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September 02 2010
Nailed It (Not): Our First Twitter Post, Circa 2006
I often point to my first post on Twitter, the day it launched in 2006. Why? Mostly because of how wrong I was. Best line: “I imagine most users are not going to want to have all of their Twttr messages published on a public website.” I also love that original vowel-free logo.
The first couple of comments to that post are classic as well:
I do not understand the utility of adding the SMS messages to a public webpage or making messages from my network public. I would have to pass on that type of offering. The ability to make messages private should be added asap.
and
i do not want to be woken up at 4 a.m. because my friend got drunk and decided to text Twttr with “asdl im at barasdf sooo drunksalkfjs”…i find it interesting such an annoying feature is supposedly causing viral growth…i’m done developing social software if the key to success is to be intrusive
and
So is it pronounced twitter or twatter?
With the benefit of hindsight it’s clear that I was…a bit off on how Twitter would play out. As were most of the commenters, although commenters are often negative just to be negative. And the most wrong of all? The Odeo investors who elected to take their money back rather than port it over to Twitter.
My point here is that you never know which startups will make it and which won’t. As a blogger I say it like I see it, but I’m wrong a lot. It’s why I’m not a venture capitalist, where wrong decisions tend to have real consequences. And this is also a reason for us all to give startups a little breathing room when they’re finding their space in the world. Startups evolve. The world evolves (things have changed a lot since 2006).
That dumb startup that’s just a rehash of that other thing from before, with a twist, just may turn out to be something special. Perhaps world-changing special. It’s why I like The Man In The Arena so much, and why I’m an eternal champion of the entrepreneur.
If Apple Can't Deal With Facebook's "Onerous" ... (Dan Frommer/Silicon Alley Insider)
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
If Apple Can't Deal With Facebook's “Onerous” Terms For Ping, Why Was It Using Facebook? — Update: We're hearing reports of people who had access to a Facebook Connect feature in Ping earlier, which didn't work, and has since been removed. So it looks like Apple really did pull Facebook support for Ping very late in the game.
iTunes Ping And Facebook Were Friends Yesterday. And I’m Still Connected.
There seems to be some confusion out there right now about iTunes Ping, Apple’s new music social network, and Facebook. Some people seem to think it was never a part of iTunes, that Apple decided against connecting; while other reports say they think it was at one point integrated, but that it wasn’t working and has since been removed. I can tell you for sure that yesterday Facebook Connect was a part of Ping — because I used it.
When I first loaded iTunes 10 yesterday and started up Ping, connecting with Facebook was the first thing I did to find friends. At first, I will say that it didn’t work. I hit the Connect button, entered my credentials, and nothing happened. But I tried again and it worked perfectly. I found a handful of Facebook friends who had just started using Ping as well and connected with them.
Further, looking at my Facebook account, I’m still connected to Apple’s Ping app there. And so are 27 of my Facebook friends, currently. Apple has removed the implementation from iTunes for right now, but the app is still live and connected on Facebook.
I also spoke with some Apple representatives at the event yesterday, and they confirmed that the Facebook Connect implementation was only for pulling your friends in to Ping. No other data was being transferred, I was told.
The app page on Facebook seems to confirm this:
This application makes it easy to find and follow any of your Facebook friends who also use iTunes Ping.
So why did Apple remove it? Who knows. It could have been buggy (as I said, it was yesterday), or maybe Facebook didn’t like some aspect of the implementation and asked iTunes to rework it. So far, neither side is talking.
I do think that Ping has a nice and simple social model which lets users follow, friend, or lurk. Compare that to Facebook, which is a mess or privacy settings.
But again, the connection between the two was definitely working yesterday. But it only about finding friends, no other data was being transfered over. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see it back.
Update — Here’s Facebook canned statement on the matter:
Facebook believes in connecting people with their interests and we’ve partnered with innovative developers around the world who share this vision. Facebook and Apple have cooperated successfully in the past to offer people great social experiences and look forward to doing so in the future.
Fora.TV Triples Traffic. Wait, That Many People Want Hour-Long Videos on Economics?
Fora.TV has always been playing a dangerous game—trying to sell long-form online video about intellectual ideas. That’s like trying to sell sunblock to the cast of Jersey Shore. Fora calls itself Hulu for “the Thinking Man’s Web.” (There’s a Thinking Man’s Web?)
