BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday said it sold fewer BlackBerry phones than analysts had expected and that the company’s quarterly earnings were hurt by a legal settlement.Even though RIM still saw strong sales of BlackBerrys, the news sent the company’s stock price tumbling in after-market trading. Many are now wondering if RIM’s disappointing sales are an indicator of a wider smartphone slowdown or if the news is an indication that the company is losing its edge in an increasingly competitive market.RIM’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, said the company is still in very good shape.”This stuff (smartphones and mobile applications)…
Business
RIM profit and BlackBerry sales disappoint
Business
Magna sees Opel paying back state loans by 2015
FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Magna will cut about 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe, the bulk in Germany, as it acts to return the carmaker to profit and pay back 4.5 billion euros ($6.55 billion) in state aid, its co-chief executive said. The Canadian auto parts supplier aims to sign a deal with former Opel parent General Motors within two weeks to buy a 55 percent stake together with Russian partner Sberbank, Siegfried Wolf said on Monday. “By 2015 we want to pay back the government-guaranteed loans. Opel will be profitable before that, however,” Wolf told a news conference. Around 4,000…
Facebook
Twitter Striving To Innovate Quicker Than Facebook
This afternoon Twitter announced that geolocation data would now be added to users’ tweets. It’s something that Facebook has actually been discussing for some time off and on but adding such a feature to all feed stories isn’t the easiest process. In the meantime Facebook is still trying to adjust their platform to provide greater access to information. It’s essentially the “out opening” of Twitter, a similar strategy that Google attempted, starting with OpenSocial.
Interestingly enough, the model appears to be working for Facebook. The latest data from comScore suggests that Twitter’s growth took a break for July and the…
Facebook
Announcing First Set Of Social Ad Summit 2009 Speakers
Just over two weeks ago we announced the 2009 Social Ad Summit and today I’m happy to present the first 8 speakers for the event. The conference is being held at Tribeca Rooftop in New York City on October 5, 2009. So far we’ve had a great response and expect this event to sell out based on the number of inquiries we’ve received so far. If you haven’t received the registration information for the event yet, head over to the Social Ad Summit website and enter your information on the homepage.
Over the next few weeks we will be announcing…
Facebook
Facebook Dating Application Zoosk Raises Another $6M
Zoosk, the online dating community that launched in 2007 as a Facebook application, has raised an additional $6 million in funding. This is the third round of funding for Zoosk, and was led by existing investor Canaan Partners. The funding will go towards pushing Zoosk’s market share on a global scale, as well as adding to its team and roll out new products.
As we noted in an interview with Zook’s co-CEO Shayan Zadeh, the Zoosk application on Facebook witnessed rapid growth as a result of its aggressive user acquisition model. Having now reached a reported 30 million users as…
