Read N Write

The Google Internet Bus has traversed ten states in India and arrived in Patna, the capital of Bihar, on Tuesday. Speaking at the launch event, Peeyush Ranjan, Google India’s managing director of R&D, said that more than 1.5 million people had gone online for the first time after visiting the bus, according to a report by The Times of India. The bus has so far made stops at over 2000 locations in 120 cities and towns all over the country.

—Google’s Internet Bus enables 1.5m people discover Internet in India (via thenextweb)

(via thenextweb)

These people fucked me over.

—Carol Bartz’s take on Yahoo. Check out Fortune’s exclusive interview. (via cnnmoneytech)

stoweboyd:

Chip Hazard via

A yet to be confirmed rumour indicates that Apple had offered to buy Dropbox for $800 million but the increasingly popular startup has declined the offer.

[…]

After having gained around $4 billion [actually $250-300M funding in a $4B valuation] in a round of funding, Dropbox’s revenue for this year is expected to be $100 million. A very handsome revenue for a company that is relatively nascent in the market. If this source is to be believed, Apple saw this opportunity to strike gold and offered Dropbox $800 million however the company has declined their offer because they too think that this is just the beginning for Dropbox.

Apple on the other hand recently announced Mac OS X Lion. One of the major features of OS X Lion is the AirDrop feature which makes transferring files between Macs quite a lot easier. It seems logical for Apple to want to acquire a company that particularly works and specializes in that domain. However it looks like Apple would either have to offer an amount that Dropbox can not refuse or simply takeover one of many Dropbox competitors in the market.

As an avid user of Dropbox, I can see Apple’s thinking. But on the other hand, if they offer competitive technology acquired elsewhere, closely integrated to their OS’s, couldn’t they take a large bite out of Dropbox? I guess I am still waiting to see this story confirmed.

Update: Bruna A, ann astute reader, caught the error in Dropbox funding, but that leads to the reasoning for Dropbox to say no: they are valued at $4B so why sell out for $800M?

parislemon:

All day, I kept telling myself I shouldn’t say anything. Then I realized: what the fuck? Be honest.

I found Paul’s post tactless. And I found Erick’s response inappropriate. Perhaps both are fitting given the entire clusterfuck that is this situation. But both are also quite sad.

Many of you…