eBay Buys Hunch To Improve Long-Tail Shopping Recommendations

Hunch, a service that provides a “taste graph” of personalized recommendations based on users’ interests, has just been bought by auction site eBay, the companies have confirmed. The amount hasn’t officially been disclosed, but Michael Arrington (who had the scoop this morning) hears that it’s around $80 million.
[Update: We caught up with Dixon and eBay chief technology officer Mark Carges by phone just now, and got some more details on the deal and what it means for both companies. Our notes below.]
Founded in late 2007 and launched in 2009, the New York company will be used by eBay to help improve buying and selling recommendations for its users. From the release:

Hunch’s technology talent and its deep expertise in areas like machine learning, data mining and predictive modeling are expected to help eBay expand and grow merchandising and relevance capabilities to further improve the shopping and selling experience for eBay customers. For example, eBay buyers are expected to benefit from Hunch’s predictive ability to generate meaningful, yet often non-obvious, recommendations for items available on eBay based on their specific tastes.

Cofounder Chris Dixon (a regular contributor here at TechCrunch) says on his company blog that the relationship with eBay started after Hunch began allowing other companies to use its Taste Graph. As part of eBay, Hunch will continue to operate somewhat independently — all of its employees are staying on at its New York headquarters, and the Hunch.com site will stay live.
Hunch had raised around $20 million from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures and Ron Conway.
Interview notes: 
Dixon and Carges say that the deal will help surface more quality recommendations from eBay’s “long tail” of unstructured listings. Let’s say a coin collector is on eBay looking to add to their collection. As Dixon explains, Hunch might be able to surface relevant items that aren’t obvious, like microscopes that are especially good for coin analysis. Traditional machine learning won’t necessarily be able to identify the same sorts of connections.
Of course, other retail sites, like Amazon, provide recommendations as well — “users who also bought X bought Y” — but those methods rely on existing catalogs, Carges says.
The 20-person Hunch team will begin working with eBay’s data science team “ASAP,” and will anchor the auction company’s physical expansion into New York. Carges is planning to hire more data and engineering employees for that office, along with product-oriented staffers, like designers.
In terms of results for eBay users, there won’t be any drastic changes. Hunch will rather be providing more nuanced recommendations on the back-end, resulting (they hope) in more meaningful discoveries, more stickiness on the site, and ultimately more buying and selling.
The two aren’t commenting on the deal price, or on Hunch’s current revenues. The Hunch.com site will stay live, and will continue to experiment, similar to what eBay has done with local search acquisition Milo last year, according to Carges. There a no changes planned for Hunch’s open API or its other partnerships.
We’re also talking to Dixon, a serial entrepreneur and investor, about having him do one of his TechCrunch Founder Stories interviews with, er, himself… we’ll figure out how to set that up.


Source : http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/21/ebayshunch/

Groupon Vs. Zynga: Which Company Will Be More Valuable Post-IPO?

‘Tis the season of the IPO. So far, 2011 has seen companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Yandex, Zillow, and RenRen come to market. As you’ve heard, Groupon and Zynga are next up in the IPO pipeline, with both companies arriving on public markets within weeks of each other. Groupon, barring some catastrophic event, will begin trading publicly on NASDAQ November 4th, with shares set at $20 a pop at a valuation of $12.7 billion.
Zynga, too, is expected to trade on NASDAQ beginning the week before Thanksgiving, andaccording to its revised S-1 filing with the SEC, a “third party” has valued the company at approximately $14 billion.  In the same ballpark as Groupon.
So, the question becomes this: Notwithstanding their potential overvaluations at the time they go public, which of the two companies stands to be the most successful and the most valuable in the long run, post-IPO?
Both Zynga and Groupon have become lightning rods of late for criticism over their inflated valuations (among other things), especially as being representative of the high valuations across the industry. (Some attach the dreaded “bubble” label, some don’t, but there is anxiety brewing here no matter what you call it.) There are a lot of questions that need to be answered in short order if the public markets are to become comfortable with the $10+ billion valuations of Zynga and Groupon.
That being said, both companies have waited out the stumbling IPO market and remain (far and away) the market leaders in their respective neighborhoods. In spite of the naysayers, these companies are going to go on to make a lot of money and will be around for the foreseeable future.

THE BIG PICTURE (I.E. THE SPIN)

Zynga is arguably the most popular social/casual game developer in the world, with 232 million average monthly active users in 166 countries and it’s generated over $1.25 billion in cumulative revenue since its inception in 2007. Groupon is running ahead of Zynga in revenues, but not on profits.
For those bullish on group buying, Groupon owns 54 percent of the daily deal market, is the largest local commerce platform with scale effects, counts 143+ million email subscribers in its ranks, and is building on its lead in daily deals by moving into complementary markets, like events, goods, travel, and is attempting to close the redemption loop by merging daily deals, instant mobile offers, and loyalty rewards.
Of course, everything sounds picture perfect if you put a full stop there. Hell, give ‘em $30 billion! But there are some downsides. Oh yes, there are some downsides.

WHO HAS THE TECH?

