pa href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1995__zoneid=242__cb=dc9c8ccb7f__maxdest=http://www.wildapricot.com/membership-management.aspx?utm_campaign=RWWutm_medium=referralutm_source=readwriteweb.comutm_content=MMFCA" rel="nofollow"img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/sponsor_post_wildapricot.jpg" border="0" //aemstrongEditor's note:/strong we're currently running a series of 'Sponsor Posts', focused on use cases and business stories. These posts are clearly marked as written by sponsors, but we also want them to be stronguseful and interesting/strong to our readers. We hope you like the posts and we encourage you to support our sponsors by trying out their products./em/p pa href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1995__zoneid=242__cb=dc9c8ccb7f__maxdest=http://www.wildapricot.com/membership-management.aspx?utm_campaign=RWWutm_medium=referralutm_source=readwriteweb.comutm_content=MMFCA" rel="nofollow"Wild Apricot/a is a young technology company out of Toronto, Canada. We provide Software-as-as-Service for associations, clubs, and non-profit organizations. This is our story of an investment round that fell through due to economic conditions./p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12621amp;cb=12621' target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12621amp;n=12621' border='0' alt='' align="right" //a/p pOur clients are primarily based in US and Canada, as well as other English-speaking countries around the world: UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc. (software is currently only offered in English). As of now (November 2008) we already have over 12,000 organizations signed up for our membership website software, which we think is not bad for a barely 2-year-old startup./p pOriginally financed by our founders, the company wanted to grow faster and in December 2007 decided to seek additional financing from outside investors. Things progressed quickly, and by February 2008 we shook hands on a deal with a new investor: a very entrepreneurial investment company out of UK. Closing was planned for April 2008./p pOf course, things never go as planned (and this is one of the lessons many startups learn the painful way). First, due diligence protracted much longer than expected. This was partially due to the fact that our Canadian-based company has a subsidiary office in Moscow, Russia, where the bulk of software development work takes place. The investor was keen to ensure that the intellectual property was properly protected, and it required changes to the legal setup of the Russian subsidiary, new employment contracts for all employees, and a bunch of other changes./p pThen the MBAs and lawyers got their hands on the deal, and it quickly deteriorated from a relatively simple original term sheet to a thick stack of very complicated contracts./p pThis was to be the first Canadian deal for the investment company, and the deal stalled for a while as the investor's lawyers struggled to reconcile the terms sheet with their standard templates and the wording of UK contractual law with the Canadian legal system and its way of doing things. (That's another lesson for start-ups: making a deal outside of your home base frequently takes much more time and energy.)/p pThe shareholder agreement, articles of association, board by-laws, and all the other fun documents multiplied in versions like rabbits./p pEverybody got exhausted, and the deal almost derailed a few times and was only saved thanks to the open dialog between our company and the majority shareholder of the investment company./p pDmitry Buterin, the Chief Apricot (aka President of Wild Apricot), got the final documents on the morning of October 9th, 2008. He was visiting the Moscow office at the time and went to work having the documents signed and faxed between Moscow and Toronto./p pAlas, it was not to be. At 4:00 pm, he got a call from the investor. "We are not going to close the deal after all. Our shareholders are panicking and withdrawing their money. We cannot do any new deals now." The financial crisis finally hit home./p pAfter seven months of due diligence, many thousands of dollars spent on accountants and lawyers, and countless hours invested by the management team, Wild Apricot had to write it all off./p pIt was even more disappointing because our company was delivering on its promises. Back in January 2008, we provided a detailed financial projection, and at the last check-in with the investor team we were proud to show the September and year-to-date numbers were right on the projections./p pAs the saying