World Tech Update, February 2, 2012
Thanks for joining us here on World Tech Update. Lots of big news this week. We'll start with Facebook that announced a 5 billion dollar IPO Wednesday. It's S-1 document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission said that in December 2011 the site tallied 483 million daily active users on the site, up 50% year on year. The company made a staggering 1 billion dollars in profit last year, up from 600 million in 2010. San Francisco's Southpark is where tech types go to lunch. It's the crowd that should care about Facebook's IPO, but the mood is cautious.
Analysts say that the money raised from the IPO will empower Facebook to mount a more serious challenge to Goolgle. Among some of the more interesting facts in the filing is how much the companies top executives make. Last year CEO Mark Zuckerberg made one and a half million while Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg raked in almost 31 million. Almost all of her compensation was from stock awards.>>>>
One business not as lucky as Facebook is Sony. The company expects to lose 3 billion dollars in its current fiscal year through March. Sony attributes loses to expenses related to the sale of its share in its LCD joint venture with Samsung, the effect of flooding in Thailand, the strong yen and other expenses. A day before it announced its dire set of problems, it announced that Kaz Hirai will takeover the CEO post from Howard Stringer come April.
Hirai currently run's Sony's consumer products division and is credited with turning around the company's PlayStation business. His biggest challenge as CEO will be turning around the company's TV business, which has been in the red for 8 years. Hirai said the company has no intentions on quitting the business. Some analysts have suggested that Sony focused more on parts of the company that have industry superiority like digital imaging.>>>>
The Asus Padfone, a smartphone tablet hybrid will debut at Mobile World Congress later this month in Barcelona. We'll of course be there to bring you the latest. You're seeing video of the prototype that was first shown last year at Computex in Taiwan. Some industry watchers expect the device to run Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich. The Padfone has a 4.3 inch smartphone that pops into a 10.1 tablet. Asus Chairman Jonney Shih indicated that the Padfone would ship in the first quarter of this year, but didn't disclose pricing.>>>>
The Swedish Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from the founders of The Pirate Bay against prison sentences and fines imposed by the lower court. Over a year ago the Court of Appeals sentenced the trio to jail time ranging from 4-10 months and a collective fine of 6.7 million dollars.>>>>
Out in San Francisco this week thousands flocked to Macworld iWorld. Let's hear from Macworld's Alexandra Chang about some of the gadgets she saw there.
That's our show for this week, thanks for joining us here on World Tech Update. To find out what's coming up on every week's show be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. As we head out this week we'll leave you with more shots from Macworld iWorld. I'm Nick Barber and for all of us here at the IDG News Service, thanks for watching and we hope to see you next week.
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Produced by
IDG News Service
Nick Barber
Reporting
IDG News Service
Nick Barber
Kerry Davis
Jay Alabaster
Mikael Ricknäs
Bob Brown, Network World
Macworld
Video
IDG News Service
Macworld
© IDG 2012
Coming up on World Tech Update, Facebook announces an IPO, Sony's business is in trouble, the Asus Padfone sets for a debut and thousands flock to Macworld iWorld.
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