Google May Acquire Groupon for $6 Billion, and It Would Be Worth Every Penny

Forget the rumor that Google acquired Groupon for $2.5 billion; the search giant is about to close a deal for the group-buying service for a whopping $5.3 billion to $6 billion, according to multiple reports.
It would be worth every overpriced penny.
The deal is worth $5.3 billion with an additional $700 million earnout based on performance, according to All Things D. The New York Times reports that a deal could be completed as soon as this week. With a price tag almost double that of DoubleClick, Google’s biggest acquisition to date, there are still plenty of ways for this deal to fall apart.
Earlier this year, Yahoo tried to snag the group-buying company, but failed. Google, with its $30+ billion cash reserve, reportedly then offered Groupon $3 billion to $4 billion. However, it was rebuffed, so the tech giant upped its offer.
Groupon pioneered the group-buying model through its deal-of-the-day business model. Launched in November 2008, the company has grown from an offshoot of ThePoint to a multi-billion dollar empire with thousands of employees worldwide. In April 2010, Groupon raised $135 million from Digital Sky Technologies, setting its value at over $1 billion.
If the Google deal does go through at a $6 billion valuation, that would mean that Groupon’s value has grown by more than $625 million per month or more than $20.8 million per day. That skyrocketing value is simply mindboggling

Acquiring Groupon: Overpriced or a Genius Move?

There are many reasons to think that Google would be overpaying to get its hands on Groupon. Any company whose value rises by $20 million per day risks a flameout at the level of Pets.com. $6 billion is a stretch almost any way you slice it.
Still, Groupon has an asset that Google covets so highly that it’s willing to pay billions: local advertisers. Through its massive sales team, Groupon has built an impressive array of relationships with thousands of restaurants, spas and local businesses in hundreds of metropolitan areas. It’s a market that Foursquare, Facebook and Yelp all target, but none of them has figured out the formula like Groupon.
The group-buying website’s value isn’t in its technology — the flood of Groupon clones proves that — but in its unparalleled distribution. No other company in the world has the attention of local businesses that Groupon commands. And no other company has the expertise to turn that attention into a steady and consistent firehose of cash.
It’s that attention and expertise Google wants. This is about taking Google’s ad platform to the next level. It also doesn’t hurt that Groupon is set to exceed $500 million in revenue this year. It’s a multi-billion dollar business in the making.
If Google goes through with the biggest purchase in the company’s history, it will have the upper hand in local business advertising. That advantage could be so great that the courts stop this acquisition from ever happening. That’s why Google wants Groupon so badly that it’s willing to overpay by billions; if all goes according to plan, the search giant will be flooded with so much local advertising revenue that it will be able to buy a dozen Groupons

'Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark' images: And you thought Emo Spider-man was bizarre!

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark seems like a lunatic proposal– are any fanbases more distant than comic book geeks and Broadway mavens? At best, it could have been a Shrek: The Musical!-style cash grab. But director Julie Taymor is known for dementedly twisted theatrical visions. Also, Bono and the Edge are writing the music, and there aren’t any iPods in sight! (I don’t even think Bono knows who Spider-Man is. I’m convinced that the Edge just told him they were writing a musical about Abraham Lincoln or Jesus or something.) Now, Annie Leibovitz has taken some photos for Vogue of the cast and set, which seem to confirm that this might very well be the most bizarre take on the Spider-Man mythos ever. (Crazier thanSpider-Man: 2099. Crazier than that time Peter Parker went crazy and didn’t take off his costume for five months.)

Just how insane are we talking about? Cripes, look at that picture up there! The Green Goblin looks like an actual flying goblin, Mary Jane is dressed completely in red, and the overall aesthetic suggests Hieronymus Bosch crossed with a Pink Floyd album cover. Other pictures introduce a bizarre metallic villain named Swiss Miss (purely invented for the musical). These pictures make me wish that I was still a kid, so I could go see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and have nightmares about it for the rest of my life.

PopWatchers, have these pics made you more excited for Turn Off the Dark? I’m pretty stoked to see that Taymor is so set on putting her own spin on the material. (Although… Swiss Miss?)

After many delays, 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' nets first Broadway preview to excited audiences

Spider-Man has swung into town.

After a year-long delay, on-set injuries and a ballooning budget of $65 million, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" staged its first public preview Sunday night.

