Mature a start-up, working with AmEx

Then Facebook and Google borrowed the concept — and even the term check-ins. Analysts and users wondered if those Internet giants would squash Foursquare as a bug.

So far, apparently, Foursquare is holding the Earth. The company said this week that it had hit 10 million registered users, although I would not say how many of them are active.

And Thursday, Foursquare plans to introduce its partnership biggest until now: a national agreement with American Express to offer discounts to cardholders when they check in on their cell phone at some stores and restaurants.

Foursquare users are accustomed to receive prizes in the form of coupons and merit badges. But bids more substantial, such as those offered to holders of American Express card can bring Foursquare and other location based services further into the mainstream.

These services have been slower to recover between people who do not live in dense urban areas like Manhattan, where the meetings with friends are often just a taxi ride away.

In may, the Pew Research Center found that only 4 percent of American adults use such services to share their location. Companies like Foursquare to offers, as a way to make their offers more attractive for those who may not want to meet after work for a drink, but would be interested to get a deep discount on sneakers.

"In 2010, it was all about check-in," said Noah Elkin, an industry analyst with eMarketer, a mobile advertising and marketing company. "Now, is to check out".

Although Foursquare will not receive any revenue from the deal, American Express, says the promotion will help legitimize the approach of the company and will help attract other more profitable partnerships.

To begin, American Express will offer deals to the authorities and the sports clothing retailer H & M, together with some restaurants in New York, as the barbecue and Union Square Cafe mixed Blue Smoke. For example, buyers who spend $ 75 m & H will receive a $ 10 credit to their American Express accounts. Those who spend $ 50 at Sports Authority will get a reward of $ 20.

Edward p. Gilligan, vice President of American Express, said that the national deployment came after a test run in March South from music and Technology Conference Southwest. On average, those in the program spent more than 20 percent of American Express card holders who do not have access to special offers, Mr. Gilligan said.

"We have always done marketing with merchants to make offerings to our members, how to send offers by direct mail, put the information on sales on the Internet," he said. "But the response rates tend to be low".

The trial version of Foursquare bond brought a higher response rate than anything we're doing, "said Mr. Gilligan.

American Express also hopes that by combining with a start-up that appeals to hip and technologically skilled, it can appeal to a younger clientele.

"We don't tend to tilt under 35," said Mr Gilligan. "Hopefully this will help us to remain relevant to younger customers.

He said the company elected to partner with Foursquare instead of Google or Facebook why Foursquare already has a widely accepted system that rewards the user loyalty.

American Express can work with other companies in the future, said Mr. Gilligan, though he said he was sure that Foursquare would be the focus of the company for a while. "The point is for us to find customers where they are already active," he said.

Dennis Crowley, Executive Director and a founder of Foursquare, attributed his momentum continued in its singular focus on the spot. "When people think about Facebook, think about it as a place to send their friends messages or post updates, not necessarily as a place for check-in," he said. "We are associated with one thing, position, and that really helps."

He also said that the partnership of American Express was a sign that Foursquare, which now has about 21 million dollars from investors and more than 60 employees, was maturing. "We started by offering vouchers for Keys D-Lite and other smaller deals, and now we are introducing offers to the millions that use American Express," he said.

Foursquare is growing faster than similar startups. Gowalla, another check in service based in Austin, TeX., has about a million users, while Loopt, a location service rival mobile, has more than five million.

Google says its latitude service has 10 million active users over the last 30 days, although that includes people who were using on the PC.

Malorie Lucich, Facebook spokesman, declined to say how its location service called places, was faring. In the past, the company said that more than 250 million people were using the mobile application, although it did not offer specifics on location service.

Analysts say the capacity of those services offer customized offers buyers will become more valuable as the daily deal and coupon market becomes more and more cluttered.

"If you look at Groupon and LivingSocial, they put out a lot of offers, but are random," said Madeline k. Aufseeser, a senior analyst at Aite Group, a research and consulting firm focused on the financial services sector. "You could be a man and constantly getting beauty services offered by you."

