Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) frequently brags about how much spectrum it has at its disposal, and how easy it will be to deliver a ton of video and other high-bandwidth services over mobile networks. It’s a luxurious postion to be in and something that has only become top of mind for consumers recently as they experience dropped calls or sluggish 3G internet speeds.

But it appears that AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon have been formulating their response to this, and this week refuted Clearwire’s claims, by arguing that they have deep spectrum positions that can re-purposed for 4G when it needs to, reports ConnectedPlanet.com. Kris Rinne, AT&T’s SVP of architecture and planning, who spoke along side other executives at a GSM Association event, said: “You need to make sure you count all of our spectrum when you make these comparisons.”

However, when you check the facts, it does appear that Clearwire has the better spectrum position—no matter how you slice it. A Yankee report on the subject wrote: “Clearwire ranks highest with an estimated average of 150 MHz in the top 100 U.S. markets, measured in terms of population. Clearwire is followed by Verizon and AT&T, which have 88 and 84 MHz respectively, then Sprint (NYSE: S) with 69 MHz and T-Mobile with 51 MHz.”

Other than Clearwire, Sprint is likely in the best position of all. It has partnered with Clearwire to roll-out its 4G network, meaning that in addition to its 69 MHz of holdings, it can tap into Clearwire’s 150 MHz.

Rinne’s logic was not completely flawed. As AT&T fills the 18 MHz it has set aside for 4G, it could fall-back to its AWS spectrum. And then, if that band were to get full, it can leverage its PCS spectrum. But right now, AT&T is using those bands for its 2G and 3G networks.It will have to transition those customers to 4G before those airwaves could be reused, which can be a painful process. Rinne said. “We will have the opportunity to re-utilize this spectrum in the future.”

When comparing spectrum positions on breadth, it does not take into consideration whether all spectrum is made equal. Some bands penetrate walls better, and travel further. For instance, Verizon claims it can build a much more dispersed network than Clearwire, so it will be cheaper and faster to roll out new services.

The debate is somewhat a moot point. The government has already recognized that there needs to be more spectrum allocated for wireless broadband. It could auction off airwaves as soon as 2011, and then its longer range plans include coming up with at least an additional 500 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband needs over the next five years. That comes close to doubling what is current in use.

The FCC is working on a plan that would sell a chunk of spectrum in the first half of 2011 that failed to be sold in 2008 because of the strict conditions of use.

The spectrum, which was earmarked for public-safety use, may now have different terms and conditions, if any are to be attached. Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, told Reuters that the FCC could issue a notice of inquiry “early summer” but a final decision has not been made.

An auction would help T-Mobile USA, which doesn’t have the capacity on its current networks to roll out 4G services, like its major rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

The auction may be instrumental because it could come to market much faster than the FCC’s proposal announced earlier this week as part of the National Broadband Plan. However, it represents a drop in the bucket for what’s needed over the long-term. In the FCC’s plan unveiled this week, it has the goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum to be available in 10 years with 300 MHz coming within five. This chunk in the D-block represents only 10 Mhz.

The band was originally intended for police and fire during emergencies after networks failed during such events as 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. Now the FCC is telling emergency officials that public safety workers would have access to the entire band “when necessary, and carriers that hold licenses in that band will be compensated accordingly,” Reuters (NYSE: TRI) reports. The FCC will have to ask Congress to fund the network, which could cost between $12 billion and $16 billion and take 10 years.

»  The pros and cons of developing apps for Windows Phone 7. [InfoWorld]

»  Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie talks about Silverlight and the Windows phone. [TechCrunch]

»  In this time of economic distress, people spent more on consumer electronics than on restaurants, jewelry and vacations, a new report says. [eWeek]

»  The docking keyboard won’t launch on time with the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad. [Lost Remote]

»  A quirky take on Windows Mobile 7 vs. 6.5. [fox @ fury]

Palm (NSDQ: PALM) provided a stark view of its financial and market position yesterday after releasing its third-quarter results. With inventories mounting, cash reserves dwindling and its market competitiveness to be determined, investors today are being quick to ditch the stock. In afternoon trading, Palm’s stock was down about one dollar, or 18 percent, to trade at $4.60 a share.

