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Some dark wrist tattoos can block the Apple Watch from measuring heart rates and can then turn into a passcode-demanding pain in the wrist.

Facebook Inc. and IBM Corp. announced on Wednesday that the two tech giants are partnering to provide brands with a targeted marketing service.

The companies will integrate IBM’s marketing cloud and enterprise analytics services with Facebook’s advertising capabilities, which will provide brands with deeper, more accurate insights into customers’ interests, IBM said in a statement.

The deal might allow, for example, a retailer looking to launch a new line of running gear to specifically target long-distance runners, then find insight into their preferences and offer deals based on their location’s climate.

“Brands understand the increasing need to provide customers with powerful and personalized experiences to nurture loyalty,” said Deepak Advani, general manager of IBM Commerce, in a statement.

“Through this collaboration, consumer product companies and retailers will be able to quickly and easily gain deeper insight into what their customers expect and provide them with compelling experiences that bridge the physical and virtual divide.”

IBM’s latest tie-up with another major tech company comes after it set aside a decades-old rivalry with Apple Inc. last July.  The two companies announced a plan to develop enterprise applications together.

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GATINEAU, Que. — Canada’s telecom watchdog is regulating the wholesale roaming rates the Big Three providers can charge smaller carriers — a
move it says is designed to keep a lid on costs and improve services and competition across the country.

In a highly anticipated decision, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Tuesday ruled that Bell Mobility, Rogers
Communications and Telus Corp. must file their final wholesale rate structures by Nov. 4, 2015.

Those rates, however, will be retroactive to Tuesday and will be part of a new five-year fee structure to be announced by the CRTC sometime next
year. Companies that have higher rates than the level to be set the regulator will be required to make up the cost difference.

Also as of Tuesday, the federal government’s interim cap on retail rates is being set aside.

“The measures we are putting in place at the wholesale level will result in a more competitive retail market — a market in which Canadians  can
choose from a wide-range of innovative wireless services offered at reasonable prices,” CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told reporters
following Tuesday’s decision.

“What’s more, they can use this market power to hold back competition. They have the ability and the incentive to maintain rates and impose
terms and conditions that would not be sustainable in a competitive market.”

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• Coming changes to wholesale rules could impact fees Canadians pay for wireless roaming
• Canada’s wireless quality could take a hit if CRTC intervenes in roaming rates, Telus says

Ottawa legislated its cap last year on how much carriers can charge their domestic rivals to use their network for voice, text messaging and data
services.

Both CRTC and the federal government have been focusing their efforts on the Big Three to set market-wide standards for rates and services.

“Today’s decision is about finding the right balance,” Blais said.

“We want sustainable competition that increases choice for Canadians. But we always need to make sure that wireless companies continue to invest in innovative and high-quality networks,” he told reporters.

“And we want to ensure that smaller companies can complete on a fair playing field with other, larger, competitors so they too can offer
innovative products and services.”

The CRTC said Tuesday it is also aiming to reduce market barriers by reducing some restrictions in wholesale roaming agreement.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Quebecor said the company “will look closely at the decisions implied” but will make no comment for now.

Microsoft Corp. is evaluating a bid for Salesforce.com Inc., after the cloud software provider was approached by another would-be buyer, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Salesforce, which has a market value of $47 billion, is working with two investment banks to determine a response to approaches, two of the people said. The San Francisco-based company’s options could include rebuffing any buyer, or working out a sale, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg last week.

Microsoft isn’t in talks with Salesforce, and no deal is imminent, the people said. Still, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has long expected it might compete for Salesforce if it was for sale, one of the people said. Another company was in talks with Salesforce as recently as April, spurring Microsoft’s actions, two people said.

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For any buyer, Salesforce offers a leading position in customer relationship management, or CRM, software, as well as cloud computing — the delivery of business software and services via the Internet.

Microsoft and Salesforce reached an agreement last year to make the companies’ software work better together. Microsoft, which sells its own customer-management software, lags behind Salesforce. Last week Microsoft set a goal of reaching a $20 billion revenue run rate for its commercial cloud business by the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018.

Tony Imperati, a spokesman for Microsoft, and Chi Hea Cho, a spokeswoman for Salesforce, declined to comment.

Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said last week an acquisition of Salesforce would create disruption in the software market. She declined to comment on whether Oracle was interested in buying Salesforce.