Eighteen months after closing its $6 million series A round and long time magazine editor Blaise Zerega took over as CEO, Fora seems to be grinding it out. The traffic has tripled and it’s now streaming about three million videos per month, mostly captured from conferences and high-level events. Those aren’t close to YouTube numbers, but considering the intellectually demanding content– think Timothy Geithner talking for an hour about the best ways to stimulate the economy—it’s impressive.
Despite its limited size, Fora has a few high-brow sponsors like Mercedes Benz who want to reach its rarefied audience. Conferences love it, because it gives them a sophisticated way to broadcast content to people who can’t attend. Anything they make is money that would have been left on the table otherwise. For instance, 150 people attended a talk by Stanford’s director of design earlier this year, but 500 people watched it live over Fora. Thirty days later more than 325,000 watched it. And this was just a talk about how some students set up an incubator at Stanford. It may not be a YouTube-sized business, but there’s clearly something there.
And, as of today, Fora has a new $5/month subscription to watch and download most of the videos without ads. The site still offers pay-per-view pricing for specific talks, too. Think of the business model like cable TV, Zerega says. There are basic packages and premium packages and stuff you pay for individually ala On Demand. Think of their content like the Discovery Channel. No doubt when it launched, media executives were saying, “People aren’t going to watch long form non-fiction content on cable! Shark week? Who cares about sharks?”
Everyone wants to post live video of their events these days, but it’s incredibly hard, expensive and time consuming to do well—something we’ve all learned getting TechCrunchTV up and running this summer. What gives Fora an edge is that it can do everything from filming a conference’s content to writing headlines and speaker bios to cutting the film into watchable DVD chapters and three-minute teasers to writing transcripts. And increasingly, Fora is working on distribution, trying to get that content available on as many platforms as possible. Already Fora is on Boxee and Comcast.
There are so many wonky, technical, tedious details in that process that most think-tank or university conferences just don’t have the staff or know-how to tackle. Put another way—maybe Fora doesn’t solve an obvious problem for millions of viewers (I have an hour to kill…..where can I find a lecture on free market economics?) but it does solve a big problem for thousands of conferences and event planners, who in turn will push that content to their constituents.
It’s no surprise Zerega was the managing editor of Wired during its “Long Tail” days.
When Danish entrepreneur Tommy Ahlers sold his 'social phonebook' ZYB to Vodafone in 2008 for €31 million and joined the company, it didn't seem like he would stay forever at such a slow-moving corporate entity. And sure enough he has now left. But ever the restless entrepreneur he's decided against lying on a beach somewhere and careered headlong into a new startup which is poised to come out of stealth mode. Ahlers has now invested in, and become the CEO, of Podio, a hot new startup out of his home town of Copenhagen. I'd heard excited whisperings of the company when I was in the city recently, and indeed, Podio has been around for one and a half years as a boostrapped project, but with big ideas. It's now open via invitations – either from Podio or from existing users - and it's pretty awesome.
Samsung Galaxy Tab preview (Paul Miller/Engadget)
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Samsung Galaxy Tab preview — After a week of painful teasing, Samsung has come clean about its Galaxy Tab 7-inch Android tablet. We got the nitty gritty specs, along with some quality time with the device, and we like what we're seeing on both fronts. Follow along after the break …
Fwix Shifts From Local News To Places: “We Are Automating Patch”
For the past two years, Fwix has been building a hyperlocal news site for cities and neighborhoods around the country in a very automated fashion. Its homepage for every city has been three columns filled with recent news and blog headlines, along with other local data like weather (see second screenshot below). Today, it is scrapping that approach to become more of a hyperlocal places directory.
“We are automating Patch and building richer places pages and city pages,” says CEO Darian Shirazi. With everyone on the Web crazy for Geo and trying to tap into local commerce, places directories are becoming more valuable. (They are also better for SEO). Whereas AOL’s Patch is building out a directory of places in 500 small towns by hand, Fwix is creating an automated directory filled with maps, news feeds, events, photos, reviews, Tweets, status updates, and check-ins.
