Good morning tech

Industry notes

AOL to buy TechCrunch. AOL agreed to acquire TechCrunch on Tuesday, giving them control of one of the most influential news sites in Silicon Valley. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington was joined onstage by AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco to sign the acquisition papers. Arrington founded the site in 2005 and watched it grow by leaps and bounds after he was the first to report Google’s acquisition of YouTube. http://bit.ly/90bk2a

British ISPs not big on net neutrality. Executives from the United Kingdom’s two largest Internet service providers said Tuesday they would give priority to certain websites or applications if companies paid them to do so, according to a report from the British website PC Pro. Senior executives from BT and TalkTalk said it would be perfectly normal to prioritize web traffic from companies that pay more for the privilege. http://bit.ly/duE1IB

Nintendo cuts earnings forecast. The video game maker reduced its profit forecast to the lowest level in six years, citing a strong yen and poor outlook for end-of-year sales. Weak release conditions for Nintendo’s new 3DS player are also a factor; the device is set to debut in February, after the holiday shopping season. Nintendo has also been under pressure as Apple and other smartphone makers have increased the number of games available on their platforms. http://bit.ly/b2DmWt

SAID

“Network neutrality rules would make it harder, not easier, for…investment to occur. A one-size-fits-all Internet
where every entity must provide the exact same levels of service and
that costs consumers more on average for slower speeds and less
innovation will not be very competitive. Nor will it serve consumers
well or draw much investment for further improvements.”

-A letter to the FCC from a group of GOP members last October on net neutrality. The group included Rep. Cliff Stearns (Fla.) ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, and Reps. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Fred Upton (Mich), Roy Blunt
(Misouri), George Radanovich (Calif.), John Shimkus (Ill.), among others.

ALSO SAID

“We believe that network neutrality regulations would actually thwart
further broadband investment and availability.”

-House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) in the letter to President Obama last year.

WATERCOOLER

BLOCKED—The hacker publication 2600 compiled a list of words blocked by Google Instant. The screen goes blank when you type them in. In lieu of linking to a long list of inappropriate language, we will just direct you to Google it. Nerve also has a link to the list.