VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

Health site operators plan to team up against WebMD — The merger between Revolution Health Network and Waterfront Media is valued at $300 million, and should help the combined companies take on with market leader WebMD. We’ve heard that Revolution was trying to sell for $400 million a couple months ago, but difficult times call for difficult deals.

Google rethinking its aversion to traditional advertising — The search giant has relied on partnerships and word of mouth to promote its products in the past. But company executives are now debating whether this is still the best strategy. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has even met with several Madison Avenue advertising agencies.

Nokia acquires email and instant messaging provider OZ Communications — The value of the deal was not disclosed. OZ says it has 5.5 million paying users.

After a bounce earlier this week, stock market plunges again — The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s and Nasdaq all took a dive today. Earlier, VentureBeat writer MG Siegler looked at the (dismal) performance of tech stocks.

Yahoo layoff rumors in full-swing — An anonymous tipster tells Silicon Alley Insider that Yahoo plans to lay off 3,500 workers, but SAI writer Peter Kafka says the cuts will probably be much smaller.

Facebook to open international HQ in Dublin — The new office will serve as the center of Facebook’s international operations, with a focus on Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Nokia reveals iPhone competitor and iTunes rival — The company’s first touchscreen phone will be called the 5800 XpressMusic officially, but I prefer its nickname, the Nokia “Tube.”

Dropped by potential buyer EA, game publisher Take-Two says it will go it alone — And Take-Two’s stock drops as a result.

Researchers find security holes in major web sites — Those holes could have allowed the theft of users’ money and private information from YouTube, The New York Times’ website and Metafilter, according to two Princeton researchers. The Times says it has fixed the hole.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Zune coming to Windows Mobile — Plans to bring Zune music software to Windows Mobile phones indicate Microsoft probably doesn’t intend to create a separate ZunePhone to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

Skype messages under surveillance in China — A group of Canadian human-rights activists and researchers (pictured, left) revealed that Skype’s partner in China, Skype TOM, stores text messages that use words deemed subversive by the Chinese government. In a blog post responding to the news, Skype President Josh Silverman said Skype wasn’t aware that Skype TOM was storing the messages, athough he also argued that TOM has to play by China’s rules if it wants to do business there.

Europe faces its own financial crisis — In fact, European banks are in deeper debt than their U.S. counterparts.

Here’s the latest action:

Advanced Micro Devices is in a world of hurt — The Sunnyvale, Calif. chip company lost $358 million on revenues of $1.5 billion in the quarter. It cited a tough outlook for the computer market, but it is clearly hurting from Intel’s newfound competitiveness. AMD’s core business is microprocessors and graphics chips for personal computers. It has other businesses related to getting those chips into other devices, from consumer electronics to mobile phones. CEO Hector Ruiz said the company is looking at its “non-core businesses” to evaluate them as part of a new cost-cutting program. That’s in addition to its previously announced restructuring in which it will cut 10 percent of its staff. Hence, it may sell off some of its non-core businesses.

Sequoia wants to be Blackstone, Carlyle going through shift — Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s top dog venture capital firm, is trying to broaden its franchise, looking to do asset management and advisory work, according to Dan Primack, who says it is looking to become the venture community’s Blackstone Group. Among other things, PE Wire says Sequoia is raising a $750M hedge fund and has hired Eric Upin, former chief investment officer for the Stanford University endowment, and Michael Beckwith, former principal with Maverick Capital. We’ll look into this (let us know if you know more). Meanwhile, Primack also mentions that Bob Grady, who has led venture capital activities for The Carlyle Group, an investment firm with close ties to the Bush Administration, is moving into a lesser role. It’s part of a larger transition happening at the firm. The firm has lost two partners, and it replaced them with Nick Sturiale (formerly of Sevin Rosen Funds) and Greg Rossman (formerly of Pequot Capital). According to Primack, it also has hired Jeb Miller as a principal. Miller was previously ousted from ComVentures when that firm merged with Velocity Interactive Group.

Technorati and b5media to merge? — Seems like an odd idea to merge a company like Technorati, which searches and ranks blogs all across the web, with b5media’s network of 340 topic-oriented blogs. Wouldn’t the result be b5-biased Technorati rankings? Anyway, the merger is off because of personality differences and accounting issues, apparently.

The future of social networking: Watch this space — Social networking executives, investors and pundits sounded optimistic at a panel held on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus yesterday afternoon. There are still issues with making networks profitable, but that will come with time, panelists said. The discussion was part of ReMix, a follow-up to Microsoft’s big Mix conference earlier this year. The award for best quote goes to Dalton Caldwell of imeem (pictured), who said about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, “I think Zuckerberg is calling the shots for our industry, and when they launched a platform, our heads exploded.”

Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive continue to trade barbs as EA extends takeover offer — More here. Our previous coverage here.

Quality-video site Hulu coming to mobile? — It’s been talked about before, and chief executive Jason Kilar implied as much again during a recent talk. Of course, there are already mobile competitors. YouTube has its own mobile site, while startup MyWaves has a deal with media conglomerate Viacom to be the sole provider of mobile Viacom videos.

“‘Crazy guy’” thinks CNN’s web site is about to be attacked by Chinese computers — more here.

Here’s an amusing satirical mash-up (note, the site works intermittently, I found) of Darth Vader and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. EA, of course, represents the evil Galactic Empire attempting to swallow Take-Two interactive with its “friendly” hostile $26 a share offer.

We didn’t create this, it’s the work of Rob Dunlop, a comic book writer in south London, who brings a little comic relief to a serious subject in the video game industry with his EatTake2.com web site.

“Listen to the words of Lord Riccivader and you will see that we at Evil Acquirers, Inc. are both generous and merciful. You will accept us. You will respect us. Then you will kneel before us,” the site says.

This gets to the point. Is there too much consolidation? Read the rest of this entry »