For starters, both Groupon and Zynga count themselves as technology companies. But, in the case of Groupon, if you’re in Rocky’s camp, then the company may not even be worthy of the title, in spite of CEO Andrew Mason’s repeated assertions during the roadshow to the contrary. As Agrawal points out, only 5 percent of Groupon’s more than 10,000 employees are in technology. That’s probably less than some of the local merchants it “represents”.
Groupon’s growth is indeed decelerating, cutting back on marketing and sales expenses to become more profitable (or to dress up its financials for the IPO). Blodget was quick to identify a precedent in Amazon, comparing Groupon’s current status to Amazon’s painful transition from growth to profits between 1997 and 2001.
Both companies waited three years to go public, and while Groupon is generating lower revenue per employee and has been spending more on marketing than Amazon did, the e-commerce giant continued to grow over its first four years as a public company, even though its growth rate slowed. Much like Groupon in the present. As to the technology comparison, in juxtaposition today, Amazon has a far more diverse set of traditional “tech assets” with its innovation in cloud computing with EC2, S3, and other Web services, some of which support the ever-improving Kindle.
Groupon’s lofty IPO (and sale of $700 million worth of stock) brings up comparisons with Google. But Groupon is a sales and marketing (or services) company. The 5 percent of its employees involved in technology are there mostly to maintain the infrastructure. Groupon’s on the Web, but that doesn’t make it a tech company.
If you want to use Google as a comparison, the search giant spends 14 percent of its revenues on R&D. It has Google Labs. Apple’s the same way. Tech companies spend money on R&D, they hire as many engineers as possible (see Facebook), there are barriers to entry, and they develop intellectual properties. Groupon not so much.
As for Zynga, the gaming company’s R&D spend (in Q1) was up 158 percent from the same time last year, and it spends an enormous amount (proportionally) of its revenues on servers. In comparison to Groupon the “sales company” (it has over 4,800 employees in sales), Zynga proudly calls itself an “analytics company masquerading as a games company”.
What that means is that Zynga believes that it will beat traditional gaming companies by taking an alternative route to customer acquisition and retention. It releases free games on Facebook and then obsessively studies the data it collects on how users are playing the game, leveraging that data to tweak the game’s formula to make the gameplay more addictive, increase playability, etc.
Using Facebook as a sharing and marketing platform to tell friends about the game and get them to buy more virtual goods is one thing, but Facebook also provides Zynga with a more robust picture of who their users are and what they’re doing online. This allows the company to take advantage of the platform’s ready-made ability to invite new users to try the game, something offline gaming companies have to work much harder to accomplish.
Zynga just smells more like a tech company.

THE UPSIDES

In spite of all that’s being said, I’m still optimistic about Groupon because of its redemption loop trifecta. The company has long been criticized for not providing merchants with the necessary tools to retain the new customers they see when offering Groupon discounts. But with Groupon Now, the mobile app that lets local merchants offer deals when business is slow to yield retention, and Groupon Rewards, the tool that will allow businesses that offer discounts to later follow-up with another reward after a customer spends a certain amount of money — Groupon is showing that it can offer valuable products to close the gap. (And, hey, with high-end deals of Groupon Reserve, discounts on electronics in Groupon Goods, these could all add up to something retailers can’t ignore.)
Considering the fact that merchants can set the spending level required to achieve the new deal with Groupon Rewards, it should put their collective minds at ease. And for the daily deal behemoth, which already has millions of credit cards on file, it enables them to essentially turn these credit cards into the buy 10 get one free punchcards, and with each visit to a local coffee shop, Groupon can push them mobile or email notifications telling them that they’re just $10 away from the reward. Its new rewards program can actually track what customers are spending at their local merchants, giving them better insight into the success of their core business, daily deals. And merchants will get a dashboard so that they, too, can track customer spending.
Zynga’s true value, on the other hand, comes from its innovation around in-game rewards. Adding virtual enhancements to its games to convince people to spend real money on virtual play money is what has turned it into a multi-billion dollar company. A few years ago, that was a far more difficult proposition than it sounds today.
If Zynga can develop full control over the virtual money supply, it can be huge. There is a bright future around virtual currency, and if Zynga could use its self-controlled platform to institute a virtual currency that is widely circulated and has real inherent value, it could be a serious game changer.

THEIR VALUATIONS

Groupon may be valued at $12.7 billion at its IPO, but Trefis currently estimates Groupon fair value at about $7.9 billion, 54 percent of which emanates from North American featured deals. Trefis arrived at this valuation by collecting the sum of the values of its divisions, plus cash, minus debt.
Blodget’s formula has similar results. Taking the fact that Groupon’s North American business had a 12% operating profit margin in Q3, he projects that it could see a 10% operating profit margin in 2012 and a 15% operating margin in 2013, with earnings of about $300 million in 2013, giving Groupon a $6 to $9 billion valuation, with an average of about $7.5 billion. Comparable to Trefis.
While I do believe Groupon will be a profitable company with a big market cap, its valuation is seriously inflated.
The fact is that Google Offers, Amazon Local, and LivingSocial all pose significant threats. Without a single patent and little to no significant barriers to entry in the space, Groupon has a ways to go before it convinces investors (and now the public) that there’s enough differentiation and value in its model to warrant a high market cap.
As for Zynga, unlike Groupon, the social games giant is already profitable. However, the company saw its net income fall to $1.4 million in the second quarter, down from $13.9 million over the same period last year. It, too, has some serious downsides. The company’s filings show that its revenues come from less than 5 percent of its users and from a small group of games. While the company is working on deploying games on other platforms, most of the company’s business is still generated on Facebook, and it still heavily relies on the social network for sales and the delivery of its major services. (Facebook also takes a significant chunk of the sale of virtual goods.)
In the land of social gaming, Zynga must continuously churn out new games to keep users interested, as casual games have the tendency to become stale quickly. As Industry Gamers points out,Zynga’s new titles are hitting peak daily active users inside of three weeks of launch and the majority aren’t sustaining that activity (with Words With Friends being the one exception). Instead, the new releases have only succeeded in cannibalizing gamers from other Zynga titles, rather than attracting new customers.
Relying on in-game purchases and rewards to encourage gamers to keep users engaged with its titles has been successful thus far, and while investors aren’t happy about its reliance on Facebook, the public perception that its fate is largely tied to Facebook isn’t all bad. Zynga has been receiving lofty valuations in part because it is basically seen as a proxy investment for Facebook. Even Zynga’s Project Z, which is supposed to be the company’s big play at cutting its umbilical cord, will require users to have a Facebook account to log on.
But I think there is huge opportunity for Zynga on mobile and tablets, and if it can keep game development costs low while drawing new users in with Project Z and some new, original titles, profit margins could grow significantly with scale. Some (optimistic) analysts have even put its long-term operating margins at 50 percent.
Zynga expects to see about $1 billion in revenue for 2011, compared to Groupon’s expected revenue of $1.6 billion for the year, but it’s profitable with net incomes north of $19 million for the first nine months of 2011. Zynga is nowhere near its original target of a $20 billion valuation with its revised S-1 and SEC scrutiny over Zyngametrics, but it deserves to be priced above Groupon.
Although EA’s market cap is currently around $7.8 billion, if one is comfortable saying that Zynga can hit $4 billion in revenues by 2014 with 40 percent operating margins, we would have to be generous to give them a 13 to 16 multiple on operating profits, but this could easily justify a $15 billion valuation.
In the end, both Groupon and Zynga are currently valued at prices that are far higher than what I think they’re reasonably worth. I have no stake in either company, but if I were buying, I would choose Zynga over Groupon. I think there’s a greater upside to Zynga and as gamification is poised to seep into everything we do, Zynga is poised to be at the forefront of this transformation. Groupon is here to stay, but there’s just way too much to be concerned about.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/04/groupon-v-zynga-value-post-ipo/

