Facebook's New $19 Billion Purchase WhatsApp Is Gonna Have to Write a New Mission Statement

WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app run by people who think ads are the end of the world, was purchased by Facebook today for $19 billion, so they could absorb their userbase and sell ads on it.

If you haven’t heard of WhatsApp, it’s because you don’t live in India, Germany, Mexico or Spain — wherein more than 80 million of their 300 million worldwide users reside. Americans don’t much use WhatsApp — thus that 4.8 percent slide in Facebook’s stock price after the purchase was announced — but people use WhatsApp. And those people use it because there are no ads.

WhatsApp hates ads. Loathes them. It hates them so much, in fact, one of four paragraphs on its homepage is this Fight Club quote, with its uncensored swear and apostrophe-free “dont” and all.

It’s a trite and overdone and altogether misplaced quote for a commercial enterprise, yes, but WhatsApp built its userbase on no advertisements. Now they’re being bought by a company that needs to monetize fast to continue to prove itself as a valuable ad platform on the Internet, which ad buyers still cannot and/or refuse to figure out as a collective.

So there will be ads on WhatsApp eventually, just as there are now ads on a tastefully brand-riddled Instagram or Tumblr and the not-so-tasteful Facebook or Twitter or any other social network to-date. It'll stay that way until ad buyers figure out what the hell they want out of the Web -- an incalculably large number of eyeballs that don't pay attention at all, or a smaller subset that might care about their product -- and until tech companies stop abusing the ambiguity of bad metrics by eating up faceless swaths of users.

This is what happens at the peak of this app bubble: Users adopt on convenience, they support and adjust through growth and changes, then the Pringles man shows up to sell you some chips next to your wife's text about how she wants a divorce.

But nobody’s turning down $19 billion, not even Tyler Durden, so there’s no other way.

Visa, MasterCard offer more phone payment options

NEW YORK -- Visa and MasterCard are introducing Internet-based technologies to make it easier for shoppers to buy things at retail stores without pulling out a credit card.

The two technologies, announced separately on Wednesday, will give merchants and banks more options for incorporating so-called contact-less payment systems into their mobile apps. The customer uses the app to make purchases by tapping the phone to a store's card reader.

The technologies tap a new feature in Google's Android operating system. Before, card information had to be stored on a secured part of the phone. Now, it can be stored remotely instead. A retail or banking app on the phone then retrieves what's needed to complete the transaction.

Visa said it will provide app developers with a complete service, with card information stored on Visa's servers.

MasterCard said it will publish technical details by the end of June to help companies use the new Android feature, known as Host Card Emulation. MasterCard said it has been testing the technology with two major banks, Capital One in the U.S. and Banco Sabadell in Europe.

"The use of HCE provides a very attractive way forward to launch an increased number of NFC-based offerings," said James Anderson, MasterCard's group head for emerging payments, said in a statement.

Visa and MasterCard are both targeting phones that have a wireless technology called near-field communication. Many Android phones have that, and the remote storage capabilities come with the Kit Kat version of Android, which was released last fall. Apple's iPhones lack NFC, but cases are available to enable that technology.

Visa said it will make tools available for app developers to incorporate payment capabilities. The customer can then use a smartphone instead of a plastic credit card at stores, transit systems and other places that accept contact-less payments.

The hope is to encourage greater use of contact-less payments, which experts say offer more security protections than plastic. The card number is stored in encrypted form and can be easily disabled remotely if a phone is lost or stolen. Mobile systems also permit easier use of one-time card numbers, which won't work for additional transactions and are useless should a merchant's computers get hacked.

Sam Shrauger, Visa's senior vice president for digital services in developed markets, said having payment information on remote servers is cheaper and easier to operate than using the phone's hardware.

With hardware-based systems, he said, services need to make deals with wireless carriers and device makers. Although he didn't cite examples, many U.S. carriers had blocked or made it difficult to get Google's NFC-based Wallet app, for instance, as they were developing a competing system, Isis.

