AP source: Apple considering Hulu bid (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Inc. is in talks to allow video-streaming service Hulu, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

The person who said that Apple is among several companies interested Hulu, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk about the issue. In early July, the search giant Google Inc. has been said to be among about a dozen companies in talks to potentially buy Hulu. Yahoo is also believed to be interested.

Hulu, owned by Disney, News Corp., Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity Partners, has begun presenting its financial information to interested bidders at the end of last month after the unsolicited offer prompted his counsel to seek other offers.

The online video service stream movies and TV channel ABC, Fox and NBC, and computers – for a monthly fee – a series of Web-connected mobile devices like smartphones and Tablet PC. Hopefully your payment service, Hulu Plus, with more than one million subscribers by the end of summer and its CEO, Jason Kilar, has said it is profitable.

Hulu acquisition for Apple could boost its iTunes store, the video users can rent or buy offers, but currently does not provide streaming content or a streaming subscription service. It could also help the Cupertino-based iPhone and iPhone-like hanger manufacturer with competitors such as online video pioneer Netflix Inc., the DVD offers by e-mail and video-streaming services and video from Google Inc. 'S popular streaming site YouTube, free-flowing, advertising and film distribution in several major studies.

Apple has a lot of money on hand to make a deal. At the end of last quarter, its horde of cash and marketable securities totaled $ 76.2 billion.

And Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is now retired doctor, has a relationship with one of the owners of Hulu is: It is the main shareholder of the Walt Disney Co. "if a member of its board.

However, if Apple – or any other company – were to buy Hulu, there is no guarantee he would be able to continue to disseminate the contents of the current owners of the company. The buyer may have to obtain a new license agreement for content.

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said key to any agreement which would involve an agreement to play Hulu video content of its current. And if, as many analysts expect, Apple develops its own television series, adding Hulu would put the company in an "incredibly powerful position," he said.

Hulu is not just interested in exploring possible deals. Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger told reporters that the owners of Hulu are "determined to sell." He spoke on the sidelines of an annual meeting of media leaders summit organized by investment bank Allen & Co. in Sun Valley, Idaho were. Iger comments reported by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal.

BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said it makes sense that Apple would take a meeting with Hulu, but Hulu because some of the activities funded by advertising which is contrary to the current model of Apple to buy or rent videos. It makes more sense for Google or Yahoo Inc. to buy Hulu, he said.

"They are not the most logical buyers," says Gilles de Apple. "Maybe ascent few bills into the hands of Google makes some sense."

But, as with any surgery, he noted that whether or not useful depends on the purchase price.

Hulu is interested in Apple's previously reported by Bloomberg.

YouTube to stream Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits (AP)

FILE – In this Aug. 8, 2010 file photo, see music fans Wolfmother's performance during the Lollapalooza music festival at Grant Park in Chicago. You

NEW YORK – YouTube will stream the Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in the video, the place continued pressure to get music festivals to digital displays.

Google Inc.-owned YouTube will announce Friday that it will present online coverage of festivals, two of the biggest summer. YouTube has previously flowed festivals like Bonnaroo Tennessee, San Francisco's Outside Lands, and earlier this year, Southern California's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, both produced by C3 Presents will be presented with a great concert coverage from the various festival stages.Dell and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. will sponsor streaming.

Lollapalooza takes place in Chicago August 5 to 7 and will be promoted to a "Lollapalooza Week" on YouTube. Just what action will be broadcast not yet known, but the best performers this year include Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Muse and My Morning Jacket. This is the 20th anniversary of the founding of Perry Farrell event, which began as a traveling festival.

"For those of us who can not do – we have YouTube," said Farrell in a statement: "Be a voyeur at Lollapalooza this year .. Watch as musicians offer their soul and the audience devoured. You just forget that you can not are real. "

Austin City Limits, which runs from September 16 to 18 Capital of Texas, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. His actions are Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, Arcade Fire, Coldplay and My Morning Jacket.

YouTube, the deal is a growth to an increasingly robust digital festival going experience. Streaming Festival is, the site is attractive, because their names as sponsors connected to known events, and users in general, more than they left with three-minute videos. Profile length on average almost one hour.

