Napster, the file sharing service (started by John & Shawn Fanning, and Sean Parker) that was up since 1999, had a series of trials and tribulations until 2001. After lengthy legal battles with artists like Madonna and Metallica, Napster began to realize their business model is not going to work. They shut down the entire network to comply with an injunction.
This case was partially settled on September 24, 2001, where Napster was ordered to pay $26 million in damages and $10 million in future royalties.Eventually, Napster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, right before Napster 3.0 was ready to be deployed. On May 17, 2002, German company Bertelsmann purchased for $85 million, however, it was blocked on September 3.
Ultimately, Roxio purchased the company and re-branded it. They owned it until 2008 when Best Buy would purchase Napster for $121 million. They owned until December 1, 2011 when Rhapsody purchased the service.
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2011 – HP announced the TouchPad, their entry into the tablet market. Using the WebOS software they purchased from Palm back in 2010, the TouchPad introduced some new features, including the ability to sync with the upcoming Pre3 phone by touching the two together. However, the tablet was squashed in September by then CEO Leo Apetheker.
Since then, HP abandoned WebOS, making it open source. They have put out another tablet in early 2013 using the Android software.
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2000 – Remember the days of the Instant Messenger? Yahoo IM or Microsoft Messenger, ICQ, AIM and many more. In 2000, a company called Trillian tried to capitalize on the market by making a IM client that could connect to all of these instant messengers. Only problem is that Yahoo! and Microsoft didn’t want to allow this to happen. They tried to block the software. However, new patches were installed and Trillian was able to access the messengers again.
Trillian (www.trillian.im) is still in existance to this day. You can download for your Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and more!
Funny thing, in 2004, Microsoft put out a multiple – IM software called IM2.
2007 – Terry Semel was under pressure by the board because of dissatisfaction of his compensation. Terry was brought in to create a partnership with Hollywood, which really didn’t happen. He handed the reigns over to Jerry Yang, who started promising revitalized talks with Microsoft. There are a few that even speculate that was when the buyout of Yahoo began. Jerry Yang stepped down in 200
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1999 – Palm announces the m100
2009 – Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of copyright infringement and ordered to pay 1.92 million to the RIAA.
2001 – To compete with AOL, Internet Service Providers NetZero and Juno Online Services announce they will merge to become United Online. The company would eventually acquire other assets to keep afloat, including the purchase of the FTD group in 2008.
Of course, NetZero had changed their business model to a Wireless plan in 2012 and operates a broadband and dial up service nation-wide.
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2003 – Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created a Fork of B2/cafelog. From there, WordPress was born. Since its release, WordPress has taken over Content Management Systems (CMS) with its ease of use and plethora of programmers that have made plugins, themes and other tweaks to the system since. The current version is 3.5.1 which has been downloaded over 18 million times.
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Other Events in the Day in Technology History
Wang introduces: Wang Personal computer
Batman Debuts in Detective comics #27
Google gives away 4,000 Android phones at Google I/O
1998 – At the beginnings of the AMD / Intel battle, AMD brought out a processor to dual with Pentium II. The AMD K6-2 processor was a Super Socket 7 pin structure, which also was compatible with older Socket 7 motherboards.
With 9.3 million transistors, the K6-2 had a CPU clock rate of 266 to 550 MHz. Of course, these were single-core processors and had front side bus of either 66 or 100 MHz. The K6-2 also featured the MMX and 3DNow! instruction set.
The K6-2+ was added to keep up with Pentium III processors. The processor line only lasted a year and was ultimately replaced with K6 III.
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2013 – In a $1.1 billion deal, Yahoo acquired the blogging site Tumblr. This caused many concerns for those using the service – especially those who curate blogs with pornographic content. However, Yahoo insisted they will be running Tumblr as a separate company and will not interrupt any account unless it breaks laws (such as child pornography).
Yahoo did de-list a lot of those blogs in their search a couple months later to give others a clean-search experience.
In 2017, Verizon bought Yahoo, and all remaining assets thereof. Tumblr is an “Oath Subsidiary”, meaning it works independent to Verizon. In March, 2019, Tumblr removed any adult content, trying to boost their SEO, and advertising options.
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AppleLink is created
Microsoft and Intuit discontinue their merger due to Antitrust issues
1940 – The first Corporate McDonalds restaurant opened in San Bernardino, CA by Richard and Maurice McDonald. “Speedee” was the mascot back then – a hamburger-chef that was poised upon the McDonalds sign. The “Golden Arches” dawned on the sides of the restaurant.
In 1955, Ray Kroc took notice and partnered up with the brothers. They created the corporate version of McDonalds at that time. He opened the 9th store in Des Plaines, IL and eventually took the headquarters there.
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The Love Bug strikes
Carl Icahn officially launches a Proxy fight against Yahoo
CBS Acquired CNet
Supposed Coca-Cola recipe sold on eBay for $15 million