In a sense, Fwix is really a cross between AOL’s Patch and Google Places, which is also created by automatically indexing of parts of the Web. Fwix can create a places page for 50,000 neighborhoods and 15 million businesses and points of interest. It culls local data from 30,000 blogs and news feeds; status updates from Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Buzz, and BrightKite (but not Facebook); geo-tagged photos from Flickr, Smugmug, and Picassa; local deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, and MobileSpinach; evets from Eventbrite, Eventful, Zvents, Stubhub, Ticketmaster, and Upcoming; reviews from Yelp, Citysearch, OpenTable, Yahoo! Local, and Zagat; and government data from SpotCrime, FixMyStreet, and SeeClickFix.
The layout of each page is now centered around a map with dots linking to recent stories, check-ins, Tweets or what have you. In the middle column there is a stream of recent headlines, geotagged photos, events, and reviews (most of which are linked to the dots on the map). Below the map are hot places where a lot of check-ins, news ,a nd Tweets have been occurring lately.
When you are looking at a city level view, the left hand navigation bar lets you zoom into specific neighborhoods. Each business or place also has its own custom page. Fwix also picks up trending keywords from local news feeds and Twetets.
Most of the individual elements which go into Fwix’s new places directory are available through its API, although the completed directory is not. As I’ve argued before, it is time for an open places directory so that companies can stop duplicating efforts contribute to one big places directory that keeps getting better and better for everyone. The problem is that a lot of licensed business directory data is mixed in with the open stuff, but we’ll get there some day.
HipChat’s Enterprise Communication Platform Adds Video Chat And Guest Access
HipChat, a recently launched private instant messaging service for companies, has added support for voice and video chat as well as guest access.
Similar to Campfire, HipChat provides a simple application for communication within businesses. HipChat offers both a web and desktop client based on Adobe AIR that lets you chat with your entire team at once, or hold more private discussions with select team members. The application includes support for quick attachment sharing, notifications when you receive a message, and a searchable web archive for past messages. It’s incredibly easy to use and setup and doesn’t require a company email address.
The newest version of HipChat adds the ability to enable video and voice chat with fellow users. This feature will be included with the paid plans for the service. Guest access enables employees to generate URLs that allow non-HipChat members and people outside their company to access group chats.
It’s actually a pretty nifty feature for any business that wants add another communication layer (besides email) with clients, vendors, or contractors. Guest Access could also be used to offer live customer support for a business. Like all chat history, guest messages and files are archived automatically but guests can only access the chat logs created during the time they were invited to the room. Like video chat, GuestAccess will be includes in the paid versions of HipChat.
For a bootstrapped startup, HipChat seems to be gaining traction in the space. The company has “thousands” of companies using its application, with over one million messages sent since the company launched in private beta.
HipChat was founded by Garret Heaton, Pete Curley, Chris Rivers, who previously founded calendar startup HipCal, which was acquired by Plaxo in 2006. At Plaxo (which was eventually acquired by Comcast) the team helped build out Plaxo Pulse. HipChat, which recently raised $100K in funding, faces competition from 37 Signals’ Campfire and Yammer.
Hands-on Video With The Samsung Galaxy Tab (Spoiler: Wow)
Well, as promised, here’s a handy video of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in action. Apologies if it’s gets a little hairy at times—juggling two cameras while trying to navigate a GUI touchscreen isn’t exactly the easiest trick to pull off.
“ @老榕 我们也收到小区通知了。这疫苗靠谱吗？到底打不打？ 《全国亿名儿童将接种麻疹疫苗》 http://sinaurl.cn/GLw4k t.sina.com.cn/... ”— oiwan
Yammer 2.0 To Launch As A Powerful, Full-Fledged Social Network For The Enterprise
Since Yammer launched as the “Twitter for businesses” at TechCrunch 50 in 2008, the startup has continued to improve on its already solid product, releasing mobile apps and new desktop clients, adding threaded conversations, hosted versions and more. The fact is that in just under two years, Yammer, which we use at TechCrunch for internal communications, is being used by more than one million users and 80,000 companies worldwide (which includes 80% of the Fortune 500). That’s impressive growth for the startup, which has raised $15 million in funding and is doubling revenue every quarter. But the social enterprise arena is competitive with Salesforce Chatter, Jive, Socialcast and many others vying for a piece of the pie. However, Yammer is going to be releasing a new version of its application at TechCrunch Disrupt this fall which could be a game-changer.
