Articles by Rob Spiegel

Goldman Sachs is going to exclude its U.S. clients from buying shares of its recent investment in the booming social network Facebook. The bank decided to go overseas because of intense media scrutiny surrounding its offering. The press coverage of the offer to its U.S. investors could be seen as a general solicitation or advertisement, which is illegal in a private placement, whether or not Goldman intentionally leaked its memo to U.S. investors in the beginning of January...

Rob Spiegel, E-Commerce TimesSometimes it's best to say you're sorry. Groupon's CEO, Andrew Mason, released a subtitled video on YouTube apologizing for problems Japanese customers experienced during a New Year's promotion. Groupon's deal-of-the-day site offers promotions and discounts to local markets. The company emphasizes social networking by encouraging consumers to share with friends...

The preliminary estimate for dollars spent on video games in 2010 is between US$15.4 billion and $15.6 billion, down by about 1 percent from 2009, according to a report from the NPD Group. The figure includes total sales of new physical video and PC games, used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content and mobile game apps.

MySpace CEO Mike Jones reportedly told employees on Wednesday that News Corp., parent company of the once-giant social network, was exploring strategic options for its possible spinout, sale or merger. The talk of a possible sale followed news that MySpace was laying off 47 percent of its workforce -- about 500 employees. My Space did not respon...

Sony is taking its ongoing battle with hackers to the U.S. District Court in Northern California. On Tuesday, the company filed a temporary restraining order targeting George Hotz, of the hacking group fail0verflow, and 100 others who were not named. Sony said the hackers violated federal copyright law, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sony also seeks to collect money for attorney fees and damages.

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer abruptly stepped down on Monday. In a public statement, AMD called it a "resignation" that was "effective immediately," which makes it look more like a firing. The company appointed CFO Thomas Seifert as interim CEO. AMD did not respond to the E-Commerce Times' request for comments by press time....

Preliminary attendance figures from the Consumer Electronics Association indicate more than 140,000 industry professionals showed up to this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) -- the world's largest consumer technology trade show -- which took place last week in Las Vegas, Nev. That figure represents a surge from 2010's 120,000 and 2009's 113,085...

Top social network Facebook inadvertently revealed that it is preparing to go public with its financial data sometime in 2012. Facebook expects its investor population to exceed 499 this year, it reportedly states in a private placement document leaked to a number of media outlets from Goldman Sachs, which would compel it to disclose tons of financial information.

LinkedIn, a business and professional networking site, is in discussion with banks about a potential initial public offering in 2011, according to Reuters, which pointed to Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Bank of America as the banks that will potentially handle the offer. LinkedIn has not denied the rumor.

Mobile technology giant Qualcomm announced Wednesday that it plans to purchase Atheros Communications, a leader in wired and wireless technology connectivity, for US$45 per share in cash. Qualcomm rose 2.22 percent and Atheros stock rose 1.07 percent following the announcement The acquisition underscores the importance of wireless technology i...

After 83 years, Motorola has formally split into two entities -- a move that was more than two years in the making. Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. [NYSE: MMI] will produce consumer products, and Motorola Solutions Inc. [NYSE: MSI] will sell into the professional and corporate markets. The break was spurred by activist investors such as billionair...

With a US$450 million investment in Facebook, Goldman Sachs gets to look cool. Facebook gets capital to help face its competitors, particularly Google The latest investment in Facebook rises to $500 million when you add another $50 million investment from Russian investors Digital Sky Technologies, which is a Goldman partner. Digital Sky acquir...

A hearty 65 percent of Internet users have paid to access or download online content, according to survey results released Thursday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study focused on content such as music, articles and apps There were a number of surprises in the data. With the exception of software, which is a predominantly mal...

Federal authorities have arrested Fremont, Calif., resident Winifred Jiau Tuesday on charges related to her involvement in an insider trading scheme. Jiau has been charged with conspiring to commit securities fraud and engaging in securities fraud by selling material nonpublic information about publicly traded companies The investigation was c...

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's company, Interval Licensing, on Tuesday reopened a patent lawsuit originally filed last August in Seattle against 11 companies, including Apple and Google. Interval claims the defendants violated four patents owned by Paul Allen's company Interval Research before it closed its doors in 2000. When the company closed, it transferred the patents to Interval Licensing, a patent-holding company also owned by Allen...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is getting curious about intensified trading in shares of private social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and social game developerZynga. The SEC has sent information requests to several participants in the trading of shares of these four private companies, according to DealBook SEC spokes...

Amazon's new, slimmed-down Kindle devices are notable for several things, not the least of which are the upgrades to their experimental WebKit browser The third-generation Kindle reader from Amazon is now the company's bestselling product in its history, passing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, book seven in the wildly popular series.

Samsung is about to debut the new Galaxy Player, an Android-based music and applications device that will be similar to the Galaxy S smartphone, but without the cellular connection. Samsung has confirmed it will unveil the media player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, according to Samsung follower, Samsung Hub ...

Delta Airlines has pulled it flights from three travel aggregation sites, including BookIt.com, CheapOAir.com and OneTravel.com. Delta will honor fights that were booked on those sites before its mid-December cutoff However, Delta did not opt to remove its listings from the travel site Orbitz, which itself is currently in the middle of a dispute wi...

Human rights groups are increasingly getting shut down by distributed denial of service (DDoS) and other cyberattacks, according to a report from Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The center reported that 280 independent media and human rights websites were hit by 140 attacks between September 2009 and August 2010 Only...