Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Social network creator Ning raises $60M at $500M valuation  —  Make-your-own-social-network company Ning has raised a $60 million fourth round of funding.  —  Co-founded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, Ning already raised a hefty third round of $44 million back in July.

Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Social network creator Ning raising $70M at $560M valuation  —  Make-your-own-social-network company Ning is raising a fourth funding round of up to $70 million, and has raised $63.2 million already, VentureBeat has learned.  The investment was led by Legg Mason Opportunity Trust.

Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary  —  Ebay will consider selling off its Skype internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to find ways to use the fast-growing service to support its core e-commerce business, according to the company’s chief executive.

Adam L. Penenberg / Fast Company:
Ning’s Infinite Ambition  —  Brain Trust: Ning chairman Marc Andreessen (he built Netscape back in the day), with Bianchini, at the company’s HQ in Palo Alto. |  It isn’t just a site where users can build their own social networks — Ning is a model of how to create […]

Larry Dignan / Zero Day:
Apple should call PayPal’s bluff  —  PayPal is in another stand-off with Apple over EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer) certificates, but Steve Jobs & Co. may call the transaction service’s bluff.  —  According to Ryan Naraine, PayPal is about to launch a whitepaper …

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Five Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and One Great Way  —  Here at ReadWriteWeb we get piles and piles of pitches for coverage from companies all day long and they almost always come in by email.  You’ll notice that only a tiny percentage of those pitches result in write-ups here.

Andrew Donoghue / CNET News.com:
AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010  —  U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T has claimed that, without investment, the Internet’s current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010.  —  Speaking at a Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 this week in London, Jim Cicconi …

Jonathan Richards / Times of London:
iPhone sellers braced for hit on cheap handsets  —  Mobile operators with exclusive contracts to sell Apple’s iPhone are bracing themselves for significant losses on unsold stock as they clear the shelves to make way for a new, faster version expected this summer.

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Comscore: The Google fallout  —  Google’s first quarter earnings call didn’t have much in the way of theatrics, but a serious brush back pitch was delivered to Comscore.  What should we make of Google CEO Eric Schmidt essentially throwing Comscore under the bus?

Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Yet Another Google Video Redesign  —  Google Video redesigned its homepage and now only includes a list of “hot” videos.  “The Google Video home page allows you to browse and play hot videos directly from the home page, making it easier for you to discover popular, interesting videos […]