360 DEGREES Weblog

Change may be afoot over at Hasselblad, now that the high-end camera maker has been acquired by Ventizz Capital Fund IV — a private equity firm based in Switzerland and Germany. Neither party disclosed any financial details, but Ventizz said it will implement “no major structural or key management changes” at its newly acquired company. It remains to be seen whether or not this acquisition brings about any changes at the strategic level, though Hasselblad CEO Larry Hansen said his company is looking forward to exploring “brand new markets” — including, we hope, the “sub-$10,000″ one.

Should we really be surprised with this bit of news? Forbes magazine has increased Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth by another $6 billion. That makes Zuckerberg the third richest guy in technology. He does trail behind Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Oracle’s Larry Ellision. If we are really comparing it also means that he is richer than Steve Jobs of Apple and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This new valuation was on the basis of investment made by GSV Capital. They bought 225,000 shares of Facebook at a price of $29.28 per share. Since that news broke out, GSV stock has gone up by 40%. As of today Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was set at $18 billion. Of course, this whole fortune is on paper only and the real value of Facebook will be known only after it goes public. Still, great going Zuckerberg!

With five days to go until their wedding, it makes perfect sense that Playboy already had a photo of Crystal Harris as “Mrs. Crystal Hefner” in the can which you’re now looking at thanks to all the leaking going around these days. Alas, as love is wont to do, a young woman’s fancy turned to trying to make half a million dollars for literally leaving her groom’s old balls standing at the altar. Page Six reports:

A source told us, “Crystal wanted to ditch Hef at the altar. Her plan was to walk up the aisle and say she couldn’t go through with it. The wedding was to be filmed for a reality special, and her refusal to marry him would be a sensation. She was looking for a tie-in deal of around $500,000 for the exclusive ‘I ditched Hef at the altar’ interview. While there was interest, Crystal didn’t get an offer anywhere near half a million.”

Time Magazine went back to an old cover design to announce the death of Osama Bin Laden.  Will you remember 50 years from now where you were when the announcement was made?

It’s the rumor that wouldn’t die, and Reuters is now reporting that Apple is finally set to launch a cloud-based music service — presumably putting its massive North Carolina data center to some real work at long last. Details are still fairly light beyond that, but Reuters says that Apple’s service will actually launch ahead of Google’s similar cloud-based option, which it reports is now “stalled,” citing “several people familiar with both companies plans.” According to Reuters, the service will let folks store their music (and only music, apparently) on Apple’s servers and then access it on any device with an internet connection — and a copy of iTunes, we presume.

Update: Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital, backs up Reuters’ claim with some additional detail. Unlike Amazon’s approach with Cloud Player, Apple is actively seeking to license the music for its streaming service before launching. According to Kafka’s sources, Apple has already secured deals with two of the big four labels and plans to launch “pretty soon.” The deal would allow Apple to store a single master copy of a track on its servers and then share that track with multiple users. As Kafka describes the service, “The idea is that Apple will let users store songs they’ve purchased from its iTunes store, as well as others songs stored on their hard drives, and listen to them on multiple devices.”
Reuters

A remarkable milestone in human history took place exactly 50 years ago today when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. During the flight of Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, Gargarin, then 27, completed a single orbit of the planet Earth in approximately 108 minutes. His flight begun at Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan and ended with his safe arrival by parachute in the Saratov region of central Russia, where he was famously welcomed back to planet earth with a hospitable offer of bread and milk by Anna Takhtarova and her four-year-old granddaughter Margarita.

Money seems to be a sensitive issue in China. While their wealthy don’t approve of philanthropy, the government seems to be eager to remind the rich people of the nation that it is after all a communist state that needs to put wellbeing over extravagance. In an unprecedented move, Beijing is all set to put a ban on billboards that promote a luxurious lifestyle that remind common man of the great wealth divide. So what have they done to control the situation? For starters, the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce has put up an April 15 deadline for companies to get rid of words like “luxury”, “royal”, “supreme” and “high class” from billboards. If not complied, the companies will be slapped with a fine of Yuan 30,000 ($4,570).

It was nigh impossible not to feel for the people of Japan as their country was ravaged by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, and the Help Japan T-Shirt ($22) lets you help the country while picking up some clothing at the same time. Printed on the American Apparel tee is a graphic showing the archipelago, along with a craked rising sun. All proceeds will go to Save the Children: Emergency Response, Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Relief Fund: A GlobalGiving Project, Hands on Tokyo, and the American Red Cross, giving you basically no reason not to order one. You can donate more here.

For years, suit-and-tie circles have bowed to BlackBerry as the king of corporate communication, but iOS has been creeping in on enterprise territory, calling into question RIM’s sovereignty in the boardroom. The folks at Deutsche Bank Equity Research struck the most recent blow to RIM’s enterprise dominance with the announcement that they’ll buck BlackBerry for iPhone, following a trial using Good Technology’s secure email app. The company tested the app in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, delivering AES 192-encrypted email and calendar data to employees, and, according to the firm’s research analyst, the iPhone proved an easier and faster solution to BlackBerry. Last summer, AT&T announced that 40 percent of iPhone sales are enterprise, and we just reported on RIM’s possible move to devices beyond the BlackBerry. We’re not saying it’s off to the guillotine with the old standard bearer, but it definitely looks like there are new contenders for the enterprise crown.

Hi there, finally our new site is on air. Yeh we know, always the same story. What we preach is not always applicable to ourselves. It took to long, but its here now so don’t nag!

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