A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
- During Google’s earnings call yesterday, the Internet giant announced that CEO Eric Schmidt is resigning his role to focus on being Chairman, making room for co-founder Larry Page to take over as CEO. Meanwhile, Sergey Brin’s title will change to co-founder. “I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead,” wrote Schmidt in a company blog. (Fortune)
- Google is also hard at work on a Google Offers, a Groupon and LivingSocial competitor. (After its $6 billion offer for Groupon was reportedly turned down, exec Marisa Mayer said as much.) (Fortune)
- LinkedIn shares are being sold in an auction by secondary exchange SharesPost Inc. for $30 each, putting the professional network’s value at nearly $3 billion. (Bloomberg)
- Despite the iPhone’s immense popularity on AT&T and what we can only assume will be similar success via Verizon post-launch, T-Mobile says there’s still room for small carriers to grow in the smartphone space. “There are 150 million Americans that still want smartphones,” new T-Mobile USA CEO Philip Humm said. “We have a clear value proposition compared to Sprint, Verizon and AT&T.” The company plans to introduce 25 new 4G devices this year alone. (New York Times)
- Here’s the first official Verizon iPhone ad, which thanks its millions of loyal subscribers for being patient.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlN3BgsV1nc]
- According to a study from MoneyTree Report, venture capitalists invested the most money last year since 2007, pushing $21.8 billion into 3,277 deals. (VentureBeat)
- Despite rumors indicating the iPad 2 could come as early as February or March, a new report indicates it’s more in-line to launch in April. (9 to 5 Mac)
- Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin was the lead investor in a $8 million round of funding for Qwiki, a web service that responses to search queries with interactive multimedia presentations instead of links. (New York Times)
- Massive multiplayer social game-maker Kabam, perhaps best known for its Arthurian legend game Kingdoms of Camelot, raised $30 million during its latest round of funding from Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital. Said co-founder and CEO Kevin Chou: “We cater to hardcore gamers who are trying out Facebook and want to play games with their friends on it. This funding round is a validation of our strategy to stand out.” (VentureBeat)
- SkyFire, the iOS-friendly browser that lets users view some Flash videos by converting them, raked in $1 million in sales during the first three days of its availability for the iPad. (MobileCrunch)
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