Palm shares soared 22% Monday on the news that private equity firm Elevation Partners, whose principal investors include U2 frontman Bono, had injected $100 million into the ailing handset maker. News of the cash injection, which ups Elevation's stake in the firm from 25 to 38%, helped ease the stock's steep decline over the past three months. Palm finished the session up 56 cents to $3.05. Just last week, the Sunnyvale, Calif. tech giant reported a 45% slide in fiscal second quarter revenue, citing declining phone sales. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "the disappointing performance, coupled with a dwindling …

The tech sector better buckle its safety belt in preparation for a bleak2009, says GigaOm's Om Malik, who writes that the impact from the credit crunch and the overall slowdown in the global economy will be felt "across the entire ecosystem." How bad is it? "The problem is three times worse than everybody thinks," says Terry Gou, chairman of a large Taiwan-based contract manufacturer whose customers include Apple, Nintendo and HP. Malik points out that semiconductor sales are down 16.3%, and PCs and mobile handsets, "the twin drivers of technology demand", are also in the midst of sales slumps. Handset …

According to a regulatory filing cited by Reuters, Internet comedy site Funny Or Die raised $3 million in cash from a single, undisclosed investor for "in-kind contributions for marketing, publicity and promotional support for programming." In fact, it's not clear from the filing if the $3 million augments a $15 million investment reported earlier this year, or is simply just a part of that investment. The $3 million investment is the only filing Funny Or Die has made with the SEC. HBO, owned by publicly traded Time Warner, is one of the possible investors, as the cable channel bought …

Read Write Web's Marshall Kirkpatrick reckons it would take Twitter at current growth estimates 36 years to catch up to Facebook in terms of users if Facebook stopped growing today. Kirkpatrick arrives at that conclusion after looking at a report from marketing firm HubSpot on the state of Twitter at the end of 2008. The HubSpot report came out just days after Facebook posted staggering new growth numbers of more than 600,000 new users per day. Twitter, meanwhile, has just 4-5 million total users, 30% of which are either new or hardly engaged. HubSpot estimates that Twitter sees between five …

Sanford Bernstein Analyst Jeffrey Lindsay raises the interesting comparison of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo as the Web equivalent to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler more than 60 years ago. Lindsay notes that the downturn of 2001 to 2003 in Web advertising allowed Google to emerge. Yahoo fumbled the chance to buy Google; instead, the search giant went public and became the Web's biggest company. Lindsay wonders whether the market conditions are now right for the next Google to emerge. Facebook, for example, had its chance to go public but blew it. "The problem today is that today's internet players have …

In another setback for Google's popular video sharing site, Warner Music Group over the weekend ordered YouTube to remove all music videos by its artists after contractual negotiations broke down. According to Reuters, Warner's decision could affect hundreds of thousands of video clips. Talks broke down early Saturday because Warner wanted a bigger share of ad revenues. "We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide," Warner said in a statement. According to comScore, YouTube had more than 100 million viewers in the U.S. in October, …

Entrepreneurs, listen up: When entering an economic slump, make sure you've built yourself a substantial war chest -- even if you don't need the money. That's the advice startup whiz Max Levchin shares with the San Francisco Chronicle's Verne Kopytoff. The Slide, Inc. founder, "who's made a habit of thriving in bleak times," says it's best to raise lots of money ahead of a recession because one of the best ways to beat back the competition when times are rough is to acquire them. Last year around this time, just before the U.S. descended into recession, Levchin secured an extra …

The economic downturn could turn out to be "a golden opportunity" for the Web industry's leaders to solidify their dominant positions, says Dow Jones' Scott Morrison. As smaller competitors simply try to survive, the likes of Google, Netflix, and Amazon can invest in reinforcing customer relationships with new products, services, and technologies, helping to grow their market share further. In a recent research note, Barclays Capital Analyst Doug Anmuth said he likes Google, Netflix, Amazon and Blue Nile because they have strong free cash flow that can be reinvested, giving them an opportunity to further distance themselves from competitors. "We …