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Zhu Zhu Pets Are Big Christmas Toy

“Zhu Zhu Pets, sold in the UK as Go Go Pets, are the hottest toy of the season, according to Jerry Storch, chief executive of Toys R Us, the retailer, a phenomenon on a par with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the smash hit of Christmas 1987.” Link (more…)

Wall Street Bankers To Get Huge Bonuses Via Stock

“Banks cut bonuses last year and shifted more pay into stock and options from cash, a tactic that lawmakers supported for its emphasis on long-term performance. Within months, the financial system began to mend — partly with the help of billions of dollars in government aid — and that stock began surging in value. Some of it can be cashed in starting in just a few months. ” Link

Bing Moves Up In Search

“Microsoft’s Bing search engine is making inroads into Google’s dominance of the search market according to data from US net measurement firm ComScore. Its latest figures show Microsoft’s share of the search market has grown from 8.9% in July to 9.3% in August. ” Link

Dell Buying Perot Systems

“Dell Inc struck a deal to acquire computer services provider Perot Systems Corp for about $3.9 billion, offering a steep 67.5 percent premium to its previous market value.” Link

EBay To Sell Skype To Investor Group

“The investment group is likely to include Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by the Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, these people said. One of the people added that Index Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm that was an early investor in Skype, and the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners were also involved.” Link

China Unicom Opens China To iPhone

“Mobile operator China Unicom has signed a deal with Apple to launch the popular iPhone into the world’s largest mobile phone market.” Link

Google To Enter Mortgage Quote Business, Says Lawsuit

“Google plans to begin offering loan quotes online as early as this month, a lawsuit filed in federal court this week claims. The suit was filed by LendingTree, which offers consumers mortgage quotes and conditional loan offers online, against Mortech, a company that provides some of the technology that powers the LendingTree service.” Link

Report: Bernie Madoff Has Cancer

Bernie Madoff picture

“Madoff, who is serving 150 years at a North Carolina federal lockup after pleading guilty to swindling more than $65 billion, has been telling fellow inmates he does not have much longer to live. “He’s been taking about 20 pills a day for his cancer,” said one inmate. ” Link

Report: Sony Announcement Caused Microsoft To Delay XBox Price Drop

“According to sources, Microsoft was to announce a price cut to the Xbox 360 Elite, and may have replaced the Pro unit with it. However, one electronics retailer claims that Microsoft decided to delay the announcement while waiting for Arcade and Elite units to clear up more from shelves.” Link

Google To Improve Adsense Targeting

“A Google AdSense post announces that Google will be making changes to their contextual targeting algorithms in the near future. Woojin Kim, Google AdSense Product Manager said, “this week, we’ll be rolling out a series of enhancements to AdSense’s contextual targeting capabilities, which will more accurately match relevant ads to webpages.”” Link