"This allows us to present more artists every day, which is really exciting for users," said Dana's cousin, YouTube, music marketing programs manager. "And we hope that longer transfer times by taking people who are starting to trickle charge and a sentence to the next."

How many votes will partly depend on what actions will be streamed, but the online audience for festivals often in the millions and even – throughout the weekend – YouTube rival pulls the audience for live events such as the royal wedding in April.Some 72 million people watched the YouTube coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton wedding.

"Over the past 12 to 18 months we got a very long road to the right in live music," says Vetter. "There are a wide audience in connection with these things. The process of live music has come a long way and we hope to go there."

There will be a stream of the first live performances as well as a secondary supply of the backstage areas, and interviews. Interactivity with Facebook and Twitter are also integrated. Videos stay on YouTube for four weeks after the festival.

In recent years, mega-festival proliferation in the digital space, where music fans will not be able to pull (or those who simply prefer to avoid the dirt and heat) in order to follow along online. Vevo, a joint venture of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Co., flocked acts from Bonnaroo this year.National Public Radio will air the Newport Folk Festival (July 30 to 31) and Newport Jazz Festival (06-07 August).

___

Online:

http://www.youtube.com/lollapalooza

Google 2Q results show company thriving under Page (AP)

FILE – In this May 11, 2011 file photo, attendees await the morning keynote address at the Google IO Developers Conference in San Francisco. Google In

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc. CEO Larry Page’s traditionally frosty relationship with Wall Street turned into a warm embrace Thursday after the Internet search leader released strong financial results for its latest quarter.

The results represented Page’s first report card since he became CEO at the start of the second quarter in April, ending the decade-long reign of his mentor, Eric Schmidt.

Although he established himself as engineering and entrepreneurial genius as Google’s co-founder, Page has made it clear since the company went public in 2004 that he is more interested in innovation than focusing on the short-term earnings targets set by stock market analysts.

Page’s standoffish attitude had raised concerns that Google might not exceed expectations as consistently as it did under Schmidt. The concern had been weighing on Google’s stock, causing it to lag well behind the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index.

But the second-quarter results at least temporarily erased the doubts about whether Google can thrive under Page’s unorthodox leadership.

Investors signaled their approval by boosting Google’s stock by more than 12 percent. That restored the stock price to where it stood before Page became CEO on April 4.

Page made analysts even happier by sticking around for the company’s hour-long conference call with analysts. That was a contrast to a cursory appearance he made at Google’s first-quarter call three months ago, which had fed perceptions that Page considered investor relations to be a waste of his time.

In his remarks, Page stressed that he intends to be a “careful steward of shareholders’ money,” while reiterating his intention to invest heavily in hiring more employees and expanding into other markets in pursuit of even bigger profits in the future.

“I see more opportunities for Google today than ever before because, believe it or not, we are still in the very early stages of what we want to do,” Page, 38, said.

Page’s demeanor and commentary “hit all the right notes,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. “It made people feel like maybe things are going to be OK and that (Page) isn’t going to be so hostile toward shareholders after all.”

Google earned $2.5 billion, or $7.68 per share, in the April-June period. That’s a 36 percent increase from $1.84 billion, or $5.71 per share, a year ago.

If not for costs covering employee stock compensation, Google says it would have earned $8.74 per share. That figured easily topped the average estimate of $7.84 per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue increased 32 percent to $9 billion, the first time in Google’s 13-year history that it has brought in that much money in a quarter.

After subtracting Google’s advertising commissions, revenue stood at $6.9 billion — nearly $400 million above analyst projections.

Google shares soared $66.36, or 12.6 percent, to $595.30 in extended trading after finishing the regular session at $528.94. The stock price stood at $591.80 when Page became CEO.

The results are the latest indication that the Internet remains a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster economy.

The contrasts between online and offline commerce during the last few years is like what happened in the Great Depression of the 1930s when “people sold horses and bought cars, so car companies did great,” Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer, said in a Thursday interview. “There is a fundamental shift in how the economy runs and we are living that through the digital economy today.”

Google fared so well because advertisers were willing to pay higher prices to promote their products on the Internet’s largest marketing network. The average price paid per advertising click on Google’s network rose 12 percent from last year. Web surfers also found the ads more enticing, clicking on them 18 percent more than they did at the same time last year.