Salesforce was involved in strategic-alliance discussions with SAP SE last year, people with knowledge of the matter said last week. SAP said it’s not considering a bid for Salesforce.

Bloomberg.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s influential search engine has hit a tipping point in technology’s shift to smartphones. More search requests are now being made on mobile devices than on personal computers in the U.S. and many other parts of the world.

The milestone announced at a digital advertising conference Tuesday serves as another reminder of how dramatically online behaviour has changed since 2007. That’s when Apple released the first iPhone, leading to a wave of similar devices that have made it easier for people to stay connected to the Internet wherever they go.

The upheaval has rocked PC makers and other tech companies such as Microsoft with businesses tied to sales of desktop and laptop computers. Google has been able to adapt better than most companies, partly because its search engine and other services are embedded in the popular Android mobile operating system, but it hasn’t been totally unscathed.

Google’s average ad prices have been declining for the past three-and-half years, partly because marketers so far have been unwilling to pay as much for the commercial message displayed on the smaller screens of smartphones. The company, though, says mobile ad prices have been steadily climbing and will continue to do so as marketers recognize the value of being able to connect with prospective customers at the precise moment that they are looking for someplace to eat, or comparing products on a smartphone while standing in a store.

“The future of mobile is now,” says Jerry Dischler, a Google Inc. vice-president in charge of the company’s “AdWords” service for creating online marketing campaigns.

Besides in the U.S., Google’s mobile search requests are outstripping requests in nine other countries. Japan is the only other country that Google is identifying.

The Mountain View, California, company isn’t specifying just how many mobile search requests it is getting. Google processes more than 100 billion search requests worldwide each month, including queries on PCs.

As part of the mobile transition, Google last month overhauled its search-recommendation system to favourwebsites that are easier to read and load on smartphones. That change, known as “Mobilegeddon,” prodded millions of websites to make changes to ensure they work well on smartphones to avoid being demoted in Google’s search results.

Google also has been introducing advertising formats that tend to work better on mobile devices. For instance, rooms can now be booked within hotel ads, and car ads can now be swiped across a screen to make it easier to comparison shop.

In addition to announcing the milestone in mobile search, Google also introduced on Tuesday a service for comparing mortgage rates in the U.S. The mortgage product expands upon a similar service for auto insurance policies that Google unveiled in California in March. Google is adding three more states — Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania — to the auto insurance service.

Ottawa has unveiled its plans intended to make Internet and television services less expensive for people in rural areas.

Industry Minister James Moore said Tuesday the government aims to reduce regulatory fees charged to satellite companies that provide service to communities outside the reach of the large telecom networks in urban and suburban centres.

The move would make Canada more competitive and attract new investments from companies that want to expand or improve their services, he said.

Rural Canadians depend on satellite companies to deliver wireless, TV and Internet services through high-frequency spectrum, a valuable radio frequency that transmits large quantities of data quickly.

“By putting in place the right market conditions that support greater investment in the satellite sector, our government is supporting Canadian consumers by providing them with more choice, lower prices and better service,” said Moore in a statement.

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The lower fees are scheduled to come into effect by April 1, 2016.

Access to the airwaves in rural communities has been an area of contention for operators for several years.

In 2012, Chatham Internet Access in southwestern Ontario said it was struggling to provide enough bandwidth to its thousands of customers, while Xplornet Communications said the high cost of buying more spectrum meant more rural Canadians would be forced back onto dial-up connections.

Industry Canada responded by making changes designed to simplify the process of acquiring spectrum and the way that providers could gain access to additional bandwidth.

The federal government outlined plans in the 2014 budget that would set aside $305 million over five years specifically to expand rural and northern broadband Internet service.

Shomi, the streaming service offered by Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., as well as Bell’ Media’s CraveTV, have reached agreements with Apple to bring dedicated apps to its popular set-top box after months of negotiations.

The apps, which launch today, will still be tethered to a traditional cable subscription, and have an aesthetic similar to other Apple TV streaming apps such as Netflix. Chromecast support was also recently added to CraveTV’s iOS and Android applications. Apple AirPlay support has been a CraveTV feature since launch, a feature Shomi lacks.

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When Shomi launched last year, the streaming service was only available as a web-based app and on Xbox 360.