Collaborations, such as the American Express one, he said, is targeted to merchants because the sites are aimed at those who actually use them. In addition, companies working with Foursquare and American Express will be able to leave the paper coupons or even the need to scan the screen of their phone at a Terminal. The awards will be counted behind the scenes with every shot and the tap.

"There is a whole new industry evolving around to deliver more sophisticated offerings, geographic based," he said. "It's only going to get much more powerful."

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Oracle profit rises, but weak Hardware sales are troubling

Oracle said computer sales in its fourth quarter ended May 31, dropped the 6 percent to 1.2 billion dollars compared to the same quarter a year earlier. When services are added, the company's hardware revenue was flat, at 1.8 billion dollars.

Oracle threw hardware as an important part of its future and the poor showing raised fears that the acquisition of 7.4 billion Sun was failed to live up to its billing.

Shares of Oracle fell by more than 4 percent in after-hours trading. Investors have long been suspicious about Oracle can turn around business server Sun, who struggled before the acquisition was completed in late January.

Oracle's fourth quarter was the first time investors were able to see a full-on-year comparison of that segment owned by Oracle.

Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said the results underwhelming hardware sector were not too worrying. The results of hardware, however, were still much lower than the company had forecast, he said.

"They have identified this early that they would streamline the business of Sun," said Mr. Barnicle. "It takes a while to do, but all of us hoped that would have done by now."

Oracle execs emphatically rejected the idea that they are suffering for hardware sales. Throw the decline as part of a deliberate strategy to pare back unprofitable sales. Two policies, the resale of products of other companies and sale of low-cost servers, not the Oracle strategy, said Mark Hurd v., Oracle Co-President.

"I just think we are following the fundamentals of building a solid business," he said in a conference call. He described the lost revenue as "worthless".

Oracle profit still beat expectations. Excluding certain one-time charges, earnings were 75 cents per share; analysts had expected 71 cents per share, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters.

Oracle has reported that the total net income in the fourth quarter rose 36 percent, to $ 3.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, from $ 2.4 billion, or 46 cents, in the year-ago quarter.

The company said revenue climbed 13 percent to 10.8 billion, from $ 9.5 billion. Analysts had expected 10.75 billion.

The decline in sales of hardware was more than made by increases in the main business of Oracle software. New license software revenue, a critical measure of the activity of the company because it brings future recurring revenues, grew 19 percent to $ 3.7 billion.

Executives also boasted Exadata, a more recent initiative to sell software bundled with the server for large companies. More than 1,000 Exadata machines installed around the world, Oracle said, and the current fiscal year in goal is to triple that number.

Oracle has estimated that its revenues would rise before the fourth 10 to 13 per cent, which falls within analysts ' expectations. Adjusted income should be 45-48 cents per share, in line with the average estimate of 46 cents by analysts.

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DealBook: Hulu weighs sale after unsolicited offer

Hulu has established itself as a Centre for TV shows and movies online streaming.

Hulu, the online video service, weighs a possible sale of the company after receiving a takeover bid by an unidentified bidder, informed on people said Tuesday.

The unsolicited bid has prompted the Council of Hulu, considering its options, and the company is talking to potential counselors, these people said. May contact potential buyers, as well as on other media companies and private equity firms who wanted the opportunity to purchase the service.

Once people warning that the Council of Hulu had not decided to sell.

Founded as a joint venture by NBC Universal, News Corporation, the Walt Disney Company and Providence Equity Partners, Hulu has established itself as a hub for streaming TV shows and movies online.

Though popular, Hulu has worked to make a profit. The company introduced a subscription service to complement its main offering free, advertising based.

A potential buyer would also consider the cost of premium content from Hulu, noted Andy Hargreaves, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. A giant of technology such as Microsoft or Google might be a good fit, he said, but it would be difficult.

"The difficulty of purchasing Hulu is that you are purchasing from content providers, so there's a decent chance that the cost of content eventually will rise," he said. "But if you think revenue will grow in line with the costs, so it might be worth 2 billion dollars or more."