The rock musical, created by U2's Bono and the Edge and directed by "The Lion King" queen Julie Taymor, who also co-wrote the book, is being called Broadway's biggest gamble ever.

The audience in the packed, 1,800-seat Foxwoods Theater, who paid as much as $275 a ticket, called it a surefire smash hit despite some kinks.

There were four unplanned stops in Act I alone that left actors suspended over the audience, one for six minutes. A fifth stop an hour into Act II caused some theatergoers to walk out.

The show lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, including a 40-minute intermission.

"It was very exciting, especially for the kids. But I was just as excited," said Long Island teacher Gilda Schultz, 42, at the show with her three daughters.

Before the curtain rose, producer Michael Cohl issued the audience a warning: "Please do not try to catch a ride with any of the performers."

The rollicking highflying performance featured a midair battle scene between Spidey and the villainous Green Goblin that left spectators craning their necks.

"He's a bad guy, but his skin is my favorite color," awestruck 6-year-old Jack Soldano of Long Island said of the Green Goblin.

Andrew Shaffer, 32, and his wife, Gwendolyn Lee, 30, of Iowa, came dressed in Spider-Man costumes, but expected a dud.

"It was really good," Shaffer said. "I was pleasantly surprised."

The celebration on the Great White Way was a long time coming. The show based on the Marvel Comics hero has been tangled in a web of problems almost from the start. Production had already been delayed several times due to money issues and tricky stage stunts, when the show's producers announced previews would begin last January. That date came and went and the opening night of Dec. 21 had to be put off until next January.

The bumps along the way led to wholesale cast changes. Rocker Reeve Carney still stars as Spider-Man and his alter ego Peter Parker. Evan Rachel Wood, who was to play Parker's girlfriend, Mary Jane, was replaced by "Next to Normal" star Jennifer Damiano. Alan Cumming's departure made room for Patrick Page to take over the role of the Green Goblin.

Bono said on "60 Minutes" Sunday night that creating the show with bandmate the Edge has been a fantastic voyage. "It has been one of the funnest, more joyful rides of our artistic life, for sure," said Bono, who made sure to recycle familiar U2 anthems like "New Year's Day" and "Vertigo" in the score.

gsalamone@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_after_many_delays_spiderman_turn_off_the_dark_nets_first_broadway_preview_to_exc.html#ixzz16fY1eCDp

Spider-Man Musical Delays Broadway Debut

The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark will be officially delayed again and won’t premiere until January, according to Showbiz411.

“There are no changes coming to the actual show,” the musical’s director Julie Taymor told Showbiz 411. “All the changes have to do with technical things. The flying, of course. But also all the wires, and the changes between scenes. We may need a little bit of an underscore to cover a move, or a small transition that needs to be smoothed."

The show itself has a lot of factors involved with the production.

Spiderman: Turn off the Dark is a musical as well as a circus, and costs $55 million to produce.

“This is an ambitious production,” Taymor added. “But I have enthusiastic, talented supporters here who want to be here. It’s not like I’m one person doing this. I can’t force intelligent, experienced people to do something they don’t want to do.”

AP reported that the show will have a 41-member cast, 18 orchestra members, and circus-style acrobatics.

Bear Gallbladder Uses

There is a big hit on the internet search today regarding “bear gallbladder uses”. It seems that people are curious about the usefulness of this particular organ that comes from animal to human.

As we try to find out what exactly is the benefit of this bear gallbladder, there are some interesting facts about the uses of this bear gallbladder. One thing for certain is that it produces bile that was often used in the traditional Chinese medicine.

 Bile itself is a fluid that was synthesized in the liver. It was then stored and concentrated in the gallbladder and concealed into the small intestine via the bile ducts to help in the absorption of fatty acids and cholesterol.  Other than that, bile also carries lots of waste products away from the liver into the intestine so that they can be eliminated.

It surely is one medicine that good enough to be used by people who wanted to lose some of their weights as well to keep in good shape. In a domestic market, it worth about $400 – $600 each, but if it’s pounded into the typical Asian pharmacies often look like, the price could go up more than 30 times of that domestic price. It surely becomes one of the most highly valued commodities on the black market.

It surely must be sold in a black market because this kind of medicine was extracted illegally from a bear. It is prohibited by law, anywhere in the world to kill a bear and uses it for trade use. This kind of business involves millions of Dollars as well many other crimes, not to mention the possible threat that it brings. Along with the trafficking as well as the smuggling, people’s lives are often getting killed because the rareness and the high value of money that it brings

Leslie Nielsen dies from pneumonia

Leslie Nielsen had the sombre demeanour and stone-serious face that were just right for dramatic roles. They proved even better for comedy.