To be sure, there were critics that were even more harsh and believe the stock could go lower. Canaccord Adams technology analyst Peter Misek cut his price target from $4 to $0, and maintained his “sell” rating. In a note to clients, he wrote: “We believe Palm’s troubles will only accelerate as carriers and suppliers increasingly question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support. With what appears to be roughly 12 months of cash on hand, an accelerating burn rate, a complete lack of earnings visibility, and substantial debt and preferred equity, we no longer see any value in the company’s common equity.”

Four analysts tracked by Thomson One data now rank the stock at “sell” or “underperform”, and nine others rate the stock at “hold,” reports Reuters. Kaufman Bros’ Shaw Wu was one of the analysts who cut his rating on the shares to “sell” from “hold.” He wrote: “While we believe Palm has some value with its webOS…we are unsure of the company’s prospects as an ongoing concern.”

As we wrote yesterday, the problem is two-fold. First, its Palm Pre and Pixi launch with Verizon Wireless did not go well. Now Palm is left scrambling to unload tons of unsold handsets. With inventory stacking up, revenues in the fourth quarter will be tough, forcing the cash-strapped company to burn through its cash reserves. While Palm will have to cut expenses to stay alive, it doesn’t come at a good time when other competitors, who have much deeper pockets, enter the market or gain momentum.

At this rate, Palm could make an attractive buy-out candidate—something that has already been speculated about extensively. But Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein, declined to comment on the likelihood. “There’s all kinds of speculation out there about. That we are going to get bought, that we are not going to get bought, we’re not going to comment on any of those,” he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “Obviously, we’re a public company. And if there’s a reasonable proposal, of course, the Board has to consider it. But that being said, our focus since the day I arrived here, and that’s almost three years ago now, is to build a great company with a great mobile platform and great products. And that’s been our focus.

Related

• Palm Rolls Out Hip Ad Campaign For March Madness
• Palm Issues Warning That Their Phones Aren't Selling Like Hotcakes
• What's Palm's Next Move?

When I spoke with SpinVox buyer Nuance, as it began planning the future for the voicemail-to-text firm last month, it said it would pitch the service harder to network operators, stop offering new direct consumer accounts, but continue to maintain the service for existing subscribers.

That latter part now appears to be changing. UK users on Thursday started receiving SMS notification (how appropriate) that the service would end in seven days.

Today, Nuance sent me this statement…

“As you know, Nuance acquired SpinVox in December 2009 and, to further align with our commitment to serving our mobile operator customers and partners, we will no longer offer our voice-to-text services directly to consumers.

“SpinVox announced in September 2009 its plans to offer a free service through December 2009, and, while we have enjoyed directly offering consumers a free voicemail-to-text offering, it is our mission to offer our services to consumers as a standard feature in mobile service plans locally and globally.”

SpinVox already had several contracts to supply the service through mobile carriers before it was bought by Nuance, though none in the UK.

Many who first began using SpinVox as paying subscribers remained quite happy with it, despite the company’s financial woes and adverse publicity last year. But, while the brand is rather tainted at this point, the auto-transcription technology itself, when it’s not relying on human operators, remains well thought of, so Nuance is doing the smart thing.

At the same time, we’re hearing word of new layoffs at SpinVox’s Marlow, Cambridge, HQ. Affected staff are having one-to-one meetings this week. One report claims Nuance is “gutting” the company. On this, Nuance tells paidContent:UK…

“Nuance is continuing with the integration and consultation process in relation to the acquisition of SpinVox and therefore it would be inappropriate for Nuance to comment at this stage.”

Last month, Nuance’s EMEA marketing director Alan Ranger told me the future will be a “network operator proposition” rather than a consumer service...

“We’re not going to focus on the direct-to-consumer market. We’ll work on providing operators with a service to their consumers.” On the service’s current users: “We’ll continue to maintain it,” he added. “It won’t be a focus for Nuance.”

Palm’s poor performance was no surprise today since it sent out a warning last month that sales were falling way short of expectations.

But it’s not the company’s weak performance in Q3 that people should worry about. Cash-strapped Palm (NSDQ: PALM) will be busy conducting a turnaround over the next few months as its competitors rush into the market with guns blazing. Already, Palm’s launch on Verizon Wireless took a back-seat to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid as Verizon’s big device launch of the year. Closer to the end of the year, Palm will have to contend with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) as it prepares to launch its flashy new operating system.

Release. | Webcast.

