Google Trio Made 20-Year Partner Pact

Lawmakers say firm made fake bids to trigger open access

(NEWSER) - Republican lawmakers are charging that Google manipulated an FCC bandwidth auction to get a free ride on the airwaves, PC World reports. The internet giant is accused of bidding purely to bump up the price to a level where rules trigger open access—and then walking away, leaving Verizon to win the auction. The auction of 700MHz spectrums raised less than had been expected. More»

FCC auction passes $4.7B threshold; it's a win for Google

(NEWSER) - Google’s hopes of forcing a piece of the national radio spectrum into becoming an open access wireless network came a step closer to fruition today, Marketwatch reports. The bid price on the “C block” of 700 Mhz spectrum hit $4.7 billion, enough to trigger FCC regulations that will require the spectrum to support mobile devices not made by the network’s owner. More»

Google, Yandex lead the way, but Facebook will trounce them

(AP) - Facebook hopes to raise as much as $13.6 billion in an initial public offering of stock, probably in mid-May. It would be the largest IPO ever for an Internet company. Here are the top 10, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser:

1. Google: $1.67 billion, 2004
2. Yandex NV (Russian search engine), $1.3 billion, 2011
3. Infonet Services Corp (now part of BT Group PLC), $1.08 billion, 1999
4. Shanda Games, $1.04 billion, 2009
5. Zynga, $1 billion, 2011
6. Giant Interactive Group, $887 million, 2007
7. Renren, $743 million, 2011
8. Groupon, $700 million, 2011
9. Orbitz, $510 million, 2007
10. BarnesandNoble.com, $450 million, 1999

Meanwhile, Google holds talks with Skype for joint venture

(NEWSER) - Skype is suddenly the prettiest girl in school now that it’s pushed back its IPO. Google is in talks for a joint venture with the online calling company, and Facebook is considering buying it outright, sources tell Reuters . Skype is expected to rake in about $1 billion if it goes public, but Facebook could pay $3 billion to $4 billion for the company, according to someone with “direct knowledge of the discussions.” More»

Competition heats up, as Google employees eye IPO-bound companies

(NEWSER) - How desperate is Google to prevent its employees from bolting for Facebook? So eager that it just paid an engineer a whopping $3.5 million in restricted stock to turn down an offer from the social networking giant, sources tell Tech Crunch . More»