MICROSOFT DROPS OUT OF BIDDING FOR HULU

Microsoft Corp. is dropping out of the bidding for Hulu LLC, the online video service put up for sale by its media-company owners, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, told Hulu executives last week it wouldn’t continue into a second round, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to talk publicly. The person didn’t rule out Microsoft re-entering later.

Hulu bankers at Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners met in the past four weeks with Microsoft, which already rents and sells films and TV shows through its Xbox video-game console, to solicit an offer, people with knowledge of the situation said on July 1. The bankers also met with Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AT&T Inc. and as many as eight other companies, they said.

Elisa Schreiber, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles-based Hulu, declined to comment, as did Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft.

NORTEL PATENTS WON BY GROUP INCLUDING APPLE, MICROSOFT AND RIM

A group of companies including Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, EMC and Ericsson offered the winning bid in an auction that will net them Nortel’s extensive portfolio of patents. The bankrupt telecommunications company held roughly 6,000 patents, and the six-company consortium’s winning bid came in at $4.5 billion. Among the big losers were Google, which opened the bidding at $900 million, and Intel. Patents within the massive cache cover a wide range of technologies including wireless, voice, networking, optical data transmission and 4G LTE. RIM said it would be responsible for $770 million of the winning bid, and Ericsson separately stated it would pay $340 million. The rest of the companies in the consortium did not disclose their contributions.

DISH NETWORK WINS AUCTION FOR BLOCKBUSTER

Back in September, Blockbuster announced that they would file for bankruptcy protection. Since then, corporate executives weighed their options to try and save the company from the dustbin, but finally reserved themselves to putting it up for sale in the hopes that another company would buy it at auction. This morning those hopes came true: Dish Network stepped in to buy the company for a total of $228 million in cash.

It’s unlikely that Dish Network is interested in Blockbuster’s chain of 1,700 video rental stores and retail locations: it’s almost certain that Dish really wants to get their hands on Blockbuster’s kiosk business, streaming video services, DVD mailing services, and their agreements with movie studios and television networks that produce its most watched and rented content. It’s still very likely that many, if not all, of Blockbuster’s neighborhood rental stores will close.

Whether or not Dish Network sees fit to prop up Blockbuster’s retail business remains to be seen, but it’s clear that they’re not the most valuable part of the deal. It’s far more likely that Dish Network will tie in its own satellite television services with Blockbuster streaming packages. For example, new Dish Network customers may see promotions and discounts if they sign up for Blockbuster streaming or disc by mail rentals. By contrast, current Blockbuster subscribers may be prompted to switch to Dish Network for their traditional TV services, if they have them.

Additionally, Blockbuster has made a significant push in recent years towards the mobile space, entering partnerships with a number of smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers to bundle their streaming video apps on new devices. Dish Network could also leverage those agreements to bring mobile television and streaming video to users much like Comcast does with its Xfinity TV mobile apps without having to build the apps themselves.

Ultimately, Dish Network’s acquisition of Blockbuster – if approved by the federal bankruptcy court handling the deal – could give the company a leg up against competitors like RedBox, which doesn’t have a traditional TV service to fight Dish Network with, and Netflix, which doesn’t offer either traditional TV or kiosks.

7-YEAR OLD BUYS HARRIER JET

A 7-year-old kid came closer to realize every kid's dream than any of us: He bought a real Harrier fighter jet for $113,000 on eBay. Yes, a Harrier Jump Jet T-Bird Aircraft XW269. The whole shebang, weaponry not included.

Sadly, his dreams were broken the same day, after his dad found out about the purchase and quickly contacted the company selling it—Jet Art Aviation—telling them the story and asking to cancel the sale. Obviously, they understood it and put it back on the auction block.

But here's the good news, kid: It wasn't really worth it. The airplane—which flew for the last time in 1997 after 26 years in the Royal Air Force—was not in working condition for legal reasons. Fixing it would have cost you several million dollars.