Moving to Apple TV marks the first time CraveTV has been available though an app. Both services, Shomi and CraveTV, still have not launched applications on current-generation gaming consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Apple may reveal a new set-top Apple TV box at its annual World Wide Developers Conference in June, according to some industry watchers. It’s unclear if Shomi and CraveTV have plans to create apps for other popular set-top boxes such as the Roku, Google’s Android TV devices, or even unconfirmed future Apple streaming boxes. Rogers has repeatedly said that expanding the reach of its streaming applications is a top priority.

CraveTV is priced at $4 a month and is available to all Bell subscribers as well as other partnered television provider subscribers. Shomi is priced at $8.99 a month.

The Apple TV remote is getting a major redesign when the latest version of the Cupertino company’s TV box is introduced this summer, The New York Times reports.

Apple is set to unveil a new version of its Apple TV service in June, at its annual developers conference WWDC.

The new remote is going to have a touchpad similar to those found on the company’s MacBooks, as well as two buttons, according to the Times — further streamlining the remote’s already simple design.

This is how today’s Apple TV remote looks. It’s sleek and minimalist, but its reliance on buttons goes against Apple’s trend toward trackpads and touch screens.

Simon Yeo/Flickr (CC)

And here is a touchpad on the newest MacBook.

Maurizo Pesce/Flickr (CC)Coming soon to a TV remote near you.

In addition to a touchpad to control the Internet video box, the new remote is also going to be thicker than its current iteration. It will apparently be similar in size to the remote for the Amazon Echo wireless speaker.

For reference, here’s a YouTube reviewer holding up the Amazon Echo remote (on the left).

Qbking77/YouTubeA YouTube reviewer holds up the Amazon Echo remote (on the left).

At Apple’s internal training course “Apple University,” the Google TV remote is reportedly compared with the Apple TV remote as a case study. It is used “to show how the company’s product designers started out with an idea and debated until they had just what was needed for the device to be usable and easy to understand,” the Times reports.

In contrast, the Google TV remote has a staggering 76 buttons.

Blake Patterson/Flickr (CC)

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Facebook has opened the internet up to users in India and other countries but says it won't immediately allow HTTPS.

Set-top box to offer CraveTV and Shomi streaming video services to go head to head with Netflix

GATINEAU, Que. — Canada’s telecom regulator will issue a decision Tuesday that could affect the fees charged to consumers when they roam with their wireless devices outside of their home network areas.

The ruling from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission comes seven months after hearings were launched into the health of the country’s wholesale wireless market, considered the backbone of Canada’s mobile services sector.

Budget measures adopted by the Harper government last year set a cap on wholesale roaming costs — the rates that mobile carriers charge their competitors to use their wireless infrastructure — at no more than what carriers charge their retail customers.

The government-imposed cap was intended as a temporary measure that the CRTC could choose to keep, kill or amend. But CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has noted that the government did not take regional differences into account in its legislation.

The CRTC heard that the wholesale rate caps were actually hurting smaller players, and thereby stifling competition, particularly where the major service providers had no firm foothold.

Regional carriers asked the CRTC to “fine tune” wholesale rates to ensure they aren’t forced to offer Telus Corp., Rogers Communications Inc., and BCE Inc. use of their networks at a discount.

The Competition Bureau also called for new wholesale roaming regulations, arguing that rate caps alone will not foster greater competition.

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The bureau predicted during the fall hearings that expanded mobile wireless penetration in Canada could drive down retail wireless prices by about two per cent.

But Rogers, BCE and Telus maintained that further regulation would hinder their ability to invest in improvements to their own wireless networks.

Montreal-based Cogeco Cable Inc., which is hoping to offer wireless services without building its own cell tower network, asked the CRTC to adopt new rules to allow for the creation of what are known as mobile virtual networks (MVNOs), which would effectively give smaller carriers access to large players’ spectrum and cell towers.

Cogeco warned that, without regulations, the big players will continue to muscle smaller competitors out of existence.

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Times are tough for local television in Canada, with a new report showing private stations saw a significant decrease in advertising revenue in 2014.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released financial information for local television on Monday, underlining the financial squeeze stations are facing in an age of increased competition from online video providers like Netflix Inc. Private stations suffered a 7.2 per cent revenue drop in 2014 to $1.8 billion from $1.94 billion the previous year, largely because advertisers spent $117.1 million less on local television.

Greg MacDonald, a telecom analyst with Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd., said it’s unlikely those numbers will improve.

“I think the trend will stay the same or get worse for companies that don’t have something unique that can be sold beyond the existing platform,” he said. “Companies that have broadcast assets that don’t have ownership of their content will be the ones that will be most at risk.”

