Facebook to buy messaging network WhatsApp

Deal worth $16bn will give social-networking firm access to 450 million people who use the cross-platform mobile app.

Facebook, the world's biggest social-networking company, says it is buying the mobile messaging service WhatsApp in a deal worth $16bn.

The purchase, announced on Wednesday, will leave WhatsApp with its own independent board.

WhatsApp is a cross-platform mobile app which allows users to exchange messages without having to pay telecom charges.

It is Facebook's biggest acquisition and comes less than two years after Mark Zuckerberg's firm raised $16bn in the richest technology-sector public stock offering.

The purchase includes $12bn in Facebook shares and $4bn cash.

It calls for an additional $3bn in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp founders and employees that will vest over four years.

"The acquisition supports Facebook and WhatsApp's shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core Internet services efficiently and affordably," Facebook said in a statement.

The WhasApp deal translates to roughly nine percent of Facebook's market value and is bigger than any acquisition made by Google, Apple or Microsoft.

Google's biggest deal, Motorola Mobility, stood at $12.5bn, while Microsoft's largest was Skype - which allows users to make voice and video calls over the internet - at $8.5bn. Apple, meanwhile, has not done a deal above $1bn.

Separate service

Facebook, which has more than 1.2 billion members, said it will keep WhatsApp as a separate service, just as it did with Instagram, which it bought for about $715.3m.

WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly active users. In comparison, Twitter had 241 million users at the end of 2013.

"WhatsApp is on a path to connect one billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable," Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and chief executive, said.

"I've known [WhatsApp founder] Jan [Koum] for a long time and I'm excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected."

Koum, who joins Facebook's board under the deal, said "WhatsApp's extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide."

In a blog post, Koum said, "Almost five years ago we started WhatsApp with a simple mission: building a cool product used globally by everybody. Nothing else mattered to us.

The tie-up gives WhatsApp "the flexibility to grow and expand, while giving me, [co-founder] Brian [Acton], and the rest of our team more time to focus on building a communications service that's as fast, affordable and personal as possible," Koum said.

Facebook reportedly sought to acquire another messaging firm, Snapchat, for $3bn last year.

Dragon House | Dubstep

ダンスチームとして世界でその名を轟かせるDragon Houseの新作Dubstepのダンスが「ハンパ無くカッコいい！」と話題に。

機械的なDubstepの音をロボティックに表現した見事なルーティーン。
動画界でDragon Houseが有名になったのは2011年。
この動画は１億回も再生される大ヒット動画になっている。
ダンサーは動画をYouTubeにアップロードしてヒットすれば、世界で有名になれるチャンスがある。今後、ダンサーは動画界から有名になる人が沢山出てくるに違いない。

Investment Requirements to Obtain Visa to Brazil

In order to make an investment in Brazil, foreign companies or businesspeople have to obtain a Brazilian visa. Here you will find information about the investment requirements to obtain it in Brazil.

Although Brazilian corporate law has no formal minimum capital investment requirement, in practice, the immigration authorities require a minimum investment for nonresidents. The investment can be either cash, transfer of technology or capital goods.

In order to increase the foreign investments in the country, it was created the Brazilian residence and citizen program to foreign investors by the Conselho Nacional de Imigração, known as CNI, which is the National Immigration Council.

Requirements for Permanent Visa

Permanent visa is linked to the foreign investors and to the company they will invest in. This is only available for investments designated to already existing or new Brazilian companies that will have foreign direct money as part of their capital.

The permanent visa can be offered to foreigners who invest in productive activities and to foreigners that plan to stay in Brazil indefinitely to manage their investments. Activities regarding passive investments, such as buy a house, land or stocks, don't qualify for getting visa.

Amounts of money lower than the mandatory initial transfer of BRL 150.000,00 will be submitted to CNI. The Council will then examine visa requests, in order to authorize or not the acquisition, using the following criteria.

• the number of jobs generated in Brazil.
• the region of the country where the investment will be applied and its value.
• which economic sector will benefited from the investment and from the contribution to the growth on productivity or new technology.

The value investment requirements are also subjected to the value added that it will cause. If the company commits to generate at least ten new jobs in a two-year period, even if it does not present the value of investment required above, the company can sponsor for a permanent visa.

E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Buys Viber Messaging App for $900M

Japan's Rakuten Acquires Viber App for $900 Million

Japan's Rakuten Acquires Viber App for $900 Million

Rakuten Inc, one of the world’s largest Internet services companies, announced today its acquisition of pioneering messaging and VoIP company, Viber. Rakuten will acquire Viber for a total consideration of $900 million.

As people continue to shift from traditional content and communications platforms to mobile applications, Viber, one of the most popular mobile communications services worldwide with a rapidly growing global user base of 300 million registered users, perfectly complements Rakuten’s strategy in the digital space. As Rakuten aims to become the world’s No.1 Internet services company, this acquisition will enable Rakuten to penetrate new markets with multiple digital content offerings,in combination with its e-commerce and financial services platforms.

 I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally, Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform. Simply put, Viber understands how people actually want to engage and have built the only service that truly delivers on all fronts. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer engagement platform for Rakuten as we seek to bring our deep understanding of the consumer to vast new audiences through our dynamic ecosystem of Internet Services.