"Surely you can't be serious," an airline passenger says to Nielsen in Airplane! the 1980 hit that turned the actor from dramatic leading man to comic star.

"I am serious," Nielsen replies. "And don't call me Shirley."

The line was probably his most famous - and a perfect distillation of his career.

Nielsen, the dramatic lead in Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure and the bumbling detective in The Naked Gun comedies, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale. He was 84.

The Canada native died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home, surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, his agent John S Kelly said in a statement.

"We are saddened by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television," said Kelly.

Nielsen came to Hollywood in the mid-1950s after performing in 150 live television dramas in New York.

With a craggily handsome face, blond hair and six-foot-two height, he seemed ideal for a movie leading man.

Nielsen first performed as the king of France in the Paramount operetta The Vagabond King with Kathryn Grayson.

The film - he called it The Vagabond Turkey - flopped, but MGM signed him to a seven-year contract.

His first film for that studio was auspicious - as the space ship commander in the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet.

He found his best dramatic role as the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure.

Behind the camera, the serious actor was a well-known prankster.

That was an aspect of his personality never exploited, however, until Airplane! was released in 1980 and became a huge hit.

As the doctor aboard a plane in which the pilots, and some of the passengers, become violently ill, Nielsen says they must get to a hospital right away.

"A hospital? What is it?" a flight attendant asks, inquiring about the illness.

"It's a big building with patients but that's not important right now," Nielsen deadpans.

Critics argued he was being cast against type but Nielsen disagreed, saying comedy was what he intended to do all along.

"I've always been cast against type before," he said of his early years in Hollywood.

It was what he would do for most of the rest of his career, appearing in such comedies as Repossessed - a takeoff on The Exorcist - and Mr Magoo, in which he played the title role of the good-natured bumbler.

But it took years before he got to do the comedy he wanted.

He played Debbie Reynolds' sweetheart in 1957's popular Tammy and the Bachelor, and he became well known to baby boomers for his role as the Revolutionary War fighter Francis Marion in the Disney TV adventure series The Swamp Fox.

He asked to be released from his contract at MGM, and as a freelancer, he appeared in a series of undistinguished movies.

"I played a lot of leaders, autocratic sorts; perhaps it was my Canadian accent," he said.

Meanwhile, he remained active in television in guest roles. He also starred in his own series, The New Breed, The Protectors and Bracken's World, but all were short-lived.

Then Airplane! captivated audiences and changed everything.

Producers-directors-writers Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker had hired Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges and Nielsen to spoof their heroic TV images in a satire of flight-in-jeopardy movies.

After the movie's success, the filmmaking trio cast their newfound comic star as Detective Drebin in a TV series, Police Squad, which trashed the cliches of Dragnet and other cop shows. Despite good reviews, ABC quickly cancelled it. Only six episodes were made.

"It didn't belong on TV," Nielsen later said. "It had the kind of humour you had to pay attention to."

The Zuckers and Abraham converted the series into a feature film, The Naked Gun, with George Kennedy, OJ Simpson and Priscilla Presley as Nielsen's co-stars. Its huge success led to sequels The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and The Naked Gun 33 1/3.

His later movies included All I Want for Christmas, Dracula: Dead and Loving It and Spy Hard.

Between films he often turned serious, touring with his one-man show on the life of the great defence lawyer, Clarence Darrow.

Nielsen was born February 11, 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He grew up south of the Arctic Circle at Fort Norman, where his father was an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The parents had three sons, and Nielsen once recalled, "There were 15 people in the village, including five of us.

"If my father arrested somebody in the winter, he'd have to wait until the thaw to turn him in."

The elder Nielsen was a troubled man who beat his wife and sons, and Leslie longed to escape.

As soon as he graduated from high school at 17, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, even though he was legally deaf (he wore hearing aids most of his life.)

After the war, Nielsen worked as a disc jockey at a Calgary radio station, then studied at a Toronto radio school operated by Lorne Greene, who would go on to star on the hit TV series Bonanza.

A scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse brought him to New York, where he immersed himself in live television.

Nielsen also was married to: Monica Boyer, 1950-1955; Sandy Ullman, 1958-74; and Brooks Oliver, 1981-85.

