Microsoft mulling Blackberry Buyout

Research In Motion moved higher on Thursday on renewed market speculation that Microsoft Corp could be interested in buying the BlackBerry maker. "Microsoft has been mentioned as a possible buyer," said Frederic Ruffy, an analyst at options education firm Optionetics in California. "According to speculation, the software giant might be interested in RIM in response to Google's recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile," he added. RIM shares were up 3.35 per cent at $84.59 in midday trading after posting a new high of $85 on Nasdaq. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company's shares regularly move as much as 5 per cent in a single session, even in the absence of news. The Microsoft rumor has surfaced in the past, as well as speculation that Motorola could buy the Canadian company. Analysts have heaped upgrades and praise on RIM in recent weeks in wake of strong growth, both in profit and in subscribers. The company's ubiquitous BlackBerry smartphones have penetrated the professional market, but have yet to gain the same acceptance among retail consumers. To change this, RIM has been loading up its devices with multimedia features like music players and cameras. It has also worked with carriers to make them more affordable to individuals. The push into consumer markets could put RIM on a collision course with Apple Inc's iPhone. The competition could grow stiffer still if Google launches its own device. Some option traders appeared to be betting that RIM shares' strength could continue

"I've seen the rumors on RIM and there has been interest in the front-month calls, which allow investors to buy RIM shares at $80 all the way to $93.375 apiece," said Rebecca Engmann Darst, an equity options analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. Both RIM and Microsoft declined comment. "It is RIM's standard policy to not comment on rumors or speculation," a RIM spokeswoman said in an e-mail. A Microsoft spokesperson echoed the statement. Among the busiest calls were the September $93.375 series as more than 8,000 lots moved early on Thursday. The odd strike price is due to a recent stock split in RIM, Ruffy said. "The heavy trading in these out-of-the-money calls seems to reflect speculative call buying on the view the share price will continue moving higher during the next few weeks," Ruffy said. The September contacts come off the board on September 21. Jon Najarian, co-founder of Web information site optionmonster.com in Chicago, also noted a rise in RIM's September implied volatility, a measure of the expected magnitude of share price movement conveyed by option prices. When RIM shares were up 2.25 percent Thursday morning, the at-the-money September implied volatility stood at around 49 per cent above its average 44 percent over the past week, he said. "That indicates there is demand for options but the paper is mixed," he said. "The stock hit a new 52-week high this morning and the shorts were covering their positions. But we don't show any panic buying. The options action is interesting but so far not heavy according to our model."

You Tube Prepares Video Fingerprinting

Google Inc's YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.

The lawyer, Philip S Beck, told US District Judge Louis L Stanton in Manhattan that YouTube was working "very intensely and cooperating" with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses.

He said the company planned to have the technology in place in the fall, "hopefully in September."

Viacom, England's top soccer league - The Football Association Premier League - and indie music publisher Bourne have filed suits against YouTube that were combined for trial purposes before Stanton.

Beck said the video recognition technology will allow those holding copyrights on videos to provide a digital fingerprint so that if anyone tries to share a copyrighted video, the system will shut it down within a minute or so.

Beck said the company was counting on the software to "hopefully eliminate such disputes in the future."

He said the company believes the new technology goes way beyond what the law requires to stop copyright infringement.

He told the judge the company began only two years ago when one of its two California founders sought a way to send videos of his children to relatives on the East Coast. Since 30 videos were exchanged in the first month, more than 10 million videos have been exchanged worldwide, including hundreds of thousands a day, he said.

Lawyers for plaintiffs in the two lawsuits said they welcomed any improvement that would end alleged infringement of their copyrights but believed YouTube should have acted sooner.

Donald B Verrilli, Jr, a lawyer for Viacom International Inc, said it will take the next year to identify the extent of infringement that continues to happen on "a very massive scale."

"Perhaps the filtering mechanism will help. If so, we'll be very grateful for that," he said.

Viacom sought $1 billion in damages for what it said was the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." In their lawsuit, the soccer league and indie music publisher sought unspecified damages and any profits YouTube made as a result of the sharing of copyrighted videos.

YouTube said in response to the lawsuits that it goes beyond what is required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives Web hosts protection from copyright lawsuits so long as they comply with requests to remove unauthorized material.

YouTube said it cooperates with holders of copyrights and immediately complies with requests to have unauthorized material removed from the site.

Verrilli said the plaintiffs are alleging "plain, old fashioned infringement."

He added: "They acknowledge rampant activity and haven't done anything to stop it."

Micro Processors

A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a programmable digital electronic component that incorporates the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single semiconducting integrated circuit (IC). The microprocessor was born by reducing the word size of the CPU from 32 bits to 4 bits, so that the transistors of its logic circuits would fit onto a single part. One or more microprocessors typically serve as the CPU in a computer system, embedded system, or handheld device. Microprocessors made possible the advent of the microcomputer in the mid-1970s. Before this period, electronic CPUs were typically made from bulky discrete switching devices (and later small-scale integrated circuits) containing the equivalent of only a few transistors. By integrating the processor onto one or a very few large-scale integrated circuit packages (containing the equivalent of thousands or millions of discrete transistors), the cost of processor power was greatly reduced. Since the advent of the IC in the mid-1970s, the microprocessor has become the most prevalent implementation of the CPU, nearly completely replacing all other forms. See History of computing hardware for pre-electronic and early electronic computers. The evolution of microprocessors has been known to follow Moore's Law when it comes to steadily increasing performance over the years. This law suggests that the complexity of an integrated circuit, with respect to minimum component cost, doubles every 24 months. This dictum has generally proven true since the early 1970s. From their humble beginnings as the drivers for calculators, the continued increase in power has led to the dominance of microprocessors over every other form of computer; every system from the largest mainframes to the smallest handheld computers now uses a microprocessor at its core.