links for 2008-05-16

• Decoding Carl Icahn's letter to Yahoo!How the lovely practice of missives has fallen out of favor, as soulless emails have grown in use. Source: AllThingsD
• iPlayer take-up slowing, says PlusNetOne of the UK's leading broadband firms claims that take-up of the BBC's iPlayer broadband TV service has slowed significantly after meteoric traffic growth in the early months of 2008. Source: Guardian
• Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP signs Yahoo ad dealThe world's second largest marketing services group, has struck a deal with Yahoo to enable its agencies to improve their digital display advertising buying operation. Source: Guardian
• News Corp technology firm NDS escapes $1bn hacking lawsuitNDS has seen off a $1bn lawsuit alleging piracy and hacking relating to the encryption system for US satellite company Dish Network, with a US jury yesterday awarding just $1,000 in damages. Source: Guardian
• Roy Bostock defends Yahoo against Carl IcahnYahoo's chairman, Roy Bostock, has staunchly defended the company against a potential boardroom coup being led by corporate raider Carl Icahn, accusing him of "significantly misunderstanding the facts" of Microsoft's rebuffed takeover proposal. Source: Gu
• France's Orange signs new iPhone deal with AppleOrange will sell the handset in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and African markets later this year. Source: Associated Press
• Danish mobile social network ZYB acquired by VodafoneZYB, a mobile social network, has been acquired by Vodafone for €31.5 million, or about $50m. Source: TechCrunch
• FriendFeed - does it just add to the noise?The problem with FriendFeed's behaviour is that it fragments the conversation further. Source: Mashable
• Online publishers upbeat despite economic downturnWeb sites have an edge over traditional media by offering advertisers the ability to target consumers in a cost-efficient and highly focused way, said the association's president, Pam Horan. Source: Reuters
• The Guardian seeks mobile agency to broaden small-screen offeringsThe national newspaper is seeking an agency to help develop its mobile site and has been in discussions with potential partners for several months. Source: New Media Age
• Tesco's iTunes competitor - how does it shape up?Tesco has said that it will have all 3m of its tracks on mp3 by the end of the year though, as well as downloads of TV, films and games. Source: E-Consultancy
• Yahoo lets websites customise searchesYahoo Inc has introduced a software development tool that lets outside parties create customised views of Yahoo Web search results. Source: Reuters
• Who Is the Wikimedia leak?Somebody has it in for Erik Möller, the deputy director of Wikimedia. Source: Wired