Microsoft owns Skype for 8.5 billion $s

 Microsoft announced that it was buying the company for $8.56 billion in cash.

Just days after reports that Google and Facebook were interested in partnering with, and possibly buying VoIP company Skype,

Last year, Skype had revenue of $860 million on which it posted an operating profit of $264 million. However, it overall made a small loss, of $7 million, and had long-term debt of $686 million. It was the second time Skype has been bought out; after being started in 2003, it was purchasd by eBay in 2005 for $3.1 billion. eBay then sold the majority of its stake in 2009 to a private investment group for $1.2 billion less than it paid.

he purchase was Microsoft’s biggest ever, surpassing even the $6 billion acquisition of advertising firm aQuantive in 2007. That alone makes it surprising; the company’s track record with large purchases is decidedly mixed. Danger, the exciting mobile technology company that produced the Hiptop, better known as the T-Mobile Sidekick line, was purchased for an estimated $500 million in 2008; the result of that purchase was the disastrous KIN phone and a complete failure to integrate the bought-in talent. The aQuantive purchase too had mixed outcomes, with Redmond unable to find a role for the Razorfish division before eventually selling it off in 2009, and the company’s continued inability to make a profit from online advertising.

Microsoft has in the last couple of years shied away from similar large acquisitions, sticking to buying smaller, easier-to-manage organizations, leading some to argue that this was a direct result of the digestive difficulties faced with the large purchases. A $7 billion Skype acquisition would show that perhaps Redmond believes it has resolved such problems.

Microsoft’s own software already has considerable overlap with Skype. Windows Live Messenger offers free instant messaging, and voice and video chat. It currently boasts around 330 million active users each month, typically with around 40 million online at any one moment. Microsoft has an equivalent corporate-oriented system, Lync 2010 (formerly Office Communication Server) that allows companies to create private networks that combine the communications capabilities of Live Messenger with corporate manageability. The underlying technology of both platforms is common, allowing interoperability between Live Messenger and Lync. The company also plans to integrate Kinect into Lync to create more natural virtual presences.

Skype, in contrast, has around a third the number of active users — 124 million each month — as well as fewer simultaneous online connections—typically 20-30 million. Its instant messaging and voice and video call features are broadly similar to those found in Windows Live Messenger, though arguably more refined.

Though the Skype userbase is very much smaller than that of Windows Live Messenger, it does have one key difference: about 8 million Skype users pay for the service. Skype integrates telephone connectivity, able to make both outbound and inbound phone calls, and while its online services are all free to use, these phone services cost money. Skype also has points of presence across the globe, making it easy to buy phone numbers in foreign markets to cheaply establish an international telepresence.

Skype certainly has some things of value. The telephony infrastructure would make a valuable addition to the Messenger/Lync platform. It could also tie-in well with Exchange 2010, which offers voicemail integration. Adding telephony to Lync, Exchange, and Live Messenger is certainly a logical way to extend those products.
Read more at : http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/microsoft-buys-skype-2/

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7:21 AM | 0 comments

Pentagon Proved Osama Bin Laden's Death by releasing 5 videos clips

Pentagon the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense has released five video clips of Osama bin Laden in that it says was taken from the Pakistani compound where the leader of al-Qaeda was reportedly killed last week.
The videos mainly show bin Laden rehearsing taped remarks, but there is also video showing him watching news coverage of himself on TV.
Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the Pentagon in Washington DC, said that the video clips were shown to journalists, but the sound was removed from them.
"We did see a video of Osama bin Laden watching video of himself on what appears to be Al Jazeera," she said.
Wayne Madsen, an investigative journalist speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington DC, said that it was still difficult to confirm that all these videos do show bin Laden, as some are not clear.
"There are going to be many more questions raised after the release of these videos, because there have been videos and images in the past that were thought to be of bin Laden, but some of those turned out to be fake."

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FBI Warns That Fake Bin Laden Video Is a Virus

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned computer users Tuesday that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information

The warning comes as security companies said that they've spotted the first samples of malicious software disguised as photos of the dead Al Qaeda leader.

Security vendor F-Secure said Tuesday that criminals are e-mailing a password-stealing Trojan horse program called Banload to victims, and Symantec said it's seen criminals spamming victims with links to fake "Osama dead" news articles that launch Web-based attacks on visitors.

U.S. authorities do have photos of bin Laden, who was shot in the head during an early morning raid Monday in Pakistan. But these photos have not been released publicly.

Scammers have also used a technique called search engine poisoning to try to trick search engines into listing hacked Web pages that are loaded with malware in their search results. "It's unlikely you'll find pictures or videos of Bin Laden's death online -- but searching for one will certainly take you to sites with malware," wrote F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hyponnen in a blog post.

The FBI warned Internet users to watch out for fake messages on social network sites and to never download software in order to view a video. "Read e-mails you receive carefully. Fraudulent messages often feature misspellings, poor grammar, and non-standard English," the FBI warning stated.

As a major international news event, bin Laden's death has shown the amazing way information can spread online. Many learned of the terrorist leader's death through Twitter, where the story first broke, or Facebook. But it also underscores how the unfiltered media can quickly spread bad information worldwide.

In the two days since the early morning raid, the bin Laden story has generated fake photographs, fake quotes, and plenty of scams.

