It was the week when AOL joined the social media party and the Hermit Kingdom got a mobile service.
AOL will pay $850 million for social media firm Bebo, at once doubling its user base to 80 million as its pursues its online ad business. The pioneering ISP has spent nearly a billion on acquisitions already and is expanding its web presence worldwide.
Rival Google is beta testing a free hosted adware service that will help small businesses run ads on their websites.
Microsoft expressed caution about integrating its platforms with Yahoo. Software chief Ray Ozzie said merging the two companies' radically different back-end systems would be delayed if necessary if MS succeeded in its $41 billion bid.
Orascom Telecom is to launch a cellular service in North Korea, predicting ARPU of $12-$15 within four years. CEO Naguib Sawiris says he's targeting 100,000 users in three major cities in the first few months.
China overtook the US to have the world's largest internet user population of around 220 million. Freedom of expression group RSF described China, Vietnam, Myanmar, North Korea, Iran and 11 other countries as "enemies of the internet".
TiVo and YouTube forged an agreement to deliver YouTube content directly to TV sets, while Hulu, the YouTube rival backed by big media, made its public debut.
Court filings show that Nokia paid Qualcomm around $1 billion over the last 15 years to use its CDMA technologies. The license agreement expired last April and the two companies have engaged in a series of court battles over the patents.
Nokia faces legal action in Germany over $93 million in investment subsidies it received for a factory it now plans to close. Nokia sparked an angry response from politicians and union leaders when it closed its plant in western Germany in January, moving 2,000 jobs to Romania.
KDDI will spend $242 million on new data centers in Singapore, Britain and France. Vietnam will launch its first satellite - the $200 million Vinasat No.