DragonWave Buys Part Of Nokia Siemens Networks, Gains 360 Employees

DragonWave this morning announced plans to acquire Nokia Siemens Networks’ microwave transport business, including its associated operational support systems and related support functions.

The move turns DragonWave into a strategic supplier of packet microwave and related products to Nokia Siemens Networks, and the companies state they will “jointly coordinate technology development activities”.
DragonWave and NSN hope the deal will allow for the birth of the next generation of backhaul products, supporting microwave solutions for mobile operators all across the globe.
The consideration paid by DragonWave on closing will include approximately 10 million euros in cash and 5 million euros worth of DragonWave common shares, although earn-out payments could raise the value of the transaction by approximately 80 million euros down the line.
DragonWave expects to finance the transaction through a combination of cash on its balance sheet and increased debt facilities.
As part of the acquisition, the companies expect approximately 360 Nokia Siemens Networks employees, mainly based in Milan (Italy) and Shanghai (China) to transfer to DragonWave.
The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2012.
Nokia and Siemens have been trying to sell their joint venture, which was originally formed in 2007, for some time now, but it looks like it’s having a tough time convincing anyone to swallow it whole. Perhaps the new strategy is to sell it in chunks.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/04/dragonwave-buys-part-of-nokia-siemens-networks-gains-360-employees/

WooMe Acquired By Zoosk In Apparent Firesale

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

More Growth Equity, Please: Average Number Of Rounds Raised By Startups Up 27% Since 2008

In today’s VC market, it’s age before beauty. This is accordingto a new study released today by Shareholder Representative Services (SRS), the company that represents shareholder interests during the post-closing process in mergers and acquisitions deals. In other words, SRS is an independent advocate for shareholders that offers communications, accounting, and dispute resolution services to an impressive list of clients, which includes the likes of Accel, Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Khosla, and more. (Basically, the list is a who’s who of venture firms.)

The study, which looks at the 196 transactions SRS was involved in between July 2010 and September 2011, identifies trends in these M&A deal terms: One of which is that startups are today raising significantly more outside financing before exit than they were three years ago.

The study found that companies are, on average, raising 3.57 rounds of preferred stock financing — the type of investment that’s the staple of venture capital and private equity firms. This represents a 27+ percent increase from 2008, when startups were averaging 2.8 rounds of financing. Essentially, buyers are favoring companies that have raised more money and are profitable. In a sluggish economy, companies are more risk averse to dumping a lot of money into M&A, so buyers are looking for safe bets.

Furthermore, thanks to market volatility and poor financial conditions, global M&A activity fell by 19 percent in the third quarter, according to Dealogic. Thus, with deals drying up and few companies looking to buy, startups have instead opted to go after further rounds of financing. This is likely the reason that we’ve been seeing “series F” pop up more and more, and may also be another result of how late-stage funding is undergoing a seachange.

As Business Insider says in depth, companies are now waiting for longer periods of time to IPO, secondary markets are on the rise, there’s a rise in late-stage private equity, and investing in maturing private companies is becoming ever-more efficient thanks to the Internet and the plethora of financing options, be they crowdfunding, accelerators, etc.

SRS also identified another trend on the rise this year: Cash transactions. According to the study, 86 percent of deals it participated in were all-cash transactions, thanks to low interest rates and brimming cash reserves. As Mark Vogel, Managing Director at SRS, told peHub, buyers today “have lots of offshore cash and don’t want to pay the repatriation taxes to the U.S. They’d rather use it”.

And this cash seems to be flowing into big deals, as 25 percent of transactions were for over $200 million — with the software and IT services industries representing over 40 percent of the businesses being sold over the last 14 months.