Hulu has lost two of his most vocal supporters: Peter Chernin, former President of News Corporation and Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal, who left last fall. James Murdoch, who became Deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation in March, is among those who are much more skeptical about the prospects of Hulu's business

Last year, Hulu considering an initial public offering of staging, but set aside his plans.

Representatives for Hulu declined to comment or were not available.

News of the offer at the beginning is reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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As 3D falls from favor, Director of ' Transformers ' seeks to promote it

In particular, Mr Bay, the Director and Paramount Pictures, which will publish "Dark of the Moon" on June 29, are racing to convince viewers that the robot movie is really, truly, honestly worth the extra $ 3 to $ 5 per ticket to see it in 3-d.

This is unknown territory for Mr. Bay, which usually has to defend the narrative arc of his films, not the visuals. But there has been a spate of disappointing revenues for movies in 3D as an audience in North America has been souring on format. Consequently, companies with huge investments in technology are scrambling to reverse the downward trend. Rebellion of consumers above the premium ticket price is a recent films like "Pirates of the Caribbean: on Stranger tides" fought in 3-d while 85 percent of the total domestic box office for "Avatar" came from 3D in 2009, the format delivered only about 47 percent of revenue "On Stranger tides."

The industry is counting on "Dark of the Moon" to turn around perceptions of 3-d — even on Wall Street. Actions for DreamWorks Animation, one of Hollywood's most vocal supporters of 3D, fell nearly 18 percent compared to last month. Stock in Regal Entertainment, the largest theater chain in the nation, dropped 11 percent, which analysts link to 3D. RealD 3D technology leader, down 24 percent.

So Mr. Bay was chatting with journalists and bloggers about how he has pushed the technology, including a camera for the helmet of a paratrooper strapping. At an industry event on May 18, Paramount put on stage with James Cameron, who directed "Avatar" to extol the virtues of middle and fanned chat video across the Web. Television advertising almost sort of funny and wear glasses contain slogans such as "3-d was transformed".

Last week, Mr Bay also called leaders of major theater chains to implore them to show "Dark of the Moon" in a way that burns more rapidly out bulbs 3D projector but does look brighter and sharper.

"We are putting all our resources in this," said Brad Grey, Chairman of Paramount. "Is the most spectacular visual experience I have ever seen".

Filming of "Dark of the Moon" cost an extra $ 30 million at Paramount, bringing the total budget of 195 million dollars. Robot launch straight to viewers, and the men of the same suit ala soar around office buildings in Chicago. Tangle of robot wheel with military helicopters; a skyscraper is ripped in half by a trio of crazed mechanic. The story focuses on the Autobots and Decepticons clash on a spacecraft.

"If this was my name on it, I was determined to make technically perfect," Mr Bay said by telephone. "We have devoted an enormous amount of time making sure that the eye is the transition from one shot to shot."

Using the crew "Avatar" of Mr. Cameron, Mr. Bay in particular turned in 3-d on outdoor collections; so far the technology has mostly been limited to departments because of its mass. Mr Bay, known for the rapid pace of its images, also had to slow down a bit, using the blows longer and wider shots to maximize the effect. "If you pan too quickly will give viewers a feeling nervous," he said.

Industry analysts say studios themselves have sent the market reeling releasing 3D movies stream in paragraph format. Many film billed as 3D extravagances recently haven't been filmed using 3D cameras but were hastily converted into three dimensions during the post-production work.

"The consumer has had a reaction to evil 3D and 3D thin," said Rob Moore, vice Chairman of Paramount. "I'm tired of sitting in a theater thinking, ' wait, is this film in 3-d, or not?" Well, with ' Transformers ' people are going to leave saying: ' Absolutely see this in 3-d. ' "

Mr. Bay is not just big-time Director having to proselytize. Next month, Steven Spielberg would trek at Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego for comic book enthusiasts and entertainment related, to promote his upcoming film 3-d "the adventures of Tintin: secret of the Unicorn." Martin Scorsese has a 3-d period mystery, "Hugo cabret," due in November; Mr Cameron is working on "Avatar" sequels and a 3D version of "Titanic".