goes, in every crisis there is opportunity. So, the Wild Apricot team went searching hard for those opportunities./p pThe story is still being written because the crisis is still unfolding, but here is what we have achieved so far:/p olliWe asked nicely, and the investor agreed to reimburse part of Wild Apricot's legal expenses, even though there was no legal obligation on the investor's part./li liWe contacted local media right away to capitalize on all of the hoopla about the crisis and ended up on Canada's a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bssiZFPoyM"CBC television/a./li liThe founders put together another round of their own money, and while they had to scale back some growth ambitions, we feel comfortable about riding out the current storm and bridging this and the next investment round. (we knew that any deal had a risk of falling through, so we had backup financing arranged in advance, and it came in very handy.)/li/ol pWal-Mart has been a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4AC92720081113"reporting record growth/a as of late and McDonalds is a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-11-11-voa51.cfm"stealing market share from Starbucks/a. So we think Wild Apricot might do even better in these tough times. Non-profits are hurting and have to trim their budgets (just a href="http://news.google.ca/news?q=tough+times+for+non-profitsbtnG=Search+News"search Google News/a)./p pTo tell you more about our software: the basic premise is that for a simple, flat monthly fee of $25 to $200, Wild Apricot replaces up to seven separate pieces of software: the content management system for your website, a members database, a secure private website for members and the board, an event registration system, online payments processing, software to send bulk emails and newsletters, and online community facilities, such as blogs and discussion forums. Technical support and updates are free./p pFor a small association or club, this set-up saves thousands of dollars in software, countless hours of volunteer time usually wasted on copying and pasting and reconciling the data between a dozen Excel files, and paying through the nose for IT services./p pWild Apricot delivers a custom-built website project that would cost the equivalent of $20,000 or more (not to mention hefty ongoing maintenance and support fees)./p pOctober 2008 has been our best month in terms of absolute financial growth (meaning our monthly revenue has increased by the biggest amount ever). Percentage-wise, our revenue grew by 11.3% in a single month! And November so far is shaping up to be an even better month for us./p pWe we are very confident in our ability to keep growing by staying agile on our feet!/p pAnd here is the silver lining:/p pThe US dollar is shooting up against most other currencies. Wild Apricot software is priced in US dollars, while its expenditures are largely in Canadian dollars and Russian rubles. This adds a healthy boost to its bottom line./p pWhat are your war stories? How are you navigating these waters, and what new opportunities are opening up for other technology startups?/p piIf you're curious to know more about this 'gritty startup', please a href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1995__zoneid=236__cb=4f2458f339__maxdest=http://www.wildapricot.com/membership-management.aspx?utm_campaign=RWWutm_medium=referralutm_source=readwriteweb.comutm_content=MMFCA"click through to Wild Apricot's website/a and support a RWW sponsor!/i/p stronga href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wildapricot_sponsor_post_economic_scars.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/AiuTPbNhN-AHbDTFtx_eq_Z0RBs/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/AiuTPbNhN-AHbDTFtx_eq_Z0RBs/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=ABrhghim"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1035" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=1rO2wddw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=VShVMkmU"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=VShVMkmU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=9BsFCoka"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=9BsFCoka" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=dQxKsEq3"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=dQxKsEq3" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=n6K8xPFC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=MhSCMPu1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/pVdqhkkQelE" height="1" width="1"/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/op...romney.html?hp