Surprisingly, in a year when local private stations suffered, the CBC saw a big revenue bump. The CBC and Radio-Canada brought in $474.6 million in advertising revenues in 2014, 43 per cent more than the previous year.

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• CRTC relaxes content rules to help Canadian TV broadcasters compete with digital media
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The CBC had better enjoy the windfall while it lasts, however. The big bump in advertising dollars can largely be attributed to the fact the network had a full National Hockey League season to broadcast that year in addition to the Sochi winter Olympics and the Brazil FIFA World Cup, bringing in many more advertising dollars than the CBC was able to attract during the previous year’s lockout.

The CBC has since lost NHL advertising revenues to Rogers Communications Inc., which signed a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal for English-language professional hockey rights starting with the 2014-15 season.

The CRTC is making sweeping changes to broadcast regulations after a fall hearing into the future of television, dubbed Let’s Talk TV. Many of those changes, such as allowing consumers to pick and pay for the channels they want and ending the practice of protecting genre specialty channels from competition, are expected to further harm the bottom lines of Canada’s major broadcasters.

At the hearing, former Bell Media president Kevin Crull said the company is running out of ways to keep its local news operations afloat.

“I don’t have a Plan B,” he said. “I think we’re out of cost ideas that don’t dramatically damage the delivery of the product. We in this space need a second revenue stream.”

At its annual conference last month in San Francisco, RSA, the security division of EMC, made two major product announcements.

First, it announced a family of smart identity solutions designed to protect users from the endpoint to the cloud. Dubbed “Via”, it consists of five components: RSA Via Access, RSA Via Lifecycle and RSA Via Governance as well as the existing RSA SecurID and RSA Adaptive Authentication products.

“We’ve always believed that identity is the foundation of any effective security program, and its importance grows every day,” said Amit Yoran, president of RSA. “Via represents an entirely new way to manage identity for the needs of today.”

Via Access is a cloud-based service that uses context as well as credentials to connect users to their resources, regardless of device or location. It evaluates user attributes/roles in the identity directory as well as application risk and sensitivity and real-time network, session and device information to create flexible authentication policy for different security requirements. It is compatible with existing RSA SecurID two-factor authentication solutions.

Via Governance controls who has access to what. It allows administrators to build security policies appropriate for the user’s role, as well as the devices he or she connects on, providing a single view of identities and security.

Via Lifecycle manages user identities from the moment they join an organization to the moment they leave, ensuring everyone has appropriate privileges even if their job changes.

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RSA also said that, as part of its realignment, it plans to cease selling its encryption products separately, instead just using the technology in its other offerings. Existing customers will be supported throughout their contracts.

The second major announcement involved enhancements to RSA Security Analytics that bring its functionality to the cloud. The new release also is built to offer visibility into attacks that target critical customer-facing web and mobile applications, and introduces data privacy capabilities. In addition to extending its reach into the cloud, RSA Security Analytics is now being offered with new pricing and packaging options including throughput-based pricing that better aligns the investment to the scale of the customer deployment for better cost efficiency. Customers will also be able to leverage their own storage investments.

The new data privacy capabilities offer the ability to share valuable insight to security analysts without exposing them to their organization’s or employees’ most sensitive data, like PII. The ability to redact specific information will allow users to focus on safeguarding their organization without violating data privacy guidelines.

“As the threat landscape grows in complexity and more advanced attacks emerge, organizations can no longer rely solely on a log-centric approach to security,” said Grant Geyer, senior vice president, products, RSA. “RSA Security Analytics is what SIEM was meant to be by giving enterprises the ability to detect attacks missed by other tools and respond before attackers can do damage. By integrating a wide range of inputs from packets, to logs, to endpoints, RSA Security Analytics exposes attacks that would otherwise go unnoticed. ”

These new capabilities for RSA Security Analytics are all available this quarter.

 

 

What a difference a year makes. At the company’s conference last year, Art Coviello, the now-retired executive chairman of RSA, the security division of EMC, walked onto the stage in full damage control mode, facing a decidedly chilly reception after allegations (which the company denied) that RSA had used a known flawed encryption algorithm in its security products at the behest of the NSA. And while the atmosphere perceptibly thawed as he addressed the allegations, it was an uncomfortable start.

In contrast, at the 2015 conference, held last week in San Francisco, there was no sniff of scandal marring the festivities, and the record 33,000 attendees were in a decidedly happier mood. As a result, RSA president Amit Yoran’s keynote was able to focus on industry issues. He chose to tell the audience that, in effect, security problems are all in our minds.

