Gay marriage: Prop 8 trial heads to Ninth Circuit today

It’s a very favorable panel for the challengers to Proposition 8.
University of Pittsburgh law professor (and Ninth Circuit expert) Arthur Hellman • Handicapping the highly-anticipated horse race over Proposition 8 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals starting today. The court, which chose to hear the case before allowing Judge Vaughn Walker’s initial decision to stand, could throw some wrenches in the case, though; namely, if they want, they can decide the case in such a way (by suggesting that supporters fo Prop. 8 didn’t have the standing to appeal the case) so that it doesn’t go to the Supreme Court, even if it legalizes gay marriage in California. source

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What’s bigger than a breadbox, involves a lot of women, and could give Wal-Mart some major fits? If you answered Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, a very large class-action discrimination suit that’s about to hit the Supreme Court. The case revolves around whether the class action suit is too large to be treated as a class-action suit. If it is, Wal-Mart wins because it won’t be forced to pay, because the cases will have to be treated individually. If it isn’t, Wal-Mart could be forced to pay out an epic settlement. We like watching Supreme Court cases where a lot is at stake, so, really, we win either way. source

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» We’re not actively trying to depress you. But the problem is, this is just a really depressing story all around. See, a couple of months ago, a hot-air balloon taking part in the Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race (and sponsored by Richard Branson) disappeared. The remains of the two people on the balloon – and the balloon’s remains – were found today, after two months. They were found by an Italian fishing boat on the Adriatic Sea. To the families of Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis – we feel awful for your loss. source

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first AOL, which has been working on its content lately, is thinking of splitting up its content business from its legacy (and still-profitable) dial-up Internet business.
then The company is considering selling off its dial-up business to a company more suited to it, like Earthlink or United Online. (No, they don’t get TMZ, guys.)
finallyAOL would then merge the rest of its parts with Yahoo!, creating a massive content-generating echo chamber the likes of which the world has never seen. source

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what Groupon, the quickly-growing deals site, reportedly declined a buyout offer from Google for a whopping $6 billion over the weekend. That’s a lot of money to turn down.
why The company’s CEO, Andrew Mason was concerned about the strategic direction under Google and what would happen to his loyal staff. So an IPO’s next. source

» A mixed record for startups: Some tech companies that have passed on the major buyout offers, like Facebook (which passed on a $1 billion buyout offer from Yahoo! way back in 2006), have only gotten much larger on their own. Other tech giants that missed the buyout opportunity – Yahoo! turned down an epic deal from Microsoft in 2008 and nosedived ever since. Other companies who have taken the buyout have had success stories (YouTube, which is a cornerstone of Google’s offerings) and precipitous declines (MySpace, which is trying to make a comeback; and Bebo, which sold to AOL and then lost nearly all of its value when it was sold again a couple years later). Which is to say, it’s too soon to know whether Groupon screwed up here.

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06 Dec 2010 10:53