What you need to know - Friday 10/29/10
Buddy Media raised $5 million; Nomadesk raised $7M; Facebook releases friendship pages
The CEO of YouTube is stepping down. Chad Hurley, who was also one of the founders of the site, has been transitioning out of the role for some time now. His role in day-to-day operations is expected to be taken over by Salar Kamangar, who is currently Google’s VP of product management. This is part of a two year long gradual transition of leadership. There is no solid word yet on what Hurley's next project will be.
Belgian cloud computing company Nomadesk announced Friday morning that it has raised $7 million (or €5 million) in a Series B round led by new investor BAMS Angel Fund, with help from existing shareholder Gimv. This round brings Nomadesk’s total funding to €8 million, which translates to almost $12 million.
Verizon was fined $25 million by the FCC. The penalty is in response to Verizon's fee issues, for which they will also be required to pay a minimum of $52.8 million in refunds to the estimated 15 million customers affected by the fees. Verizon must also create a Data Charge Task Force. The task force will be charged with monitoring future charges to keep illegal improper fee issues from recurring.
Facebook has releases friendship pages. The pages will be a mash up of existing content, including public wall posts, comments, photos, and events that users have in common. The pages will be accessible from the main photo on a profile Page. There is no solid word as to whether the roll out will be universal or incremental, at this time. There is also no word on whether a user can opt out of the service.
Microsoft released its quarterly earnings report. The report shows that it brought in $16.2 billion in revenue last quarter. This is an increase of 25%, when compared to the same quarter last year. This is largely due to sales of Microsoft Office and Windows 7 in the enterprise sector.
Police in Italy are investigating the theft of a home on a Facebook game. A woman in Palermo had her seven-room home in Pet Society robbed. Pet Society is a Facebook game, made by Playfish. The thief got $140 worth of virtual stuff. Items stolen include furniture, paintings, mirrors, and pet outfits. If caught the thief risks between 1 and 5 years in a non-virtual jail.
MySpaces new branding went into effect. The sites update includes a new look, and several new features, all designed to appeal to Generation Y users. The release promises users a "highly personalized experience". New features include badges, content hubs and recommendations.
Twitter launched for the Windows phone. Features on the app include: timeline, suggested users, messages, and lists. Users will also be able to sign up for an account from their mobile device. Twitter applications have long been on rival, Apple's iPhone.
Facebook may begin to use their Places feature in order to allow businesses to market to users. When a user checks into a store, Places would respond by showing deals for that location. The service is currently being tested with a limited number of partners, and users.
Buddy Media raised $5 million. The investor was the large advertising company WPP. WPP will also make Buddy Media a preferred vendor. This money will be added to a $23 million funding round, which was raised earlier this month.
A cadre of tech companies are funding political ads. One attack ad was recently funded by a list of companies that include:Google, Yahoo, HP, and eBay. The candidate in the ads is, Kamala Harris. Ms. Harris is currently running for California Attorney General. The ads attack her stance on the death penalty.
