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DMW Daily, March 14, 2008

Top Stories
o Microsoft Acquires Ad Solutions Company Rapt
o Report: DirecTV to Start On-Demand Service
o Report: Microsoft Met with Yahoo Monday to Discuss Merger Vision
o Thumbplay Receives $18 Million in Funding
o Video Game Sales Growth Still Strong, +34% in February
o Verizon Embraces P4P Over P2P, No Piracy Policing
o Report: Mobile Music, Games, & TV to Generate $47.5 billion by 2010
Briefly Noted
o Report: Linden Lab CEO Rosedale plans to step down
o Report: Facebook to Launch Instant Messaging Service
o MyBlogLog Founder to Launch Web 2.0 Site Gnip
o Chinese Video-Sharing Site Youku Teams with MySpace
o Samsung to Spend $1.4 billion Upgrading Chip Lines
 Top Stories
o Microsoft Acquires Ad Solutions Company Rapt 
Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft today announced plans to acquire Rapt Inc., a provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers for undisclosed sum. [more..]
o Report: DirecTV to Start On-Demand Service 
New York - DirecTV, the No. 1 satellite-TV provider in terms of subscribers, is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter with some 3000 titles, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). [more..]
o Report: Microsoft Met with Yahoo Monday to Discuss Merger Vision 
Sunnyvale, CA – According to the Wall Street Journal, senior executives of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) met on Monday to discuss Microsoft’s takeover over the internet giant. [more..]
o Thumbplay Receives $18 Million in Funding 
In its fifth round of funding, which included both old and new investors, mobile content retailer Thumbplay has received $18 million. [more..]
o Video Game Sales Growth Still Strong, +34% in February 
New York - Despite concerns about the recession and a cyclical slowdown, the video game industry continues to grow in 2008. Monthly video game sales statistics from the NPD Group show that video game industry sales were up 34 percent to $1.3 billion, year over year. [more..]
o Verizon Embraces P4P Over P2P, No Piracy Policing 
New York - Broadband provider Verizon (NYSE: VZ) will not be policing its own network for illegal filesharing and reports that a recent test it conducted revealed that the new P4P protocol provides a significant boost in download performance while simultaneously reducing network congestion. [more..]
o Report: Mobile Music, Games, & TV to Generate $47.5 billion by 2010 
Hampshire, UK – Juniper Research has released a report saying that increased 3G penetration and made-for-mobile content will create $47.5 billion in revenue by 2010. [more..]
 Briefly Noted
o Report: Linden Lab CEO Rosedale plans to step down 
San Francisco - Linden Lab, maker of the online virtual world Second Life, is looking for someone to fill founder and chief executive Philip Rosedale’s shoes as he will step down, according to Reuters. [more..]
o Report: Facebook to Launch Instant Messaging Service 
Palo Alto, CA - The popular social networking site Facebook has been testing a new instant messaging service and will be launching it to the public soon, perhaps in the next week, according to TechCrunch: [more..]
o MyBlogLog Founder to Launch Web 2.0 Site Gnip 
The founder of blogger social network MyBlogLog, Eric Marcouillier, which sold to Yahoo last year for about $10 million, plans to launch a new site called Gnip [more..]
o Chinese Video-Sharing Site Youku Teams with MySpace 
Shanghai – Video-sharing site Youku.com, based in China, has teamed with social networking site MySpace to tackle the market [more..]
o Samsung to Spend $1.4 billion Upgrading Chip Lines 
Seoul – Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chip maker, said today it plans to spend $1.37 billion in 2008 upgrading semiconductor lines, Reuters reports. [more..]