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, ”Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”

You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.

Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don’t want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don’t fire the best dealers, and don’t crush them with new financial or performance demands they can’t meet.

It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

It seems this guy's a real business man's business man. :up:

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/267?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Small+investors+outvoted+as+96%25+back+Lloyds+dealch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Lloyds+TSB+%28Business%29%2CHBOS+%28Business%29%2CMergers+and+acquisitions+%28business%29%2CBanking+sector+%28Business%29%2CBusinessc5=Investments%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Severin+Carrellc7=2008_11_20c8=1120824c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Lloyds+TSBc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FLloyds+TSB" width="1" height="1" //divpShareholders in Lloyds TSB have overwhelmingly backed the bank's takeover of HBOS after a stormy meeting in Glasgow that saw large institutions comprehensively out-vote smaller investors unhappy with the deal./ppInvestors controlling nearly 96% of Lloyds TSB shares voted to endorse the deal, paving the way for its agreed merger with HBOS early next year. But small shareholders - mostly elderly, some travelling from as far as Devon to make their points - assailed the chairman, Victor Blank, with a series of questions about the controversial deal, in which Lloyds will raise pound;5.5bn to fund the takeover./pp"This board will collectively be putting its head in a noose if this takeover proceeds," said one man bluntly./ppTony Petersen, another shareholder, said the company was heading for "potential state control" by buying a "terminally diseased bank" while the entire sector was in crisis./ppBlank said Lloyds and its advisers had invested "5,000 man hours" in due-diligence work - a figure he repeatedly returned to. He dismissed fears the bank was being part-nationalised, but Petersen was not deterred. In his fourth question, he drew applause by claiming the "deal was cooked up at a cocktail party", stating: "Most of us think that this deal stinks."/ppBlank sympathised with investors unhappy about the sharp fall in the bank's market value. "We share some of your despair about it, but what we've seen are external circumstances and conditions the like of which none of us has ever seen before. It's little consolation we've gone down a little less than others."/ppShareholders had been greeted at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre by a small but friendly picket. Tavish Scott, the recently elected leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the only party leader to oppose the merger, implied that Lloyds shareholders were capitalising on the plight of HBOS: "The Labour government has to explain why losing thousands of banking jobs, branches across Scotland and competition is a price worth paying to force through this takeover."/ppPressed by a union official on the Lloyds TSB staff, Nancy Gilligan, Blank would not rule out compulsory job losses: "There will be inevitably some rationalisation of the combined workforce." Nor would he make any guarantees on "off-shoring" more jobs. But he added that both banks prided themselves on treating staff well. /ppBlank had begun by urging the meeting to embrace the deal, "a landmark" in the British financial services industry and the 243-year history of Lloyds TSB. It gave them a "strategic opportunity to create the leading financial services group in the UK, to be a great British bank, and one which will be able to compete globally". /ppIn the prospectus for its fundraising, Lloyds revealed yesterday that its directors would be buying shares in the placing. But Blank dashed hopes that shareholders would be allowed to buy the preference shares being issued to the government./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/lloydstsbgroup"Lloyds TSB/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/hbos"HBOS/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/mergersandacquisitions"Mergers and acquisitions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227142268789112000542038307"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227142268789112000542038307" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Banco Santander has snubbed 1.8 million small shareholders in Britain, excluding them from taking part in its €7.2 billion (£6 billion) capital-raising, it became clear yesterday. The shareholders, who became Santander investors when the Spanish bank took over Abbey and Alliance Leicester, will not be able to take part in the rights issue.

Russia’s media conglomerate, Gazprom Media, is now the proud owner of video-sharing site RuTube. This deal has been in the works since at least June, 2007 and is believed to be in the $15 million range.

RuTube is the YouTube of Russia. Or, rather, it wants to be. According to comScore, YouTube is actually the YouTube of Russia. In September, RuTube attracted 2 million unique visitors in Russia, versus 2.9 million Russian uniques for YouTube. RuTibe is seeing some nice growth, though. It has doubled its audience since June. (All caveats about comScore estimates apply here. Their numbers for Russia should be looked at as indicative of the trend rather than as absolutes).

TechCrunch reader Andrei Taraschuk, the founder of UMapper, translated the following Russian press story about the deal into English for us:

Gazprom-Media completed the acquisition of video service RuTube. The news came today from TNT – Teleset (TNT-Telenetwork) is the largest television network in Russia. According to sources inside TNT, RuTube is going to be headed by TNT’s Michael Ilitchev.

Ilitchev told Lenta.ru that RuTube will continue its focus on three main areas: video service, online video hosting, media platform. Down the road RuTube might expand its services to brands like RuTube movie, RuTube sport, RuTube music, RuTube news, RuTube humor.

Ilitched pointed out that RuTube founders will continue their involvement in RuTube from the technical side. The rest of RuTube team will continue as subcontractors to support, develop and host the project.

The exact acquisition amount is yet unknown.

