ADEYEMI AJAO - FIRST AFRICAN EVER TO SELL HIS STARTUP FOR $100 MILLIONS IS BACK WITH SOMETHING BIGGER

Adeyemi Ajao, is the first African ever to sell his startup for $100 Millions. It happened on August 4, 2010, when Telefonica took controls of 85% of his startup Tuenti, an invitation-only private social networking website for students and young people in Spain. Tuenti that has been referred to as the “Spanish Facebook”. The company has been started 4 years earlier, by Adeyemi Ajao (he was 22), and 4 of his friends. Tuenti boasts 14 million users and is the largest Invite-Only network in the world.

Adeyemi Ajao is born in southern Spain. His father is Nigerian and his mother is Spanish. He lived in Nigeria for six years, spent two years in Italy and then moved to Spain when he was nine. He grew up in a little town called Marbella, the beach town.

BOOK REVIEW:

Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7803676-engage?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270161821l/7803676.jpg[/img][/url]

It is no longer about Social Media or any other platform. It's about people; it's about engagement. Excellent insights into the social communication dynamics and how it is changing the work of public relations and marketing.

Africa's Biggest ICT Lab: IBM Chose Kenya Over Nigeria

When IBM, the $230 billion American Information Technology (IT) and Software Company sought a spot in Africa to build its new research centre, it didn’t pick Nigeria with its 168 million people and $270 billion economy. It chose Kenya instead, a country whose economy at $34 billion, is about the size of Lagos (Nigeria’s commercial capital), and has a population seven times smaller than Nigeria’s.

IBM, with an annual research budget of $6.5 billion, runs similar research facilities in 11 other countries, but this is the first in Africa.
The new research centre project announced last week, is a joint venture between the Kenyan government’s ICT Board and IBM, with each contributing $10 million of funding over the next five years.
For stakeholders, this highlights the risk that Nigeria may be falling behind peer countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Egypt in IT, software development and skilled ICT manpower development.

It’s Time to Return to an All-Amateur Olympics

Andy Murray beats Roger Federer for the gold medal in tennis (just as the Williams sisters beat tow lesser-known Czech pros). The NBAers on the U.S. basketball team whomp the Nigerian team by doubling their score (winning 156-73). Pro footballers take the pitch playing on many different national teams.

Most of the other competitors who aren’t officially professionals are still full-time athletes who get “paid” through corporate sponsorships (the big Twitter row at the start of the Games was over individual athletes’ rights to tweet their own corporate patrons instead of those that had bought a share of the overall contest). Or they will be thus compensated. Within days of Gabby Douglas winning the gold medal in gymnastics, it was announced that she’d signed a deal to be featured on boxes of Corn Flakes (and was on track to ink as much $3 million/year in endorsements). Michael Phelps hasn’t had a day job other than swimming for many, many moons.

Apple Vs. Samsung

Apple, Samsung Lawsuit: Judge Orders Halt To Sales Of Galaxy Tablet Computer-

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge late Tuesday ordered Samsung Electronics Co. to halt sales of its Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while the court considers Apple's claim the South Korean tech giant illegally copied the design of the popular iPad.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Apple Inc.'s lawsuit appeared likely to prevail.
"Apple has established a strong case on the merits," Koh said.
Koh had earlier said the two products are "virtually indistinguishable," but she declined in December to take the dramatic step of prohibiting sales of the Galaxy 10.1. She changed her mind after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told Koh to take another look at Apple's request for an injunction, ruling June 19 that it appeared the Cupertino-based company had a strong case. The Washington, D.C., court handles most patent appeals.