Gossip

It turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer. It wants a $25 billion initial public offering. It more or less created a breed of advertising that now every company wants into. It's grown faster than just about any company, ever. But according to multiple signals across the Web, things may be afoul at Groupon.

The latest is a chart released by Yipit, a start-up that aggregates cities' daily-deal offerings--more than 400 sites' worth--into a customizable digest that highlights individual users' preferences. Yipit said in a blog post today that it found a 32 percent decline in Groupon revenue per … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Word broke earlier Thursday that Apple would be constructing a temporary "pop-up" store here this week, a move that would permit the thousands of geeks who have descended upon Austin for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) to obtain shiny new iPad 2 devices when they go on sale Friday. Downtown Austin does not have a permanent Apple retail store.

The Austin American Statesman reported that Apple would be taking over a 5,000-square-foot space in the historic Scarbrough Building on Sixth Street and South Congress Avenue. So, armed with a camera, I went right … Read more

The ongoing saga of Google's attempt to "get" social media has been full of so many disappointments--and more recently, so much silence--that sometimes it seems like the company has just given up on it entirely.

Whether Google's still working on a massive operation slated to take a bite out of Facebook's market share remains the stuff of rumor, but it has been making a subtle move here and there. Yesterday, the blog Google System noticed that Google's member profiles have undergone some notable interface changes like click-to-edit functionality. There are new fields to … Read more

In one of the more bizarre headlines to pop up about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, gossip outlet TMZ revealed late Monday that a restraining order had been issued against a man who had been allegedly stalking the Facebook CEO.

Today, TMZ posted a bizarre letter that it claimed the man, Pradeep Manukonda, had sent Zuckerberg; the handwritten letter begged for financial assistance for the author's allegedly ill mother.

The restraining order, TMZ reported, was issued after Manukonda sent Facebook messages to Zuckerberg, his sister Randi Zuckerberg, and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, and then attempted to show up at several … Read more

Facebook has sent out an invitation for a Tuesday press conference at an address in Menlo Park, Calif., which houses the city's municipal buildings. The company has confirmed CNET's guess that it would be to formally announce new headquarters within the Silicon Valley city.

"The press event on Tuesday at Menlo Park City Hall is regarding a campus that will fit our long-term business needs," a Facebook representative said via e-mail. "We'll be sharing more information at that time."

Facebook said late last year that it was searching for locations for a long-term … Read more

The last time we wrote about Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg making an appearance on "Saturday Night Live," it was an April Fool's Day joke. Now, according to a rumor posted in the New York Post, that wacky idea may come true.

Jesse Eisenberg, the actor who played Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network," an unflattering but acclaimed portrait of the young CEO, is scheduled to host "SNL" this Saturday. Eisenberg was just nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, so it's a high-profile "SNL" hosting appearance. According … Read more

Update at 5:05 p.m. PT: Twitter has confirmed that it has been blocked in Egypt. According to the @TwitterGlobalPR account: "We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt around 8am PT today. It is impacting both Twitter.com & applications." Also: "We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies & helps governments better connect w/ their people."

As fierce anti-government protests in the Egyptian capital of Cairo began to escalate, word broke out this morning that government forces had blocked access to Twitter's Web site. Twitter users throughout … Read more

There are a lot of rumors and speculation afoot about Facebook's $500 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs and the investment bank's subsequent private offering of Facebook stock to deep-pocketed clients--more speculation, in fact, than there usually is around news pertaining to Facebook.

But one thing stands out as fact: should Facebook hit the threshold of 500 individual shareholders, it will be required to either start trading publicly or at least begin disclosing its financial information, according to rules set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. At the end of the fiscal year in which … Read more

The Wall Street chatter about Silicon Valley these days is all about the companies that don't seem to want to go public--Facebook, Groupon--and instead are raising massive rounds of funding that permit extensive and far more shadowy private-market trading. But, according to Reuters, one Valley company may indeed go public soon: professional networking site LinkedIn, which the Thursday story says has already picked a bank to underwrite an IPO.

The only comment from LinkedIn is that "an IPO is just one of many tactics that we could consider." One of the first social-media sites to claim a … Read more