Thus, with more cash exchanging hands as part of this elevated rate of follow-on and late-stage financing, management teams have become more diluted and are requiring further incentives to get in-line with the milestones set by buyers during acquisitions. The study found that this has led to an increase in management carve-out plans, which were part of 33 percent of deals in 2010 and have been part of 25 percent of deals in 2011.

For startups and mid-level companies, it seems that the prevailing trend is to raise more money, hold-off on IPO, and wait for the right buyer — with cash.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/02/more-growth-equity-please-average-number-of-rounds-raised-by-startups-up-27-since-2008/

Index And Khosla Lead $11M Round In Kaggle, A Platform For Data Modeling Competitions

Kaggle, a platform for predictive data modeling competitions, has raised $11 million in Series A financing led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. SV Angel, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, Stanford Management Company, which invests and manages Stanford University’s endowment and other financial assets, PayPal Founder Max Levchin; Google Chief Economist Hal Varian; and Applied Semantics’ Co-Founder and Factual Chief Executive Officer Gil Elbaz, all participated in the round as well. Neil Rimer, partner at Index Ventures, will join Kaggle’s board of directors, and Levchin has been named chairman of the company.

Kaggle’s platform for predictive modeling competitions helps companies, governments, and researchers identify solutions to some of the world’s hardest data problems by posting them as competitions to a community of more than 17,000 PhD-level data scientists located around the world.

The Kaggle community of data scientists comprises thousands of PhDs from quantitative fields such as computer science, statistics, econometrics, maths and physics. They come from over 100 countries and 200 universities. In addition to the prize money and data, they use Kaggle to meet, network and collaborate with experts from related fields. As Kaggle founder Anthony Goldbloom tells me, “we’re making big data science into a sport.”

Here’s how it works. Companies, and organizations can post large data sets to the platform, and ask scientists to solve a problem or question from the data. The thousands of data scientists who participate in Kaggle competitions then develop algorithms to solve these large-scale problems and submit iterations of their algorithms throughout each competition.

Kaggle actually maintains a real-time leaderboard of each competition’s standings, so competitors are motivated to exceed the current benchmark until the competition closes. Once a competition ends, the sponsoring organization has a solution, and the field’s top entrants take home the competition prize. Thus far, data scientists from all over the world have submitted nearly 47,000 entries to various Kaggle competitions.

Kaggle says the results have actually led to new data discoveries and breakthroughs across many industries. For example, a competition for NASA, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the European Space Agency identified new ways to map dark matter in the universe, while another competition helped better determine the likelihood that the health of a HIV patient would improve or deteriorate.

Another example was showcased by insurance company Allstate, which ran a Claim Prediction Challenge and wanted to determine which motor vehicles were more likely to end up in a car accident from their subset of users. Allstate provided two years of data on the cars insured by the company for scientists to run.

Kaggle is currently hosting the $3 million Heritage Health Prize, the largest medical prize ever, designed to help reduce billions of dollars in unnecessary hospitalizations.

Google’s Varian says this of Kaggle: “Kaggle is a way to organize the brainpower of the world’s most talented data scientists and make it accessible to organizations of every size. By structuring incentives to create a competitive environment, Kaggle drives data scientists to produce better results than they would if they were working alone.”

Of course, many companies and firms may not want to upload classified and sensitive data to a public platform. Kaggle offers private competitions for organizations working with sensitive data or intellectual property. In private competitions, data is shared with a carefully selected group of Kaggle scientists who are held to a non-disclosure agreement, have been subject to a background check, and who have performed extremely well in previous Kaggle competitions. And every competitor who participates in the competition is awarded prize money based on his or her performance.

“Kaggle is working on one of the most exciting opportunities in big data analytics that I’ve seen in the last twenty years,” said Vinod Khosla, founder and partner, Khosla Ventures. “Kaggle’s platform has the potential to change the way we tackle data analysis problems.”

Kaggle says the new funding will be used towards hiring (the company has just one developer currently) and for sales and marketing efforts.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/02/index-and-khosla-lead-11m-round-in-kaggle-a-platform-for-data-modeling-competitions/

Former Boeing, Verizon Wireless Exec John Hinshaw Joins HP As EVP

Hewlett-Packard has announced that former Verizon Wireless SVP and CIO John Hinshaw has agreed to join the company to serve as its executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes, a newly created position.

Hinshaw most recently worked at The Boeing Company, where he was vice president and general manager of Boeing Information Solutions. His job there involved delivering information solutions to the U.S. government, among other tasks.

He will report to recently appointed HP chief exec Meg Whitman.

He’ll also join the company’s executive council on November 15.

In addition to Hinshaw’s appointment, HP also announced that it has promoted Craig Flower to senior vice president and CIO (he will report directly to Hinshaw).

Flower, who has been with HP since 1984, will be responsible for ‘data management, application architecture, global business intelligence, sales, and product development and engineering applications’ according to a press statement.

The news comes just days after the announcement of the departure of Phil McKinney, CTO for HP’s Personal Systems Group (its PC division, if you will). McKinney said he would be retiring to advise other companies on innovation.

Another executive, EVP and chief strategy and technology officer Shane Robison, also recently announced that he would be retiring at the beginning of this month.

Whitman has one hell of a job ahead of her trying to turn the giant HP ship around and orchestrate a successful reorganization with a vision that safeguards its future.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/03/former-boeing-verizon-exec-joins-hp-as-executive-vice-president/

Nokia plans US re-entry

Nokia Oyj will reenter the US smartphone market in early 2012 with the introduction of devices running Microsoft Corp'sWindows Phone for multiple US carriers, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop said.

"Our intention is to come back in the United States and grow significant share in this market," Elop said in an interview today at Bloomberg's headquarters in New York.