Page delivered the impressive results even while standing by his vow to invest in projects that may take several years to pay off.

Google’s newest venture, a Facebook-like social network called Plus, debuted two weeks ago and has grown quickly amid positive reviews.

Page said Thursday that more than 10 million people already have joined Plus even though it still requires an invitation to get into it. By comparison, Facebook has more than 750 million users.

Google is hoping Plus can become as big a hit as its Android software for mobile phones and tablet computers. Although Google gives away the software, it has enabled Google to expand its advertising dominance into the mobile market as more people increasingly connect to the Web away from their home and office computers.

Page said more than 550,000 devices relying on Android are being activated each day. Google estimates there about 135 million devices that rely on Android.

“All of us at Google want to create services that people in the world use twice a day, just like a toothbrush,” Page said.

To help carry out its ambitious agenda, Google increased its payroll by 9 percent, or 2,452 employees, in the quarter to bring its workforce to nearly 28,800 people. The additions included 450 workers inherited as part of the company’s $700 million acquisition of airline fare tracker ITA Software.

Through the first half of the year, Google added nearly 4,400 workers. That’s well ahead of its pledge to hire at least 6,200 employees this year. Even Page indicated the hiring is occurring a little faster than he anticipated.

Google temporarily disables ‘Realtime’ search (AP)

Google Inc. has temporarily a search function, users can find the real-time updates from Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and other social networking sites shut down.

A message was posted early Monday morning on Twitter from the team behind Google Real Time says the search function is temporarily disabled, while Google is examining how to integrate the newly launched Google project in the function. The tweet tells readers to "stay tuned".

The company such as Google sees information with other real-time data from a variety of sources, said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman.

Google is the search giant last bag when entering the social networking segment of the Internet. The project was unveiled last week and allows users to share things with small groups of people.

AP Source: Google among firms looking to buy Hulu (AP)

Los Angeles – Search giant Google Inc. is one of a dozen companies involved in talks to possibly buy the online video site Hulu, said a person familiar with the matter Friday. As owner of YouTube, it would be a strategic acquisition of Silicon Valley technology company that has had a rocky relationship with Hulu is Hollywood owners.

Hulu has begun presenting its financial information to many potential bidders, but it is too early to declare a pioneer, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.

Online video service began to seek bidders early last week after an unsolicited offer prompted Hulu board to pursue other interests.

Hulu streams movies and TV shows from broadcasters NBC, Fox and NBC to personal computers, and for a monthly fee for a number of web-connected devices.The company is owned by broadcasters parent, The Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp., along with Providence Equity Partners. In February, said Hulu CEO Jason Spikes Hulu gets one million paying customers at the end of the year and generates nearly $ 500 million in revenue, up from $ 263,000,000 in 2010. He has said that the company is profitable.

Google's own attempts last year to launch a service, streaming web content to TVs, Google TV, was met with a blockade of the broadcaster that continues to this day. People who use personal computers can see the last show on Hulu for free with ads, but they try to access them through Google TV can not. Hulu does not allow viewers to watch their programs on mobile devices or via television, unless the user subscribes to Hulu Plus, an $ 8-A-month plan that provides access to a wider range of materials.

Even if Google were to buy Hulu has the right to continue to stream content from its current owners are not guaranteed. Broadcasters insist Mountain View, California, Google has to reach a new agreement to license the content to be used that way.

YouTube, Google also rent movies from studios like Sony, Warner Bros, Universal and Lionsgate, but not Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Fox Paramount owner Viacom Inc. is appealing a lower court's rejection of their demands for $ 1 billion that accuses YouTube to show thousands of pirated clips from their programs.

Google's interest in Hulu previously reported by the Los Angeles Times.

A Google spokesman said the company did not comment on rumors and speculation. A Hulu spokeswoman declined comment.

Google unveils latest social networking feat (AP)

NEW YORK – Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time the project is called Google+ and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.

“We think people communicate in very rich ways,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google. “The online tools we have to choose from give us very rigid services.”

Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups difficult. They don’t allow for the nuances that people are used to in offline communication and because they call so many acquaintances “friends,” said Gundotra in a blog post announcing the service.

