SAP to pay $3.4B for SuccessFactors (AP) : Technet

SAP to pay $3.4B for SuccessFactors (AP)
Web an increasing tool to link campaigns, voters (AP)
JolieBox Brings Beauty Samples by Subscription Service to Europe (Mashable)
Yahoo! to bid for Bundesliga soccer rights: report (Reuters)
Russians vote in election test for Vladimir Putin (Reuters)
Lenovo unveils three Android tablets in a range of sizes (Appolicious)
Survey: 90 percent of moms are Facebook friends with their children (Digital Trends)
Nook Tablet and Amazon Kindle Fire App Stores Compared (ContributorNetwork)
The Goldilocks tablet: Why Amazonâ€™s 7-inch Kindle Fire is 'just right' (Digital Trends)
SAP offers $3.4 billion for SuccessFactors (Reuters)

SAP to pay $3.4B for SuccessFactors (AP)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – Sat Dec 3, 1:29 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – SAP said Saturday it is paying $3.4 billion to acquire SuccessFactors, a software company specializing in human resources tasks. It is the latest move in the escalating rivalry between SAP and Oracle Corp., and underscores the increased interest in technology companies that deliver software over the Internet, or in the so-called "cloud."

The deal calls for subsidiary SAP America Inc. to pay $40 per share in cash for SuccessFactors. That is a 52 percent premium over SuccessFactors' closing stock price of $26.25 on Friday. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

SAP AG is one of the world's biggest business software makers. The German company's specialty is business applications, such as those used for payroll and managing relationships with customers and suppliers.

SuccessFactors, based in San Mateo, Calif., is a big maker of cloud-based human resources applications. The company focuses on applications for managing relationships with employees, such as organizing and developing performance reviews and bonuses. The company says it has more than 3,500 customers. It lost $12.5 million on $205.9 million in revenue last year.

"The cloud is a core of SAP's future growth, and the combination of SuccessFactors' leadership team and technology with SAP will create a cloud powerhouse," Bill McDermott, an SAP co-CEO, said in a statement.

The deal is part of the growing rivalry between SAP and Oracle. Oracle's push into SAP's turf of business applications has been a multibillion-dollar affair. Oracle's boisterous CEO Larry Ellison has pursued big-ticket acquisitions that have made his database software company a major player, behind SAP, in many different realms of the business software world. SAP is the dominant maker of business applications.

The feud has gotten personal. Oracle won a $1.3 billion jury verdict against SAP last year over the widespread theft by a now-shuttered SAP subsidiary of documents from password-protected Oracle customer websites. Oracle alleged the information was used to steal business. A judge threw out the award, calling it "grossly excessive" and setting the stage for a retrial.

Oracle landed a publicity jackpot from the trial. Ellison used it to repeatedly shame SAP publicly. SAP admitted the theft and agreed to pay $20 million to settle criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice over the former subsidiary's practices.

Web an increasing tool to link campaigns, voters (AP)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 05:06 AM PST

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Beth Fouhy, Associated Press – Sat Dec 3, 8:06 am ET

NEW YORK – As potential voters in New Hampshire and Iowa scan the Internet, they probably are seeing ads for Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama alongside deals for shoes and holiday gifts.

The campaign ads will then follow those voters around the Web, popping up on news sites, Google searches and on social networking sites like Facebook.

Online advertising, once used primarily as a way to reach young and heavily wired consumers, has emerged as an essential communications tool in the 2012 presidential contest. While few expect Web ads to supplant television commercials anytime soon, strategists say online ads may be the most nimble, efficient and cost-effective way to reach voters.

"Online advertising cuts through because of its ability to target. It's unparalleled in any other medium," said Romney's digital director, Zac Moffatt. "TV may be more effective for driving a big message, but per usage, the Internet is more powerful. We are probably one presidential cycle from everyone believing that."

Web ads can take many forms, from small display boxes to clickable videos to 15- or 30-second commercials known as "pre-rolls" a viewer sees before the start of a news clip or YouTube video.

While campaigns invest heavily in television ads to reach a mass audience, Web ads are geared specifically to people based on their ZIP code, demographics and, most importantly, their Internet browsing history.

That means someone who has visited the Obama campaign website probably will start seeing his ads on a number of different Web pages. Those who use Google to search for information on the Republican candidates might notice a Romney campaign pre-roll the next time they watch a TV show online.