The problem:

As the company warned last month, sales of the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus at Verizon Wireless did not meet expectations. The company blamed most of the problems on not sufficiently training Verizon Wireless retail employees on the product, so that they could recommend it to customers visiting the store. In the past, Verizon has focused strongly on pushing BlackBerry devices and then became occupied for the Motorola Droid launch. But Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein said with the help of Verizon, their employees are currently going from store-to-store to get employees up to date, and that there’s anecdotal evidence that it is working. Palm won’t launch with AT&T (NYSE: T) until later this year.

Unsold inventory:

The big concern in the short-term is the company’s mounds of unsold phones. The company said it shipped 960,000 smartphone during the quarter, which was above analyst’s expectations, however, the company’s sell-through for the quarter remained a dismal 408,000 units, falling 29 percent compared the the previous quarter. With unsold inventory being a problem, the company will have to wait until carriers order more phones. In Q4, revenues could be as low as $150 million, more than less than what it made in Q3. Falling sales in Q4 will mean the company will burn cash, something it doesn’t have a lot of—especially when compared to Microsoft or Google’s handset partners, like Motorola, Samsung or HTC.

Cash Reserves:

The company would not estimate how much cash it will burn in the upcoming quarter, but during the company’s conference call today, an analyst guessed out loud that it could be as much as $200 million. The company said at the end of Q3 it had $592 million in cash and equivalents. Palm said it doesn’t not have any plans to raise additional money because it has enough until the business breaks even.

Lowering spending:

In response to the outlook, Palm said it is revising spending and plans to focus on sales and marketing and field training efforts and that Q4 operating expenses will be lower than Q3. One of the areas is advertising, where it will launch a new 30-second TV campaign during the first two weeks of March Madness, but after that, Rubinstein said they’ll shift to cheaper online advertising in social networks. Cutting expenses is likely the most important thing Palm can do at this time, but with deep-pocket competitors like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft, in the market it will be hard to remain top of mind for consumers.

Q3 Results:

In the third quarter, Palm reported a net loss of $18.5 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $349.9 million—exceeding its own revised forecasts. Last month, it warned that revenues could be as low as $285 to $310 million. However, that’s below analysts’ expectations of $424.7 million (before the warning was issued).

T-Mobile USA is indeed looking for a U.S. partner to help finance a high-speed data network. T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson said Thursday that his company—which has admitted it is losing business because many of its customers cannot even get 3G—is looking “at JV opportunities for additional spectrum” and has talked with both cable companies and also with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). There have been reports since September that T-Mobile USA was in partnership discussions with Clearwire, which is located only a few miles away from its Bellevue, Wash.-area headquarters.

Earlier reports stated that Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel would also be involved in some way, since it owns 51 percent of Clearwire. There have also been reports that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) was considering purchasing Sprint outright. But in his remarks Dotson downplayed any direct combination with that company saying, “What you never want to do is take one company that is going through challenges and take another company going through challenges.”

Other possible partners for T-Mobile USA include MetroPCS and AT&T (NYSE: T).  Deutsche Telekom has also been said to be mulling either an IPO or spinoff of the fourth-largest U.S. carrier.

Related

• Report: Deutsche Telekom May Submit Bid For Sprint To Fix U.S. Business
• Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA Now Reportedly In Talks With Clearwire

»  Several websites—particularly TheiPhoneAppReview.com and AppCraver.com—have been soliciting money from app developers in exchange for product reviews. [Wired]

»  Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) OnDemand, debuting on T-Mobile HTC HD2 smartphones, will eventually expand to other platforms. Meanwhile, it will update its iPhone app. [Electronista]

»  Cellfish Media, having generated between $100 million and $150 million in revenue for 2009, is now considering acquisitions. [WSJ]

»  The shifting landscape of the smartphone operating system market. [GigaOm]

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has sold “hundreds of thousands of iPads” on pre-order, reports the WSJ, which quotes people familiar to the matter.

The vague figure could be in-line with analysts’ estimates, which guessed that first-day sales may have hit 120,000 units and that Apple sold about 152,000 over the weekend. However, with iPads still not available until the April 3 release date, it’s not clear what people are buying. The WSJ raises concerns that Apple is facing some push-back from content owners and is still frantically working on securing deals for the tablet with just weeks to go.

At a minimum, iPad owners should have access to the thousands of applications already available for the iPhone and iPod touch—it just won’t be a top-notch experience. Reportedly, Apple is still negotiating with other media companies for a price cut on TV shows that people will be able to download onto the device. To do so, Apple has had to put negotiations with newspaper, magazines and textbook publishers for the iPad on hold.