Many Facebook users, for instance, find it difficult to limit their status updates to small groups of people so that their coworkers aren’t exposed to party photos or their parents aren’t privy to flirtatious posts on their “wall.” Though Facebook has tried to address this with a much-hyped “Groups” feature, it’s not clear how many people use it.

Gundotra’s criticism seems aimed squarely at Facebook, the world’s largest online social network. Facebook has become synonymous with online sharing since its founding seven years ago.

In a prepared statement, Facebook said only that “we’re in the early days of making the web more social, and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere.”

Google, which dominates Internet search with a firm hold on two-thirds of the U.S. market, has been experimenting with different social tools since late 2009 with limited success. “Buzz” was one major mishap. The product was a social network attached to Google’s popular Gmail service, and it wound up exposing email contacts that users did not want to share. Google eventually agreed to submit to independent audits of its privacy controls every other year for the next two decades as part of a Federal Trade Commission settlement.

Google shut down another attempt at online sharing, Google Wave, last August after unveiling it with much fanfare in 2009. The service, which let users chat, share files and collaborate on documents in real time, didn’t gain enough fans.

More than a year in the works, the project Google unveiled Tuesday lets users share things with smaller groups of people through a feature called “Circles.” This means only college buddies, say, or your favorite co-workers can see the photos, links our updates that you post.

Another feature called “Sparks” aims to make it easier to find online content you care about, be it news about surfing or barbecue recipes. You can then share this with friends who might be interested in it. In an online video, Google calls it “nerding out” and exploring a subject together.

There’s also a group messaging service called “Huddle” and a feature that lets users instantly upload photos that they take with mobile phones. The photos are stored in a private photo album on Google’s remote servers, and users can access them and share them as they see fit.

Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li has high hopes for the friend grouping feature. She said that her biggest pet peeve with Facebook is its existing friend management tools. She noted that millions of people already use Google to share things with others via email, and Google+ looks like a natural extension of this type of sharing, making it more functional and organized.

“I think Facebook is going to have to up its game,” she said.

Google+ is undergoing what the company calls a “field trial,” so it’s accessible by invitation only and not yet available to the public. The company declined to say when it’ll be more widely available.

Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, believes the game is over in the competition to become the world’s global social network. With 700 million users, Facebook has won, he said.

There’s a lot more to the social Web than just creating a successful social network, though, and Kerner thinks that with Google+ the search leader is trying to make its existing product offerings more social.

“I don’t think they’re seeing this as a direct competitor to Facebook,” he said.

Google+ does have its skeptics.

“People have their social circles on Facebook,” said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer. “Asking them to create another social circle is challenging.”

And Google is still best known for its flagship service, online search.

“The whole idea of a Google social network…they’ve been throwing stuff against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck.” Going to Google to be social, she added, is like “going to Starbucks for the muffins. Or, for that matter, going to Facebook for search.”

__

AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Google unveils latest social networking feat (AP)

NEW YORK – Online search leader Google Inc. is taking yet another stab at social networking, as it tries to go up against Facebook in this wildly popular and lucrative segment of the Internet. This time the project is called Google+ and it aims to make online sharing more like real life.

“We think people communicate in very rich ways,” said Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google. “The online tools we have to choose from give us very rigid services.”

Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups difficult. They don’t allow for the nuances that people are used to in offline communication and because they call so many acquaintances “friends,” said Gundotra in a blog post announcing the service.

Many Facebook users, for instance, find it difficult to limit their status updates to small groups of people so that their coworkers aren’t exposed to party photos or their parents aren’t privy to flirtatious posts on their “wall.” Though Facebook has tried to address this with a much-hyped “Groups” feature, it’s not clear how many people use it.

Gundotra’s criticism seems aimed squarely at Facebook, the world’s largest online social network. Facebook has become synonymous with online sharing since its founding seven years ago.

In a prepared statement, Facebook said only that “we’re in the early days of making the web more social, and there are opportunities for innovation everywhere.”

Google, which dominates Internet search with a firm hold on two-thirds of the U.S. market, has been experimenting with different social tools since late 2009 with limited success. “Buzz” was one major mishap. The product was a social network attached to Google’s popular Gmail service, and it wound up exposing email contacts that users did not want to share. Google eventually agreed to submit to independent audits of its privacy controls every other year for the next two decades as part of a Federal Trade Commission settlement.