Campaigns also buy ads on websites that cater to the different demographic groups the campaigns are hoping to reach.

"When someone expresses interest in politics online, it's an incredibly good time for the campaigns to talk to them," said Andrew Roos, a Google account leader who works with Democratic campaigns on Web ad strategy. "You want to grab people when they are paying attention and ask them to take another action, like send money or attend an offline event. It's an old-school organization principle that has been working its way online."

Campaigns were slow to adapt to online advertising even as the corporate world flocked to the Web with product ads years ago. Internet ad revenue climbed to nearly $7.9 billion in the third quarter of 2011, up 22 percent from the same time last year, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, which tracks online ad spending.

Corporations now spend from 18 percent to 28 percent of their advertising budget online, while campaigns historically have spent no more than 5 percent.

Chris Talbot, a freelance campaign digital strategist, noted that big companies can devote considerable time, money and research to figuring out what works online and what doesn't. Campaigns don't have that luxury.

"There is no `next quarter' in politics, so campaigns usually revert to a template of what's worked in the past," he said.

In 2008, Obama and Republican presidential rival John McCain both did limited online campaign advertising. Web ads grew more prevalent in the 2010 midterm elections, when 85 of the top-spending House races and 600 interest groups bought display ads on Google.

Plenty of Internet users say they aren't thrilled with the proliferation of online ads, particularly those that follow them from site to site.

A USA Today/Gallup poll taken in late 2010 found 9 of 10 respondents said they pay little attention to online ads. Two-thirds said they don't believe advertisers should be able to target them based on their past Web searches.

"The only way it works is on a mass scale. Most people ignore ads on the Web," said Aaron Shapiro, head of the digital marking firm HUGE.

Web ads' biggest advantage, many strategists say, is accountability.

"Online ads are very metric driven — you can figure out how many impressions you got, how many people clicked, how many people signed up for an email address. All of that is calculated in real time," Google's Roos said. "It's much more efficient than direct mail and TV."

The Romney campaign's Moffatt said Web ads became part of the media strategy when officials there realized how much their own viewing habits had changed.

"Strategists here acknowledge they really don't watch live TV," Moffatt said.

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

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Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

JolieBox Brings Beauty Samples by Subscription Service to Europe (Mashable)

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 03:01 PM PST

Lauren Indvik Lauren Indvik – Fri Dec 2, 6:01 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: JolieBox

[More from Mashable: Can Gamifying a Restaurant Get You Better Service?]

Quick Pitch: Get four to six sample-sized cosmetics products delivered to your door each month.

Genius Idea: JolieBox, which shamelessly pitches itself as the "French equivalent of Birchbox," is quickly advancing into additional European markets. On Friday, the startup acquired Boudoir Privé -- the "UK equivalent of Birchbox" if you will. Boudoir Privé's existing team will become JolieBox UK.

Like Birchbox, JolieBox delivers a "Beauty Box" containing cosmetics products from high-end manufacturers for €13 ($17.42) per month. (Birchbox's costs $10 per month for four to five samples.) Samples range from moisturizers and fragrances to hair conditioner and makeup. Lancôme, Laura Mercier and L'Occitane are among the more than 30 brands which have participated in the service.

Unlike BirchBox, Joliebox does not allow users to purchase full-sized versions of the products they ship out on their site -- a missed revenue opportunity, in our opinion. The company does however provide information about where subscribers can purchase full-sized products.

The less than one-year-old startup has approximately 10,000 subscribers, and raised €1 million in funding from Alven Capital in October. No additional expansion plans have been announced to date.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Yahoo! to bid for Bundesliga soccer rights: report (Reuters)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 06:38 AM PST

– Sat Dec 3, 9:38 am ET

VIENNA (Reuters) – Yahoo! Inc plans to bid for rights to show online highlights of German Bundesliga soccer matches in the 2013/14 season, its head of German operations told a magazine.

"Only the Internet rights are of interest for us," WirtschaftsWoche quoted Heiko Genzlinger as saying, adding Yahoo would bid under either scenario for highlights to appear online before or after they are shown on free television.

"All of our products are free, and that is true for the Bundesliga as well," he said, noting Yahoo had had a good experience showing soccer highlights online in Britain.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by James Jukwey)

Russians vote in election test for Vladimir Putin (Reuters)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 12:52 PM PST

– Sat Dec 3, 3:52 pm ET

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin's ruling party could see its vast parliamentary majority cut back in elections that began Sunday in the icy tundra and sparsely-populated swathes of Russia's far east.

