The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Twitter is close to raising $100 million at a billion dollar valuation. The $100 million round is significant increase over the $50 million the micro-blogging service planned to raise in its last round. Recent investors include T. Rowe Price and Venture Partners, as well as previous investors Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners.
The Guardian News and Media company is reportedly looking to sell PaidContent.org. The popular US-based news outlet, which the Guardian company purchased last year for $30 million, is losing roughly $162,000 a day. While PaidContent is a high quality content provider, it simply cannot produce enough money to be of any value to the Guardian.
Nintendo has cut the price of the Wii for the first time. The popular gaming system will now retail for $199.99, a fifty dollar deduction from its original price of $249.99. The move comes after both Sony and Microsoft slashed prices on PS3 and Xbox 360.
Research In Motion's quarterly profits fell 3.5%, as the company failed to meet its projected forecast. While RIM, whose BlackBerry is suffering from greater smartphone penetration, enjoyed an increase in revenue, the company only added 3.8 million new phone subscribers, far shorter than what it expected. Research in Motion earned $475.6 million during the quarter, $20 million than during the second fiscal quarter of last year.
Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV. Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net For information about Get Digital Classes, visit www.shellypalmer.com/seminars