Cyril Paciullo

June 30, 2009

Pirate Bay Acquired for $7.8 million, Content Providers to Get Paid

Filed under: Technology — Cyril @ 9:10 am

 

According to their blog and a recent BusinessWire release, controversial Swedish bit torrent tracker the Pirate Bay, is being acquired by Global Gaming Factory X AB for roughly $7.8 million in cash and shares (or $60 million SEK).

On the blog, the group hopes to alleviate concerns by saying:
“If the new owners screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want it to. And - you can now not only share files, but shares, with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That’s awesome and will take the heat off us.”

And the heat has certainly been on The Pirate Bay. For the last year, the group has been in and out of court battles and has continued to take a strong stance against legal threats regarding copyright violations.

Judging by blog comments, it’s obvious that users are extremely concerned. Global Gaming Factory will be taking over operation of the site in August 2009. As part of this acquisition, GGF can now incorporate the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SICS, Swedish Institute of Computer Science’s new data distribution technology - Peerialism. Presumably the service will increase torrent speeds. 

Read more at Readwriteweb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/pirate_bay_acquired_for_78_million_content_provide.php

 

 

June 29, 2009

Microsoft Windows 7 Price Cut Seen As Good Strategic Move

Filed under: Technology — Cyril @ 3:47 pm

Shares of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) fell a day after the software giant said a price cut will be offered as part of its impending release of a new version of Windows.



Microsoft said Thursday it will cut prices for the consumer version of Windows 7, scheduled for release in October, a move that will have the company deferring some $300 million in revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter ending in June.




The price cut is seen as a positive step toward enticing users to upgrade to Windows 7 in broader numbers, following the relatively poor reception afforded to its predecessor, Vista. Consumers who buy a personal computer between Friday and the official release of Windows 7 will receive a free upgrade to the new product, and prices for the Home Premium upgrade version of Windows will be cut by about 10% in the United States.




FBR Capital Markets analyst David Hilal told clients in a note Friday the Windows 7 pricing strategy should help prevent a “stalling” of personal-computer purchases during the back-to-school shopping season.




“The price breaks are a good strategic move,” Hilal wrote, given that Microsoft may be feeling some competitive pressure from Apple Inc. (AAPL), open-source Linux operating systems, and even Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating system.




While Microsoft’s Windows is the dominant operating system currently used in increasingly popular and affordable “netbook” computers, Google’s technology is expected to become available in a wide variety of netbooks in the future.




Citigroup analyst Brent Thill told clients Friday that because retail versions of Windows account for a relatively small portion of overall sales, the Windows 7 price cuts are unlikely to have much of an impact on Microsoft’s finances.


 


The rest of the article can be found at the Wall Street Journal Online. 

	


	
















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