Visa and MasterCard made the announcements ahead of the Mobile World Congress wireless trade show, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain, next week.

Low-efficiency plumbing ban clears Colorado Senate

DENVER -- A mandatory phase-out of toilets, faucets and shower heads that use too much water has cleared the Colorado Senate.

Senators voted 19-16 in favor of a bill to prohibit the sale of low-efficiency plumbing fixtures by 2016.

The measure would make it illegal to sell new faucets, showerheads and toilets that aren't certified by the federal government as efficient "WaterSense" fixtures.

Only one Republican voted for the change, Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango. She called the bill a needed effort to conserve water in a drought-plagued state.

The measure would not require anyone to change existing plumbing. Current law requires builders to offer water-efficient indoor plumbing fixtures in new homes, but homeowners aren't required to choose them.

The bill now heads to the House.

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Online:

Senate Bill 103: http://bit.ly/O5exJr

TN official: UAW no deal breaker for Memphis site

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee officials promoting a 6-square-mile "mega site" outside Memphis say it would be ideally suited for a new auto assembly plant — even if its workers are represented by the United Auto Workers union.

Those comments by Bill Hagerty, the chief economic development official in Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's Cabinet, come after attempts by the UAW to represent workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga that were heavily criticized by the governor and other GOP politicians in the state.

The UAW ultimately lost the Volkswagen union in a 712-626 vote last week, and the state has since re-engaged in incentives talks with the German car maker.

Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker argued that a UAW win would have hurt the region's ability to attract suppliers and other future business to the state, and fellow Republicans in the state Legislature warned that a vote in favor of the UAW would have threatened the approval of incentives to expand the plant.

Hagerty told reporters those concerns don't enter into the thinking for the West Tennessee site.

"No, we're ready and willing to market the site to any major company that's interested in Tennessee," Hagerty said.

"If you go through and look at the projects we've navigated and worked through since we've been in, we've had a mix of union and non-union employers," he said.

Despite the vocal opposition to the UAW in Chattanooga, the governor said after a speech in Murfreesboro on Tuesday that the state doesn't decide whether to pursue projects based on union membership.

"It's never been a litmus test," Haslam said. "Obviously the state's incentivized union (companies) in the past."

"In this case I was just making the point that one of the things VW kept saying to us was we want to have a closer supplier network if we're going to grow that plant," he said. "And I know from fact from what suppliers have told us, is that that would be a lot harder to do if the UAW was there."

Volkswagen had declared its neutrality on the UAW vote, but has been a proponent of creating a German-style "works council" at the plant, which would represent both blue collar and salaried employees. The company has said U.S. law would require the establishment of an independent union in order to create a works council.

Labor interests that make up half of Volkswagen's supervisory board have questioned why Chattanooga is alone among the company's major factories worldwide without formal worker representation.

Bernd Osterloh, a board member and head of the company's global works council, was quoted as telling the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he was concerned about what he called the "massive anti-union atmosphere created from the outside by conservatives" surrounding the Chattanooga vote.

He told the paper that the fate of the works council in Chattanooga could determine whether the company decides to make further investments in the state and region.

"I can well imagine that a further VW location in the U.S., in the event one should one be built there, would not necessarily have to go in the South," he said. "If the subject of co-determination isn't cleared from the start, we as wage earners could hardly agree to that."

The German automaker's CEO, Martin Winterkorn, announced at the Detroit auto show last month that a new seven-passenger SUV will go on sale in the U.S. in 2016. Production of the new model will either be in Chattanooga or at a plant in Mexico.

Winterkorn said the new model will be part of a five-year, $7 billion investment in North America.

US stocks move mostly higher in quiet trading

NEW YORK -- The stock market is mostly higher in midday trading as investors wait for the latest news from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 49 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,179 as of noon Eastern time Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose two points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,843 and the Nasdaq composite fell four points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,268.

Later Wednesday the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its most recent policy meeting last month. At that meeting, policymakers decided to further reduce the central bank's bond purchases, which are keeping long-term interest rates very low.

