Some analysts have speculated Hastings will try to sell the DVD business

News today that Facebook is spending $550 million to buy 650 patents held by Microsoft came just weeks after it made what seemed to be an even bigger purchase from IBM in which it spent an undisclosed sum to acquire 750 patents. Monster beats by dr dre headphones 2012 new arrivals sale, including beats by dre studio, monster beats pro, beats by dre solo and so on. All 50% off promotion now, free shipping for orders exceeding $500. It looks like those IBM patents are not nearly as valuable to Facebook as the ones once held by AOL that the social network bought from Microsoft today. In Facebook's amended S-1, which it filed today with the Security and Exchange Commission, Facebook said that in the first quarter it spent $83 million acquiring patents. The updated S-1 talks about today's Microsoft deal but doesn't mention the IBM transaction, which happened on March 22. A patent's value varies, of course, but patent experts had reasoned that the price tag would be higher than $83 million, which comes out to about $111,000 per patent. The patents Facebook bought from IBM are said to cover a broad range of "software and networking" technology. Facebook declined to comment. The social network, which ended 2011 with just 56 patents, has been bulking up its intellectual property portfolio in advance of its initial public offering. It started its purchasing spree after Yahoo filed a suit in March claiming that Facebook was infringing on 10 Yahoo patents. There was speculation that Facebook would quickly countersue and then settle, or perhaps even buy a chunk of Yahoo's patent Monster Beats Studio MLB Milwaukee Brewers portfolio outright to make the problem go away. Facebook did countersue, claiming Yahoo is infringing on 10 of Facebook's patents, but a speedy settlement looks less and less likely. Instead, it has been buying up patents from other companies, largely to help it with its battle with Yahoo and to protect itself against others that might be looking to file a Yahoo-like suit, especially once Facebook's pockets (presumably) become even deeper after its IPO. All told, based on information in its S-1 and today's deal with Microsoft, Facebook now has 1,424 patents and almost 550 filed patent applications. The number of Facebook accounts is almost equal to the entire population of Africa. In fact, it’s about the same as one-seventh of the entire global louis vuitton sunglasses population. Of course, not all of those people actually log on to the social networking site on a regular basis, but around 60% of them are in fact checking in to Facebook each and every day. That’s a retention rate that sites with 1/100 that volume of users pray for. In other words, believe it or not, there is still room for the site to grow. Facebook has not reached that point of diminishing returns yet. Eventually, the number of people signing up for an account will have to taper off because, well, there won’t be that many people left. When you factor in that only users over the age of 13 are able to join Facebook, the penetration rate around the world is even higher. These updated numbers come from new documents that the site has filed gucci sunglasses with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering. In the filing, Facebook said, “We believe that we are at the forefront of enabling faster, easier, and richer communication between people and that Facebook has become an integral part of many of our users’ daily lives. We have experienced rapid growth in the number of users and their engagement.” Facebook said that a whopping 488 million users are logging in on a daily basis from a mobile device. It has pioneered social communication in the mobile world. Can one billion users be far behind? While Netflix reported a first-quarter loss that was not as steep as Wall Street projected, it warned that domestic second-quarter streaming additions would fall below the level during the same period in 2010. The stock plunged 17 percent to $84.85 in after-hours trading, down from a close at $101.84 on Nasdaq. Despite predicting total U.S. streaming-subscriber additions in 2012 would reach about 7 million, "about the same as in 2010," the nearer-term guidance rattled burberry ties investors, said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. Adding customers to the instant-streaming business is crucial to the company's future as it moves away from mailing DVDs in its signature red envelopes. And sustaining strong growth in users will help offset rising costs as Netflix writes bigger checks for new movies and TV shows. "They are giving a signal to the Street their growth story is over," said Pachter, who rates Netflix a "sell." Netflix said seasonal variations would affect second-quarter customer growth. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said they saw "nothing new or particularly concerning" about customer viewing, acquisition and retention. "All are healthy," they said. "Our gross additions are strong. Our retention burberry handbags is strong. We are feeling good about the year," Hastings said in an interview with Reuters. Netflix never fully recovered credibility with investors after a tumultuous 2011, when a price-hike and plan to hive off its DVD business -- quickly abandoned -- sparked cancellations by angry customers. It lost more than 800,000 U.S. subscribers in the third quarter, louis vuitton handbags though it rebounded by gaining back 610,000 in the last three months of the year. Once one of Wall Street's highest-flying stocks, its shares dropped from $304.79 in July to $62.37 in November. "The brand recovery is partway complete" and will take about three years with most of it happening the first year, Hastings said during a conference call with analysts. For the first quarter, Netflix posted revenue of $870 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier. The company had a net loss of $4.6 million or 8 cents per share in the quarter, versus a net profit of $60.2 million a year earlier. Analysts had expected a loss of 27 cents oakley sunglasses per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company added 1.7 million U.S. streaming customers in the quarter for a total of 23.4 million. DVD subscribers fell by about 1.1 million to 10.1 million. Some analysts have speculated Hastings will try to sell the DVD business. On the conference call, he said he was not considering the idea. While it transitions to streaming and expands around the world, Netflix faces growing competition from rivals such as Amazon.com Inc and Comcast Corp's Streampix. The company attributed its quarterly loss to start-up costs abroad. Netflix added 1.2 million customers in international markets during the second quarter, for a total of 3.1 million. The company said it expected to return to profitability in the second quarter and launch in another European market in the fourth quarter of this year. The move into another market may have added to 2012 marc jacobs fashion sunglasses bestseller on sale DUPO5787 concerns among investors, said Gabelli & Co analyst Brett Harriss. "It's very aggressive. I think investors are gun-shy from their last aggressive move" into foreign markets, said Harriss, who has a "hold" rating on Netflix.