Roundup: AOL spinoff, secret news meeting, and more
Here’s the latest action:
AOL spin-off approved by Time Warner — After AOL’s merger with the media conglomerate in 2000, it’s been, well, a long decade. AllThingsD has more.
Leading newspapers hold secret meeting to discuss charge for content — The Atlantic reports. No word on whether there was an entrance fee.
Social game-maker Playdom hire game veterans — Virtual Worlds News covers.
Hulu Desktop, kinda — “Hulu Desktop simply presents an alternate [user interface] for the site (now with sound effects!) that’s optimized for remote controls,” but not file transfers nor tranfer other devices, as NewTeeVee puts it.
Digital Sky Techologies plans initial public offering within next three years — The Russian media investor has already been pumping money into former Eastern Bloc social networks, adding Facebook to the list most recently. PaidContent has some translated details.
Omniture expands social media analytics — Inside Facebook has a look.
Former MySQL chief executive joins board of RightScale — The company offers a cloud computing management service. SocalTECH has more.
Social network Multiply gets a redesign — CNET reviews it. There’s a focus on “digital moms” — here’s a screenshot of the site’s newly-prominent “media locker.”
Are HP and IBM fighting back against Cisco’s server sales push? — The Wall Street Journal interviews an analyst who thinks so.
Failed municipal wifi companies remake themselves as smart grid startups — As GigaOm covers.
[Old AOL logo via Media Bistro.]
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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.