Netflix fell 1 percent. The company is reportedly in a dispute with Verizon and other telecommunications companies over the cost of carrying Netflix's programming through their networks.

Martin's legal options limited in Dolphin case

MIAMI -- The legal options for offensive lineman Jonathan Martin may be limited under workplace discrimination and harassment laws because an NFL-ordered investigation found that neither Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin nor the Miami Dolphins' top executives knew about the bullying he endured, labor law experts say.

Martin told Ted Wells, the investigator appointed by the NFL, that he never reported repeated harassment at the hands of fellow lineman Richie Incognito and two others. Wells found that Martin "did his best to honor" an unwritten "Judas" code against snitching on fellow players.

Because his employer was apparently unaware of the problems, it would be more difficult for Martin to win a workplace harassment lawsuit against the team, said Miami labor attorney Michael Landen. And in some cases, Martin seemed to go along in a bid to fit in.

"He seemed to participate and he didn't report it to anyone at the Dolphins. When he did report it, the Dolphins took immediate action by suspending Incognito," Landen said Wednesday. "They have some strength to their case because they did have procedures in place and upon reporting it they took immediate action."

Indeed, the Wells report found the Dolphins had clear, written policies against workplace harassment or discrimination and that Philbin "embraced this philosophy and frequently reminded the team to be respectful" throughout the season. The team's policy said harassment included "jokes, comments and antics; generalizations and put-downs; pornographic or suggestive literature and language." And the policy extended to texts and emails.

The report also found basis to believe allegations that the Dolphins management encouraged Incognito's actions in an effort to "toughen up" the 6-foot-5, 312-pound Martin. Incognito and others, the report said, threatened to rape Martin's sister, called him a long list of racial slurs and bullied him for not being "black enough," among other things.

Incognito's attorney has denied that his client or any other Dolphins' offensive linemen bullied Martin.

If Martin did pursue legal action, University of Miami law professor David Abraham said the remedies are limited. Workers in discrimination and harassment cases frequently seek reinstatement to their jobs and back pay, he said. In Martin's case, the Dolphins continued to honor their contract with him after he abruptly left the team in October.

"There is no issue of back pay, because the Dolphins did not withhold any of his contracted salary," Abraham said. But, he added, there's clear evidence of harassment. "When you leave your job, that's a pretty clear demonstration of a hostile workplace."

Getting a job back on the football field is another matter. Martin told Wells he hopes to play in the NFL again, but it's an open question whether the Dolphins would welcome him back given the controversy over the bullying case. Landen said Martin could negotiate a financial settlement with the Dolphins in return for his release, making him a free agent who could sign with any other team.

Simply releasing him could be viewed as employer retaliation, he added.

"If the Dolphins cut Martin, they better be able to demonstrate it's because of inabilities on the field or their actions are really going to be under the microscope," Landen said. "That could expose them to some liability."

Martin's attorney, David Cornwell, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Just as long-term mental problems by former players focused renewed attention on concussions in the NFL, Abraham predicted the Martin case would lead the league to adopt more stringent policies against similar locker room antics despite football's status as a gladiator-like sport. Simply ignoring harassment as the expected product of a tough-guy atmosphere isn't going to cut it, he said.

"The league is going to have to come down on egregious talk and it's going to come down on the roughness of the way players treat each other in the name of building team spirit," Abraham said.

Utah judge rules against Aereo in copyright fight

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah judge has blocked TV streaming company Aereo from operating in several Western states until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a related case in April.

Broadcasters have argued Aereo is stealing TV signals without paying. Aereo says its tiny antennas should be treated the same as antennas that people use to pull TV signals for free.

District Judge Dale Kimball, who ruled Wednesday, argued that Aereo's service is indistinguishable from that of a cable company. His ruling applies to a district that covers Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and parts of Montana and Idaho.

Fox, the broadcaster owned by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., calls the ruling a significant win, while Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia says he is disappointed.