No, they’re not hallucinations – they’re very real. But, he said, the security industry’s mindset is hampering its effectiveness. “2014 was yet another reminder that we are losing this contest,” he said. “The adversaries are out-maneuvering the industry, out-gunning the industry, and winning by every measure.”

The culprit, he explained, is the legacy mindset which thinks that employing strategies and solutions that no longer map to the threat environment will actually work. Today’s tools are like the incomplete maps early explorers used on the high seas, and we have sailed off the edge.

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Instead of blindly following maps that don’t match the terrain, Yoran suggested five steps that could lead us to better results.

First, he said, “Let’s stop believing that even advanced protections work.  They do, but surely they fail too.” Many of the most successful and damaging breaches last year didn’t even use malware as a primary tactic.

Second, we need to have a full understanding of what’s going on in our networks – which systems are communicating with which, why, any related communications, their length, frequency and volume, and what content is involved. “These aren’t nice to haves, they are fundamental core requirements of any modern security program,” Yoran said. “If you don’t have that level of visibility and agility in place, you’re only pretending to do security.”

Furthermore, he went on, it’s critical, when under attack, to gain a full understanding of exactly what the adversaries are up to; many launch multiple campaigns, and detecting and remediating only one of them just tells the attacker which tactics are most effective. Said Yoran, “The single most common and most catastrophic mistake made by security teams today is under scoping an incident and rushing to clean up compromised systems before understanding the broader campaign.”

Third, identity and authentication are key defenses in the war against attackers. Many of today’s attacks begin with compromised credentials.

Fourth, make use of external threat intelligence. It should be machine-readable and automated for fast response. That will help analysts evaluate and prioritize threats.

Fifth, understand which assets are most important to your business. “This asset categorization isn’t the sexy part of security,” Yoran noted, “but it is critical to helping you prioritize the deployment of limited security resources for the greatest possible impact.”

“These ideas can work,” he said. “They do work.  We’ve seen the difference it makes when organizations take these approaches to security.”

To address this new paradigm, Yoran said that RSA as a company is re-inventing itself. “This time next year, we won’t be the same RSA you have known for decades,” he said. “As an industry, we are on a journey that will continue to evolve in the years to come through the efforts of all of us.”

Cisco Systems Inc. said Chuck Robbins will succeed John Chambers as chief executive officer, appointing a salesman with experience in global operations to revive growth as competition from upstart software makers gets more intense.

Robbins will take his new post on July 26, the San Jose, California-based company said Monday. Chambers will become executive chairman. Chambers, 65, had said he would step down by the end of the fiscal year that ends in July 2016.

Chambers had identified Robbins as among 10 possible candidates for the CEO post as early as 2012.

Robbins, 49, joined the computer-networking company in 1997. He most recently served as senior vice president of worldwide operations, leading the global sales and partners team, which Cisco said generates US$47 billion in business. He also helped develop the company’s strategy for its corporate segment, which represents 25 per cent of Cisco’s total business. Robbins was elected to the board effective May 1.

Chambers follows other executives handing over the reins after running tech bellwethers for long stretches. Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison last year was succeeded by Safra Catz and Mark Hurd after more than 35 years at the helm. Satya Nadella last year took over from Steve Ballmer, who was CEO of Microsoft Corp. for more than a decade.

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Internet Boom

As CEO of Cisco for two decades, Chambers was one of the most prominent spokesmen for the boom that transformed the Internet into a network that redefined how we work, communicate and get entertainment.

He charted the rise that briefly made Cisco the world’s most valuable company and later navigated it through the dot-com bust, the financial crisis and the advent of a fresh crop of competitors that are creating less-expensive ways to design and manage computer networks.

“I think Chambers has done a good job against an increasingly difficult position,” said Alex Henderson, an analyst at Needham & Co. “But I also think Cisco has serious challenges longer term.”

Chambers has had to replenish senior leadership ranks in recent years after overhauling a management structure that, according to investors and former employees, slowed decision- making and drove out would-be successors.

Deep Cuts

Chambers announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs, roughly 4 per cent of the company, starting in 2014 after disappointing sales. In August 2014, Cisco said it would dismiss another 6,000 people, or 8 percent of its workforce. Chambers’s compensation dropped 22 per cent to US$16.5 million for fiscal 2014, after the company fell short of revenue and operating income targets.

