Roundup: Amazon Web services go down, MySpace to join OpenID and more

Venture Beat — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:32:31 -0700

Here’s the latest action:

Amazon Web services go down over the weekend — The problems crippled messaging service Twitter and many other sites.

MySpace to join OpenID? — TechCrunch’s sources say the social networking site will join the OpenID initiative, which allows one login to work across multiple sites, later this week. If so, it would be the second-largest OpenID implementation ever, second only to Yahoo.

The New York Times and LinkedIn forge a content partnership — Users of the business-oriented social network will be shown personalized news from the New York Times about the industry they work in, according to ReadWriteWeb. These users can then share this news with colleagues.

Justin.TV reaches 1M registered users — Those users create the content for the video site, which received 5 million unique visitors last month. The big question is whether the site is making money from all those visits.

What’s behind the IPO drought? — We’ve covered the issue before, but the Wall Street Journal’s opinion piece about possible causes and effects — with an emphasis on the need for Sarbanes-Oxley reform — is worth reading.

Facebook sues German clone StudiVZ — The suit alleges that StudiVZ copied Facebook’s “look, feel, features and services,” according to The Financial Times.

Game development company Flagship Studios goes under — The company is “a startling example of what not to do when finding funding for your startup,” according to Valleywag, because it used the intellectual property of its two games (including Hellgate: London) as collateral when seeking loans. That was a big risk, and one that didn’t pay off — now the rights to those games have reverted to the lenders. (Chief executive Bill Roper is pictured to the left.)

Pressflip search engine is the new Persai – The new blog search engine is a relaunch of a site called Persai. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is not impressed, and says Pressflip is only worth noting because its founders previously wrote the blog Uncov, which made its name criticizing startups and entrepreneurs.

Monitor110, the startup that monitored the Internet for financial tips, closes — The company had already raised $20 million, but couldn’t find the additional financing that it needed in May.