MobiTV has fixed a digital rights management issue that was prohibiting it from offering users the ability to store content on their phone and then play it offline or on other devices. In doing so, MobiTV says there’s now a host of new business models to offer consumers, including subscriptions, rental, content metering, and sharing of content across multiple devices and platforms.

“It was imperative for us, as multi-screen distribution becomes core to our business, to create a solution that allows for consumption of content on multiple screens and platforms, whether someone is on a plane or sitting in front of their home television,” said Cedric Fernandes, MobiTV’s VP of Technology.

No word on when customers will have these options. UPDATE: MobiTV got back to us to say that commercial availability is planned to begin in early Q2 with deployments across multiple carriers and device platforms. The launch comes just in time, if not a little late. There are tons of options for watching video on mobile phones today, ranging from free YouTube clips to even more professional content, like CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile’s TV.com app, which streams full episodes from many of its properties, including CW, Showtime and CNet. Likewise, Qualcomm’s FLO TV subsidiary offers broadcast TV on limited phones on both AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon’s networks.

MobiTV currently provides subscriptions for $9.99 a month for several mobile applications that include more than 35 channels like NBC, FOX News, ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Mobile TV and Comedy Central Channel. It TV app is also sold and distributed through multiple U.S. carriers, including Verizon Wireless and Sprint (NYSE: S). It did not say how pricing might change with download and play-back features.

MobiTV said one of the major stumbling blocks to supporting multiple devices and multiple platforms was the requirement to support several types of DRM, which would be complex and expensive. To eliminate this, MobiTV said it worked closely with its content partners to create one solution that spans multiple devices.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) may have lost its search deal with T-Mobile in the U.S. earlier this month—but it is still picking up search partners—at least in Europe. The company is replacing Google (NSDQ: GOOG) as the exclusive search engine on the mobile portal of Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Espana, the biggest mobile operator in Spain. Under a two-and-half year old partnership with Telefonica, Yahoo was already the exclusive search engine on Telefonica’s mobile portals in 15 other countries. But the partnership notably left out two of Telefonica’s largest markets—Germany and Spain.

In November, Yahoo replaced Google as the default search provider for Telefonica subsidiary O2 Germany—and now it’s closed the loop with its deal in Telefonica’s home country.

Still unclear is what will happen to Yahoo’s 80-plus mobile distribution deals once its search partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) goes into effect. Yahoo will use Bing as its exclusive search platform for PC-based searches. However, the mobile search relationship isn’t exclusive, with Yahoo allowed to choose other partners if it wants to. Discussions are ongoing.

Here’s the announcement.

Related

• O2, Telefonica Add Yahoo's oneSearch To Mobile Portals
• Yahoo Lands Another Mobile Search Distribution Deal—This Time In Germany

Two weeks after Apple filed suit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) patents related to the device, underlying architecture and hardware, the Android-and-Windows-Phone-maker has issued a formal response from its North American headquarters in Seattle.

HTC’s CEO Peter Chou said: “HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

It appears from the content of the statement that part of HTC’s argument against the suit is in proving that HTC has been around for much longer than Apple’s two-year old entry into the smartphone market.

HTC was founded in 1997 and produced its first smartphone for O2 in 2002, which had a 3.5-inch color touchscreen display. Work on that started as early as 1999, Chou argued. From there, it named a number of firsts: First Windows PDA (1998); First Windows Phone (June 2002); First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005); First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007); First Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android smartphone (October 2008); First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008).

While HTC’s history stretches back to the 90s, Apple has accomplished more in a short time, making it more Goliath and HTC resemble David. According to IDC, HTC had a 4.6 percent global share of the smartphone market in 2009, compared with Apple’s 14.4 percent.

Related

• What's Next For HTC Now That Apple's Filed Suit?
• Apple Slaps Android-Maker HTC With Patent Infringement Suit

For years, Tim Westergren was on the front lines of a difficult royalty battle.  But instead of becoming a casualty, Pandora and other internet radio providers managed to forge a workable rate structure - at least one that kept the lights on.

But this is still one huge royalty bill, and Pandora is now one of the biggest contributors.  Just recently, Westergren disclosed top-line, 2009 revenues of $50 million, but royalty obligations to SoundExchange alone (a cost that does not include publishing) topped $28 million, according to Westergren.

