Om Malik / GigaOM:
Goodbye Old Friend.  R.I.P. Rajeev Motwani  —  Rajeev Motwani, one of the savviest angel investors in Silicon Valley, a Stanford professor and most importantly a close and personal friend passed away earlier today.  —  It is hard for me to write this post — this morning the news of Steve Jobs’ […]

Anupreeta Das / Reuters:
In downturns, Internet cos look to sell start-ups  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many Internet and media companies that were busy buying start-ups in the boom years could shed assets they no longer deem central to their business, as the recession imposes an age of frugality.

Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Venture Capitalists Fight for Carried Interest  —  The venture capital industry is gearing up to fight against raising the tax on carried interest.  A key battle is differentiating itself from the private equity industry.  —  Carried interest, known as “carry” in the industry …

Melinda Deslatte / Associated Press:
La. House backs 15-cent charge on Internet access  —  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A 15-cent monthly surcharge should be levied on Internet access across Louisiana to fight online criminal activity, the House voted 81-9 Thursday, over the opposition of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Darren Murph / Engadget:
Best Buy memo explains that Vista doesn’t work, details Windows 7 upgrade plans  —  Ouch.  We’re guessing this is one that the suits at Best Buy would like to have back.  A leaked company memo detailing how the retailer will handle Windows 7 upgrades has accidentally given the world a tasty […]

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Did Bing Just Leapfrog Yahoo Search?  —  Data from monitoring service StatCounter suggests that Bing, Microsoft’s new decision engine, has overtaken Yahoo Search as the number two search service in the U.S. and worldwide in large part thanks to stealing market share from leader Google.

Marguerite Reardon / Crave: The gadget blog:
Sprint CEO says Pre deal is longer than six months  —  NEW YORK—Verizon Wireless’s claims that it will be offering the Palm Pre within six months are not accurate, says Sprint Nextel’s CEO Dan Hesse.  —  “They need to check their facts,” Hesse said in an interview at […]

Daniel Ionescu / PC World:
Google Chrome for Mac: Hands on  —  The Google Chrome team is delivering on its promises to deliver Mac users a native version of the company’s browser.  A developer version of Chrome for both Mac and Linux users was released last night, but Google doesn’t want you to download the […]

Brad Stone / New York Times:
Apple Races to Keep Ahead of Rivals  —  SAN FRANCISCO — With its coveted gadgets and resurgent stock price, Apple has cast something of a spell on both consumers and investors.  —  At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins here on Monday, Apple executives will try to sustain […]

Bradley Hebdon / uxbydesign.org:
Designing the Palm Pre: An interview with Michelle Koh  —  It’s the question on everyone’s lips these days.  Is the Palm Pre going to make an impact large enough to save both Palm and Sprint?  We shall see how this plays out once the anticipated savior descends to earth on June […]