Best Buy Buys Speakeasy

Electronics retail giant Best Buy is to acquire the broadband provider SpeakEasy for $97 million, it has been announced.

SpeakEasy employs 300 people and last year boasted over 40,000 customers and revenue of $80 million. The company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy in 2008.

Darren Jackson, Best Buy executive vice president and chief financial officer, said: "By joining forces with Speakeasy, a company with a true passion for helping entrepreneurs run their businesses, we are making technology more accessible to small businesses by creating a single source for their IT needs." According to Best Buy, SpeakEasy's executive team will remain in place, with Bruce Chatterley as CEO.

Mr. Chatterley said: "We're a vibrant successful smaller business that's growing at a pretty good clip." Speakeasy first opened in 1994 as a Seattle Internet cafe and grew to become a broadband provider, which also offers VoIP services, mainly directed at small businesses.
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Currently Best Buy is America's largest retailer of electronic items. "This is a really interesting combination of companies," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services. "Speakeasy's technical expertise matched with Best Buys marketing prowess could make for a very formidable combination."

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Verizon Customers Get 24/7 Support

Now Verizon Wireless customers are able to call technical support at any hour of the day or night when things go wrong.

The company has announced the debut of its new Premium Technical service, which offers customers in need expert assistance with problems like spyware, viruses, Internet security, hardware malfunctions and so forth. To cost $9.99 per month, the service goes far beyond that offered by most Internet carriers, Verizon claims.

Frank Nelson, director of Verizon Broadband Solutions Group, said: "Our customers need help with more than just their online service and now they can get it from us right away. "Verizon support is available over the phone to solhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifve a variety of computer problems and customers can avoid expensive, in-home or business service calls."

The advisors on the other end of the line are prepared for almost any problems that may be encountered by a broadband user, Mr. Nelson added. Verizon has invested $35 billion in the last seven years on maintaining and upgrading its operating systems.

"Last year more than 40 million Internet users in the United States had problems with Internet security," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services. "More than 21 million had hardware or software issues; and more than 11 million struggled with home networking."

For more information on digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com

Southern California's Latino Population Catered To

Communications giant Verizon has claimed it is making a concerted effort to target southern California's Latino population with its services and products.

Among the measures Verizon has committed to are hiring copious numbers of Latino and bilingual employees and providing services in Spanish. A full 34 percent of the calls made to Verizon's Irvine call centre are from Latinos and employees of the company that are bilingual earn $1,500 more per year than normal.

John Palmer, regional president of Verizon Wireless, said: "We make sure our sales and customer service employees are trained not just to succeed in their job, but also to build a career with the company. "For the sixth consecutive year we've been named to Training magazine's 2007 list of 'Top 125 Training Organizations in America.'" More than 40 percent of Verizon's stores in the Southern California area have bilingual personnel. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless customers are now able to call technical support at any hour of the day or night when things go wrong using the company's new Premium Technical service.

Many companies are starting to recognize the needs and spending power of the Hispanic population, the largest minority group in the United States. states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services.

For more information on digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com

House of Representatives passes spyware legislation

Legislation has been passed by the House of Representatives to fight the rising tide of Internet spyware and other scams.

Gaining unauthorized access to a PC in order to carry out another federal offense will now be a criminal offense in its own right and could incur http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifa five-year prison term. And stealing or transmitting personal information in order to defraud somebody or damage a computer could be punishable with a prison term of up to two years.

The bill was sponsored by Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who claimed that 90 percent of Americans have spyware on their computers. Ms Lofgren said that spyware "is one of the biggest threats to consumers on the internet". Co-sponsoring the bill was Bob Goodlatte, a Republican, who said that it "protects consumers" and online businesses.

Included in the bill is an allocation of $10 million to help the Justice Department fight various computer scams, including phishing. Levels of malware have skyrocketed over the last year at a greater rate than in preceding years, according a recent report. In their most recent report, IBM's internet security systems researchers found over 7,200 vulnerabilities, most of which could be exploited by attackers.

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Yahoo! Eyes Social Networking Site

The internet giant Yahoo! is rumoured to be mulling over the purchase of the social networking site Bebo, the Daily Telegraph has claimed.

It is thought that Yahoo! could pay up to $1 billion for Bebo, which is about a quarter of the size of the world's most popular social networking site, MySpace. Last year, rumours were rife that Bebo turned down bids from both British Telecom and Viacom.

The founder of Bebo, Michael Birch, has stated in the past that he would rather float the company than sell it outright. This year has seen a rash of internet takeovers which has caused the stock of fast-growing internet companies to skyrocket. The latest takeover was by Microsoft, who last week paid $6 billion to take over the digital marketing company Aquantive.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! are the main players in the race to acquire these lucrative companies. In April Google won a major coup by acquiring the internet advertiser DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash.

