The owner of LiveJournal, a blogging and social-networking site, agreed yesterday to sell the company to SUP, a Russian online media company, in the latest example of deal-making in the social-networking sector.
Financial terms of SUP’s deal with Six Apart, which owns LiveJournal, were not disclosed.
As part of the deal, SUP will create an American management company, LiveJournal Inc., to manage the social network’s operations. SUP will also form an advisory board that includes Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournal’s founder who now works for Google.
Though its biggest user base is the United States, LiveJournal has become exceedingly popular in Russia, finding about 28 percent of its audience there. Last year, SUP struck a licensing deal with Six Apart to manage LiveJournal.ru, the site’s Russian component.
Ever since the News Corporation bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million and saw its value skyrocket along with the site’s popularity, media companies have seen social-networking as a field ripe for the picking.
Two months ago, Google and Microsoft dueled over the right to buy a stake in Facebook, the site du jour. Microsoft prevailed and paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake.
LiveJournal, which claims 18 million unique visitors a month, is one of the older social-networking sites, founded in 1999. It first became known as a site where users posted diary-like entries and could control who saw them. It has since established communities around various interests, including food, fashion and television shows.
According to the site, its users skew young — the bulk are 15 to 22 years old — and two-thirds are female.
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Monday, December 3, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Hot Wind Turbines
Many wind turbines mounted on homes in British cities are contributing to global warming, not fighting it, according to a new study.
And although many environmentally-friendly homeowners also hope to cut their bills by generating their own power, most micro-turbines will never save as much money as the equipment costs, according to the study by the Building Research Establishment Trust.
"In large urban areas such as Manchester, even with very favorable assumptions about efficiency, lifetime and maintenance, micro-wind turbines may never pay back their carbon emissions," the report says.
"Even in the most favorable location considered in the study, there is no financial payback within the expected life of the systems, with the current system and electricity costs."
The study analyzed the likely performance of three of the most common household wind turbines in Manchester and Portsmouth in England and Wick in Scotland.
In many cases -- and across most of Manchester -- more climate-warming carbon dioxide is produced in the manufacture, installation and maintenance of the turbines than they save by generating "green" power over their expected lifetime.
"These studies have shown a large variation in the expected CO2 payback periods from a few months in good locations to situations where they never pay back, in poor locations," the report says.
Only those climate-conscious homeowners in the best locations in the two smaller cities studied can expect to save more carbon dioxide than their turbines are responsible for producing.
And although many environmentally-friendly homeowners also hope to cut their bills by generating their own power, most micro-turbines will never save as much money as the equipment costs, according to the study by the Building Research Establishment Trust.
"In large urban areas such as Manchester, even with very favorable assumptions about efficiency, lifetime and maintenance, micro-wind turbines may never pay back their carbon emissions," the report says.
"Even in the most favorable location considered in the study, there is no financial payback within the expected life of the systems, with the current system and electricity costs."
The study analyzed the likely performance of three of the most common household wind turbines in Manchester and Portsmouth in England and Wick in Scotland.
In many cases -- and across most of Manchester -- more climate-warming carbon dioxide is produced in the manufacture, installation and maintenance of the turbines than they save by generating "green" power over their expected lifetime.
"These studies have shown a large variation in the expected CO2 payback periods from a few months in good locations to situations where they never pay back, in poor locations," the report says.
Only those climate-conscious homeowners in the best locations in the two smaller cities studied can expect to save more carbon dioxide than their turbines are responsible for producing.
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