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Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian firm, has invested $200 million in Facebook in return for 1.96% of the company. They’ve also agreed to buy about $100 million in common stock from Facebook employees. Some people are saying that this investment values Facebook at $10 Billion (down from $15 Billion a year ago). That’s nonsense. Facebook is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay when the company is sold. Other than that, valuation is just a datapoint.
The New York Times is reporting that AT&T may have swayed the American Idol vote by providing Kris Allen fans with free texting during a couple of promotional parties for his supporters. Apparently, a similar promotion was not made available to Adam Lambert supporters. As you can imagine, the blogisphere is ablaze with sturm and drang.
The ARPU metric (average revenue per user) may become less meaningful as telcos start to cut big bulk subscription deals. With companies like Amazon building subscriptions into the prices of products like their Kindle e-reader, Telcos will make less on every user, but they’ll make it up in volume.
HP has announced two new additions to its Netbook line. The Mini 1101 and the Mini 110 XP. They’re feature-rich, small and relatively cheap … about $300 street price. Why would you need a Netbook. They weigh nothing, have big bright screens and are literally built to browse the Net.