The new Yammer will essentially turn the microblogging application into a full fledged social network. Yammer plans to add a number of applications to its platform that will increase its functionality beyond just a communications platform. An events application will allow you to invite co-workers to company or group events and track responses. Attendees can also download the event into their calendar.
An ideas application will help employees and administrators create, find and categorize the best ideas within a company. Employees can rank ideas through voting, and ideas can be created separately or can be promoted from existing conversations on Yammer.
Yammer is also going to be upgrading content sharing by allowing users to preview information in shared links. The startup has also added a Q&A app that encourages workers to ask questions and find answers from a database, and includes a polling application. Additionally, the new version of Yammer will allow users to assign a task resulting from conversations and track its completion, and will include the ability to tag content with topics, making it easier to find conversations by subject.
Another integral part of Yammer’s transformation into an open social platform is the ability to install third-party applications. Yammer will soon give third-party developers the ability to sell and create applications like those that Yammer will now offer. It’s similar in theory to the Google Apps marketplace.
In terms of communications functionality, Yammer is adding the ability to send Direct Messages to multiple parties, and a chat feature, which will allow users to create chat rooms that can be archived or searchable. Missed chats will automatically become direct messages.
A new Activity Feed will aggregate stories about co-worker actions within all of their enterprise apps (both on and off Yammer) and will allow users to follow content. And a new notification feed will alert users in real time about co-worker actions that affect them.
Yammer CEO and founder David Sacks tells me the feed is one of the key components of social networking and existing enterprise platforms have been built before the concept of a realtime feed. Yammer’s next-generation application, he says, will help enterprises create a social communications platform around data and communications.
In terms of the big picture view of the social enterprise, Sacks believes that the ability to create a go-to corporate social network is a Facebook sized opportunity. Half of the social web entails sites like Facebook and Twitter, explains Sacks, and the other half will be around enterprise social networking. And he makes it very clear that Yammer hopes to be the de-facto application for companies, both big and small, to use for their social networking efforts.
Of course, it’s safe to assume that either an existing social enterprise player, such as Salesforce, or even Google may want to purchase Yammer to boost their own offerings. Sacks says he’s received considerable interest in his company, but for now he wants to focus in creating the best product in the space. That, he says, is going to be the new version of Yammer.
Video Mocks Google's Privacy Practices (Juliana Gruenwald/Tech Daily Dose)
Juliana Gruenwald / Tech Daily Dose:
Video Mocks Google's Privacy Practices — Consumer Watchdog has launched a rather unique effort in its bid to highlight its concerns over Google's privacy policies and to push Congress to allow consumers to opt out of having their Web activities tracked by online firms.
When Geeks Attack, Shanghai Edition (TCTV)
For some in Silicon Valley, Asia remains an alluring black box. A promising world with pockets of hyper growth, obscured by a tangled web of unfamiliar languages, customs, regulations and native ecosystems. Although the walls are coming down fast, the road to Asia’s markets remains an intimidating one for many.
Enter Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups (a recently launched $30M super angel fund) and Geeks On A Plane, a program that takes tech entrepreneurs and investors to emerging markets. In its own small way, Geeks On A Plane is attempting to bridge that gap between the Valley and the rest of the world. Earlier this year, roughly 55 “Geeks” traveled to several key hot spots in Asia, including Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Beijing, to connect with the region’s top entrepreneurs, to mingle with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and to sample local tech conferences like Shanghai World Expo and CHINICT.
“Asia is easily a third, possibly close to half of the world’s population, I think there’s a lot of innovation and a lot of growth that is happening in China, India, and Southeast Asia,” McClure says. “Some of the internet models that we’ve seen are starting to be transferred over there, and actually a lot of the internet business models are being copied over here…There’s actually an explosion of social networks happening in all those countries.”
Although McClure doesn’t consider himself an expert in doing business in Asia, through his trips and his new relationships, he says he now has a better understanding of the internal dynamics of Asia’s disparate markets and is acutely aware of common Western misconceptions. In particular, he says it was very eye opening to learn how advanced China is and how many have underestimated the region’s technological progress.
“Well I think people tend to look at China as being a pretty big opportunity but they also tend to think about China as being a little bit behind and I think that’s just really the wrong impression. China has actually got more internet users than the US, they certainly have more mobile devices than the US…You know the top 10% of the Chinese population probably has more average spending power than the average US citizen…and they’re buying a lot of cars, they’re buying a lot of houses, they’re buying a lot of consumer products online.”