Nielsen and his second wife had two daughters, Thea and Maura.

Leslie Nielsen, star of Airplane! and The Naked Gun, dies aged 84

Color analyst on the Mavericks’ Spanish-language TV broadcasts. Special consultant to the D-League’s Texas Legends.

Harris

Nielsen

Those are just the two latest entries on an endless resume that finds Del Harris, at 73, working for a fifth decade in the pro game.

And throughout those five decades, Harris has relished the countless comparisons over the years to lookalike actor Leslie Nielsen, who died Sunday at the age of 84 of complications from pneumonia.

When he was hired to coach the Lakers in 1994, Harris joked that he might be able to earn some side money in Hollywood as a body double for Nielsen.

Reached Sunday night by ESPNDallas.com, Harris retold one of his favorite stories about his friend, rewinding to the night he was coaching the Milwaukee Bucks against Chicago with the "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" star in attendance.

"He and I were honorary co-chairmen for the Vince Lombardi Foundation for a couple of years and did public service announcements for the two main fundraisers that were both in Milwaukee," Harris said. "During the basketball season he was in town to cut a promo and came to our game at home with the Bulls and Michael Jordan.

"We won the game and security brought him down to the exit tunnel as the players and coaches were exiting the court. We had already had the lookalike thing going and I had actually signed a name to an autograph a time or two, so I said to him, 'How about going in the locker room and act like you are me and tell them they played a good game or you are proud of them or whatever you have.' He did it and the guys loved it.

"He brought a lot of laughter to the world, but not tonight," Harris said. "Peace, Leslie."

Islamic center fire...Leslie Nielsen dead...WikiLeaks disclosure assailed

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever set a fire at the Oregon mosque where a man accused of plotting a terrorist attack worshipped. Authorities don't know who started the blaze at the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis. But they say they believe it may have been targeted because of its connection to the Somali-born man.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The actor who played a bumbling doctor in the "Airplane" movie has died. Leslie Nielsen was 84. The Canadian-born actor had an illustrious career after moving to Hollywood in the mid-1950s. His agent says Nielsen died Sunday at a hospital near his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home of complications from pneumonia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says WikiLeaks' decision to release classified U.S. diplomatic cables endangers U.S. diplomats, intelligence agents and democratic activists seeking U.S. help. The website has defied U.S. demands that it not publish the documents. The White House says the initial and often candid reports are "often incomplete" and don't always shape final policy decisions.

NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers are hoping the strong numbers they're seeing this weekend hold up for the entire holiday shopping season. More shoppers crowded stores and malls than last year on Black Friday and have maintained steady traffic the rest of the weekend.

MORENCI, Mich. (AP) — Three boys have gone missing in Michigan on the same day their father tried to hang himself. Police say the youngsters are feared to be in "extreme danger," and they say the father has not been ruled out as a suspect in their disappearance. Authorities say the father, John Skelton, was hospitalized in Ohio for "mental health issues" after he attempted suicide on Friday. 

'Naked Gun' star Leslie Nielsen made great transformation from drama to comedy

It's common now for comedic actors to split their time doing drama, and for serious actors to frequently dip into comedy, but Leslie Nielsen, who died Sunday at 84, was a case unto himself.

A head case, he'd probably say with a grin, because Nieslen's about-face from aging dramatic actor to one of the goofiest performers of his generation was as much a wholesale reinvention as it was a late-career bloom.

A TV-show journeyman who ventured into film sporadically, the biggest movie of Nielsen's young career, 1956's "Forbidden Planet," remains one of the seminal sci-fi flicks of the '50s. But Nielsen's Commander Adams existed in a kind of time tunnel – sturdy yet genial, steadfast but curious, he's  the star but still a comic-strip character writ large.

Not quite large enough for Nielsen to hit the stratosphere, however. That opportunity came when he got the chance to spoof his straight '50s roles - as well as his stern, concerned ship's captain in "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) - in the groundbreaking "Airplane!"

And let's call a spade a spade: the movie was groundbreaking, at least in terms of what it let loose. Just as Mel Brooks' brand of genre-riff was petering out, writer-directors David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams' 1980 mash-up of disaster-movie clichés brought an anarchic, anything-goes style to film comedy that's still the model for spoofs. Much of the credit for that lies with Nielsen, who became its seriously silly face.

