TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

You can use the Internet to find just about anyone, from lawyers to real estate agents to future spouses. But up until now, it was a chore to find a tennis player of equal skill. That's where Tennis Round steps in. The company, with six founders spread between Seattle and San Francisco, is trying to make it a little bit easier to find local tennis players and courts. We chatted with co-founder Alex Marinov for the latest installment of Startup of the Week.

What’s your elevator pitch... Tennis Round connects tennis players at similar skill levels to play matches at local tennis courts anywhere in the U.S.

Tablet computers like the iPad are starting to take a bite out of the worldwide market for personal computers, according to a new report released this week by Gartner. The research firm cut its outlook for PC sales for 2010 and 2011, pointing specifically to the growth of the iPad.

“These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 percent of PC units by 2014.”

DelBene

Suzan DelBene, a former Microsoft vice president who previously worked at drugstore.com and Nimble Technology, has been tapped as the new director of the State Department of Revenue. The appointment by Gov. Chris Gregoire comes nearly a month after the high-tech executive was defeated by Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in a hotly-contested race for Washington's 8th Congressional District.

“Suzan’s background with both large and small businesses will be an asset as the Department of Revenue works to simplify the tax code and reduce costs for businesses,” said Gregoire in a press release. “Suzan knows firsthand how the tax system impacts businesses and possesses the skills and vision to lead the agency through this transformation.”

WikiLeaks is finding some safe haven with online retailer Amazon.com following a series of hacker attacks, reports indicate. The anti-secrecy website, which says it's come under cyberattack since publishing a large collection of U.S. diplomatic cables Sunday, has tapped Amazon's cloud computing business to host data, according to the Wall Street Journal and other media.

Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment. It's not clear yet if the company is actively monitoring WikiLeaks' use of its cloud, if it feels compelled to take any action, or if the U.S. government has exerted any pressure on Amazon to remove WikiLeaks from its servers.

The link to WikiLeaks could cause some headaches for Amazon, given the huge political storm surrounding the latest document dump by the anti-secrecy website. One congressman has called for WikiLeaks to be designated a foreign terrorist organization. Amazon is trying to get more federal agencies to use its cloud computing services, which could make the WikiLeaks situation awkward for the e-commerce giant.

Prentice

Jon Prentice: Here in Washington state, elected officials and policy-makers across the political spectrum often tout our state’s leadership in fostering renewable energy and clean technologies. “The Puget Sound will become the next Silicon Valley of clean tech” is a common refrain.

And why not? Washington has, at first glance, a strong foundation for fostering companies that deploy renewable energy technologies: A proud legacy of environmental stewardship, historically progressive political leadership, abundant natural resources, and an active venture community. When it comes to protecting the environment, developing disruptive technologies – whether in software, biotechnology, or aerospace – and growing great companies, Washington state knows a thing or two.

But in interviews with local investors I conducted this summer on behalf of enterpriseSeattle and in coordination with the Washington Clean Technology Alliance and the Northwest Energy Angels, a much different picture emerged – one that doesn’t exactly tend towards sunny optimism or green shoots.

Antitrust officials for the European Union have launched an investigation into Google to explore whether the company used its dominance in search to promote its own services to the detriment of rivals The investigation comes nine months after Microsoft-backed groups raised concerns about Google's tactics.

The M&A market appears to be heating up as we close out the year. We've seen a series of acquisitions in recent weeks, and we're hearing rumblings of several more. The latest example comes from Bellevue where Pharmacy OneSource -- which has developed an online service to help hospitals manage patient safety and compliance -- has agreed to be acquired by Wolters Kluwer Health. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pharmacy OneSource has been growing rapidly in recent years.

It ranked 335th on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 list, with revenue growth of 269 percent from 2005 to 2009. The company, led by Tim Gibbons, employs 100 people.

Comcast has experienced its fair share of outages in the Seattle area recently, including a cable TV disruption earlier this month and an Internet outage last month. But the Comcast service disruption which occurred in West Seattle yesterday may be the strangest of them all.