The bigger Pandora gets, the bigger its royalty bill, a variable cost structure that makes it difficult for many content-based business to scale.

Either way, Pandora is a serious chunk of total SoundExchange royalty revenues from online radio.  Despite all of the wrangling over non-interactive royalties on recordings, Pandora now accounts for roughly 44-45 percent of total SoundExchange royalties for non-interactive streams, according to details confirmed by both companies.  “We’re about 44 percent of internet radio,” Westergren told Digital Music News.

Beyond that, Pandora represents a very important one-percent of broader radio royalties.  “We’re a shade over 1 percent of the overall radio marketplace,” Westergren relayed.  “Multiply that by 100, and you get the found revenue flowing to labels and artists if we were in an internet radio world instead of a broadcast world.”

This story has been provided by our content partner Digital Music News.

Khris Loux is the founder and CEO of Echo, a commenting platform. He tweets at @Khrisloux.

With leadership from its founders and a significant infusion of cash from investors, Twitter has created an innovative no-charge service for users and industry-standard APIs for developers. But more recently, access to its data through those APIs has been fairly inconsistent, with particularly opaque procedures for getting at its most coveted dataset, its full stream of Tweets.

Twitter has recently begun selling publishers, big and small, access to all its Tweets. Its licensing of the “full firehose,” as it is also known, to Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) marks Twitter’s first big move towards monetization. The micro-blogging company has yet to make public the terms of these deals, but according to one report, Twitter is bringing in a combined $25 million from those agreements. Meanwhile, Twitter has granted small startups access to the same data at rates “proportional to the size of the company,” according to Ryan Sarver, Director of Platform at Twitter.

This points to a potential conflict: Quiet deal-making, variable pricing, and uneven access across Twitter’s partner base could create questions about the commercial viability of the entire ecosystem. Twitter has an opportunity to maximize its own value and retain its inter-galactic goodwill with users and partners alike by fostering a new level of transparency around the licensing deals.

How to do that?

Twitter should license the full firehose to publishers, whether directly or indirectly through partners, in a real-time feed that includes all the elements of the Tweets, like geotargeting, time stamp, etc. And the communication between Twitter and those potential partners over pricing, process and terms should be open and transparent.

Similarly, Twitter has an opportunity to create either value or angst for the developer community. The Twitter platform has led to countless third-party innovations, resulting in a rich set of applications that enhances the core platform. And Twitter has publicly encouraged these developers to join in the “gold rush” of opportunity and build businesses on its platform.

Indeed, the staggering growth of the service and a healthy ecosystem of complimentary applications have made Twitter a sort of benevolent king.

Now the hard part: building a business without becoming a tyrant.

Twitter’s recent release of Twitter Lists, for example, undercuts the work of partners like TLists and shows the tightrope that Twitter (indeed all proprietary platforms) must walk to both grow their core platforms while also making sure that developers have an incentive to build on top of those platforms. Twitter’s failure to strike that balance could alienate a prime engine of its long-term value and growth.

These issues are obviously not unique to Twitter; many successful companies (especially on the web) face these same challenges as they mature. But for its part, Twitter has an opportunity to figure out that happy medium in a way that has eluded companies such as Microsoft and Facebook. And if its executes well, Twitter can establish itself as a new kind of technology company.

In short, it’s the ultimate opportunity for Twitter to create a radically open business model, one that mimics the open nature of the Twitter service itself.

Related

• Updated: @ SxSWi: Twitter Tries For Maximum Value With Least Effort
• Yahoo, Twitter Launching Broad Partnership
• Twitter Rolls Out Another Feature For Businesses: Multi-User Account Access
• Google Integrates Twitter With Its Friend Connect

Special offers on many of the popular smartphones in the fourth quarter drove penetration to nearly a third in the U.S., according to The NPD Group, a wireless market research.

The report found that smartphones are now in the hands of about 31 percent of the U.S. population, growing from only 23 percent in the year-ago period. Of those phones purchased in the fourth-quarter, nearly two-thirds cost $150 or less, and many more were bought for even less. “Although we are seeing more expensive models among the best-selling handsets, carriers are now offering some popular smartphones for less than $100,” said Ross Rubin, NPD’s executive director.

