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Monday, November 10, 2008

Van Natta Takes Playlist CEO Job, With New Investment by Pittman

Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will take the CEO job at a music discovery site called Playlist, a move that had been speculated last week, after he did not end up taking another position as head of MySpace Music.

Van Natta’s arrival at Playlist was not the only news for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up–former AOL exec Bob Pittman’s Pilot Investment Group is also investing an undisclosed amount of money in Playlist, and Pittman will join its board.

The site, which has been called Project Playlist, had previously raised several million dollars. The new round of funding super-sized that, sources said, hovering at about $18 million.

“Discovery around music is exploding on the Internet,” said Van Natta to BoomTown, in an interview this afternoon, giving it as his main reason for joining Playlist.

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Thursday, November 6, 2008

If AOL Is Amherst and Yahoo Is Yale, Why Aren’t They Giving the Merger the Old College Try?

If there is a corporate merger brewing, there inevitably is always a code name for each company involved.

In the case of Yahoo’s merger talks with AOL, which are ongoing, the pair seem to be aiming for a tony image, using the names of two upscale institutions of higher education: Yale University and Amherst College.

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

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Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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