Elop, 47, last week unveiled Nokia's first Windows Phone models after the Espoo, Finland-based company struggled to sell smartphones based on its own 10-year-old software. Nokia has lost more than 60 billion euros ($85 billion) in market value since Apple Inc. introduced the iPhonein 2007. The company intends to widen its range from the 420-euro Lumia 800 and 270- euro Lumia 710 introduced last week with both cheaper and more expensive devices, Elop said.

"Our plans are to be very competitive and to go head-on with the appropriate devices at the appropriate price points," Elop said. "We know we need to get volume moving and we need from that to develop economies of scale. And then as we do more and more differentiation, we expand gross margin."

Elop didn't exclude entering the tablet-computer market, though he said the company hasn't announced plans to do so. Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8, which will have a tiled user interface with dynamic updates similar to Windows Phone, is like a "supercharged" version for tablets, he said.

'New opportunity'

"There's a new tablet opportunity coming," he said. "We see the opportunity. Unquestionably, that will change the dynamics" of the tablet market.

Windows Phone may be Nokia's last chance to claw back share in the fast expanding smartphone market from Apple and handset makers such as Samsung Electronics Co that use Google Inc's Android system. Nokia's homegrown Symbian line has suffered from an outdated, hard-to-use interface and the company was slow to introduce faster processors, bigger device memories and sensitive touch screens.

Nokia has fallen to No. 3 in the smartphone market, behind Samsung and Apple, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics. Nokia is still the largest maker of mobile phones by units, including low-end phones that account for about half its handset revenue.

Elop, a former Microsoft executive, said the Windows Phone line will give users access to more of the popular applications that have eluded Nokia with its older systems.

Necessary apps

"There's a small number of applications, in the hundreds, that are must haves, and we'll do whatever is necessary to make sure those are on our platform," he said. "The popular apps, the high end of the curve, we'll be very focused on. It's not a race of total quantity. There's only so many flashlight apps that you need for a smartphone."

Some apps will be better than those on competing devices, such as the ESPN sports information app that will be preloaded on the first Lumias and was produced in partnership with Nokia, he said. Nokia will also focus on working with local developers on filling the store with content and programs for each market.

Nokia has tumbled 43 per cent in Helsinki trading since February 11, when Elop announced the partnership with Microsoft and said he would phase out Symbian. Investors had been skeptical Nokia would be able to deliver a competitive phone in time for the holiday season. The shares fell 5.2 per cent to 4.62 euros at the close in Helsinki amid a broader market decline.

Lumia vs iPhone

The Lumia 800 flagship phone has a higher-resolution camera than Samsung's Galaxy Nexusand a lower price tag than Apple Inc's iPhone 4S. The device will start selling in Europe this month at the price of 420 euros, excluding taxes and without a phone contract.

Apple last month started selling the iPhone 4S, moving more than 4 million units in the first three days after it was introduced at 629 euros for the cheapest unlocked model in Germany and France. Samsung announced the Galaxy Nexus last month without giving a price.

Apple and Google helped cut Nokia's smartphone market share to 20.9 per cent in the second quarter from 50.8 per cent when the iPhone came out in 2007, according to Gartner Inc estimates.

To differentiate the Lumia phones, Nokia's marketing campaign will use the distinctive Windows Phone interface with its big, colorful tiles that contrast with the smaller icons of the Apple and Android interfaces as a main selling point.

Unlike an Apple or Google device, a Windows phone doesn't present users with rows of icons representing apps. Instead, the home screen consists of a layout of tiles that represent the phone's key functions and as well as entities that are important to the user, such as apps and friend groups. The tiles update themselves with the latest information, such as incoming e-mail and next appointments.

Second to Android?

The company intends to differentiate itself with content as well as hardware, said Elop, pointing to the inclusion of free turn-by-turn driving directions with maps on the Lumia. The driving application is built on technology Nokia acquired three years ago with its purchase of Navteq Corp, whose camera- equipped cars drive the world building electronic atlases. Future innovations could also entail acquisitions, he said.

Elop has said that marketing spending on the Lumia handset series, including that by phone companies and retailers, will triple compared with prior product launches. Nokia lined up 31 phone companies including Vodafone Group Plc for the initial sales of the Lumia 800 in six European countries in the next few weeks. Elop today declined to name the first US carriers.

The Lumia 800 will also come to Russia and some Asian markets by yearend, while the lower-priced Lumia 710 will start in those markets in the same period, Nokia said on October 26.

The smartphone market may be big enough to help Nokia win over new customers. Smartphone sales by volume will increase 40 per cent next year to 645 million units, Gartner says. Windows Phone may become the No. 2 smartphone operating system in 2015, with a market share of 21 per cent, according to the researcher.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/telecom/Nokia-plans-US-re-entry/articleshow/10577373.cms

Seva Search Raises $1.3 Million To Connect Consumers With Local Businesses

D.C.-based Seva Search has raised $1.3 million in Series A funding for its first product, Seva Call, a search engine that lets consumers connect with local businesses in near real-time via the phone. On the Seva Call site (and soon, mobile app), you’ll be able to search for local businesses like plumbers, contractors, computer repair techs, taxi cabs or any other type of business relying on incoming phone calls for new work.

To use the service, you’ll enter in the dates and times that are convenient to you, plus your name, phone number and a description of the service you need. Then, the businesses call you.

Investors in the Series A round include Fortify.vc, Ed Mathias, Tim Sykes, Jay Virdy, David Eisner,Andrew Bachman, Jigar Shah, Krishna Subramanian, Vishal Gurbaxani, Arjun Dev Arora, Saket Saurabh, plus angels Paul Silber, David Krauskopf, John Lapides, Roger Richter, Glen Hellman and John Cammack. Badder Alghanim, James and David Dingman, Alex Edmans and John Villa were listed by the company as “supporters.”