While not everyone can join a Geeks On A Plane Tour, Dave McClure is sharing a collection of mini-documentaries from his latest trip with TechCrunch TV. The videos were shot and produced by Ben Henretig, founder of Micro-Documentaries, a new startup that creates highly polished, short (hence micro) videos for clients. The first of four episodes is on their trip to Shanghai (second video from the top). You can also watch McClure’s interview with TechCrunch TV, where he discusses his new fund and expounds on his trip to Asia (first video).
EverFi Raises $11 Million For Financial Literacy Education Application
Washington D.C.-based startup EverFi has just raised $11 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from TomorrowVentures and independent investors including Michael Chasen, the CEO of Blackboard.
EverFi has created a SaaS application for schools to help educate young adults on financial literacy, student loan default prevention, filing taxes, credit card debt and more. The application’s curriculum incorporates virtual worlds, gaming, social media and videos to help teach children these life skills.
For example, the company’s Buttonwood platform, aims to prevent teenagers from student loan defaults. The application includes a Second Life-like virtual world where users can learn and implement key financial literacy concepts, such as credit worthiness, the loan application process, interest rates and more.
Currently over 2,000 public schools in 47 states will be using EverFi, with the company’s reach expected to more than double in 2011. While EverFi’s technology is not free to use, the platform’s use in public schools is completely funded by outside corporations and foundations that license its programs. Partners include United Negro College Fund, Capital One, Genworth Corporation, U.S. Bank, PayPal, BB&T Corporation, and others.
The company plans to use the funding for new product development and additional hires.
Compromising Twitter's OAuth security system (Ryan Paul/Ars Technica)
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Compromising Twitter's OAuth security system — Twitter officially disabled Basic authentication this week, the final step in the company's transition to mandatory OAuth authentication. Sadly, Twitter's extremely poor implementation of the OAuth standard offers a textbook example of how to do it wrong.
冯正虎：我要立案日记（2）：温家宝说，我来行动
截止今天9月2日，就上海市民冯正虎一人的上海法院司法不作为天数已达：4700天。其中上海第二中级法院司法不作为3611天，上海市第一中级法院司法不作为 132天，浦东新区法院司法不作为957天。
自8月19日起至今，冯正虎与下级法院等候上海市高级法院关于冯正虎案件立案的处理意见已有15天。
《民事诉讼法》第一百一十二条、《行政诉讼法》第四十二条规定的立案受理期限：应当在七日内立案或者作出裁定不予受理。法院既不立案又不裁定，这是司法不作为，即非法剥夺公民诉权。
今天上午9:30又一次跨进上海市第二中级法院立案庭的门槛，继续要求我要立案。自8月31日起至今，我已第3天在上海市第二中级法院立案庭静候，维护公民的诉权。
我要求王法官，请唐龙生庭长出来接见。王法官9：40离开立案庭受理窗口进法院内部，9：50回到受理服务台位子。我向他询问唐庭长、分管立案的副院长在吗？他告诉我：刚才去走了一圈，没有见到他们。
上午9：30、10：00、10：30、11：00、11：30，每隔半小时我用立案大厅的内部电话114给唐庭长办公室打电话，始终没有人接。坐台的法官不做主，作主的庭长到处跑，难怪我一人案件在上海市第二中级法院司法不作为的天数就有3611天。
上午10：00、10：30、11：00，每隔半小时我用立案大厅的内部电话114给院长办公室打电话，找主管立案的陈院长，但始终没有人接。院长跑了，接电话的秘书也溜了，如果上级领导来电，肯定也是吃闭门羹。11：30是开始午休吃饭时间，再次电话，秘书小姐接了，上班不在吃饭回来。
秘书小姐告诉我找领导的程序：庭长找院长，承办的法官找庭长，我应该找立案庭的承办法官。我告诉秘书小姐：坐在立案庭里的法官也找不到庭长，我只好直接找院长了，请你把我的姓名转告院长。或许我来法院，这里的领导都要玩“躲猫猫”游戏了，我就陪着玩吧。
我坐在立案庭的椅子上静候，并认真学习官方资料《温家宝在深圳考察时强调坚持推进改革开放不动摇》、《国务院召开全国依法行政工作会议 温家宝作讲话》。要建设一个公平正义的社会，特别是要保障司法公正。温家宝说，我来行动，从“我要立案”做起。
“没有程序的民主，就没有实质的民主；没有程序的公正，就很难保证实体公正和结果公正。”中共中央的领导人看得很清楚，但是做不到就危险了。中国法院司法不作为的现象就是程序不公正，如果不纠正，就没有中国司法公正的基础，中国法律就要名存实亡。