It took Gazprom-Media over a year to purchase RuTube. Gazprom-Media announced their acquisition plans back in June 2007, the legal (purchase) process was started in March of 2008. Russian newspaper Kommersant (КоммерÑант) wrote that Gazprom-media valued RuTube at 15million USD and had plans to become primary shareholder. It was expected that after the acquisition, RuTube will start hosting videos from TNT and other media properties of Gazprom-Media.

RuTube is the biggest video hosting service in RUNET (Russian internet). According to Gallup, in September 2008, RuTube had over 4mln visitors. Over 5,8 had watched videos.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=480b3429796c7ac00075f4e7maxX=440maxY=293" border="0" alt="jerryyang5.jpg" title="jerryyang5.jpg" width="440" height="293" /Yesterday, we noted that the a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/cost-of-jerry-yang-as-yahoo-ceo-2-billion"cost to Yahoo shareholders of having Jerry Yang as CEO was apparently $2 billion/a--as evidenced by the stock's pop after he announced that he was stepping down./p pWe were wrong!/p pIt turns out Yahoo shareholders were perfectly fine with having Jerry as CEO. That pop, it appears, was merely enthusiasm that, with Jerry out of the way, Microsoft would come rushing in to buy the company. /p pNow that Steve Ballmer has put the kibosh on that, the "Jerry gone" premium has evaporated./p pstrongSee Also:/strong a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/ballmer-buy-yahoo-nfw/page/1#comment-4924522a14b9b9e500c2109c"Ballmer: Buy Yahoo? NFW/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/XVQm69SZdpLjpCaRpQSNnJxek2U/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/XVQm69SZdpLjpCaRpQSNnJxek2U/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=O6kP7BZM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=O6kP7BZM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=3wRpcCWg"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ja5Wvf73"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=maVPM3e5"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=maVPM3e5" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=j8stG887"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ztUztviE"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=2woVtY41"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=tSJiK01u"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/8frM_SlajhQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=48100861796c7ac00075f821maxX=400maxY=263" border="0" alt="ballmerhands.jpg" title="ballmerhands.jpg" width="400" height="263" /As expected, Steve Ballmer hasn't changing his tune about buying Yahoo now that Jerry's stepping down:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087sid=aP_MkR.SWdSMrefer=home"Bloomberg:/a Microsoft Chief Executive Officer a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Steve+Ballmersite=wnewsclient=wnewsproxystylesheet=wnewsoutput=xml_no_dtdie=UTF-8oe=UTF-8filter=pgetfields=wnnissort=date:D:S:d1"Steve Ballmer/a said all acquisition talks with Yahoo! Inc. are ``done,'' even after Yahoo CEO a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Jerry+Yangsite=wnewsclient=wnewsproxystylesheet=wnewsoutput=xml_no_dtdie=UTF-8oe=UTF-8filter=pgetfields=wnnissort=date:D:S:d1"Jerry Yang/a said he would step down. Yahoo fell as much as 13 percent in Nasdaq trading./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"``We thought we had something that made sense. Didn't make sense to them. We've moved on,'' Ballmer, 52, said today at a shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington./p pSteve did dangle a juicy search partnership again, though:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"He reiterated that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet-search market is an ``an interesting possibility.'' There are no talks about such a partnership, he said today./p pYahoo should pursue this offer immediately./p pstrongSee Also:/strong a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/will-jerry-s-departure-bring-microsoft-and-yahoo-back-to-the-table-"Will Jerry's Departure Bring Microsoft Back To The Table?/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/JtpwHRd9mOsIswboa5448QzfWV8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/JtpwHRd9mOsIswboa5448QzfWV8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=y9Z1JlRT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=y9Z1JlRT" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=WcZo20Xu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=EhK8TNtF"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=We0vDa1T"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=We0vDa1T" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=jX7kHoVb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Kq7YE7eS"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=HMzSYF76"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Lso1HoMi"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/aNogjvNe2_Q" height="1" width="1"/

