Today in Tech: Can Netflix pull an HBO?
January 5, 2012: 4:00 AM ETFortune's curated selection of tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day.
* Yahoo (YHOO) has a new CEO in Scott Thompson, who served as PayPal President and grew the online payment unit into a business that now accounts for nearly 37% of eBay's total revenues. As sources told colleague Dan Primack, Yahoo's board members are not supportive of a takeover offer for the entire company. (The Los Angeles Times and Fortune)
* Kevin Spacey's House of Cards isn't the only series coming exclusively to Netflix (NFLX). Sopranos actor Steven Van Zandt will join the online video service in an original series called Lilyhammer, about a mafia boss-turned-member of the witness protection program. The bigger question -- beyond whether the show will be any good -- is whether Netflix's strategy of emulating HBO with premium content will pay off. Given the company's announcement that some 20 million streaming customers watched 2 billion-plus hours of movies and TV between October and December of last year, it just might. (CNET and Mashable)
* Does Amazon (AMZN) want to move beyond hosting massive amounts of data with its Web services to analyzing it? (The New York Times)
* Apple (AAPL) reportedly hired Adobe (ADBE) exec Todd Teresi to head up its iAd mobile ad business. Teresi was previously VP of Adobe's media solutions group. (Bloomberg)
* Kodak is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (The Wall Street Journal)
* Barnes and Noble (BKS) is selling its Sterling Publishing business, which it bought in 2003 for some $115 million. Sterling mainly publishes nonfiction titles in areas like puzzles and games, gardening, and children's books. (The Wall Street Journal)
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