Security experts said that shady marketers and so-called rogue antivirus vendors have also jumped on the bin Laden bandwagon. The rogue antivirus software bombards victims with pop-up messages telling them they have a computer problem. Its aim: to nag them into paying for bogus software.

Shady marketers are spreading messages on Facebook that try to lure victims into spreading the message to friends and visiting marketing Web sites, by claiming they have a censored video.

"Osama is dead, watch this exclusive CNN video which was censored by Obama Administration due to level of violence, a must watch," is a typical lure used in the scam. Users are encouraged to cut and paste malicious JavaScript code into their browser, which then sends the message to all of their Facebook friends. Security experts say never to cut and paste scripts into the browser.

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3:42 AM | 0 comments

'Facebook open to US intelligence' : WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are actually tools for the U.S. intelligence community.

Speaking to Russian news site RT in an interview published yesterday, Assange was especially critical of the world's top social network. He reportedly said that the information Facebook houses is a potential boon for the U.S. government if it tries to build up a dossier on users.

"Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," Assange said in the interview, which was videotaped and published on the site. "Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. intelligence."

If that's the case, it might surprise some that WikiLeaks has its very own Facebook page. In fact, last year, when WikiLeaks released a controversial batch of confidential documents--putting Assange on the run--Facebook refused to shut down that page. The company said at the time that the page did not "violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our policies."

Facebook's response stood in stark contrast to the treatment of WikiLeaks by many other companies in the U.S. last year. Several firms, including PayPal, blocked the company's accounts.

But Assange didn't just stop at Facebook. He also told RT that in addition to the world's largest social network, Google and Yahoo "have built-in interfaces for U.S. intelligence."

"It's not a matter of serving a subpoena," he told RT. "They have an interface that they have developed for U.S. intelligence to use."

Surprisingly, Assange didn't mention Twitter, another major social network with which his organization has run into trouble.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department sent a court order to Twitter, requesting the social network deliver information from accounts of activists that allegedly had ties to WikiLeaks. In March, the Justice Department was granted access to those accounts following a judge's ruling in favor of the seizure. Last month, the Justice Department said that complaints over its desire to obtain Twitter information is "absurd," and its actions are quite common in criminal investigations.

However, the Justice Department didn't secure a search warrant for access to the information. Instead, it obtained a 2703(d) order, allowing investigators to secure online records that are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation."

For U.S. intelligence, getting information from Facebook is much easier, Assange said in the interview. He reportedly told RT that the U.S. intelligence community's use of "legal and political pressure" on Facebook is enough for it get what it wants.

"Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building this database for them," Assange said, according to the RT interview.

For its part, Facebook disagrees with Assange's sentiment. In a written statement to CNET, a Facebook spokesman said that it does only what's legal--and nothing more.

"We don't respond to pressure, we respond to compulsory legal process," the spokesman told CNET. "There has never been a time we have been pressured to turn over data [and] we fight every time we believe the legal process is insufficient. The legal standards for compelling a company to turn over data are determined by the laws of the country, and we respect that standard."

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Apple :The 'least green' company

Apple has been ranked the "least green" technology company by the environmental group Greenpeace because of its reliance on coal to power many of its premises.

A report, How Dirty is Your Data?, claims that the electricity used in the centres where Apple houses its servers is generated largely by burning the fossil fuel, and adds that a new facility soon to open in North Carolina will triple its electricity consumption. More than 60 per cent of the power for the new centre will come from coal.

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FBI releases 'memo that proves aliens did land in New Mexico in 1947'

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has published in its website a bizarre memo that proves aliens did land in New Mexico in 1947.

The memo titled 'Flying Saucers', written by FBI agent Guy Hottel, is published in the agency's new online resource 'The Vault'.

Hottel, who was in charge of the Washington field office in 1950, reveals that an Air Force investigator had stated that 'three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico', reports the Daily Mail.

The investigator gave the information to a special agent, he said.

The FBI has censored both the agent and the investigator's identity.

"They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter," said Hottel.

"Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall," he added.

The bodies were 'dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.'

Hottel said that the informant, whose identity was censored in the memo, claimed the saucers had been found in New Mexico 'due to the fact that the government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers'. He then stated that the special agent did not attempt to investigate further.

The release of the secret memo is likely to fuel conspiracy theorists' claims of a government cover-up.

The town of Roswell in New Mexico became infamous after reports that a flying saucer had crashed in the desert near a military base there on or around July 2, 1947.

Military authorities issued a press release, which began: 'The many rumours regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc.'

The headlines screamed: 'Flying Disc captured by Air Force.' Yet, just 24 hours later, the military changed their story and claimed the object they'd first thought was a 'flying disc' was a weather baloon that had crashed on a nearby ranch. Amazingly, the media and the public accepted the explanation without question.

Roswell disappeared from the news until the late Seventies, when some of the military involved began to speak out.

Another memo published in The Vault from 1947 claimed that an object 'purporting to be a flying disc' had been recovered near Roswell. The disc was 'hexagonal in shape' and 'suspended from a balloon by a cable', according to the memo, marked as 'Urgent', to the FBI director. The memo noted that the disc resembled a weather balloon - but claimed that a telephone conversation between the Air Force and the field office 'had not [word censored] borne out this belief'. The disc and balloon were being transported to Wright Field for further inspection, the memo noted. It added that the information was being flagged up because of 'national interest' in the episode, and noting that both NBC and the AP were set to break the story that day. (ANI)

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