Microsoft Corp. is no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo Inc., CEO Steve Ballmer said Wednesday, though he told shareholders that the company would still be "very open" to a collaboration on Internet search. His comments sent Yahoo shares diving by 12 percent.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=drl0N"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=drl0N" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=ofDHn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=ofDHn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=p5I9n"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=p5I9n" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ibtimes/tech/~4/458601196" height="1" width="1"/

Highlights how the company will continue to deliver value in a challenging economic environment

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"A change at the helm of Yahoo won#39;t revive a Microsoft takeover offer, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said during the company#39;s annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;Acquisition discussions are finished,quot; he said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at a href="http://www.infoworld.com/news/?source=fssr"InfoWorld News/a, or subscribe to the a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr"Today#39;s Headlines newsletter/a. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"But he continues to leave the door open to another sort of deal with Yahoo. Microsoft is still interested in doing some sort of search collaboration deal, as it proposed before negotiations between the companies fell apart./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"On Monday, Yahoo announced that#160;a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/17/Yahoos_Yang_to_step_down_as_CEO_1.html"CEO Jerry Yang intends to step down/a#160;from that role after the company finishes its search for a successor. Yang has been heavily criticized for his resistance to Microsoft#39;s takeover offer earlier this year. Yang will continue to remain on the board./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft executives, including Bill Gates who appeared for the first time at an annual shareholders meeting since his transition to working for Microsoft only part time, discussed a wide range of other subjects during the meeting./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Ballmer hinted that#160;a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/11/10/46TC-windows-7_1.html"Windows 7/a, the next iteration of the operating system, could come next year. The company hasn#39;t nailed down an exact timeframe for its availability but Ballmer referred to the release of Windows 7 quot;in the year ahead.quot;/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Ballmer described the earnings growth the company experienced this year, but warned that the economic downturn will pose challenges in the future. quot;Our industry and our company won#39;t be immune,quot; he said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;We are looking at every aspect of our business to reduce costs,quot; he said. That involves a close inspection of all aspects of the business that can be run more efficiently and includes slower growth particularly in headcount for the rest of the financial year and even into the next year, he said. Microsoft has recently denied an official hiring freeze, despite reports from employees who say they#39;ve been told that open positions were being reconsidered and no new positions would be created./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Microsoft advised against and shareholders voted down a couple of proposals that would have required the company to do more to protect freedom of speech rights in countries with oppressive governments and refuse to work with such governments to identify Internet users. Formal policies would do more than Microsoft#39;s recently announced involvement in a group that has defined a code of conduct related to freedom of expression, said Larry Dohrs of Newground Social Investment who presented the proposal at the meeting. That agreement contains too many loopholes that let companies like Microsoft circumvent or ignore its commitments, he said./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"China is notorious for its censorship of the Internet and for its harsh reaction to people who speak against the government online. But Microsoft sees great potential in China, despite that and heavy piracy rates in the country. While two to three years ago Microsoft saw a significant reduction in piracy rates in China, it hasn#39;t seen the same level of progress in the past year, said Brad Smith, general counsel at Microsoft./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"But the sheer size of the market makes it promising if the industry can stamp out piracy. quot;It will maybe take some patience but China looks like a bigger net opportunity for the company since they#39;re not participating as fully as we#39;d like in the market because of piracy but it#39;s an upside that hopefully we can realize over time,quot; Ballmer said./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"#160;/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=aa26278322064315595a301b0add677bimg src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=aa26278322064315595a301b0add677b border=0 //a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=aa26278322064315595a301b0add677b style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/67024?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Lloyds+TSB+shareholders+back+HBOS+mergerch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Lloyds+TSB+%28Business%29%2CHBOS+%28Business%29%2CBanking+sector+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CMergers+and+acquisitions+%28business%29%2CUK+news%2CBanks+and+building+societies%2CMoney%2CSharesc5=Personal+Finance%2CInvestments%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Severin+Carrellc7=2008_11_19c8=1120557c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Lloyds+TSBc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FLloyds+TSB" width="1" height="1" //divpShareholders in Lloyds TSB have overwhelmingly backed the bank's merger with the ailing HBOS group after a stormy meeting which saw large institutions comprehensively out-vote smaller investors who were unhappy over the deal./ppNearly 96% of Lloyds TSB shareholders voted to endorse the deal, paving the way for its agreed merger with HBOS early next year./ppBut