Microsoft invests half billion in the Nook, making it more valuable than Barnes and Noble

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to compete against Apple and Amazon in the eBooks business. The new partnership sees Microsoft investing $300 million in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary. The $300 million investment in the Nook subsidiary of Barnes & Noble gives Microsoft about 17.6 percent ownership of this business unit. …

Hulu participates in TV’s upfronts – internet television has finally arrived

Just a few years ago Hulu, the online television site, was something of a novelty. A lot of people knew about it and watched it, but it was just another website. That all changes this week as Hulu participates in “upfronts”. Hulu is in this position because of some staggering numbers: Revenue of $420 million …

Why Facebook bought Instagram – from Om Malik and Robert Scoble

Both Om Malik and Robert Scoble make interesting points, Facebook paid double for what many considered Instagram to be worth and Facebook desperately needs help with mobile devices. From Om Malik: A few days ago Instagram was rumored to be valued at $500 million. A few months ago it was $300 million. Its last round …

Best Buy to close 50 stores in the U.S. and 11 in the U.K.

Selling consumer electronics isn’t as easy as it used to be for Best Buy. The big-box retailer is closing 50 stores and compensating employees based on customer service after its fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations. The company today reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion, on revenue of $16.63 billion, up …

Dynamically priced seats – Baseball is using big data to improve ticket sales

“We work with half of baseball right now,” said Barry Kahn, CEO of Qcue, a company that helps teams sell dynamically priced tickets. That’s up from just four teams at the start of last season (2011). In all, 17 of 30 Major League teams will use dynamic pricing this season, according to Ticket News. via …

Newspapers lose $25 billion in revenue – where did it go?

US newspaper publishers’ hopes that advertising revenues might be about to stabilise have been dashed by several pieces of research. An analysis of data predicts that newspapers will achieve a new low in ad sales for 2011, with revenues expected to come in at about $24 billion this year (2011) – down from the record …

The Atlantic survived by reimagining itself as a digital product

How did a 153-year-old magazine — one that first published the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and gave voice to the abolitionist and transcendentalist movements — reinvent itself for the 21st century? By pretending it was a Silicon Valley start-up that needed to kill itself to survive. The Atlantic is on track to turn a …