Daily deal giant Groupon saw its revenue top $760 million in 2010, according to an internal memo, growing from $33 million in 2009.

Notably, $285 million of the revenue came from overseas, where Groupon continues to expand to new nations.

The memo was sent from CEO Andrew Mason to staff earlier this year and Mason also says he expects the company to hit "billions" in revenue in 2011.

Said the CEO (via WSJ):

By this time next year, we will either be on our way to becoming one of the great technology brands that define our generation, or a cool idea by people who were out executed and out innovated by others that were smarter and harder working.

Groupon rejected a gigantic $6 billion bid from Google late last year, and instead raised almost $1 billion from private investors during a round of funding.

The daily deal site now has 4000 employees, is available in 565 cities and has 51 million subscribers to its daily email.

Permalink | Comments

---

The two largest HDD makers, Seagate and Western Digital have confirmed today that they will support Intel's newly launched Thunderbolt interconnect technology.

Both will have drives available with the technology during 2011.

Says WD of the move:

Western Digital believes Thunderbolt technology will bring both new performance levels and simpler connectivity for consumers to access and enjoy their digital media in new and innovative ways.

And Seagate, similarly:

Seagate will support Thunderbolt with our external GoFlex drives with in calendar year 2011.

WD and Seagate combine for just over 50 percent of all the HDDs sold globally, and Seagate did not initially endorse the standard, like Apple and WD did.

Xbit explains Thunderbolt, which was recently just shown off by Apple on their MacBook Pro refreshes:

Thunderbolt technology supports two low-latency communications protocols - PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays. Thunderbolt technology works on data streams in both directions, at the same time, so users get the benefit of full bandwidth in both directions, over a single cable. With the two independent channels, a full 10Gb/s of bandwidth (something not truly needed for HDDs these days) can be provided for the first device in the chain of the devices.

All Thunderbolt technology devices share a common Mini DisplayPort connector. Intel's Thunderbolt controllers interconnect a PC and other devices, transmitting and receiving packetized traffic for both PCIe and DisplayPort protocols and thus makers HDDs need to develop or use additional controllers to make their drives compatible with the TB I/O interface.

Permalink | Comments

---

Last week, popular European streaming music company Spotify announced it had signed a deal with EMI, following a licensing deal it signed with Sony Music in 2010.

Today, new sources close to the talks say the company is "a few weeks away" from netting a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), the largest label in the world.

The same sources say that Spotify may have to launch with just UMG, EMI and Sony, however, because all talks with Warner Music Group have gone nowhere. Warner is the third largest label in the world.

Investors recently valued Spotify at $1 billion, even though it has had to delay its American launch for almost a year. The platform is hugely popular in Europe, however, and is a mainstay on smartphones.

Universal and Warner executives have publicly expressed concerns that offering free, streaming music may "cannibalize" competing subscription packages like Rhapsody, and even hurt CD sales and individual digital sales, through services like iTunes and Amazon MP3.

The largest concern, however, is whether the service can convert enough users into paid users. Of the 10 million registered users of Spotify, only 750,000 have upgraded to a premium subscription. Spotify is projecting an 8 percent conversion rate for its U.S. launch.

Permalink | Comments

---

On the 23rd, hacker "graf_chokolo" said his home was raided by local police, as well as a Sony representative.

Says graf via his own blog:

Guys, SONY was today at my home with police and got all my stuff and accounts. So be careful from now on.

After the raid, graf (Alexander Egorenkov), uploaded all his databases to the Web, encouraging anyone and everyone to share it so Sony would have a harder time removing it.

Sony did not take that action lightly, sending a legal notice demanding all the links be removed and Egorenkov pay a 750,000 euro fine.

Egorenkhov posted some final comments today:

You know guys, you will say i'm totally crazy now, but i never slept better than in the last 2 days I don't know how to explain this feeling but i don't care about those threats with jail and high money penalties, btw, SONY wants about 750.000 euros from me if i don't cooperate They don't know me at all I don't care about it and they might double it The higher is the sum the higher gets my motivation They don't understand what makes me tick. Money and even my life doesn't mean to me very much without knowledge. I have a scientific mind and the knowledge is food to my brain. Without HV, Linux and FreeBSD kernel hacking my life is meaningless.

I miss my HV terribly In the last 2 days i got so "hungry" for more knowledge that i cannot control it anymore. I need knowledge and research, it has a huge meaning in my life. Jail or even death cannot hold it back anymore.

The SONY's laywer asked me why i'm doing what i'm doing, because of my hatred for SONY ? He cannot understand why i'm doing it, because he is paid for what he does. I'm not. I don't hold a grudge against SONY even now Hatred clouds your mind, keeps you from more important things. I have a better use for my mind and knowledge

So, SONY you failed again, you took my equipment but my mind is still free and you canot control it. You failed again. They are just tools, i can get new ones and will continue my HV reversing and bringing back PS3 Linux which you took from us. If you want me to stop then you should just kill me because i cannot live without programming, HV and Linux kernel hacking You know who am i and where i live, so come and get me !!!

And to prove it, i will reopen right now my HV reverse engineering page And i will post my latest findings about Update Manager and BD drive here. Most of you know already that i was able to update CORE OS from Linux. And on the last weekend i tries to hel some PS3 devs with BD drive authentication and discovered some interesting stuff about it which i will post here.

Permalink | Comments

---

Sony has announced today that it is slashing the price of the PSP handheld to $130, a full $40 discount.

Additionally, PSP Entertainment Packs will sell for $160.

The price cut comes as PSP sales have continued to collapse, and on the heels of Sony's announcement of the next-generation NGP handheld, which will launch by the end of the year.

Sony's updated pricing goes into effect on February 27th.

The NGP adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support, and access to Android gaming.

Permalink | Comments

---

Money transfer company Xoom Corp. has filed a trademark lawsuit against Motorola today, claiming it has used the name "Xoom" actively since 2003, and has an incontestable trademark on the name.

Motorola just released the Xoom Android tablet, the first real competitor to the market leading iPad because it runs on the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.

Says the complaint (via Beta):

Through this long online use accessible via computer and mobile devices, Xoom's trade name and the XOOM products have become associated exclusively with Xoom. Until [the] Defendants' adoption of the Xoom brand without authorization from Xoom, Xoom to its knowledge was the only entity using the name or mark for online product offerings.

Xoom is asking for a permanent injunction on the sales of the Motorola tablet and treble damages.

For the most part, the transfer company's main concern seems to be a disruption of business to its website, because the keyword "Xoom" on search engines brings millions of hits relating to the tablet. However, when typing in "Xoom" in Google, the first natural hits are for Xoom.com, then followed by Motorola.com so the case may have limited weight.

Concludes the complaint:

Xoom has long used the wording 'Official Site' in conjunction with its website…and the products and services that it offers on the site, all of which increase the likelihood that consumers will be confused and misled as a result of Defendants' unauthorized use of Xoom's name and mark on the Internet, particularly with the wording 'Official.'

Permalink | Comments

---