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Watch Shelly’s commentary on the SENATE approving the surveillance bill which gives teleco’s immunity for cooperating with federal wiretapping of their customers.
COMCAST (NASD: CMCSA) will work with VONAGE (NYSE: VG) to ensure that Vonage’s VOIP runs smoothly over its broadband network. There has long been speculation that Comcast, which also offers a VOIP service, had been throttling the quality of Vonage’s service. Comcast’s announcement came as the FCC is investigating whether or not ISP’s are using control of their networks to undermine the competition.
YAHOO (NASD: YHOO) will team with a group of search start-ups in hopes of slowing the GOOGLE (NASD: GOOG) machine. Yahoo will open multiple search technology and data centers today, which will allow other companies to help build customized search engines without the massive investments needed to work from scratch. Yahoo is hoping this semi-open access service will help build niche queries and that accompanying search ads will boost their 20% market share.
NIELSEN’s first “three-screen” report noted that Americans are watching more TV, while also spending more time online and watching videos on mobile devices. Average home TV viewing was up to 127 hours per month, while internet use hit 26 hours per month. Nielsen estimates that 119 million people watched viral videos during May, an average of 2 hours and 19 minutes per person.
THE NEW YORK TIMES (NYSE: NYT) was pounded by a LEHMAN BROTHERS analyst Craig Huber, which led to NYT’s stock sinking to a $14.01, a ten year low. Huber urged the Times to cut their $1.05 billion debt, in order to counteract its high stock price. Huber claims the Times is entirely too expensive and that Wall Street estimates are too high for the ailing newspaper.