At polling stations from the Arctic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the election will indicate the scope of fatigue with Putin's 12-year rule just three months before he asks voters to endorse his return to the Kremlin as president.

Russians interviewed by Reuters across the world's biggest country gave a mixed picture. Some expressed disgust with a parliamentary election they said was likely to be rigged while others said they supported Putin and his United Russia party.

"I support United Russia. I like Putin. He is the strong leader we need in our country," said Nikolai, a 33-year-old customs officer in Vladivostok, a port city of 600,000 people on the Pacific and the biggest city in Russia's Far East.

Some voters said they would vote for Just Russia or the Communists because they were disillusioned with Putin and his party, a trend that could cost United Russia dearly.

Polls show Putin's party is likely to win a majority but less than the 315 seats it currently has in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, known as the Duma.

If it gets less than two-thirds of seats, Putin's party would be stripped of its so called constitutional majority which allows it to change the constitution and even approve the impeachment of the president.

Opposition parties say the election is unfair because the authorities support United Russia with cash and television air time while they say vote rigging will be employed to boost United Russia's result.

Supporters say the former-KGB spy saved Russia during his 2000-08 presidency from the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet era and supplied the longest and steepest economic boom in a generation. He also crushed a rebellion in the southern region of Chechnya that tested the fabric of a federation spanning 9,000 Km (5,600 miles) from the Baltic to the Pacific.

Russian customs officers held the director of an independent election watchdog for 12 hours at a Moscow airport Saturday. The United States said it was concerned by "a pattern of harassment" against the watchdog.

PUTIN'S PARTY

Putin remains by far Russia's most popular politician and the 59-year old leader is the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.

But his party has had to fight against opponents who have branded it as a collection "swindlers and thieves" and a growing sense of unease among voters at Putin's grip on power.

"I shall not vote. I shall cross out all the parties on the list and write: 'Down with the party of swindlers and thieves,'" said Nikolai Markovtsev, an independent deputy in the Vladivostok city legislature.

"These are not elections: this is sacrilege," he said, adding that the biggest liberal opposition bloc had been barred from the vote by the authorities.

Opponents say Putin has crafted a brittle political system which excludes independent voices and that Russians are growing tired of Putin's cultivated tough man image.

An outburst of boos and whistling at Putin by fans at a Moscow martial arts fight and a sharp fall in opinion poll ratings during the election campaign had raised concerns Putin may be losing his legendary political touch.

FAR EAST

Putin is almost certain to win the March 4 presidential election but signs of disenchantment are extremely worrying for the Kremlin's political managers. Putin's self-portrayal as the anchor of Russian stability hinges on his popularity.

In an attempt to reinvigorate his party, which President Dmitry Medvedev is leading into the election as part of a job swap announced in September, Putin has sent his closest allies to lead United Russia in some of Russia's 83 regions.

Conquered by the Eastern Slavs under the tsars in the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia's far east covers an area almost twice the size of India but has just 6.3 million inhabitants.

Russians in the region braved temperatures as low as minus 41 degrees Celsius (minus 42 Fahrenheit) to vote eight hours before polls opened in Moscow.

Chukchi reindeer herders living across the Bering Sea from Alaska began voting in late November as did some oil workers on rigs pumping the lifeblood of Russia's $1.9 trillion economy.

Putin sent First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to his native Far East to lead the ruling party's campaign in an area where one local journalist angered Medvedev during the campaign by appearing to imply the Far East was not even part of Russia. ($1 = 30.8947 Russian roubles)

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Lenovo unveils three Android tablets in a range of sizes (Appolicious)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST

Survey: 90 percent of moms are Facebook friends with their children (Digital Trends)

Posted: 03 Dec 2011 11:43 AM PST

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Dec 3, 2:43 pm ET

According to a study from the publisher of Parenting and Babytalk magazines The Parenting Group, nine out of ten moms are friends with their children on Facebook. After talking to over 1,100 mothers, the group discovered that nearly half of the respondents also adjust the security settings on their personal Facebook profiles to make sure the child can't see inappropriate pictures or video as well as certain status updates. The study also found that a third of mothers with children up to the age of 12 allow the kids to setup an online profile on the social network. Facebook's internal rules and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act both prohibit the creation of profiles for children under the age of 13, but it's difficult to police this rule across 800 million profiles on the social network.

