Roundup: NASA awards startups, social network revenues reviewed, and more
Here’s the latest action:
eMarketer explains bearish projections for social network ad revenue — Earlier this month, the firm significantly lowered its projections for year-end MySpace and Facebook 2008 revenue figures. A company post today goes into more detail as to why: It’s not just the recession, but a combination of filings, insider information and blog reports that point to weaker numbers.
Remote access provider Citrix says it’s developing a receiver for iPhone to bring it millions of Windows apps and developers — In a blog post, the company says that as part of the development, it’s “looking for examples of compelling applications that will not run natively on the iPhone, however if the app was hosted on Citrix’s XenApp and delivered to the iPhone it would provide a great visual example of the power of Citrix and the iPhone.” Some things it says come to mind are: web sites that require flash, medical apps, web apps that need IE, and cut and paste (within Citrix sessions).
NASA awards $3.5 billion to space startups SpaceX and Orbital Sciences — The contracts are designed to fund a project to ship cargo to and from the space station beginning in 2010. More here.
Google’s giving its employees unlocked Google Android cell phones, which go for $400 — The phones are reportedly replacing Google’s annual performance bonuses. An email calls for employees to celebrate the “chance for us to once again dogfood a product and make it even better!”
World’s second-largest economy, Japan, sees plunge in industrial output — The 8.1 percent dive in November from the previous month is the biggest decline on record.
Charles River Ventures puts ad on Facebook to find startups — The ad says: “Running a hot startup? Learn more about Charles River Ventures and how we can help you. We are actively investing in great entrepreneurs and big ideas.”
Next Story: Mobile search engine Taptu raises 7.45 million euros
Previous Story: Lala may lead bid for Facebook music service, but questions loom
About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.