Media Roundup: Founders May Buy Skype Back, Twitter Gets Attacked by Worm and More

Founders may buy Skype back — The founders of Skype have been reportedly trying to solicit venture capital with a plan to purchase Skype back from eBay. The auction Web site purchased the online phone service from Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis for $3.1 billion in 2006. The founders have since funded the online video software Joost. Skype has grown since the purchase, however eBay has been unable to successfully combine the service with its auction business. eBay is said to be looking for a price of at least $1.7 billion. [Source: New York Times]

Twitter gets attacked by worm — The micro-blogging service Twitter was attacked by a worm over the weekend. The worm hijacked Twitter streams and automatically posted unwanted messages signed by “Mikeyy.” Twitter has advised its users to use third party apps and disable JavaScript while it handles the situation. The worm is spread when an profile created by “Mikeyy” and filled with malicious code was viewed. The attack was coded by a 17-year-old creator of a Twitter copycat site. Twitter has stated that it will likely be following up with charges. [Sources: TechCrunch, Twitter]

Amazon glitch de-ranks adult books — Amazon.com came under fire this weekend for de-ranking adult book titles. The online retailer blamed the de-ranking on a glitch that is being fixed. Though some Internet sources have quoted Amazon reps saying the de-ranking was on purpose as a “consideration of the entire customer base.” Books that were primarily affected feature gay, lesbian and transgender characters. Amazon often ranks sales of books by genre which help drive sales of popular titles. [Source: CNET]

Gannett rejects offer for Tucson Citizen — The country’s largest newspaper company has denied an offer from a California media group looking to purchase the Tuscon Citizen, however negotiations continue. Gannett had threatened to close the paper March 21st if it did not find a buyer, but has since extended the deadline as it negotiates with two interested parties. Any buyer of the Sun would not be a part of the paper’s joint operating agreement with the Arizona Daily Star and would have to hire advertising, production and circulation staff. [Source: Editor & Publisher]

Apple approaching 1 billion sold apps — On Friday, Apple passed 930 million application downloads, suggesting that the average iPhone user has downloaded 30 applications. It took Apple more than two years to sell 1 billion songs on iTunes, three times slower than it will likely take Apple to hit the mark for apps. While many iPhone applications are free, the resulting success has sent competitors scrambling to get a piece of the mobile application market. [Source: Business Insider]

Amazon making a bigger Kindle — Amazon is rumored to be making a bigger version of its Kindle e-reader device. The new device could debut before the 2009 holiday season. News Corp. and Hearst have both announced they are developing e-readers, and both have mentioned the possibility of color screens. The Kindle, which released a new version early this year, is in black and white and has a six inch screen. Newspapers and magazines have expressed a desire to have a larger viewing area, as the Kindle is largely intended for text-heavy long form reading. A larger screen could also open the Kindle up to more graphic-based markets, such as education. [Source: Wall Street Journal]