Internet, Billion | featured news

Faltering Internet icon AOL was able to squeeze out more than $1 billion from Microsoft for a trove of some 800 patents in an auction, the latest sign of just how valuable such portfolios can be for the world's biggest technology companies.

Facebook will hit the 1 billion user mark in August, according to an analyst... You know what’s cool? A billion. Users, that is. Having passed the $1 billion revenue mark some time ago, Facebook is now closing in on 1 billion users. The company claimed 800 million users in September, so it’s not surprising that claiming membership of one-seventh of humanity is now within the social network’s grasp.

The most anticipated stock market debut of 2012 is expected to value Facebook at as much as $100 billion and mint at least a thousand new millionaires.

Shares of real-estate website Zillow more than doubled on its first day of trading, giving the unprofitable Internet company a valuation of more than $1 billion.

There were more than 225 billion spam emails sent per day in July, 2010, and today, that number has dropped to 40 billion.

The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, a person familiar with the transaction told The Associated Press.

Allstate agreed to buy auto insurer Esurance and insurance agency Answer Financial from White Mountains Insurance Group for about $1 billion to expand its online presence.

Professional networking site LinkedIn raised its price range for its IPO this week by 30%, valuing the company at $4 billion, a strong indication that demand is running high for the new stock.

The acquisition, an effort to gain a foothold in voice and video communications, would be Microsoft’s largest ever.

Mark Zuckerberg is eyeing the takeover of the much popular Skype, in a deal that might cost Facebook close to $4 billion.