"Transformers" is one of the most valuable franchise of Hollywood. The first movie took in approximately $ 710 million in 2007. Two years later "Revenge of the Fallen" had global sales of more than 836 million dollars despite abysmal reviews. (Mr Bay has then said that even he winces when she looks back on his fiction.)

If many viewers opt to see "Dark of the Moon" in 3-d, it could climb over one billion dollars. Mr Cameron predicts consumers will respond favorably.

"When they see something that blows their minds, which is the most exciting," said may 18 event, which contained about 15 minutes of the film "Dark of the Moon". "Like the one we just experienced here."

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Bits: Loopt limelight everyday Deal model upside down with U-Deal

The best feature of the daily deal sites like Groupon and living social is also their worst. They tend to flood the inboxes of their subscribers with dozens of discounted services from a wide range of places — by tequila tastings at a Mexican restaurant with private lessons at a yoga studio in lawn care services of luxury — whether or not users are concerned.

Loopt lets users take a bargain and recruit others to commit to purchase if the deal is offered.

Loopt, a location-based mobile communications, is seeking a slightly different approach to the phenomenon daily deal. The company is testing a program in San Francisco that calls U-offerings; the idea is to let people who use its service request the deal they want and then recruit their friends and family through Facebook and Twitter to commit to purchase if the deal gets green lighted. Then, Loopt stretches for the company or the dealer and presents them with the offer.

"Users get to choose where the deal is and are involved in the process," said Sam Altman, CEO and founder of the company. "This is the inverse of the daily deal model".

The company introduced the new early Wednesday and late in the afternoon had already secured the first agreement: a travel voucher $ 35 with Virgin America worth $ 100. Loopt provided 500 gift certificates to their users and sold all of them within the hour.

While Loopt is already partnering with Groupon to show users deals in their area, Mr. Altman thinks that the new feature could be a bigger advantage for companies looking for loyal customers. In addition, Loopt can set caps on how many registered users for a bargain, circumvent the problem of small businesses that get overwhelmed by the response to their bigger deal than expected.

"Their main customers claim by word of mouth," he said. "As more people sign up for a deal, we can call this activity and say we have $ 2,000 in revenue and new customers, if you accept these conditions."

Abby Lunardini, a spokesman at Virgin America, said the company was satisfied with the results from the experiment group purchasing.

"Adding component generated through U-Deals was something that was really cool and interesting for us, because you really get to people who want to buy," he said. "Our fliers tend to live through their mobile devices and online and are super-engaged with our brand in those channels".

On Thursday, I reported the growing interest of merchants to offer personalized offers to encourage repeated visits and loyalty, instead of targeting a large audience that can collect once and never return.

Ms. Lunardini said that American Virgin has seen the high returns from work with Loopt users offers targeted campaigns.

"Last year we launched the first airline offer with their geolocation, offering a two-for-one deal on our New Mexico flights for those who checked in at popular local food truck in L.A. and San Francisco," he said. "That day was our fifth day of highest sales in 2010."

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Dutch lawmakers adopt net neutrality Bill

The measure, which was adopted by a large majority in the lower House of Dutch Parliament, will prevent the Tweede Kamer, KPN, the Dutch telecommunications market leader and the Dutch unit Vodafone and T-Mobile, block or charging for Internet services. Its sponsors said that the measure would pass a proforma to review Dutch Senate smoothly.

Analysts said that the restrictions imposed in the Netherlands may shape Europe is wider, the evolving debate on net neutrality, pushing more countries of the continent to limit operators acting as self-appointed toll collectors of mobile Internet.

"I could see even some countries, following the example of the Netherlands," said Jacques de Greling, an analyst at Natixis, a French Bank. "I think there will be pressure from consumers to make clear what they are buying, whether Internet or Internet-full light."

Supporters greeted the move as a victory for consumers, while industry officials predicted that the mobile broadband charges could increase in the Netherlands to compensate for the new restrictions.

