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LINKEDIN will launch the LinkedIn Audience Network today. Using LinkedIn’s profile-based targeting technology the LinkedIn Audience Network helps marketers efficiently reach specific audiences of influential and affluent professionals across hundreds of high quality brand-name publishers.
ELECTRONIC ARTS (NASD: ERTS) has dropped its bid for TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE (NASD: TTWO). EA has abandoned its $2 billion takeover bid, which had been pending for 8 months, on the basis that the company wouldn’t be able to merge before the Holiday season. At its peak offer, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that EA’s bid of $25.74 a share undervalued T2.
VERIZON (NYSE: VZ) is scheduled to make an announcement today that could unveil the new BlackBerry Storm . The Storm is BlackBerry’s first touch screen and is touted as its iPhone killer. Stay tuned for more information.
A massive collection of companies are apparently teaming up to develop a DRM “ecosystem” that will set industry standard. BEST BUY (NYSE: BBY), CISCO (NASD: CSCO), COMCAST (NASD: CMCSK), FOX (NYSE: NWS), HP INTEL (NYSE: HPQ), LIONS GATE (NYSE: LGF), MICROSOFT (NASD: MSFT), NBC U (NYSE: GE), PARAMOUNT, PHILIPS, SONY (NYSE: SNE), TOSHIBA, VERISIGN (NASD: VRSN) and WARNER BROS. (NYSE: T) have all signed up and plan to unveil their platform at CES in January. An industry standard is necessary to create a DRM scheme that is effective and doesn’t drive piracy.
EA’s computer game SPORE has already sold 2 million copies, but the game could also become the most pirated game of all time with 500,000 downloads on BitTorrent. With 2,016 one-star ratings out of the 2,216 reviews on AMAZON (NASD: AMZN), the most common complaint is the bundled DRM, which restricts how many computers the game can be loaded to.