Big Search Engines Bow to China

Big search engines like Google and Yahoo have found that it is easier to bow to the demands of China than it is to be banned by the giant of a country. Censorship is a favorite pastime of the Chinese regime, with most of the big search engines already being banned several times in China.
The most recent example of oppression by China is the banning of all search news results for "Zhao Ziyang", the former Chinese leader that tried stopping the massacre of students in Tiananmen Square that recently passed away. See more here..

New York Times buys About.com

The information portal About.com has been bought by the New York Times company for $410 million. Several of the big search engines (Google, Yahoo and Ask) also placed their bids for the About.com network, but the NY Times has successfully acquired the company with an all cash deal.
The NY Times now plans to cross promote its products throughout the About.com website, improve the information on the site, and generally make it more visible.
Perhaps they should also de-commercialize the site a little and take 40% of its annoying, overwhelming advertisements off the About.com portal and the BizNewsBlog.com editor might use the site too!!

Mamma.com Jumps 40%

"Shares of Internet search engine Mamma.com surged more than 40 percent Tuesday amid market talk that the company is a takeover candidate." marketwatch

McDonalds $8.5 Million for Artery Clogging

McDonald's will be putting up $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over its use of trans fatty acids (TFAs). $7 million will be going towards the American Heart Association and $1.5 million will go towards informing customers of the artery clogging fats that they use to cook their food with.
McDonald's to Pay $8.5 Million in Trans Fat Lawsuit
"The settlement is the result of litigation from a San Francisco area activist who has been seeking to raise public awareness of the health dangers from the trans fatty acids (TFAs) in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.
Trans fats are used in thousands of processed food products, often giving the crunch to French fries, cookies, and cereals.
They are created in processing vegetable oils and have been found to be as unhealthy as pure cholesterol. The latest official U.S. nutrition recommendations suggest limiting their intake." reuters

About.com For Sale

One of the most established Internet properties online is up for sale, with bids coming from the likes of the New York Times and several large search engine companies.
The search firm About.Com is on the auction block
"The venerable About.Com is on the auction block. Founded in 1996 as the Mining Company, About is one of the oldest well-known Internet properties. In October 2000, About was purchased by Primemedia for $690Million worth of stocks. Today, the final bids are being accepted from five companies are thought to be in the $300 - $500Million range." ISEDB.com

Fox Super Ads

Newscorp's Fox network must love Super Bowl time. Theyre expected to bring in about $140 million in advertising revenue during the game. With advertisers pretty sure of getting plenty of eyeballs on their product, they are prepared to pay up to $2.4 million for a 30 second ad space.

Murdoch and Malone

International media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been forced to the negotiating table with the cable TV man John Malone. Malone has been accumulating NewsCorp shares and now owns nearly 20% of NewsCorporation's voting stock.
Malone and his Liberty Media are keen to acquire certain undisclosed assets from Newscorp and now owns enough stock to do some serious deals with Murdoch.
Murdoch has stated "We may be able to take back and cancel some of Liberty's News Corp shares in return for some cash and maybe some asset which they would value more than we would value."
But also said.. "But we are certainly not going to be giving up big assets which we have really big plans for. Nor are we going to have our cupboards cleaned out of all our cash. There is plenty of room to talk."
Murdoch predicts Malone deal
"Liberty Media has posed a potential threat to News Corp since it snapped up 17 per cent of the company's voting stock behind Mr Murdoch's back last year, prompting News Corp to set up a poison pill provision to protect it from takeover." Herald Sun

Search Engine Wars

Google may be king for now in the online search engine industry, but Bill Gates wants a piece of the pie. Google has pleased investors by producing records results, 7 times more than the same quarter last year. Profits were boosted by a red hot online advertising market, stuffing the Google kitty with $204 million for the quarter.. Guardian
Microsoft has been kicking itself for not building its own search engine long ago, with Gates stating he was "Stupid as hell" for not doing it. But plenty of time and money has been spent over at Microsoft recently on producing a search engine to compete with the likes of Google and Yahoo. MSN Search is now officially online, looking to gain market share in the search engine industry.
If Microsoft's past history of market domination has anything to do with it, Google has to expect to lose a little ground in the near future. See more at BusinessWeek