Google shut down another attempt at online sharing, Google Wave, last August after unveiling it with much fanfare in 2009. The service, which let users chat, share files and collaborate on documents in real time, didn’t gain enough fans.

More than a year in the works, the project Google unveiled Tuesday lets users share things with smaller groups of people through a feature called “Circles.” This means only college buddies, say, or your favorite co-workers can see the photos, links our updates that you post.

Another feature called “Sparks” aims to make it easier to find online content you care about, be it news about surfing or barbecue recipes. You can then share this with friends who might be interested in it. In an online video, Google calls it “nerding out” and exploring a subject together.

There’s also a group messaging service called “Huddle” and a feature that lets users instantly upload photos that they take with mobile phones. The photos are stored in a private photo album on Google’s remote servers, and users can access them and share them as they see fit.

Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li has high hopes for the friend grouping feature. She said that her biggest pet peeve with Facebook is its existing friend management tools. She noted that millions of people already use Google to share things with others via email, and Google+ looks like a natural extension of this type of sharing, making it more functional and organized.

“I think Facebook is going to have to up its game,” she said.

Google+ is undergoing what the company calls a “field trial,” so it’s accessible by invitation only and not yet available to the public. The company declined to say when it’ll be more widely available.

Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, believes the game is over in the competition to become the world’s global social network. With 700 million users, Facebook has won, he said.

There’s a lot more to the social Web than just creating a successful social network, though, and Kerner thinks that with Google+ the search leader is trying to make its existing product offerings more social.

“I don’t think they’re seeing this as a direct competitor to Facebook,” he said.

Google+ does have its skeptics.

“People have their social circles on Facebook,” said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with research firm eMarketer. “Asking them to create another social circle is challenging.”

And Google is still best known for its flagship service, online search.

“The whole idea of a Google social network…they’ve been throwing stuff against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck.” Going to Google to be social, she added, is like “going to Starbucks for the muffins. Or, for that matter, going to Facebook for search.”

__

AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Microsoft puts Office in the cloud, confronts Google (Reuters)

A Nokia staff member shows off the new Nokia N9 phone on the sidelines of CommunicAsia 2011, an international communications and information technolog

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is making its biggest move into the mobile, Internet-accessible world of cloud computing this week, as it takes the wraps off a revamped online version of its hugely profitable Office software suite.

The world's largest software company is heaving its two-decade old set of applications — including Outlook email, Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint collaboration tools — into an online format so that customers can use them on a variety of devices from wherever they can get an Internet connection.

It wants to push back against Google Inc, which has stolen a small but worrying percentage of its corporate customers with cheaper, web-only alternatives, which remove the need for companies to spend time on installing software or managing servers.

"It's obvious that Microsoft has to do this if they're going to remain competitive with Google," said Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of money manager YCMNET Advisors. "It's something they have to do."

Microsoft shares rose 3.7 percent on Monday, the largest gain in a single trading day since September, partly buoyed by hopes that it can ultimately boost profits by extending its software dominance to the growing cloud sector.

"If they execute effectively and it's adopted, it could be a game changer," said Yoshikami. "Whether or not that will happen is a whole other story."

Microsoft has offered online versions of some Office programs — chiefly Outlook email — for its corporate customers for several years, and last year rolled out free versions for individual home users.

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is set to present an overhauled and updated set of offerings — collectively called Office 365 — at an event in New York City on Tuesday morning, underlining the company's newfound online focus.

GROWING MARKET

The market for web-based software services is heating up, and every company, government department and local authority is getting pitches from Microsoft and Google whenever they reevaluate their office software.

It's a new challenge for Microsoft, which built itself up on expensive versions of software installed on individual computers. That business model turned the Office unit into Microsoft's most profitable, earning more than $3 billion alone last quarter.

Microsoft's plan is to make up for smaller profit margins from web-based applications — due to the cost of handling data and keeping up servers — by grabbing a larger slice of companies' overall technology spending.

Last October, when it rolled out a test version of the new service, Microsoft said it planned to charge from $2 per user per month for basic email services to $27 per user per month for advanced offerings. Google charges a flat fee of $50 per user per year for its Web-based Google Apps product, which offers email, calendars, word processing and more online.

