GOOGLE + NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESSES

Finally, Google is now allowing businesses, brands and any non-human entity to participate in its Google+ social network, through new Google+ Pages. Beginning today, and rolling out over the next two days, businesses will be able to create Google+ pages for themselves, using the Create A Page tool (and assuming you already have a regular Google+ account). once you gain access, you’ll be asked to create a page in one of five categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

At first, whoever creates the page initially will also be the page administrator. No one else will be able to admin that page after them, at first. Nor can that page be transferred to someone else. Multiple administrator support is promised in the near future, but until it arrives, it seems important that if your company has a social media manager, that person should be the one to create the account.

Unlike Facebook, there aren’t “vanity” URLs yet available that use a business name rather than a long string of number. The same issue is true of personal accounts. Google provided no update on when this might change. Don’t like the name of your page? Unlike with Facebook, you can change that at any time. However, if you have verified status, doing this will cause you to lose verification, requiring that process to start again

SONY TO SPLIT TV BUSINESS TO HELP DRIVE PROFITABILITY

Sony announced on Monday that it will split its television business into three different branches in an effort to reverse a course that has the arm headed to its eighth consecutive annual loss. The three new branches include LCD TVs, next generation TVs and outsourced televisions, Reuters said on Monday, and the changes will go into effect on Tuesday, November 1st. “By dividing into three divisions, we will make clearer the misson and responsibilities of these,” a Sony spokesperson said

CISCO TO CUT UP TO 10,000 EMPLOYEES

Cisco could cut as many as 10,000 jobs — 14% of the company’s employees — in an effort to boost profits, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. 3,000 Cisco employees accepted buyouts and early retirement packages, which will cost Cisco between $500 million and $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter. While the layoff plans aren’t final, 7,000 more jobs could be cut by the end of August. The move comes as analysts predict that Cisco’s router and switches business will continue to slide into next year, and the company believes the job cuts could save it as much as $1 billion during 2012. “We will provide additional detail on the cost reductions, including layoffs, on our next earnings call,” Cisco spokesperson Karen Tillman said. The call is scheduled for early August. On April 12th, Cisco announced that it was restructuring its consumer business and killing off its Flip video camera arm.

VERIZON BUYS DATA CENTER OPERATOR TERREMARK

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Verizon Communications Inc. will pay $1.4 billion to acquire Terremark Worldwide Inc., an operator of data centers, in a move aimed at selling more computing services to business customers.

The deal, Verizon's largest since its $6.8 billion purchase of MCI in 2005, comes as telecom operators are moving deeper into selling processing power, data storage and software hosting services over the Internet as their landline businesses shrink.

The acquisition could help the company secure more deals for such services—collectively known as "cloud computing"—and compete with companies like Amazon.com Inc., which runs a cloud-services business alongside its giant online store.

Kerry Bailey, Verizon business group president of cloud services, said the carrier has made cloud computing a key part of its growth strategy, in addition to the wireless business it runs with Vodafone Group PLC.

Verizon already operates more than 220 data centers in 23 countries. The deal for the Miami-based company would bring another 13 in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, as well as a strong position in federal government work.

Verizon said it plans to keep the Terremark brand and operate the new unit with its current management team as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Terremark's clients include the Federal Communications Commission and the Library of Congress, a Terremark spokesman said. The federal government accounts for 21% of Terremark's revenue, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Philip Cusick.

As revenue growth slows in the traditional phone business, it makes sense for telecom companies that serve business customers, such as Verizon, to "creep deeper into the information-technology environment," said Steve Hilton, an analyst at research firm Analysys Mason.

Verizon is paying $19 a share in cash, a 35% premium to Terremark's stock, which was up 35 cents at $14.05 on Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Verizon said it expects to close the deal late in the first quarter.

Application hosting, in particular, is a rapidly growing market. Increasingly, "this is the way people are going to consume" computing resources, rather than building their own data centers, said Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer at Rackspace Hosting Inc., another data center operator.

The deal reflects the long, slow rebound of the data-center business, an industry burned by the dot-com bust. Demand for the facilities housing thousands of computers has exploded in recent years, as Web traffic grows and companies look to centralize storage and computing power.

PAYPAL UPDATES iPHONE APP

Tucked away in an annoucement for a slew of other things like a new micropayments product and an apps platform for business, Paypal had an interesting nugget. A new version of its popular iPhone app that allows users to find businesses near their immediate location that accept PayPal as a form of payment. Launching in San Francisco initially, the feature encourages merchants to attract nearby customers to their stores by posting deals and promotions to the app as an incentive for customers to visit their businesses.

Customers can search by category and location, and find and select stores, services, or special offers. Users can pick up the goods or services in person, but pay the merchant using their PayPal app. Users can also use tags from Bling Nation, a startup that has partnered with PayPal to use the startup’s mobile payment chips to deduct funds from a PayPal account.

One of the big selling points around using PayPal for merchants is the ability to offer deals as an incentive to drive buyers to a store or restaurant. Whether it be Groupon-like daily deals or just ordinary coupons, there’s no doubt that deals do help drive online to offline sales. [TechCrunch]