Roundup: Engineers leaving finance, Papermaster countersues, and more
Engineers are leaving Wall Street finance jobs to go be real engineers – As it has turned out, financial engineering isn’t so valuable.
Microsoft seems to be pulling in Facebook user data into its own web services — Seemingly in contradiction to Facebook’s user policy. TechCrunch has a closer look.
Newspaper company Gannett buys consumer web services company Ripple6 — Terms weren’t disclosed.
Jobs sites Jobster cuts 40 percent of its jobs — The company had raised $7 million back… Continue Reading
Roundup: Crisis speculation, another marketing-firm VC, and more
How will the current crisis on Wall Street affect Silicon Valley? – “I don’t think it will have much of an impact on Silicon Valley as an operating entity,” banker Bill Hambrecht tells Om Malik. Watch the video for more.
Meanwhile, how will online advertising be affected by Wall Street turmoil? — Maybe not so bad, some hopefuls in the industry tell PaidContent.
Global Agency Interpublic Group creates new venture arm — It will be called Mediabrands Venture Fund, and follows… Continue Reading
Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more
Bill Gates reflects on crappy Windows experiences — As the beginning of a farewell series to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the Seattle PI has printed a long, stream-of-consciousness rant by Gates about the frustrations of using a piece of Windows software in 2003. “The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind,” Gates says in summation. Any ideas for retirement presents?
A123 looks to electrical grid storage market — Wildly successful (so far) battery… Continue Reading
U.S. online video game subscriptions generate $1 billion in revenues per year
Dressing up as a person of the opposite sex and casting magic spells in a fantasy world has become a popular American pastime. U.S. online video game subscriptions are generating $1 billion a year in subscription revenue, according to market researcher NPD Group.
Those numbers include revenue from massively multiplayer online games (virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft), casual games such as card games on Pogo.com, and online games on consoles such as the Sony… Continue Reading
Updated: Chinese online game market forecast to more than triple in five years
[Update: corrected some figures here] China’s online video game market is expanding rapidly, with sales expected to nearly quadruple from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $6 billion in 2012, according to a survey being released Friday by market researcher Niko Partners.
The market is expected to grow 32 percent 47 percent in 2008 to $2.5 billion, while the overall five-year compound annual growth rate through 2012 is expected to be 28 percent. That makes China one… Continue Reading
Red 5 Studios wants to bring Web 2.0 to games — raises $18.5M
Red 5 Studios, a new start-up formed by the team that built popular online game World of Warcraft (WoW), has raised $18.5 million in venture capital to create online games that integrate more social networking aspects from the outset.
The funding comes from Benchmark and Sierra Ventures. Red 5 Studios is based in Aliso Viejo (southern California), not far from the team’s former employer, World of Warcraft’s parent Blizzard. The new company is led by Mark… Continue Reading