Washington – The Department of Justice on Friday cleared
Google’s (NASD: GOOG) $700 million acquisition of Massachusetts-based ITA Software, but also
added several caveats aimed at protecting competitors in the airfare comparison
and booking space. Under the agreement, the DOJ will require Google to license
its travel software, provide mandatory arbitration under certain circumstances
and establish a reporting mechanism for competitors to make formal complaints.

"The acquisition, as originally proposed, would have substantially
lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in
the United States, resulting in reduced choice and less innovation for
consumers," the Justice Department said in a statement.

Since Google first
announced the deal in July, the online travel industry has sought to block the
acquisition, alleging the company’s dominance in search would give it an unfair
advantage.

"We will begin work immediately to close the acquisition, and
are committed to making the integration process as seamless as possible for our
employees and customers," said ITA in a statement.

ITA’s software is used
by most major airlines and travel distributors to organize flight information.
Clients include American, Continental, Southwest, United, US Airways and Virgin
Atlantic, as well as online travel sites including Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz and
TripAdvisor.

Related Links:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/April/11-at-445.html
http://tinyurl.com/3sj6zae

McLean, Va. – Hoping to bolster traffic to its website, Gannett’s (NYSE: GCI)
USA Today may start paying annual bonuses to writers based on their number of
page views, sports blog The Big Lead reported.

"The goal, obviously, is to
get writers thinking digital," wrote Jason McIntyre, the blog’s editor.

"But once writers start scrutinizing their page view tallies, and realize
slideshows, rumors, and celebrities drive traffic, what will be the
impact?"

Multiple sources have reported that USA Today held a conference
call on the issue Wednesday night.

Ed Cassidy, USA Today’s vice president of communications
and event marketing, however, told Poynter that the company "has and
continues to consider bonuses based on page views but nothing has been decided
at this time."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3s6rw2w
(The Big Lead)

http://tinyurl.com/3tznp7p
(Poynter)

http://mashable.com/2011/04/07/usa-today-pageview-bonus

Washington – The Department of Homeland Security could start
using social networking channels such as Facebook and Twitter to alert the
public of changes in the nation’s threat level, the Associated Press reported.

Citing the draft of a plan obtained from DHS, the AP said the government on
April 27 will replace its current color-coded warning system with two new
threat levels — elevated and imminent — that will expire on specific dates.

The alerts would first go to federal, state and local government officials,
then potentially to Facebook and Twitter when deemed "appropriate"
according to the AP story.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3fqun4t
(AP)

Mountain View, Calif. – WhatsApp, the operator of a service
that lets owners of disparate smartphones exchange text messages, images, audio
and video files, has secured $8 million in financing from Sequoia Capital and
others, TechCrunch reports, citing sources.

Founded in 2009, Mountain View,
Calif.-based WhatsApp’s cross-platform service is interoperable between iPhone,
Android, BlackBerry and Nokia devices.

While the company has not released any
information on its user base, TechCrunch notes the WhatsApp app for iPhone has
received over 28,0000 ratings on iTunes.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4yutu22
(TechCrunch)

http://www.whatsapp.com

Mountain View, Calif. – Larry Page, the Google (NASD: GOOG) co-founder
who has stepped up this week to replace Eric Schmidt as CEO, has instituted a
management shake-up at the company that will see six executives promoted to lead
new initiatives, the Los Angeles Times reports. The moves also come days after
top Google executive Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of products, announced
his resignation.

Google will reportedly now focus chiefly on six
areas: Search; Ads; YouTube; Mobile; Chrome; and Social.

Executives who have
been promoted to lead the groups include Andy Rubin (SVP of Mobile); Salar
Kamangar (SVP of YouTube and Video); Vic Gundotra (SVP of Social); Sundar
Pichai (SVP of Chrome); Alan Eustace (SVP of Search); and Susan Wojcicki (SVP
of Ads).

Google told the Times the changes will allow these executives to act
more autonomously.

"The idea is to empower people, let them take risks and
give them more authority over decisions," a person familiar with the
situation told the Times.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3qsjbml
(Los Angeles Times)

http://tinyurl.com/6g48jgt
(TechCrunch)

New York – Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) on Friday asked a federal court
to declare that existing carriage agreement gives it the right to stream live
video from Viacom (NYSE: VIA) networks to its subscribers in their homes via its new iPad
application. After launching the live video streaming iPad app on March 15, Time
Warner Cable received complaints from Viacom, as well as Fox (NYSE: NWS) and
Discovery (NASD: DISCA), and removed those channels from the app.

The company said the app
has now been downloaded more than 360,000 times, and currently features live
streaming of 43 channels.

"We have steadfastly maintained that we have the
rights to allow our customers to view this programming in their homes, over our
cable systems, without artificial limits on the screens they can use to do so,
and we are asking the court to confirm our view," said Time Warner Cable
executive vice president and general counsel Marc Lawrence-Apfelbaum.

"We’re
at an impasse with a handful of network owners, and we need an impartial third
party to referee the situation and confirm that our interpretation is
correct," the company says in a blog post.

"We thought the most
efficient way to settle this would be to go before a judge and ask for a
decision that, while noncombative, would establish the rights that we bargained
for. If we weren’t completely certain that we had the rights to distribute
television to our customers’ iPads within their homes, we wouldn’t be asking
for the court’s attention."

Related Links:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110407006721/en

http://tinyurl.com/4yk5tkj
(TWC blog)

http://tinyurl.com/3dpx9yf
(DMW previous coverage)

London – Video search index Blinkx announced on Friday that
it will acquire Burst Media, the operator of an online ad network, for $30
million.

Blinkx said the deal will bring its 35 million hours of indexed video
to Burst’s audience of over 130 million unique users.

The company will create
contextually relevant video channels for Burst’s network of publishers.

"Up
until now, the primary barrier to further television advertising budgets moving
online has been online video’s inability to match the sheer scale of audience
that television can deliver," said Blinkx CEO Suranga Chandratillake.

"We
are extremely excited about the Acquisition as it will allow us to overcome that
challenge: by fusing blinkx’s unique patented technology and large video index
with Burst’s massive reach, we will have the potential to create personalised,
online television that is watched by hundreds of millions of users."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/62agtzh

http://www.blinkx.com

http://www.burstmedia.com

New York – SocialFlow, the provider of a social media
optimization platform, announced that it has raised $7 million in its first
round of funding, led by Softbank.

Also participating were Softbank NY, RRE,
Betaworks, Highline Venture Partners, AOL Venture Partners, SV Angel and a
group of angel investors.

Founded in 2010, New York-based SocialFlow says its
platform can determine in real-time the Twitter topics that people are engaged
in, and how likely they are to take an action on a tweet, then publishes the
best tweet when audiences are most receptive.

Customers include The Economist,
eMusic and the New York Public Library.

The company will use the funds to accelerate
development of its platform.

Related Links:
http://www.pehub.com/101373/socialflow-inks-7m-series-a/

http://www.socialflow.com

Irvington, N.Y. – Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free
and open online college textbooks, has raised an additional sum of funding from
publisher Random House to close its second round of financing.

The company
announced the $15 million round in January, which was led by Bertelsmann
Digital Media Investments and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Founded in 2007, New
York-based Flat World publishes works from academic authors under a Creative
Commons open license, which allows students to read them free online, or
purchase them in print and digital formats.

The company said more than 1,600
professors at over 900 colleges in 44 countries have adopted Flat World books.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3we2g2t

http://www.flatworldknowledge.com