small shareholders - mostly elderly, some travelling from as far as Devon to Glasgow to make their points - assailed chairman Victor Blank with a series of questions about the controversial deal in which Lloyds will raise £5.5bn to boost its balance sheet and swallow its rival./ppThe event in the cavernous Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre on the banks of the Clyde was supposed to last only two hours but overshot hugely as the executives were quizzed on the wisdom of the deal, whether Lloyds risked getting too big like Citigroup and even why shareholders had not been given free parking vouchers for the meeting. /ppSitting in long ranks deep inside the centre with the walls shrouded in black drapes, most of the questioners from the 372 small investors were softly spoken, polite and precise - but all were deeply unhappy. /pp"This board will collectively be putting its head in a noose if this takeover proceeds," said one man bluntly, summing up the mood./ppOne loyalist shareholder, Michael Riding, suggested it was unwise for the board to "compromise" the bank's success by buying "a very large failed bank" - HBOS. /ppTony Petersen, another ordinary shareholder, was just as quietly spoken, but far less polite. The company was heading for "potential state control" by buying a "terminally diseased bank" while the entire sector was in crisis./ppDwarfed by a backdrop illuminated in a subdued and sombre green light, Blank said Lloyds TSB and its advisers had invested "5,000 man hours" in due diligence work on the deal - a figure he repeatedly returned to, to reassure the meeting. "It was looked at, of course, extremely seriously."/ppBlank insisted the board was equally unhappy about the sharp fall in his bank's market value. But said: "We share some of your despair about it, but what we've seen are external circumstances and conditions the like of which none of us has ever seen before. It's little consolation we've gone down a little less than others."/ppBlank dismissed fears the bank was being part-nationalised, but Petersen was not to be deterred. In his fourth question, he drew applause by claiming the "deal was cooked up at a cocktail party", stating: "Most of us think that this deal stinks."/pp"It's difficult to know where to start on that question because what you say is just untrue," replied Blank. The "transaction", he said, had been discussed "over many years" by both banks. He had had earlier merger discussions with HBOS; so too had Eric Daniels, chief executive. The last discussions before the crisis erupted and the deal suddenly emerged, were in late July./ppBrian Peart, chairman of the north east of England branch of the UK Shareholders Association, said he felt like a home-owner whose house was being burgled: "I feel at the moment I have robbers breaking in my house, demanding 40 to 60% of my worldly goods. It's no good complaining to the police because we're the government and we make the laws." /ppShareholders had earlier been greeted by a small but friendly picket by HBOS staff unions and campaigning politicians unhappy at the planned merger. /ppTavish Scott, the recently elected leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the only party leader to oppose the merger, implied that Lloyds TSB shareholders were capitalising on the plight of HBOS: "The Labour government has to explain why losing thousands of banking jobs, branches across Scotland and competition is a price worth paying to force through this takeover."/ppWendy Dunsmore, Unite's national officer for HBOS, said they were urging the banks to find a "more creative way" of saving money than pressing for compulsory job losses. Enforced cuts would damage staff confidence and morale, she warned. /ppPressed in the meeting by a union official on the Lloyds TSB staff, Nancy Gilligan, Blank would not rule out compulsory job losses - "there will be inevitably some rationalisation of the combined workforce". Nor would he make any guarantees on "off-shoring" more jobs abroad. But he added both banks prided themselves on treating their staff well. "We will treat all employees with dignity and respect," he promised./ppBlank had begun by urging the meeting to embrace the deal, "a landmark" in the 243-year history of Lloyds TSB and the British financial services industry. It gave them a "strategic opportunity to create the leading financial services group in the UK, to be a great British bank, and one which will be able to compete globally." /ppMerging Lloyds TSB with HBOS would create an "unrivalled" network of great brands - Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Clerical Medical and Scottish Widows in particular. "The strategic rationale for the acquisition of HBOS is compelling," he said. /ppGiven the £1.5bn annual savings in running costs expected, he hinted a no-compulsory redundancies deal was unlikely: "We do appreciate many of our employees may feel apprehensive at this time [but] this will create what we believe will be great opportunities for people in the group, although there will be some rationalisation within the workplace."/ppHe tried to head-off questions about why Lloyds TSB had taken the Treasury's funds rather than take money from "public markets". The government's offer "provided certainty, was lower risk and was at lower cost". /ppOver the next year, the bank expected to buy back the government's preference shares - £1bn in Lloyds TSB and £4bn in HBOS - as a matter of urgency, and then resume paying dividends to shareholders. /pp"The bank fully recognises the importance of dividends of our shareholders. It's our priority to buy the preference shares in 2009, to ensure payments of dividends after that," he said. "We're delighted we've been able to provide a clear pathway towards dividend resumption."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/lloydstsbgroup"Lloyds TSB/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/hbos"HBOS/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/mergersandacquisitions"Mergers and acquisitions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/banks"Banks and building societies/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/shares"Shares/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227116349945111917402744225"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227116349945111917402744225" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Speaking at its shareholder meeting, Microsofts CEO reiterates that Microsoft remains open to some sort of search partnership, but says there are no active discussions in that area.

