Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay

Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.
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SAP Names New Marketing VP, One With a History

SAP’s new senior vice president for marketing was once the central figure in a full-blown ad-industry scandal.
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Where Did Nine Million Cable Subscribers Go?

According to a new Deloitte survey, a staggering nine percent of the population say they cut the cord recently. Say what?
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Seven Questions for Mike Gregoire, CEO of Taleo

In the wake of SAP’s $3.4 billion deal to acquire SuccessFactors, rival Taleo is suddenly the company everyone is talking about.
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After SAP-SuccessFactors Deal, the Cloud Is a Different Place

Mainstream enterprise software companies like SAP and Oracle have finally acknowledged that the shift to the cloud is real.
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SAP to Acquire SuccessFactors for $3.4 Billion

Having promised to get serious about cloud-based applications, software giant SAP has just acquired one of the more successful up-and-coming cloud companies out there.
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VeriFone’s CEO Explains Why It Spent $1 Billion on Acquisitions for a New Payments Strategy

CEO Doug Bergeron says VeriFone has spent more than $1 billion in acquisitions to take advantage of emerging technologies, such as mobile payments, on a global basis.
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NetSuite Sales Surge, Making for a Good Day in the Cloud

After reporting record-setting quarterly results, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson talks about the the state of the cloud business and what he likes about competing with SAP.
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Seven Questions for SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott

SAP’s co-CEO talks about extending into the cloud and working with the uncertainty of the European debt crisis.
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Thoughts on the First Day of Apple’s Era Without Jobs

Today Apple faces its first full day without Steve Jobs. His greatest legacy may be the potential that still lies ahead.
Many people found young Hong Kong designer Jonathan Mak's illustration poignant.

Nokia Aims Software At Low-End Phones

Nokia Corp., having abandoned its ambition to develop a high-end operating system, is shifting its programming efforts toward creating software for its low-end phones, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google Mobile App Aims To Turn Phones Into Wallets

Katie looks at Google Wallet, the mobile app that lets users pay for things with their cellphone.
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Exclusive: Groupon’s Mason Tells Troops in Feisty Internal Memo: “It Looks Good.”

Facing a barrage of negative press about its upcoming IPO, Groupon CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason took up a pen to counter critics of the social buying service in a pugnacious email to employees.
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Zynga and Facebook’s Relationship Disclosed: It’s Complicated

Zynga has disclosed details of its very close partnership with Facebook as part of a 600-page-plus update to its original IPO document. It’s complicated.
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The Most Important Person in Your Organization … Is Not Who You Think It Is

You may think the most important person in your organization is the CEO or CFO. You’re wrong.
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Nokia Introduces N9, Reiterates First Windows Phones Will Ship This Year

Speaking at a Nokia event in Singapore, the head of the Finnish phone maker stresses the progress that the company has made since announcing its shift to Windows Phone back in February. However, given that the majority of Nokia’s business has nothing to do with Windows Phone, Stephen Elop also spoke about the company’s plans for Symbian as well as for the basic phones that make up a huge chunk of Nokia’s sales.
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Start-Up Accelerators Get Topic-Specific: Education, Health and Now Cleantech

Start-up accelerators in the mold of Y Combinator are themselves a growth industry and now some are centered on specific topics rather than just common location.

SAP Focuses on Mobile Apps for Growth

Germany’s SAP AG sees the business-software industry’s future in a decidedly consumer-oriented tool–the app. For decades, business software has been focused around specialized users tied to large computers. Now, SAP is attempting to stretch those boundaries, betting that a broader set of workers will want access to business information via their mobile devices.

Boingo IPO Will Test Whether Investors Believe in Paid Wi-Fi

The expected public offering this week of Boingo Wireless will offer both a heat check for the tech market and explore whether investors believe Wi-Fi can offer a money-making opportunity in an age where cellular connectivity is nearly ubiquitous.

Sony To PlayStation Customers: Hackers Got Us, And Now You Too

The hackers who brought Sony’s Playstation Network down for nearly a week have accessed customer information, the company says.

Office 365 Hits Public Beta Today, So Microsoft's Ron Markezich Gets Seven Questions

On the day that Microsoft releases Office 365 for public beta testing, we catch up with Ron Markezich, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group to talk about its enterprise cloud business.

Former Yahoo, AOL, HuffPo Sales Dude Greg Coleman Lands Again

Greg Coleman, the online advertising sales exec who keeps making bank after bouncing from top Web jobs, has a new one. The former Yahoo, AOL and Huffington Post sales leader has just taken a job as president of Criteo, a “personalized retargeting” company.

Sports Illustrated Gets the Tablet Subscriptions It Wants. Do Tablet Users Want Sports Illustrated Subscriptions?

Time Inc.’s deal with Google’s Android gives it the terms it has yet to get from Apple. Which means subscribers can now pay a lot less to get digital magazines. Will that make them a success?

Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?

Nokia has already announced the key piece of its strategy–a shift to Windows Phone for its future smartphones. Now the company is set to talk about the financial implications of that and go through the rest of its strategy, which includes a mix of Symbian and even a dash of MeeGo. Mobilized has live coverage of the event, which started at around 4 am PT, or noon here in London.

Could Executive Departures Accompany Nokia Strategy Shift?

A German weekly reported that several high-level executive departures could be in the works at the Finnish cellphone maker, which is expected to roll out a new business strategy at an investor meeting on Friday in London.