Service went down for about 2,500 Comcast customers after a bullet hole was discovered to have severed a fiber line. Technicians for the company were able to quickly resolve the problem. In a Tweet, Comcast representatives admitted that an outage tied to a bullet hole is "pretty unusual." [Post updated with comment from Comcast]

Lazarus

Jon Lazarus has stepped down as interim CEO of Kiha Software, a move that comes one month after the heavily-funded, Paul Allen-backed startup unveiled software to help organize information on mobile phones. A spokesman for billionaire Paul Allen said that Lazarus' consulting gig ended earlier this month and that board member and Vulcan vice president Chris Purcell has taken over as interim CEO.

"During his time in that position, Lazarus helped lead the company to the recent Aro Beta release," Paul Allen spokesman David Postman tells TechFlash. "Kiha remains focused on Aro and the recent beta release. The company is now working on its go-to-market plan, including a strategy of providing Aro directly to consumers."

Microsoft may just have a holiday hit on its hands -- and it is called Kinect. The company announced today that the Xbox 360 accessory, which allows users to control game play through body motion and voice commands, has sold more than 2.5 million units since its launch 25 days ago.

That's a pretty good start, with the company reaffirming in today's press release that it is on track to hit the holiday goal of five million units sold. In fact, Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb notes that it took Apple twice as long (two months) to sell two million iPads.

Seattle startup AdReady is starting to look a lot like aQuantive -- at least in terms of personnel. Randy Wootton, a former aQuantive executive who spent the past six years at Microsoft, most recently as vice president of global search and online marketplace, has been named senior vice president of sales and marketing at the online advertising upstart.

He joins a list of former aQuantive employees -- including CEO Karl Siebrecht -- who believe that AdReady is on to something big in the display advertising market.

Amazon.com this month launched an Italian-language version of its website, the first time it's entered a new country in six years. Now, a new job posting from the online retailer hints at further international expansion.

The job posting, dated Nov. 16, seeks a senior software development engineer for a new team "creating the architectural underpinnings to greatly simplify country expansions."

OK, folks, we're just two days away from the Flashies bash at the Experience Music Project. We've already recorded more than 10,000 votes across the 15 categories, but we're giving readers a final chance to vote before the winners are unveiled at Wednesday's big event. With some very tight races, now is the time to record your vote if you haven't already or encourage your friends to do so. We'll cut off voting today -- November 29th at 3 p.m.

We also have a few tickets left for The Flashies, as well as the pre-event News Summit (featuring VentureBeat's Matt Marshall, All Things Digital's Tricia Duryee, msnbc.com's Wilson Rothman and The Wall Street Journal's Nick Wingfield). Tickets for both available here. (Note: The News Summit will take place at the Rainier Room near Key Arena at 3:30 p.m., with the Flashies starting at 5:30 p.m. at EMP. Map below).

Here's a look back at all of the categories for The Flashies.

Previous Categories, Voting Open Until 3 p.m. Monday: Do-Gooder of the Year ... Story of the Year ... Newcomer of the Year ... Guest Column of the Year ... Big Deal of the Year ... No Longer Stealth Award ... Stunt of the Year ... Innovation of the Year... Buzzword of the Year... Newsmaker of the Year... Tech Debacle of the Year ... Tech Platform of 2010 ... Breakout Performance of 2010 ... Tech Move/Hire of the Year ... Startup Deal of the Year.

Google Finance

Amazon.com shares jumped to an all-time high in trading on Cyber Monday, rising more than 2 percent to $181.84, amid expectations the online retailer is grabbing a big piece of the early holiday shopping rush. The stock was later trading at $178.65, up nearly 1 percent.

Amazon sites were the most visited retail property on Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, growing 25 percent from the same shopping day a year ago, according to data from internet research firm comScore. That traffic surge doesn't necessarily translate into sales, but it's a sign that Amazon is drawing a lot of eyeballs as people hunt for holiday gifts.

Update: Amazon shares closed Monday at $179.49, up 1.29 percent.

Steve Murch -- the "head chef" and founder of Seattle online recipe site BigOven.com -- continues to make strides in the mobile application development arena. And his latest project is one that could get some attention around these parts.