Only 20 percent of the respondents limit Facebook usage to when an adult is present. Approximately 30 percent of mothers only allow the use of social networks after homework has been finished and over half of the mothers place a one hour time limit on Facebook usage each day. Of the 10 percent that are not friends with their child on Facebook, approximately three fourths of that group monitor the child's page by logging into the social network as someone else. This may include another child's profile or a fake profile created in order to watch the page. In addition, 77 percent of mothers are Facebook friends with at least one of their child's friends.

The study also dove into a few questions about smartphone usage. On average, mothers have downloaded about 11 apps for their smartphone, but four of the applications have been for the child to use. Forty percent of moms allow their children to play games on their smartphone each day and 35 percent allow their child to use the smartphone for at least an hour each day.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

Breaking Android's user interface curse

Now before we talk about the size, one other aspect I haven't yet mentioned causes the Fire to be a strong player. The user interface is arguably more advanced than either Apple's or Amazon's icon-based interfaces. Now, recognize that once you've learned any interface (from Windows to iOS) it becomes natural, but Amazon's is one of the easiest out of the box. Apple's iOS interface was the clearly a step up when it launched from what Apple had previously, and Apple historically set the bar with regard to ease of use.

Most Android offerings seem to go down a path of imitating Apple, but with more flexibility. This flexibility tended to translate into complexity. Vendors tried different ways to overcome this, but most just seemed to make their products more unique, and therefore even more difficult to use. Given that Apple set the bar high with tablets, these products would generally be pounded for anything that was different and particularly inferior. On top of that, Apple did such a great job of buying parts and locking up production that competitors couldn't even get close to Apple's hardware cost. Most products just couldn't compete.

It became clear that someone had to reset the bar (be massively different in a good way) and try to outdo Apple in user experience. Amazon is the first vendor to do both, and while the Kindle Fire did make some painful tradeoffs, it appears to be doing better than any other Android product in this space as a result.

I think what Android vendors didn't initially understand was that first they had to stand out from Android rabble, because all the products were increasingly being painted with the same brush of disappointment. Amazon did that well.

The 7-inch tablet

The best part of a 7-inch tablet is that it will fit in an inside jacket pocket or in a woman's purse. No, I don't carry a man purse, but this is why my wife will carry the Kindle Fire out of the house, but generally leaves her iPad at home. In my case, this frees up my hands for the other crap I have to carry, and makes it less likely I leave it behind once I get used the weight of the device in the pocket. (It seems much easier to leave behind something you are carrying and tend to put down all the time). In watching movies, the lightness of the product is handy when you don't have a table to set the thing down on, and a case that has a kickstand is helpful (and generally available) for both sizes of product when you do.

When it comes to glare and outdoor viewing, which is pretty much a problem with all current-generation tablets (at least until the Panasonic Toughpad ships), I found it is easier to find an angle where I can continue to use the tablet with the smaller size. This is largely because it fits in smaller shadows, and it's light enough that I can hold it at odd angles in order to see the screen. On a plane, it actually fits in the shadow under the window, which is generally too small for a 10-inch product.

Now, for anything to do with productivity (including email), this product is at a disadvantage, but a better alternative to a smartphone. Still, I found that when it came to getting work done, I went back to my smartphone or laptop virtually all of the time. The Kindle fire was relegated to reading books, watching videos, and some Web browsing (where it is dramatically better than a smartphone, but nowhere near as good as a laptop).

The perfect third device

If you are like me and carry three devices (a smartphone, laptop, and then something for entertainment), the 7-inch form factor is better third device. Its size and weight allow it to drop in the gap between your other devices. 10-inch tablets are too similar to notebooks, which make them better if you want to leave the notebook behind, but too big and heavy if you, like me, have to carry a notebook anyway. They still don't do all I need to comfortably leave my notebook behind. One thing I have noticed (which will be a long-term issue with ever leaving my notebook behind) is that 10-inch screens are just too small for me. I struggled with 11.3-inch and 12-inch laptops as well (currently I'm using a 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1), which suggests I'll never be able to live on a tablet, and the 13-inch tablets I've tried over the years are just not practical. This suggests, at least for the next three to five years, I'll be a three-device user, and that 7 inches may be the ideal tablet size for me.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

Technet

Saturday, December 3, 2011