"We support network neutrality," said Sandra de Jong, spokesman for Consumentenbond, the largest Dutch consumer organization, based in the Hague. "We do not believe that operators should be able to limit Internet. That would be a bad precedent. "

Luigi Gambardella, President of the Executive Committee of the Association of European Telecommunications Network operators, an industrial group headquartered in Brussels, warned that the Netherlands legislation could dissuade operators from making the necessary investments in high-speed networks for fear of expensive infrastructure but unprofitable.

"Any further regulation should avoid discouraging investment and innovative business models, which leads to more efficient use of networks and the creation of new business opportunities," said Mr. Gambardella. He said that operators needed the ability to charge different rates for different levels of service, to cover the costs of data-demanding applications.

Operators still could offer a range of mobile data rates with different download speed and service levels, but would not be able to bind the specific rates for specific Internet services.

Under Dutch law, the operators could be fined up to 10 percent of their annual sales to violations by the national telecommunications regulator OPTA.

Patrick Nickolson, a spokesman for KPN, said that the measure could lead to increased broadband prices in the Netherlands, because operators are limited in their ability to structure differentiated data packets based on consumption.

"We regret that the Dutch Parliament will not take more time to consider this," said Mr. Nickolson. "This will limit our ability to develop a new portfolio of rates and there is at least the risk of higher prices, because our options to differentiate now will be more limited."

Stephen Collins, the head of Government and regulatory affairs in London for Skype, applauded the move by legislators.

"Skype welcomes the fair and reasonable that the Dutch Parliament has adopted today," said Mr. Collins. "Set an example for other countries in Europe and elsewhere to follow."

Bruno Braakhuis, a Dutch legislator from Haarlem, which was the original sponsor of the legislation, called the adoption of a victory for consumers.

"For us, this is indeed a fundamental right," said Mr. Braakhuis, a member of the party GroenLinks. "We believe net neutrality to be as important as freedom of the press, freedom of speech".

The Dutch restrictions on operators are the first 27 European Union countries. The European Commission and the European Parliament have approved the guidelines of network neutrality, but still have not taken any legal action against operators that block or impose additional fees on consumers using services like Skype, voice and Internet video service is being acquired by Microsoft and WhatsApp, a mobile software company headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Sanctions may be coming, however.

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Home nearing completion of review Patent Office

WASHINGTON — A legislative review of the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved towards completion in the House on Tuesday, when members of important committees decided to keep the Office subject to annual appropriations, but in the end for the first time the diversion of patent fees for other uses.

The agreement between the leaders of the House Judiciary and appropriations committees clears the way for the Bill, H.R. 1249, to be brought to the House as soon as Wednesday, when other amendments also will be considered.

The Bill generally updates the process for challenging patents and would change the patent system is one that rewards a patent for the first inventor to submit a specific request.

Currently, the first person to invent something has priority, regardless of whether he is the first to submit an application.

The financing agreement received conditional support from the sponsor of a similar Senate bill that passed by a wide margin in March.

Added to the White House to support his cautionary tale, though noted that the final bill may need "additional direction" to ensure adequate funding for the Patent Office.

"After six years of work towards patent reform, we are close to the finish line," Lamar s. Smith, a Texas Republican who is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.

The appropriations Committee members were reluctant to support a proposal that would make the patent office self-financing, leaving out of the annual appropriations process.

The compromise calls for some collections of taxes in excess of the budget every year allocated to the Patent Office deposited in a reserve fund exclusively for the Patent Office.

The specific language, however, says that the House will have to separately authorize the use of any part of the reserve fund.

The Office of management and budget said that access "to ensure" available to the reserve fund.

"The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to provide additional direction" for "timely access to all tax collections," said the statement O.M.B ...

Senator Patrick j. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and that was the main sponsor of such a patent law, said that the compromise language on a reserve fund "would be a concrete step in the right direction", "if it is coupled with a commitment of appropriations House Committee to provide the Patent and Trademark Office with access to the excess taxes it collects each year."

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