What you need to know - 09/23/11

Ronny Kerr · September 23, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1f69

Facebook unveils the Timeline and upgraded Open Graph; HP may replace Apotheker with Whitman

Amazon workers in an Allentown, Penn. facility are complaining about dangerous working conditions that include fast-paced work in 110 degree temperatures, mandatory overtime, and the constant threat of termination if they don’t speed up.

Enterprise cloud computing giant Salesforce acquired Assistly, a customer support help desk for the social enterprise, for $50 million in cash.

Facebook unveiled a new product called Timeline, designed to be the next evolution of the user profile. Timeline highlights all the most important stories you’ve shared on Facebook about your life, from birth to the present, in one stream of content.

Additionally, amendments made to the Open Graph enable a whole new class of developers to create interactive applications for the social network. Launch partners include the likes of Spotify and Netflix.

 

Reports have it that HP is gearing up to oust CEO Leo Apotheker after less than 11 months on the job and plans to replace him with none other than former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, revealing its strategy to replace Apotheker with a high-powered female tech CEO who survived the dot-com bust and went on to try her hand at conservative politics—who’s not Carly Fiorina.

 

At a Goldman Sachs conference this week, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said that the company has hit the one million mark. Additionally, Kilar said the company would invest $375 million in new content to stream on the site.

Independa, provider of a “telecare” health monitoring solution, secured $1.6 million in funding from southern California VC firms Miramar Venture Partners and City Hill Ventures.

ZocDoc, which helps patients find and book appointments with doctors, raised $25 million in Series C funding from Goldman Sachs.

In its newest IPO filing, Zynga reports a 4% dip in second-quarter bookings citing "a decrease in active users." On this count, the company dipped to 59 million users between April and June, from 62 million during the first three months of the year.

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