Seva Search was founded by Gurpreet Singh (CEO), Manpreet Singh (COO) and Amandeep Bakshi (Head of Products). Gurpreet Singh is a veteran entrepreneur, who previously served as Managing Partner in the I.T. consulting firm Geeks On-Site.

Initially, the company found that trying to get businesses to sign up to participate in the service was difficult – they didn’t want to be pitched another place to advertise. So instead, the company’s founders just started sending them calls. Then, the businesses came to them instead, wanting to know more. Of those businesses that have a relationship with Seva Search, 1 in 4 companies will answer an incoming phone call. Of those that don’t, only 1 in 8 do.

But the idea is not to call each business one by one – it’s to call all of them at once. Whomever answers first and who meets the consumer’s needs for the date and time (and, in the future, price), will be the business that ends up connecting with the customer. To ring the customer back, it’s just a matter of pushing a button. Meanwhile, the customer’s personal data (name, phone number, etc.) remains out of the businesses’ hands until they choose to give it to them.

In time, by tracking calls, appointment bookings and other data, Seva Search’s algorithm will get smarter, learning which businesses to call first and when. It will also begin to follow up with customers about the work they had done, and ask them to rate it.

Businesses are able to get the incoming requests via text and email, too, but need to dial Seva’s 1-800 number to reach the customers.

Seva Call has been in private beta testing, but will be rolling out to the D.C. Metro area in a month, and nationwide by the beginning of 2012.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/seva-search-raises-1-3-million-to-connect-consumers-with-local-businesses/

Samsung Asks Apple To Hand Over iPhone 4S Source Code

If Apple was a melody and Samsung was a beat, their legal battle would be the song that never ends. On the whole, the war has lasted more than six months, spanned more than half the continents, and is still only in its formative stages. Final decisions have yet to be made in almost all of the cases, and in predictable fashion, the duo are igniting new battles at what feels like a daily rate. This time, Samsung is asking for some juicy deets in its Australian counter suit against Apple.

After Apple won a preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung vowed to get more aggressive. And so they have, filing for apreliminary injunction against Apple’s brand new iPhone 4S. In doing so, Samsung has requested the source code for the iPhone 4S, as well as details on Apple’s subsidy deals with Australian carriers.

Samsung’s argument is that the iPhone 4S infringes three patents it holds, all concerned with 3G wireless technology and the transmission of mobile data. However, the patents in question are standard essentials patents, which means the technology they cover is a necessity industry-wide, rather than a specific brand innovation. In that case, Samsung is required to offer FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) licensing terms, which, according to Samsung, Apple refused. Apple, on the other hand, says its covered by a third-party licensing agreement made by Qualcomm on the MDM6610 chipset, reports SmartOffice. Still, Samsung asserts that whatever licensing deal is in place may not extend into Australian turf.

In other words, this dueling duo can’t seem to get their licensing deals straight, or are at least doing a helluva job making it appear that way to the judge. Speaking of the judge, the same judge that ruled in the Apple vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab case is taking the reigns here: Judge Annabelle Bennett.

She listened this morning as Samsung counsel Cynthia Cochrane asked for the iPhone source code, along with subsidy agreement details in order to make a case for a sales ban. “If subsidies are given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client’s products,” said Cochrane. Samsung is looking to get the subsidy numbers from Vodafone, Telstra and Optus, the three major carriers in Australia.

Meanwhile, Apple is looking for advice from counsel before agreeing to hand over the source code, which is a pretty solid idea. Who knows what infringing features Samsung will find in there?

In any case, this is much less of a blow to Apple than the Galaxy Tab sales ban is for Samsung. The iPhone 4S is “a horse [that has] already bolted,” according to Apple’s lawyers. The iPhone, in particular, tends to sell fast directly at launch, presumably because people want as much time as possible with the “new” iPhone before Apple tosses something better into the market. Plus, if you don’t move fast for a new Apple product, it usually sells out. Despite Samsung’s 4S sales publicity stunt, Apple lawyers are indeed correct in saying that the iPhone has already left the building, while the GalTab never even made it to shelves.

Past that, if Samsung can’t find any further infringement (should Apple offer up the source code), then the case will most likely result in FRAND licensing deals between Samsung and Apple. That is, if Apple’s Qualcomm deal doesn’t hold up. Summarily, Apple has more than a few lines of defense against this attack, and if Samsung wants more than a headache out of this, it’ll surely be an uphill battle.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/samsung-asks-apple-to-hand-over-iphone-4s-source-code/

CakeStyle Is A Personal Shopping Service For Women

We’ve written a number of times about Trunk Club, a personal shopping service for men. The model is pretty simple-professional stylists on staff coordinate with clients via phone and email, and actually purchase goods for clients from retailers. A FedEx package is sent to clients with the hand-picked styles and the men can keep what they want and send back the clothes that don’t work. Today, CakeStyle is launching a similar service, but for women.

CakeStyle buys fashions and accessories from designers, like Kate Spade, Elie Tahari, Rag & Bone and more, at wholesale prices and stores them in its warehouse. Personal stylists coordinate with clients via email and phone on what their style and preferences are, and will curate a collection of clothes for each season.

The clothes are shipped to a client’s home and she can keep what she loves and send the rest back. The CakeStyle service and shipping (including returns) are free—users pay regular retail prices only for those items you choose to keep. Backed by Sandbox Industries, CakeStyle also offers a showroom in Chicago where clients meet stylists in person and try on clothes.