As penetration rises, Rubin cautions that it will take much more than the price of the handset to keep adoption rates high. Rather other factors, he said, such as the price of data plan will become the biggest hurdle.

»  An app-happy world has one research firm tripling its projection for total U.S. app revenue in 2010 from $537 million to $1.6 billion. [MoBlog]

»  Nokia (NYSE: NOK) CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo discusses the company’s U.S. and acquisition strategies, and says how the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) partnership has its benefits. [BusinessWeek]

»  Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) discontinues protective iPhone/iTouch screen films, possibly in an attempt to show off screen durability. [iLounge]

»  Porsche is marketing a new phone for Porsche owners who really, really want people to be aware of their wealth. [Reuters]

»  T-Mobile will release the Windows Mobile 6.5-powered HTC HD2 on March 24 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. [Gearlog]

Just as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) starts being more aggressive at rolling out the Nexus One to more carriers, it was socked in the gut with this bad news: its trademark application for the phone has been denied.

Google’s application was denied because of “a likelihood of confusion” with a trademark held by Integra Telecom’s ‘Nexus’ brand, reports MarketWatch. That didn’t stop Sprint (NYSE: S) from announcing today that a version of the Nexus One will be available soon for its network. Just yesterday, Google said a compatible version was available for AT&T (NYSE: T) and Rogers in Canada.

The relationship Google has with Sprint sounds similar how it works with T-Mobile, compared to the completely unlocked phones being sold for AT&T’s or Rogers’ networks. For instance, the Nexus One is still only be available directly at google.com/phone (and not in Sprint stores), but it may come with a discounted price. Currently, a version of the Nexus One for AT&T’s network costs $529, while a discounted version for T-Mobile’s network costs only $179 with a two-year contract. A pricing plan for the device has not yet been announced.

As for the trademark snafu, Google will have to submit further evidence in support of its application, according to last week’s ruling. In a statement, a Google spokeswoman said: “We continue to claim rights to the Nexus One trademark in the United States, and plan to respond to the office action from the U.S. Patent Trademark Office.” A spokesman for Integra did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related

• Why Google Phone Sales Will Still Lag After Coming To AT&T, Rogers

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has hinted for several months that it would be buying more companies and it’s finally made an acquisition—buying up social sports startup Citizen Sports, which it says will compliment Yahoo Sports, the top sports site in the U.S.

And, indeed, the move immediately gives Yahoo clout in the social networking and mobile sports spaces, where it has been weak. Citizen Sports owns a series of popular sports apps on the iPhone and on social networking sites, including what it says is the most popular fantasy football app on Facebook. By contrast, Yahoo has long been the top player in the online fantasy sports market, but only last September did it release a fantasy football iPhone app and, as far as I can tell, it does not have any sports apps at all on Facebook.

In its announcement, Yahoo says Yahoo Sports content will be integrated into Citizen Sports’ apps. Together, the company says, Yahoo Sports and Citizen Sports will create a “more personally relevant experience, drive deeper user engagement and create opportunities for advertisers to interact with audiences in new environments.”

Financial terms of the acquisition were not released, although AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher—who predicted the deal earlier this week—put the price at between $40 million and $50 million. Citizen Sports had raised roughly $10 million in a funding round four years ago, back when it was operating under the name ProTrade Sports.

This is Yahoo’s third acquisition under CEO Carol Bartz. Going ahead, the company has said it is interested in three general areas—deals that would add “important technology and the people behind it,” content-related deals, and geographic buys that would let the company move into or strengthen its position in a market.

Here’s our earlier report on what Yahoo may buy next.

The release:

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)—As part of its ongoing commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Citizen Sports (http://www.citizensports.com), a company that brings the world of sports to fans’ favorite social networking sites and mobile devices through innovative applications. This acquisition will strengthen Yahoo!‘s social strategy of enriching, aggregating and distributing social content from across the entire Web, and offering a highly customizable social experience.

“Yahoo! is in a unique position to combine our deep expertise in content and aggregation technology to offer a highly personalized social experience,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!. “Sports has been among the earliest online categories to experience rapid social proliferation, and the combination of Citizen Sports leading products with our world-class sports experience on Yahoo! Sports is a win-win for sports fans globally.”