（Rakuten Chairman and CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani）

　　　　　　　　

Viber CEO and Founder, Talmon Marco, underlined these synergies:
“Rakuten is one of the world’s most important Internet companies. It is truly dominant in its home market of Japan and has been rapidly expanding globally. This combination presents an amazing opportunity for Viber to enhance our rapid user growth in both existing and new markets. Sharing similar aspirations with Rakuten, our vision is to be the world’s No.1 communications platform and our combination with Rakuten is an important step in that direction.”　　　　　　　　　

You can download Viber from the App Store for free.

新婚旅行先の人気ランキング、１位は？

客１万５０００人を対象にした新婚旅行先の人気調査を実施、２０．３％がイン ド洋に浮かぶモルディブを選んだ。（Ａｇｏｄａ．ｃｏｍ）

２位はギリシャの島々で７．８％を獲得、３位には７．６％のパリが入った。

調査では２０の都市、国やリゾート地などを示し、世界規模のアンケート参加者に選んでもらった。

参加者が別の場所を付け加えることは認められなかった。

調査結果によると４～１０位は、インドネシア・バリ（７．１％）、ハワイ（６．６％）、イタリア（６．５％）、カリブ海諸島（５．７％）、タヒチ（５．６％）、ニュージーランド（５．２％）、イスタンブール（３．８％）。

この後は、プーケット、オーストラリア、プラハ、ラスベガス、ニューヨーク、スペイン、カンクン、リオデジャネイロ、クロアチア、モントリオールの順だった。

一概には言えないが、「ハネムーン＝常夏の島」という印象が強い。

現実社会から離れた所を求めるのであろう。

人生の大切な時間を大切ね人と大切な場所で……。

10 Pieces Of Technology That Changed My Teaching Practice And Others That Didn’t

It is no mystery that the education world is saturated with technology. There are tools for everything from administering quizzes, to “flipping” the classroom, to facilitating　collaboration, to monitoring student productivity. Of course, with this saturation comes overwhelm. 
The new-to-edu-tech teacher is sure to find themselves deep in the trenches of 1) discerning which piece of tech is actually useful, and 2) finding the tech that does not break the bank.

I have found my quest for useful and cost-effective edu-tech tools to be one of ever changing trajectory. Often, as soon as I have mastered one tool, another simply surpasses its value. What follows are what I have found to be the most consistently useful tools. Over a bit of time, each of these tools has remained steadfast in their usability, and nimbly adjusted to the nuances of the tech world. I am sure this list will change in the next year or so, but for now, enjoy.

The “Alpha” List…

1) Twitter
This is the most powerful tool in a teacher’s arsenal these days. The resources, connections, ideas, and inspiration available on this networking tool are unparalleled. Developing and leveraging a Twitter network should be a focus of teacher training, and should be part of a mentor teacher’s work with their student teacher.

2) Google Voice
My first couple of years teaching, I did not have a cell phone and was fine with parents not calling me. Now, I am a coach, afterschool tutor, and many other things that require more after-hour parent contact. Google Voice allows you to select a phone number that is attached to your Gmail account. When that number is called, it rings your cell phone. At any time you can cancel the number, and simply select a new number. You can also simply deactivate your number and reactivate it at any time.

3) Google Earth
This is one of the most fantastic tools for geography since the map. The map overlays are great, the images are great, and the sense of the world that students get when using Google Earth is great. Additionally, the mapping tools in the free version — pin placements, lines, shapes, tour recordings — make the tool extremely powerful and useful for teaching geography.

4) Stormboard
Stormboard is a fairly simple idea: put digital sticky notes on a digital whiteboard — share. With some added features such as voting on notes, and organizing notes, this simple idea is very useful. I use it as a brainstorming tool, and an idea organizer. It is also very useful for my own personal projects.

5) Haiku
Haiku is an extremely powerful and relatively simple LMS. It is cheap — free for teachers with 5 classes or less, and very cheap otherwise — and it leaves tools such as Moodle far behind. It has a quiz builder, exportable gradebook, and easily embeddable sections to organize content. Perfect for teachers working to flip their classrooms, or those trying to maintain a consistent teacher portal.

6) Evernote
Used primarily as an organizational tool, Evernote offers simple and functional features to organize just about any digital content. Using categories or tags, Evernote books can feature varying kinds of media, and can be easily shared. I use Evernote as my virtual rolodex and access it almost exclusively from my phone. It can also be managed from my desktop.

7) Storybird
This free tool allows you to work with students to create beautiful children’s books and to focus on the writing. Artists upload their content to the community, and writers select their art to inspire or illustrate their stories. My students love this tool, and could write stories for days. 

8) Remote Mouse
This tool is all too simple. It turns your iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch into a mouse for your computer. Connect your iDevice to the same network as your computer, and you are good to go. Simply freeing yourself up from standing near your computer when you are delivering information is a liberating experience.

9) Quicktime 11 and Vimeo
Where tools like Jing and ScreencastOMatic fall short, the combination of Quicktime 11 and Vimeo is unparalleled for creating screencasts. These tools allow you to record, edit (some), upload, and share your screencasts fairly easily. My choice for highlighting this combination comes with the quality that Quicktime provides. This quality is far superior to any of its counterparts in screencasting software.

10) iCivics
I have students that have not been on iCivics in more than two years who still rave about how fun it was. The site is funded and developed by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and features awesome content used to teach Civics and American government. The games are fantastically fun teaching tools.