Microsoft, like Google, will host users' data remotely, and maintain all the servers in vast data centers. Unlike Google, it will also allow companies to put their data on dedicated servers if they choose, or keep the data on their own premises.

The full launch of Office 365 will spice up the lively competition with Google for new users.

Earlier this month, Google snagged InterContinental Hotels Group as a major customer, moving 25,000 of its employees onto Google email from Outlook.

Google, which has had the most success in the small and medium-sized business range, says there are now 40 million users of online Google Apps suite. Microsoft does not publish equivalent numbers, but research firm comScore has estimated 750 million people worldwide use Office in some form.

But Internet-centric Google — whose success is based on its dominance in web search — is confident it has the upper hand in the cloud.

"Compared to what they (Microsoft) have in the market today, they have nowhere to go but up," said Dave Girouard, head of Google's worldwide enterprise business. "We feel we're years ahead of them in terms of building a viable cloud solution that just works."

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Google at the center of antitrust probes – source (Reuters)

File photo of Google Inc's logo

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google Inc found itself at the center of multiple government investigations on Thursday into whether it is using its dominance in search advertising to scotch competition.

At least three state attorneys general have started antitrust investigations into Google, a source familiar with the matter said.

The source declined to elaborate on the details of the investigations by the attorneys general of California, Ohio and New York as they were still in the early stages.

The attorneys general investigation into Google was first reported by the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the investigations.

The news of the attorneys general investigation emerged on the same day the Wall Street Journal reported that the internet search giant is about to receive the civil equivalent of a subpoena from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as part of a probe into the company's Internet search business.

The company, which dominates U.S. and global markets for search advertising, has been accused by competitors of favoring its own services over rivals in its search results.

Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, and the FTC declined to comment on the Journal report.

Google was not immediately available to comment on the attorneys general investigation. The attorneys general of California and New York declined comment while the attorney general of Ohio was not immediately available for comment.

The FTC plans to send the civil investigative demand with a request for more information, the civil equivalent of a subpoena, within five days, according to the Journal report.

U.S. antitrust regulators have been concerned about Google's dominance of the Web search industry, and it has been under investigation by the European Commission since last November.

Complaints has been filed with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, many from Google rivals who specialize in vertical searches like price comparison websites, which are widely seen as a threat to Google's position as a key gateway to online information.

"The distraction that comes from a federal investigation should not be underestimated," Colin Gillis of BGC Partners said, noting that one of Google's best options to grow — by moving into adjacent markets — was being hampered by antitrust probes.

Gillis noted that the real cost of the FTC investigation was not financial. "The issue comes down to management distraction, that's a real cost," he said.

Google has been in a stock slump. The company's shares began the year a touch above $600, but are now below $500. Google shares closed at $480.2 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.

Google has weathered other antitrust setbacks. The company walked away from a search deal with Yahoo! Inc in 2008 when the Justice Department signaled it was prepared to challenge it.

A New York judge has said that a deal Google had made with publishers and authors to create a massive digital library was illegal, partially because it effectively gave Google the rights to books that are in copyright but whose authors cannot be found.

(Reporting by Abhishek Takle, Bill Rigby and Diane Bartz; Editing by John Wallace, Maureen Bavdek and Bernard Orr)

Google buys AdMeld in latest Web acquisition: report (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Google Inc. bought the online advertising technology companies AdMeld to $ 400,000,000, according to an influential technology blog.

The agreement TechCrunch, citing unnamed sources, several strengthen the Google brand last effort, the company on the graphical display ad market, where it competes with rivals such as Yahoo and Facebook.

Four years is a AdMeld Discovery Communications, Fox News, Hearst and The Weather Channel TV to their customers, according to its website.

It was not $ 30 million in financing from investors, including the Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner to increase investment, cited several unnamed sources say TechCrunch.

Google, world No. 1 Internet search engine, rejected a statement.

Google has been on an acquisition spree, spending $ 1800000000 for more than 40 companies in 2010.

The vast majority of Google's revenues, which amounted to approximately $ 29000000000 in 2010, comes from the small ads that appear alongside search results. But the company's efforts in display advertising has been increasingly exploited.

In October, Google says its banner advertising business generates revenue at an annual rate of $ 2500000000 run.