中午11：30至下午14：00是法官吃饭午休的时间。11：45我离开法院去吃饭了。这一段时间我准备向法官请教，天天去法院上班，每天上午9：30至11：30在上海市第二中级法院立案庭（上海市中山北路567号）工作，下午去其他法院。
2010年9月2日
附录：
一、上海法院的司法不作为4700天的明细账
1. 就不服行政拘留的案由状告上海市杨浦区公安分局的行政诉讼案（695天）
2. 就非法绑架拘禁的案由状告上海市政府信访办的行政诉讼案（434天）
3. 就非法软禁公民的案由状告上海市公安局的行政诉讼案（600天）
4. 就护宪维权网被封的案由状告上海方瑞信息技术有限公司的民事诉讼案（1248天）
5. 就天伦咨询网被封的案由状告新网公司的民事诉讼案（534天）
6. 就非法禁止公民出境的案由状告中国浦东出入境边防检查站的行政诉讼案（720天）
7. 就非法禁止公民入境回国的案由状告中国浦东出入境边防检查站的行政诉讼案（237天）
8. 就作者无权出版自己作品《日本企业》的案由状告上海市新闻出版局的行政申诉案（132天）
二、上海法院的询问电话
1. 上海市高级人民法院电话：021- 63080000转立案庭或院长
2. 上海市第二中级人民法院电话：021-56700000转立案庭或院长
3. 上海市第一中级人民法院电话：021-34254567转立案庭或院长
4. 上海市浦东新区人民法院电话：021-38794518转立案庭或院长
三、冯正虎的联系方式：
周一至周五上午9：30至11：30冯正虎在上海市第二中级人民法院立案庭（地址：上海市中山北路567号）
手机：13524687100
电话：021-55225958
E-mail: fzh999net@gmail.com
推特：http://twitter.com/fzhenghu
四、“我要立案”文化衫（图）
On Its Second Birthday, Google Chrome Officially Hits Version 6 (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
On Its Second Birthday, Google Chrome Officially Hits Version 6 — Ever since it became stable enough to use on a day-to-day basis on a Mac last year, Google Chrome has been my browser of choice. Other browsers have been adding some nice features — but Chrome keeps adding them faster.
LivingSocial Brings Daily Deals To The Hood
One of the challenges of running a social commerce site these days is that there is just too much demand, from both local merchants wanting to give out deals and consumers who want to try them. There are only 365 days in a year, and the daily deal format limits each city to 365 deals a year.
Sites like GroupOn and LivingSocial are hitting those limits. GroupOn is expanding its inventory by “personalizing” deals, essentially showing different deals to different people. LivingSocial is handling the issue by going hyperlocal. It will now start offering deals by neighborhood and city districts.
LivingSocial will start bringing daily deals to the hood out in Washington, D.C. and New York City. In Washington, D.C., there will be deals for The District, Montgomery County and Northern Virginia (not exactly neighborhoods, but why get bogged down in details). In New York City, you can sign up for deals Uptown (soul food), Midtown (cupcakes), Downtown (facials) and in Brooklyn (dance lessons). Again, these aren’t really neighborhoods—Brooklyn on its own is bigger than most cities in America—but they do break up the city into more manageable zones and open up the site to more deals.
This is something, in fact, that Groupon does as well in a couple cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. In fact, it breaks down Washington, D.C. the exact same way: the District, Montgomery County and Northern Virginia.
It looks like the bidding war for 3PAR could be over. Dell has just issued a release indicating that it will not increase its most recent $2 billion proposal to acquire 3PAR, and the company's has ended acquisition talks for the data storage company. Dell is entitled to receive a $72 million break-up fee from 3PAR upon the termination of its merger agreement. This morning, HP upped the ante today with an offer worth $33 per share or $2.4 billion. 3PAR has accepted HP's bid. Dell also said that its improved offer included a proposed commercial relationship and an increased break-up fee.
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