A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you everyday.
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Groupon CEO and founder Andrew Mason. Photo: Bloomberg Groupon is reportedly in talks with various banks over an initial public offering (IPO) that would value the daily deals site for as much as $25 billion, roughly half of what Facebook is currently worth. Given Groupon’s recent actions — walking away from Google’s $6 billion offer, building a staff of 5,900 employees, and expanding into countries like China — the IPO move, which could happen some time this year, certainly makes sense. (Bloomberg)
- Venture Capital firm Andreesen Horowitz is investing $49 million in Bluetooth headset-turned-audio tech maker Jawbone, giving the company some $100 million in funds altogether and the backing necessary to grow its staff beyond the 200 or so currently employed staffers. Partner Ben Horowitz, who joins the company’s board, attributes the firm’s decision to the company’s ability to “take smartphones and tablets computers and bring them to life.” (Wall Street Journal)
- Speaking of, Horowitz highlighted the importance of proper titles and promotions, particularly at startups, in yesterday’s Fortune post. “When your head of sales interviews for her next job, she won’t want to say that despite the fact that she ran a global sales force with hundreds of employees, her title was ‘Dude.'” (Fortune)
- Microsoft saw 2.35 million downloads of Internet Explorer 9 during the first 24 hours of its release. The new app uses the computer’s graphics card to accelerate web page speeds and offers a Tracking Protection feature that uses managed lists of trusted sites to control who has access to information and surfing patterns. (SlashGear)
- Colleague Seth Weintraub offered a sneak peek at Amazon’s app store. “Often, Amazon beat the Android Market in prices and in a few cases, Amazon had exclusive rights to distribute the software.” (AndroidNews.de via Fortune)
- Rumor of the day: Asus may be planning to launch a 10-inch or 11-inch netbook running Google’s Chrome operating system for a bargain-basement price of $200 to $250. (CrunchGear)
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