Each shipment (per season) costs on average $2,000 to $3,000 for the client.

It should be interesting to see if Trunk Club’s model will work for women. Personally, I enjoy the shopping experience of finding and trying on clothes in a store, so I wouldn’t be an ideal customer. But there are plenty of women who don’t enjoy shopping or don’t have the time to shop, and CakeStyle could be an appealing alternative.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/cakestyle-is-a-personal-shopping-service-for-women/

Pontiflex Brings Its “Signup” Mobile Ads To iOS5, Android Tablets

Mobile advertising Pontiflex is releasing an update to its AppLeadsSmart SDK today, which brings its online “signup” platform to iOS5 devices and Android tablets, including the Kindle Fire. Previously, the system worked on older versions of iOS and Android smartphones.

These signup ads are a different type of mobile advertising – one where the click-through is not the goal, but getting the customer to opt-in to hear more from the advertiser in question, is.

Signup ads let customers interact with the ad without leaving the app. For now, that means entering in a zip code and email address, although Pontiflex is working on a version of the product that would introduce a social element to ads. For example, consumers could “like” the advertiser on Facebook or even share the ad with their friends.(Don’t laugh – some people really do share ads. Heck, some evenblog about ads they like.) The possibility for social sharing increases when the advertiser is pitching a great deal, coupon, discount or sale, of course, which they likely would do.

Pontiflex says it now has just under 1,000 applications running its ads on iOS and sees 4 million sign-ups per month. Some big-name advertisers are participating in the platform, including 1-800 Flowers, Southwest Airlines, Sak’s, Barney’s, Kimberly-Clark (Huggies) and others. As consumers interact with the ads, the algorithm, which takes into account 27 different types of signals, learns from that interaction, and guesses which ads the consumer would be most interested in seeing.

Pontiflex is backed by New Atlantic Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners and RRE Ventures. It has raised $14 million in funding to date. For a demo of AppLeads in action,

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/pontiflex-brings-its-signup-mobile-ads-to-ios5-android-tablets/

Mobile advertising Pontiflex is releasing an update to its AppLeadsSmart SDK today, which brings its online “signup” platform to iOS5 devices and Android tablets, including the Kindle Fire. Previously, the system worked on older versions of iOS and Android smartphones.

These signup ads are a different type of mobile advertising – one where the click-through is not the goal, but getting the customer to opt-in to hear more from the advertiser in question, is.

Signup ads let customers interact with the ad without leaving the app. For now, that means entering in a zip code and email address, although Pontiflex is working on a version of the product that would introduce a social element to ads. For example, consumers could “like” the advertiser on Facebook or even share the ad with their friends.(Don’t laugh – some people really do share ads. Heck, some evenblog about ads they like.) The possibility for social sharing increases when the advertiser is pitching a great deal, coupon, discount or sale, of course, which they likely would do.

Pontiflex says it now has just under 1,000 applications running its ads on iOS and sees 4 million sign-ups per month. Some big-name advertisers are participating in the platform, including 1-800 Flowers, Southwest Airlines, Sak’s, Barney’s, Kimberly-Clark (Huggies) and others. As consumers interact with the ads, the algorithm, which takes into account 27 different types of signals, learns from that interaction, and guesses which ads the consumer would be most interested in seeing.

Pontiflex is backed by New Atlantic Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners and RRE Ventures. It has raised $14 million in funding to date. For a demo of AppLeads in action, go here.

Oil companies considering a hike in petrol prices

State-owned oil companies are considering Rs 1.82 per litre hike in petrol prices, as fall in rupee has increased the cost of imports of the crude oil.

Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum last hiked petrol prices by Rs 3.14 a litre on September 16 when the rupee was ruling at about 48 to a U.S. dollar. The local currency has depreciated further and is now trading at over 49 against the American currency.

“From today, there are some losses on petrol. To cover them, we may have to increase prices,” HPCL Director (Finance) B. Mukherjee told reporters here.

He said crude oil is hovering at around USD 108 per barrel in international markets. At current exchange rate, petrol price of Rs 66.84 per litre in Delhi corresponds to about USD 102 per barrel equivalent of crude oil price.

The government had in June last year deregulated or freed petrol from all price controls, but the retail rates have not moved in line with cost as high inflation rate forced the oil companies to seek ‘advice’ from parent oil ministry before revising rates.

Mr. Mukherjee did not say when petrol price would be hiked. “We are in consultations,” he said without elaborating.

The loss on petrol at present is Rs 1.50 per litre and after including local levies, the desired increase in retail prices is Rs 1.82 per litre.

“Let’s say, we are toying with the idea,” he said. “It may happen. We will see”.

Besides petrol, the three firms are losing Rs 333 crore per day on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost. They lose Rs 9.27 per litre on diesel, Rs 26.94 per litre on kerosene sold through the public distribution system (PDS) and Rs 260.50 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder supplied to domestic households for cooking purposes.

At the current rate, the industry is projected to lose Rs 1,21,459 crore in revenue on sale of diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene for the full fiscal.

While the loss on these three products are compensated through a combination of government cash subsidy and upstream oil firm dole outs, no such mechanism exists for making good the losses on petrol as the product is deregulated.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2588986.ece

Markets Tumble as Greece Sets Referendum on Latest Europe Aid Deal

ATHENS — In a surprise move that jolted Europe and put his political future in play, Prime Minister George A. Papandreouannounced late Monday that his government would hold a referendum on a new aid package for Greece, putting austerity measures — and potentially membership in the euro zone — to a popular vote for the first time.