Robbins said in a video posted on Cisco’s website that he would spend his first 90 days in the job talking with employees, the leadership team, customers and partners. He will “aggregate” his own ideas with theirs to build a plan for the coming years, Robbins said, alongside Chambers.

“We’re going to drive a level of operational rigour that’s maybe even a bit tougher than what you did, John,” Robbins said. Digital changes in work processes, including the so-called Internet of Things, “will represent an opportunity that will dwarf what we saw in the 1990s,” he said.

Cisco shares rose less than 1 per cent to US$29.28 at 10:35 a.m. New York time. Through Friday, the stock had added 4.7 per cent this year.

–With assistance from Carol Hymowitz in New York.

Bloomberg News

David Goldberg, chief executive officer of SurveyMonkey.com and husband of Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc., has died. He was 47.

He died unexpectedly Friday night, his brother, Robert Goldberg, wrote in a Facebook post. No other details were given.

“It’s with incredible shock and sadness that I’m letting our friends and family know that my amazing brother, Dave Goldberg, beloved husband of Sheryl Sandberg, father of two wonderful children, and son of Paula Goldberg, passed away suddenly last night,” his brother wrote.

The best decision I ever made was to marry Dave

Goldberg sold his first startup, Launch Media, to Yahoo Inc. and joined SurveyMonkey in 2009. He and Sandberg met in 1996 while they were both working in Los Angeles, according to a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Sandberg, author of the best-selling book “Lean In,” frequently wrote and talked about how Goldberg was a crucial partner in her career, supporting her in small ways — like doing the laundry — and large, such as persuading her to join Facebook even though they had a 6-month-old daughter at the time.

“I wrote in Lean In that the most important decision a woman makes is if she has a life partner and who that life partner will be. The best decision I ever made was to marry Dave,” Sandberg wrote in a March 5 Facebook post.

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Minneapolis Youth

David Bruce Goldberg was born on Oct. 2, 1967, in Minneapolis to Mel and Paula Goldberg. His mother is co-founder and executive director of the Pacer Center, a Minnesota nonprofit group that assists parents of disabled children and young adults, according to the centre’s website. His father was an associate dean and professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.

Goldberg graduated from Harvard University in 1989 and lived with Sandberg and their children in Menlo Park, California.

“Dave Goldberg was an amazing person and I am glad I got to know him,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “My thoughts and prayers are with Sheryl and her family.”

Earlier in his career, Goldberg worked as a director of business development at Capitol Records in Los Angeles. He founded Launch Media, which delivered music and music-related content online, in 1994, and sold it to Yahoo amid the dot-com bust of 2001. Billboard magazine named him one of the top “power players” in digital music in 2006.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times via APIn this Feb. 1, 2013 photo, David Goldberg, the CEO of Survey Monkey poses at their headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Venture Financing

SurveyMonkey, an online questionnaire service, raised US$250 million in venture capital funding in December. The financing was intended to help the company pursue acquisitions and let employees and existing shareholders sell some of their stock. The Palo Alto, California-based company is profitable and has more than 20 million customers.

Its employees were heartbroken to learn of Mr. Goldberg’s passing.

“Dave’s genius, courage and leadership were overshadowed only by his compassion, friendship and heart,” the company said in a statement. “His greatest love was for his family. Our sympathy goes out to them and to all who were touched by this extraordinary man.”

Goldberg’s Facebook page quickly filled up with anecdotes and condolences from executives and entrepreneurs including David Golden, a veteran Silicon Valley banker and managing partner at Revolution Ventures, and Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co.

“Dave was a class act,” Iger wrote. “Everything he did was done with enthusiasm, commitment, and a warm and humble touch that we all loved and we will all remember.”

On Twitter, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called Mr. Goldberg the “kindest, most generous, loving father, loyal husband, great CEO & sweetest friend.” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman called him “caring and kind.” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky called him “a great mentor and role model.”

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called the news “heartbreaking” in a tweet, and described Mr. Goldberg as “one of the truly great people on the planet … of almost unimaginably remarkable character.”

— With assistance from Charles W. Stevens in New York and Cory Johnson, Brad Stone and Emily Chang in San Francisco.

Bloomberg.com, with files from The New York Times News Service

It said "ILOVEYOU", and it promised a harmless-looking text file. But it actually contained an email virus that got just about everywhere. Could something like this ever happen again?