At its shareholder meeting, CEO Steve Ballmer said he expects headcount growth will be much slower for some time to come.

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=49243b3414b9b9e500c2c074maxX=400maxY=137" border="0" alt="Everyone.jpg" title="Everyone.jpg" width="400" height="137" /Read up on what everyone is saying about who should or inevitibly will be Yahoo's next CEO. Then a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/choose-yahoo-s-new-ceo-round-2-vote-here-"go vote for your choice/a or write-in a name in the comments./p p /p p /p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6914b9b9e500c2c15b" border="0" alt="AllthingsD.gif" title="AllthingsD.gif" width="231" height="34" /Writes a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081118/yahoos-peter-chernin-principle-and-other-ceo-choices/"BoomTown/a's Kara Swisher: "Obviously, the dream CEO for Yahoo is News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin. Chernin has the right resume: Experienced at running large and complex organizations; savvier than most in media about the Internet; able to make the kinds of dramatic decisions needed; and, perhaps best of all, signaling-a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chernin14-2008nov14,0,6268401.story"via the Los Angeles Times/a-just this past week that he was open to leaving the powerful media and entertainment conglomerate for something new./p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b7914b9b9e500c2c1a0" border="0" alt="NewYorkTimes.gif" title="NewYorkTimes.gif" width="163" height="29" //p pWrites a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/yahoo-doesnt-need-a-ceo-as-much-as-an-editor-in-chief/"Bits/a's Saul Hansell: "Yahoo doesn't need a chief executive so much as an editor in chief. And I mean the sort of imperial editor who has a vision of how to create an environment that lures in both readers and advertisers, like Tina Brown, Clay Felker or Adam Moss."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b8e14b9b9e500c2c1fe" border="0" alt="paidcontent.gif" title="paidcontent.gif" width="246" height="54" /Writes a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-ceo-search-some-possible-names-miller-chernin-freston/"PaidContent/a's Rafat Ali: "Whether it wants a Silicon Valley-engineering-culture-steeped executive; or a media-business-New York-centric executive who will be the ad-industry bridge; or for that matter, an entertainment executive from LA, who would help build Yahoo's brand reach and bring in the big bucks (Terry Semel experience will make it wary, though). That decision would help define the future of Yahoo, and whether it survives as an independent company"/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6114b9b9e500c2c141" border="0" alt="Gigaom.gif" title="Gigaom.gif" width="176" height="41" /Writes a href="http://gigaom.com/2008/11/17/after-yang-what-should-yahoo-do/"GigaOm/a's Om Malik: "Hopefully they will bring on a no-nonsense, [HP CEO] Mark Hurd-style executive who can stabilize and revive the company by making it leaner, simpler and have it focus on its core competencies. For PE investors, there is also comfort in the fact that Yahoo can at anytime sell its Asian holdings for a ton of cash. They might be able to find some takers for their European properties as well."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b6d14b9b9e500c2c16c" border="0" alt="Valleywag.gif" title="Valleywag.gif" width="276" height="49" /Writes a href="http://valleywag.com/5033522/maggie-wilderotter-for-yahoo-ceo"Valleywag/a's Owen Thomas: "[Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter] has several pluses: She's actually been a Silicon Valley CEO, unlike Yang, previous to his current run in the position, and Decker, who's long aspired to a top job somewhere, but now looks farther than ever from getting it. With media, advertising, computing, and telecommunications merging into a single business, it strikes me that most of Yahoo's board and management are ill-equipped for the transition. Not Wilderotter, who's worked for Microsoft and ATT and run Wink Communications, an interactive-TV company which she took from startup to IPO, through boom and bust."