The announcement sent tremors through Europe’s see-sawing markets in early trading on Tuesday, with bank stocks taking a particular hammering because of their exposure to Greek debt. French and German indexes were down by more than 3 percent while, in Britain, which is not a member of the euro zone but trades heavily with continental Europe, the FTSE 100 index was down by around 2 percent.

Mr. Papandreou’s surprise promise of a vote on the austerity package introduced a note of uncertainty in what had seemed to be a done deal, threatening a comprehensive agreement reached by European leaders last week to shore up the euro zone. A rejection by the voters would also be likely to be treated as a vote of no confidence in the government and lead to early elections.

The anxiety stirred up by those fears hammered United States financial markets on Monday, showing once again how the domestic politics of even the smallest members of the European Union can create troubles that not only threaten the currency but reverberate around the globe.

Addressing lawmakers on Monday evening, Mr. Papandreou said the decision on whether to adopt the deal, which includes fresh financial assistance, debt relief and deeply unpopular austerity measures, properly belonged to the Greek people.

“Let us allow the people to have the last word, let them decide on the country’s fate,” he said.

It was unclear how the referendum would be worded, but Mr. Papandreou said it would be a vote on whether or not Greeks supported the debt deal and the program of austerity measures in exchange for foreign aid.

The stakes are extremely high. A no vote could break the deal between Greece and its so-called troika of foreign lenders — the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — which have demanded structural changes and austerity measures in exchange for aid.

Without the aid, Greece would not be able to meet its expenses and would default on its debt, sending shock waves through the euro zone and the world economy.

A yes vote, on the other hand, would move the package forward, effectively shifting responsibility for the nation’s painful economic choices from Mr. Papandreou’s Socialist Party onto the public. That outcome would help Mr. Papandreou shore up his political fortunes and avoid the instability of early elections.

The center-right opposition has opposed the bulk of the austerity program, and the prime minister’s popular support has dwindled as Greeks have been hit by a seemingly endless series of tax increases and wage and pension cuts. On Sunday, the center-left newspaper To Vima reported that a majority of Greeks viewed the deal negatively.

At a time when Mr. Papandreou is under intense political and social pressure, including from members of his own Socialist Party, the move was seen as the last card he could play.

It also appeared to give the Greek government a bit more leverage in negotiations with Europe. The terms of the deal, in which banks have been asked to voluntarily take a 50 percent write-down on Greek debt, have not been finalized and must still be accepted by the banks. Putting the package up for a vote, with the distinct possibility of rejection, could induce banks to agree to the deal rather than face greater losses if Greece defaults.

“It’s not motivated by the intention of some sort of brinkmanship with Europe, but it may have this sort of positive or negative effect,” said George Pagoulatos, a professor of European politics and economy at Athens University of Economics and Business. “It raises the stakes. It’s about, ‘Will we remain in the euro with a lower public debt, or will we lose everything that we will achieve?’ ”

Mr. Papandreou also said that he would seek a parliamentary vote of confidence in his administration, just four months after winning a similar vote before pushing an earlier batch of austerity measures into law. The vote of confidence is expected to be held on Friday, and he is expected to squeak by with his narrow three-vote majority in Parliament.

The referendum will probably be held in January, government officials said, essentially buying the government time while the details of the deal are hammered out.

Addressing lawmakers on Monday evening, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos framed the debate as one of Greece’s staying in the euro zone, the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro, or not. “It’s for the people to decide to stay in Europe or go back to the drachma,” he said.

While the austerity measures have proved incendiary for much of the public, setting off widespread strikes sometimes accompanied by episodes of street violence, being part of the euro zone generally meets with high approval.

Takis Michas, a political analyst with Forum for Greece, an Athens research institute, said posing the question this way was “a master stroke on behalf of Papandreou in the sense it is forcing the various parties to take a very responsible position.”

“If he succeeds in framing the issue as being one of remaining in the euro zone, obviously he is going to get a huge yes,” Mr. Michas added. “But it depends on whether he can frame the question in those terms.”

Under the Greek Constitution, the government must propose the language of the referendum, which would need to be approved by Parliament and then by the president.

Some analysts said the referendum was an invitation for instability. “When the debate is very passionate and things are tense, holding a referendum could be risky,” said Alexis Papahelas, the editor of the center-right daily Kathimerini.

If the referendum fails, he said, “we have a very big chance that the country would go into a disorderly default.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/world/europe/markets-tumble-as-greece-plans-referendum-on-latest-europe-aid-deal.html

Asda’s £5 offer wins over 1 million

UK supermarket chain Asda has reported a huge increase in online price checks following its recent voucher offer. The number of people checking in to its online price check campaign has risen by 15% in the last two weeks since the retailer offered a £5 voucher as an incentive for customers to use the service.

The promotion seems to be paying dividends for Asda, which has seen over 1 million people check their receipts on the chain’s price guarantee website in response to its promise to be 10% cheaper than rivals such as Tesco, or to refund customers the difference.

For customers who participate in the programme, the company will give them a £5 voucher to use with their next shop of £40 or more. Asda has implemented the offer in response to competitor Tesco’s ‘Big Price Drop’ scheme on 3,000 essential items and Sainsbury’s ‘Brand Match’ promotion. The new campaign is being supported by 100 in-store iPad stands for customers without access to computers at home.

“The promise to be 10% better value than other supermarkets is the most powerful price commitment in the industry,” said Asda’s head of pricing, Mark Kupelian. And it already seems to be paying off.

Source: http://www.internationalsupermarketnews.com/news/5418