The fact that the Canadian-born actor had only been cast in serious parts for the previous 30 years made his ascendancy to comedy king funnier. You could sense Nielsen's glee in every deadpan line, including perhaps the movie's most quoted line, "... and stop calling me Shirley." When he and the ZAZ team went to television for the tragically short-lived cop spoof "Police Squad!," Nielsen made his Lt. Frank Drebin, throughout six glorious episodes, more than just an "SNL"-style skit character. In Nielsen's hands, Drebin was a kind of baroque meta-detective, informed no doubt by the gazillion guest spots the actor did on cop shows in the 1970s.

As Drebin moved to the big screen in the "Naked Gun" films, beginning in 1988, some of the subtlety was lost, but even that seemed to suit Nielsen. Yes, he could finesse the finer points of verbal and visual badinage, but he also could let things rip into wide-target buffonery. The "Gun" films allowed him the space to do that, as did subsequent lesser projects like "Dracula; Dead and Loving It" (directed by Brooks), "Spy Hard," "Mr. Magoo," "Spy Hard," and several entries in the "Scary Movie" franchise.

What eminated from them all was a performer's palpable thrill at being allowed to focus on his strengths. Surely that kind of thing was visible to the naked eye. And yes, keep calling him Shirley.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_naked_gun_star_leslie_nielsen_made_impressive_transformation_from_drama_to_comed.html#ixzz16fRkRcaU

AMAZON'S BLACK FRIDAY 2010 MOST LIKELY TO COMMENCE FROM NOV 22

IF SOURCES are to be believed, one of the biggest online retailers in the United States, Amazon.com announced its pre Black Friday sales starting from November 22 till Thanksgiving. The site which has spearheaded in myriad disciplines such as online book stores, movies & music, computer items, video games, electronics, apparel, house items etc has with time emerged as one of the most sought after destinations for online shopping. On Friday November 26, the online retailer will haveit's Black Friday 2010 sale and the Cyber Monday sale will be followed on Monday November 29. However, full ad for Amazon's Black Friday 2010 sales is not yet published, but preview of fifteen items which are available, includes pre Black Friday 2010 sales item Garmin nüvi 4. 3-Inch Widescreen GPS Navigator: $79 (list price: $249.99), Kodak Mini Video Camera: $49 (list price: $99), save 50% off Cashmere Sweaters, AK Anne Klein Women's Swarovski Crystal Watch: $29.99 (list price: $70) and the Blind Side: $3.99 (list price: $19.99). According to the preview of Black Friday 2010, items includes Samsung Ultra Compact "Touch of Color" Camcorder: $99 (list price: $199), White Gold Round Diamond Stud Earrings: $199.99 (list price: $799), Invicta Men's Multi-Function Watch: $59.99 (list: $395), Logitech Z-2300 Speakers: $89.99 (list price: $169.99), Flip UltraHD Camcorder: $99 (list price: $149), save up to 50% on select Crayola. Cyber Monday items include Amazon Shoes: Spend $75 Get 25% off, Spend $150, Get 30% off, Swiss Legend Men's Commander Collection Watch: $49.99 (list price: $595), Panasonic S50 Camcorder: $149 (list price: $229) and save 30% - 50% on select Fisher Price toys. Read here for more information related to Black Friday 2010 and Black Friday 2010 Sales.

 

Iron Bowl 2010: Tide's Roll Slowed (But Not Much), Bama Leads 24-0

The second quarter of the 2010 Iron Bowl opens just in time to see Auburn punt from their own 28-yard line. A zero-gain return and an 11-yard penalty back the Tide up to their own 17, but you'll just never guess what happens next: After running three shortish plays to bump them a little closer to midfield, Greg McElroy first rushes ten yards for a first down (wait, what?!), then throws a 60-yard pass to Mark Ingram, who's rumbling within arm's reach of the Auburn endzone when the ball gets punched out of the crook of his arm and recovered by Demond Washington. The Tigers take over on their own 1-yard line.

It won't do them a great deal of good. Auburn converts its first set of downs, but not its second, and the Tide get the ball back at midfield after a truly wretched punt that wiggles approximately 20 yards through the air.

We're about to see the first dent in Alabama's game, and it's not a substantial one. Julio Jones makes a monster 42-yard catch to convert the Tide's first third down in the series, but three no-gain plays in the red zone later, Jeremy Shelley is called upon to kick a 20-yard field goal. With 8:06 remaining in the first half, Alabama leads Auburn, 24-0.