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b8714b9b9e500c2c1e0" border="0" alt="CNET.gif" title="CNET.gif" width="80" height="71" /Writes a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10101620-93.html?tag=newsFeaturedBlogArea.0"CNET/a's Stephen Shankland: "Analysts also believe it's better to hire a new CEO whose experience tilts more toward the advertising and media realm than the technology realm. Yahoo still has a powerfully large audience, and it's not going to outdo Google when it comes to letting the robots rule the roost."/p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b7214b9b9e500c2c184" border="0" alt="TheDailyBeast.gif" title="TheDailyBeast.gif" width="99" height="119" /Writes a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-18/why-sue-decker-will-be-yahoos-next-ceo/"the Daily Beast/a's Eric Jackson, picking Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: "The best outcome for Yahoo! shareholders of course would be if the new search committee never selected a CEO. This company should use this change in leadership to go back and open discussions with Microsoft about selling the company. This made sense when Microsoft made its initial offer last January at $31 and it makes sense (triply so) now."/p p /p hr / pimg class="float_left" src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=49243b3814b9b9e500c2c086" border="0" alt="TechCrunch.gif" title="TechCrunch.gif" width="173" height="32" //p pWrites a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/17/yang-to-step-down-from-yahoo/"TechCrunch/a's Michael Arrington: "Who will be the next CEO? We a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/15/nytimes-article-reverberates-through-yahoo-whos-their-next-ceo/"speculated back in June/a that Jeff Mallet or Dan Rosensweig were possible candidates. Mallet wouldn't consider the job, we've heard. But Rosensweig would probably take it if offered. Whoever ends up with the job, let's just hope it's an outsider. Yahoo is being clear that they are considering internal candidates. President Sue Decker is likely being considered. But ex-execs we've spoken with say she was a big part of the problem at Yahoo, and if she takes over as CEO it will likely be more of the same."/p pstrongSee Also:/stronga href="../../2008/11/choose-yahoo-s-new-ceo-round-2-vote-here-"br /Choose Yahoo's New CEO: Round 2 (Vote Here!)/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/KlXpO91hhm-ZPYtKgkUsw50ECR0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/KlXpO91hhm-ZPYtKgkUsw50ECR0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=RPQb7f0U"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=RPQb7f0U" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Gk3EknvO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xwts7g60"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=d3ititOV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=d3ititOV" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=vsT9feGa"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=26R00QWI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=SF7gwJYC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=SfjSjCXM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/RDc3bipoFXs" height="1" width="1"/

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - To impress shareholders, Yahoo Inc's next chief executive needs just one qualification: the willingness to do a deal with Microsoft Corp .div class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=EPhqNy9s"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=lcKNXGLV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=lcKNXGLV" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=PH7veCWh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=PH7veCWh" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/technologyNews/~4/tPs56Re0oOs" height="1" width="1"/