from the artist. We have agreements for every song used in our games."
tags: Games | EMI | Song | Electronic |

Forgent Sues 31 Computing Firms for Infringement of JPEG-Related Patent

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:27am.
Austin, Texas -- A scheduling software developer has sued 31 big-name computing firms including IBM, Apple, HP, Xerox and Kodak for patent infringement, claiming its patented JPEG image technology -- a ubiquitous image file format used on the Web -- is being used without permission. Texas-based Forgent said it has sought licensing deals with all 31 companies, but is now suing for royalties on its technology. The company said that its patent has generated $90 million in licensing fees over the last two years, including a $16 million payment from Sony. "We believe we will prevail in this litigation as the '672 Patent is valid, enforceable and infringed," said Forgent CEO Richard Snyder. "It's unfortunate that despite the many opportunities these companies have had to license the patent, they have all declined to participate, leaving us no alternative but to litigate."
tags: Deal | Forgent | Firms | JPEG-Related Patent |

Tower Records Settles with FTC Over Website Security Breach

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:25am.
Washington -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that music retailer Tower Records has settled charges brought against it that a security flaw in its website exposed customers' personal information to other Internet users, in violation of Tower's privacy policy representations and federal law. The flaw allowed anyone to see TowerRecords.com customer names, billing and shipping address, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and their past Tower purchases. The settlement will require Tower to implement a security system that must be audited by a third-party security firm for the next ten years. Future violations could cost the company $11,000 in penalties for each occurrence.
tags: FTC | Tower | Website Security Breach |

Report: 90% of Consumers Have 1,000 or Fewer Songs on Computer

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2004 - 3:21am.

New York -- A recent consumer survey found that 90% of consumers with a music collection on their computer have no more than 1,000 songs, indicating that 1,000 songs should figure as the "sweet spot" for portable digital music player capacity, according to New York-based market research firm Jupitermedia. The report points out that players offering over 5GB of storage capacity "go above and beyond not only the music that most consumers want on their portable music player, but also beyond the digital music that they own." The survey also found that 77% of consumers interested in purchasing a portable media player would want a portable music player with a capacity of 1,000 songs. "This report goes a long way towards explaining success of vendors that have focused on capacities of 4-5 gigabytes that hold approximately 1,000 songs and also explains why others have done so poorly with lower capacity devices," said JupiterResearch research director Michael Gartenberg.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040422/225035_1.html 
http://www.jupitermedia.com
tags: Consumers | Computer | Fewer Songs |