AT&T has reached the final stage of eliminating the Cingular brand. Today, Cingular stores will be changed to the AT&T name and logo.
CLEAR CHANNEL will launch a mobile initiative in New York today. Listeners of Clear Channel Stations will be allowed to send requests for songs by text message and view playlists on their phones. The service will be free.
SIMON & SCHUSTER will publish a book chosen from proposals submitted to MediaPredict.com, a new site launching today. Users will be able to “buy shares” of book proposals they believe will win the competition. Simon & Schuster will use the most popular proposals as a guide when selecting the finalists.
ALLTEL will be sold to a group of private equity firms for $27.5 Billion. It is “the largest buyout ever in the telecommunications industry.”
FACEBOOK will allow companies to build services that integrate with user networks. The initiative will make it possible for users to spread content from outside of Facebook through their social networks. It is expected to launch on Thursday.
GOOGLE is working on a deal with SalesForce.com, to integrate services. Salesforce.com is a competitor of Microsoft’s customer-relationship management software.