June 2012

Facebook Acquires Facial Recognition Technology Company Face.com For Nearly $60 Million

After rumors of a deal have swirled for weeks, Facebook has officially acquired facial recognition technology company Face.com.

It’s a complete acquisition, which means both talent and technology will now become Facebook’s in the deal. Though the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, other outlets have reported the price in the neighborhood of $100 million. However, I’m hearing from two sources familiar with the terms of the deal that Face.com actually sold for a significantly lower amount, approximately $55 to $60 million in cash and stock (though it is unclear if this price is with or without an earnout included).

Consumer groups urge Facebook to ban ads to kids

Consumer and child safety advocates pressed Facebook to beef up safety and privacy efforts if it goes forward with plans to allow children under 13 to use the social networking site.

In a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the groups said any space for preteen users should be free of advertising and supervised by parents. The consumer advocacy groups, which include Consumers Union, the Center for Digital Democracy, World Privacy Forum and Consumer Federation of America, said any collection of personal information shouldn’t be used by marketers to target ads at preteens based on the interests they display on Facebook. “The company’s business model relies, at its very core, on data collection, ad targeting, and viral marketing, and many of its practices have generated public and government privacy concerns,” the groups said in their letter to Zuckerberg.

Verizon: irrational outcomes

Fiddling with pricing is a game telecoms and cable companies can never stop playing. They plough fixed investment into infrastructure and programming, then charge for services with vanishingly small incremental costs of delivery. Consumers, for their part, are always looking to pay the incremental cost (roughly nothing) for the services, rather than the total cost. And finally competitors want to price below total cost to take share.

Sens Snowe and Warner call for cybersecurity compromise

Sens Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-VA) urged the Senate to find a compromise solution for cybersecurity legislation. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sens Snowe and Warner said there is "tremendous potential" for the Senate to find a solution for securing critical infrastructure systems that "incentivizes private sector participation and collaboration."

The letter seems to be a nod towards a draft compromise proposal from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The endorsement from Sens Snowe and Warner for an approach that incentivizes critical infrastructure standards seems to add momentum to the Kyl-Whitehouse compromise efforts. The senators urged Sens Reid and McConnell to bring up the legislation in July and to allow amendments on the floor from any senator.

Cristina Saralegui endorses President Obama

Popular Hispanic talk show host and media personality Cristina Saralegui made her first ever presidential endorsement in favor of President Obama.

Building on the President's announcement that the administration will stop deporting certain younger illegal immigrants, the Obama campaign sought to boost its support among Hispanic voters, releasing Web videos in English and Spanish featuring a message of support from Saralegui. She praised Obama as a "principled man" that believes that everyone who "works hard and plays by the rules, should have a fair shot at the American dream." The Cuban-born Saralegui, dubbed the "Hispanic Oprah," hosted a long-running show on Univisión and after its cancellation launched "Pa’lante con Cristina" on Telemundo. She was included in Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Hispanics in America" list in 2005.

Study: Most Cord-Cutters May Be OTA 'Opt-Ins'

About 21 million homes rely on over-the-air TV, according to the latest data from GfK Media's (Knowledge Networks) Home Technology Monitor report.

That is 17.8% of all TV homes, compared with a consistent 14%-15% over-the-air-only percentage for each year of the study since 2008, according to GfK. Those broadcast-only homes continue to skew lower-income and minority, but also younger households, the study found. And although cord-cutting has been popularly tied to migration from pay TV to online video viewing, GfK media researcher David Tice, in a blog about the data, confesses up front to be a cord-cutter skeptic, at least to the argument that the flight is from pay TV video to online video. He says the research shows that over 70% of those who have cancelled pay TV service said it was due to cost-cutting, with cord-cutting because of online alternatives cited by less than 20%. Tice is not saying that online video options are not an important part of the equation, but said their data does not support suggesting it is a primary driver of cord-cutting.

Facebook’s $10 million privacy payout: why you get nothing

The technology industry is trapped in a cycle of privacy breaches and class action lawsuits that does nothing for the average internet user.

The new Facebook settlement is just the latest example. If you missed it, Facebook says it will pay $10 million to compensate users who were turned into product pitchmen as a result of “Sponsored Stories” ads that treat ‘Likes’ as endorsements (see how one user unwittingly endorsed a jumbo tub of lubricant). None of this money, however, will go to Facebook users.

Instead, the payout will perpetuate a symbiotic relationship between tech companies and their critics that works like this: Step 1) Facebook/Google/etc. break a privacy law. Step 2) Critics blow whistle, lawyers sue for millions. Step 3) Company pays millions to critics and lawyers, nothing to you. Step 4) Wash, rinse, repeat.

Broadband contract at center of state dispute

In 2009, with more than a quarter of all Floridians without broadband access to the Internet at home, state officials lined up to get some of the $7 billion in federal stimulus money to finance state-based programs to increase access. Enter Connected Nation, a little-known but well-connected Washington-based company. It won the Florida contract to use $2.5 million to map the broadband gaps for use by policymakers and telecommunications companies. A year later, when the state won a second grant for $6.3 million to extend the broadband efforts, Connected Nation, a nonprofit company, believed it had signed up to be part of a public-private partnership with the state that entitled the firm to a no-bid shot at that money too. But the Department of Management Services, the state agency that housed the project, disagreed.

The DMS said the grant requires it to use some of the money to pay for three more years of broadband mapping and the rest to expand broadband access in libraries and schools. The DMS hired eight contract employees to handle administration and provide services, paying them between $72,000 and $140,000 a year until the grant ends in 2014, and defended it as an efficient use of state funds. That began a bitter feud between Connected Nation and the DMS, an agency with a lengthy history of distrust among state budget leaders. In an audacious display of lobbying clout, Connected Nation got the Legislature to force the DMS off the contract and steer the second grant to the firm.

Time Warner Cable posts its political file online, so why the fuss, NAB?

If posting already-public information on political ad spending is so damaging to broadcasters, as the National Association of Broadcasters argues, then why has one of the country's biggest cable providers been doing it since 2010?

Back then, Time Warner Cable created an online portal to search information regarding political ads sold on its system. Initially the portal served only the east coast, but has since provided data nationwide since 2011, according to a Time Warner spokesman. The ad buy records are available as downloadable PDFs. Current law requires TV stations to keep political ad purchase orders on file at their stations — a rule that goes for broadcasters and cable networks alike.

New Hits Needed; Apply to NPR

“Ask Me Another,” which began broadcasts on some NPR stations in May (but not in New York), is part of a new land rush for precious public-radio weekend airtime. Developed on modest budgets, many of the newcomers are aimed at a decidedly younger audience than currently listens to NPR; some aim for diverse listeners. All face a big hurdle: limited open time slots and, some would argue, a risk-averse public-radio culture, where time-tested audience and money generators make it challenging for new shows to thrive.

Benton

Search