At Google I/O you would see journalists, bloggers, guests , Google engineers, audience members and everybody seem enjoying a taste of Apple Mac Notebooks and gears! Thanks to the glowing Apple logo who brought the attention.
[Images courtesy 9to5google]
It seems as though Google is going to launch Google Music today at it’s annual Google I/O developer conference. and why Google rushed it out is only to beat Apple and keep up with Amazon Cloud Service.
Google will be taking the same approach to streaming music as Amazon. This means that they will not have a master copy, but rather they will have the user upload their library. AKA, Google has no licenses with the record labels.
Google’s service is rumored to be flash only, so no iOS devices or Android devices running anything lower than 2.2. would run it. Google is going to launch this as an invite-only beta for Google I/O attendees, Motorola Xoom owners, as well as people who want to sign up for a beta. remember, No “official†announcement has been made yet.
We will wait now for Apple to launch their licensed, and more secure, cloud that is rumored to also have video, photos, contacts, calendars, etc. which expected to be shown off at WWDC 2011 on June 6th!
Following The WSJ report tonight which shows Microsoft, in what would be its most aggressive acquisition in the digital space, was getting closer on buying the online telephony and video communications giant Skype for $8.5 billion all in with an assumption of the company’s debt–$686 million.
Kara of AllThingsD has confirmed the deal is actually done and will be announced early tomorrow morning.
The purchase is a bold move for the software giant and its biggest acquisition in more than three decades.
The big price will give Microsoft–which has struggled in its online efforts and has lost billions of dollars for its work–a big brand name on the Web.
With Skype, which has been aggressively expanding, Microsoft will continue to lose money in its Internet efforts. Skype lost $7 million on revenue of $860 million. Operating profits, which Skype highlighted, were $264 million.
But, sources said, the concept is bigger than just money, including getting access to Skype’s 663 million registered users.
Skype has had a big-company owner before–eBay Inc. paid $2.6 billion in cash and stock for it in 2005, as a way for the auction site’s buyers and sellers to communicate.
Facebook and Nokia seemed to be interested in the acquisition too:
Other suitors have looked at Skype, including Google, although acquisition interest by Facebook was very much overblown, said several sources.
Interestingly, Microsoft’s new smartphone partner Nokia also held meetings with Skype’s CEO Tony Bates, a former Cisco exec who arrived at the company relatively recently.
Update:
The deal confirmed by Microsoft
