Facebook Buying Out Skype?

Facebook Buying Out Skype? $4 Billion Deal Being Talked About

See who Mark Zuckerberg is after these days. We hear the Facebook CEO is eyeing the takeover of the much popular Skype. If the grapevine is true to what it manages to churn out, Facebook might end up buying out Skype for a price close to $4 billion.

Some observers out there firmly believe some sort of action is actually happening, but then that doesn’t mean there is a take over bid. They feel that the deal may not be a buy out, but a joint venture between Facebook and Skype.
We need not tell you that Skype and Facebook have been associated with each other for some time now.  If you would remember, Facebook had been in the scheme of things at Skype and this was demonstrated by Skype when they rolled out their version 5.0 software for Windows.
The software had a dedicated Facebook tab so as to enable users to chat or call Facebook friends via Skype. This was in fact made possible right from “the Facebook newsfeed which can be viewed from within the Skype application”.
By the way, if you are looking at going into what the $4 billion ‘possible’ takeover would bring to Skype, let us also take you to a situation where Skype had been mulling over an IPO. If you would remember, the Skype IPO was recently delayed by its new CEO until the second half of 2011. And that public offer would have brought to the Skype coffers only around $1 billion. Considering such a scene, the Facebook move, if at all that bears fruit, could mean a lot to Skype. We also hear Google too is looking at a venture with Skype. More details are awaited.
What do you think about the Facebook plan for acquiring Skype?  Send in your views.

Remove Google Background Images

Although denying, Google seemly imitates Microsoft’s Bing-style search interface by adding background images (say sculptor Jeff Koon’s shiny sculptures) to Google.com today June 10, one day before FIFA World Cup 2010 kicks off in South Africa.

Jeff Koon’s sculpture Google Background (credit:Google.com)

Many Google users are irritated by Google’s action because they the search engine’s classic, simple and white homepage, and now they want to remove Google Background.

For those who don’t know how to remove Google Background images, here is a way for once and all:

Using Google’s secure search address: https://www.google.com where Google does main its minimalist look homepage.

The Other Google Logos

Oops! Some dudes came up with Google logo with sexy women's giant assets!

Click here on it.com.cn to view its most awesome Google logos gallery.

Google to Quit China, Fans Offered Flowers, Held Light Vigil at Its Beijing Headquarters (Pictures)

David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, threatened in a blog post the search engine giant would quit the China market. Influential Chinese IT blogger Keso explicitly used Google Quits China as the title for a response to Mr Drummond's statement. Quite some of Google fans in Beijing offered followers and even held a small light vigil at Google headquarters in Beijing's Tsinghua High-tech Park upon hearing the distressed news.

The apparent reason, though as Drummond used six paragraphs of his nine-paragraphed article to explain, is what he said because Chinese hackers attacked its core infrastructure and tried to access the Gmail accounts of some Chinese human rights activists.

These were just too simple excuses. The four years of Google's existence as Google China in Beijing, was bumpy, inconvenient. It had to offer a censored Google.cn (or G.cn). Still the company was often screwed up by the Chinese government, especially in 2009 when it was accused of spreading pornographic contents not once but twice on some high profiled events.

David Drummond revealed Google is "no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn," followed by a much diplomatic toned sentence "and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all" before he finally acknowledged "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

For those who are familiar with Google's situation, what David Drummond hinted can 100% certain that Google will pull out the plug from China.

In a report by Xinhua which is China's official news agency, the anonymous employee at Google Beijing Office said "No agreement will be reached with both sides refusing to give in."

Even though, some Chinese officials cast their doubts on Google's decision. "It is still hard to say whether Google will quit China or not. Nobody knows," a high-ranking official with China's State Council Information Office told to Xinhua in a telephone interview on the condition of anonymity.

Strangely enough, Guo Ke, a professor on mass communication from Shanghai International Studies University, told Xinhua it was "almost impossible" for Google to quit China. He believed "Google is just playing cat and mouse, and trying to use netizens' anger or disappointment as leverage." Nevertheless, it's true that Guo's viewpoint that Chinese Internet users are the real victims if Google quits China."

Images via Bonnae / Twitpic.com