Millions of people across the globe use Citizen Sports’ array of social and mobile products to play fantasy sports, fill out brackets, check live scores and read up-to-the minute news on sports including football, hockey, soccer, baseball, racing, rugby, hockey and cricket. Yahoo! Sports’ content will be integrated into these products, creating a seamless experience for sports fans wherever they are. On Yahoo! Sports, users will be able to broadcast their allegiances, create or join a conversation with friends and fans and cheer for their teams through Citizen Sports’ applications. This integration will further transform Yahoo! into a more personally relevant experience, drive deeper user engagement and create opportunities for advertisers to interact with audiences in new environments.

As the #1 destination for online Sports with more than 39 million monthly unique users in the U.S.*, Yahoo! Sports provides people with the most timely, relevant and comprehensive sports news, information and programming. Citizen Sports’ network of popular applications for Facebook, MySpace (NYSE: NWS), hi5, iPhone and Android span professional, college and high school sports.

“Citizen Sports was founded with the intent to enable fans to access news, scores and fantasy games on the platform of their choice,” said Mike Kerns, founder and CEO of Citizen Sports. “We look forward to becoming a part of Yahoo! and bringing our social experiences to their 600 million users around the globe.”

Citizen Sports was founded by Mike Kerns and Jeff Ma in 2004. Since then the company has brought together millions of sports fans from around the world to enjoy sports and connect with their friends. Citizen Sports is based in San Francisco.

Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the second quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.

* February 2010, comScore (NSDQ: SCOR), U.S.

Related

• What Will Yahoo Buy Itself For Its Birthday?
• Yahoo Launches Apps For Fantasy Football, Flickr and Finance
• Citizen Sports Acquires Trio Of Social Media Application Developers

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel may unveil the first 4G phone next week at the big CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas.

The device, which is reportedly made by HTC and called ‘the Supersonic,’ will run on the company’s WiMax network, which is being built by Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR), reports the Wall Street Journal, which quotes people familiar with the matter.

If the company does reveal a device, it will easily beat Verizon Wireless to the punch, which is not expected to have a 4G handset, running on its LTE network, until mid-2011.

On Wednesday, March 24, Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse will keynote at the show. The WSJ said the device may be the highlight of Hesse’s presentation. The timing for an unveiling seems right. Previously, Clearwire said WiMax phones could be ready by the middle of this year.

Sprint made a big splash at CES in January, where it unveiled the Overdrive, a 3G and 4G device that allows people to connect to up to five devices at once over WiFi. The party, which feature Celebrity Chef Chef Mario Batali and Comedian Frank Caliendo, marked Sprint’s big coming out party for WiMax. For such a big event, many were expecting a phone at the time.

However, rolling out a phone will be much more difficult. The phone will still have to rely a lot on the 3G network because the 4G footprint is still relatively small and 4G networks are only for data—users will still need 3G to talk. Not to mention, the big disruptive opportunity for 4G is not voice plans—rather it’s providing high-speed connectivity with new business models. Expect Sprint to also roll out new data plans that may include tethering to a laptop or multiple devices with the purchase of a WiMax phone. The WiMax network offers capacity that today’s 3G networks don’t.

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• Sprint Officially Launches 4G After Coming Out Party At CES

MocoSpace, a social network that is primarily accessed on the phone, has reached 11 million users.

While that may pale in comparison to the 100 million people using Facebook on cellphones, it easily surpasses the 560,000 using Foursquare. However, it is more in line with the 500,000 users that MocoSpace says are logging in on a daily basis to the network. MocoSpace VP of Business Development & Marketing Casey Jones said: “Scale is a critical piece to being able to deliver on the promise of our targeting capabilities. We are very fortunate to have a large, growing, and loyal audience.”

MocoSpace provided other statistics following its appearance at SXSW, as well:

—The site generates 3 billion pages per month and was recently named the 4th most visited mobile web site in the U.S. by Ground Truth (behind big names like MySpace (NYSE: NWS), Facebook, Google).
—Average session times are over 13 minutes on mobile.
—Mobile users on average access the site more than 5 times per day.
—Users sent more than 1.7 million e-cards during the week of Valentine’s Day.
—Over 200 new artists are submitting their own music to MocoSpace daily.

The company says it primarily makes money through advertising targeted at their demographic of 18 to 24 year olds, which is one-third Hispanic and one-third African-American. Recent campaigns were from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures, Spike TV and the U.S. Census. In addition, the site uses virtual currency, which is expected to exceed 15 percent of the company’s revenue by the end of 2010.