Microsoft To Acquire Aquantive

Software giant Microsoft is to acquire the digital marketing company Aquantive for $6 billion, it has been announced. The move is part of a wider effort from the company to expand its presence in the lucrative world of online advertising.

After the acquisition, Microsoft will acquire Seattle-based Aquantive's Atlas Media Console and Drive PM solutions for advertisers and publishers. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "The advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry.

"Today's announcement represents the next step in the evolution of our ad network." Microsoft will also gain control of Aquantive's own interactive advertisement agency, Avenue A Razorfish. In April, Google won the race to acquire the ubiquitous internet advertiser Doubleclick, paying $3.1 billion for the company.

The New York-based Doubleclick was founded in 1995 by Kevin O'Connor and Dwight Merriman.

Google Warns Of Drive-by Downloads

Google Warns Of Drive-by Downloads

Internet sites which contain malware that can infect a PC are becoming increasingly prevalent, the internet search giant Google has warned.

A full one in ten web pages is capable of launching a "drive-by download", meaning that it could place malware onto a PC. Using such software, hackers can steal sensitive information and infect PCs, Google cautioned. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the security company Sophos, said: "They [hackers] used to spread malware by email attachment. What they do now is spam out URLs.

"You cannot protect users by restricting what sites they go to. You need to start protecting your web access, as well as your email gateway." Such malware present on websites is becoming "a considerable problem" for both businesses and personal users, Mr Cluley added. Meanwhile, companies have been warned to be aware of a worm which inhabits removable drives like floppy disks and USB sticks.

Sophos has stated that the W32/SillyFD-AA copies itself onto removable drives and then infiltrates the computers they are subsequently hooked up to.

Windows Updates Hijacked

Windows Updates Hijacked

Malware could be installed onto a PC in the security updates issued by Windows, experts have stated.

There is currently a program in circulation that is capable of hijacking Windows Update and installing malware that could leave a computer vulnerable to attack. The program works by bypassing a user's firewall and then downloading damaging files that then remain undetected.

A Microsoft spokesman stated: "Microsoft is aware of phttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifublic reports that Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is being used by TrojanDownloader:Win32/Jowspry. "The bypass most commonly occurs after a successful social engineering attempt lures the user into inadvertently running [Jowspry], which then utilizes BITS to download additional malware."

Speaking to the BBC, security consultant Robert Schifreen said that the way to avoid infecting one's PC is to not click on any links or attachments unless one is sure that they are not infected. Meanwhile, management company Fortinet has joined the Microsoft Virus Information Alliance (VIA) to collaborate on monitoring the distribution of internet viruses.

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Broadband users spend half of free time surfing the net

People who have broadband end up spending almost half their free time surfing the internet, according to recent research.

During the week, users with high-speed internet spend approximately 48 percent of their free time on the net, a survey from Media-Screen shows. And 48 percent of young users of the broadband go on the internet to find out information about the entertainment sector, compared to 25 percent who rely on TV, the survey discovered.

Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen, said: "Many broadband consumers go online for entertainment and to talk about entertainment with other fans. "Marketers need to leverage that interest and focus on catalysing a conversation now, instead of just talking to their fans via traditional advertising channels."

Of the time spent on the internet 27 percent is spent communicating with others, while 12 percent is spent shopping and nine percent searching for news or information. Meanwhile, a fake version of the next book in the popular Harry Potter series has hit the internet and fooled thousands of readers.

With a length of 250,000 words, the fake version of the book is similar enough to the real books that it took in legions of fans of the teenage wizard.

A win for the little guy!

Cable TV battles to heat up

Lawmakers OK bill that will widen franchise options
By JIM SAUNDERS
Tallahassee Bureau Chief

TALLAHASSEE -- With supporters saying more competition will drive down prices for consumers, Florida lawmakers passed a plan Monday that will help telephone companies get into the cable-television business.

The measure, which set off a lobbying war in the Capitol, will allow companies to get statewide cable franchises and avoid having to negotiate agreements with individual cities and counties.

Phone companies hope that will clear the way for them to compete with cable companies, which have entered local franchise agreements in the past and dominated markets.

The phone and cable industries fought about the issue for more than a year. But the bill passed Monday reflects a compromise that allows cable companies --- along with phone companies --- to get statewide franchises.

Officials of both industries said the bill is part of a major shift in which phone and cable companies will compete to sell "bundled" packages that include home-phone, cable, high-speed Internet and cell-phone services.

"We're entering an era of the battle of the bundles," said Steve Wilkerson, president of the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association, a cable-industry group.

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