Ravens stun Broncos in double overtime playoff thriller

(Reuters) - The Baltimore Ravens fought back for a 38-35 overtime win over the Denver Broncos on Saturday in a thrilling playoff encounter that puts them one win away from their first Super Bowl berth in 12 years.
The visiting Ravens, who entered the game as 9-1/2 point underdogs, grabbed victory when Justin Tucker kicked a 47-yard field goal in the second overtime, six plays after Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was intercepted.
Tucker's ice-cool kick in the freezing Mile High stadium ended a pulsating back-and-forth game that included a 90-yard punt return and 104-yard kickoff return for touchdowns from Denver's Trindon Holliday.
"That football game did the game of football proud," said Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, "It was one of the greatest football games you are ever going to see."
Denver were heading for victory in regulation until Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones with 31 seconds left that tied the score at 35-35.
Then, after both defenses came up strong in overtime, Manning, who threw for 290 yards and three touchdowns, was intercepted for a second time when Corey Graham superbly picked off a pass intended for Brandon Stokley.
"A bad throw and the decision probably wasn't great either," said Manning.
With the win, the Ravens advance to the American Football Conference championship game on January 20, where they will play the winner of Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Houston Texans.
The game was incident packed from the outset with Holliday opening the scoring with a spectacular punt return less than three minutes in. But Baltimore responded with quick touchdowns as Flacco found Torrey Smith with a 59-yard pass before Corey Graham intercepted Manning and ran in a 39-yard score.
Manning found Stokley with a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14 after the first quarter.
BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT
The remaining three quarters followed the same pattern - a touchdown for Denver followed by a reply from Baltimore, ending with Jones's crowd-silencing score as he took advantage of some awful coverage from Denver safety Rahim Moore.
The Broncos had the ball with half a minute on the clock but chose to take the knee and go into overtime rather than try to make the ground needed for a field goal attempt.
Then came the overtime drama which will haunt Manning and the Broncos through the offseason.
The Ravens, with inspirational defensive leader Ray Lewis in his final season, were carried to victory by Flacco who completed 18-of-34 passes for 331 yards and three touchdowns.
"It puts Joe Flacco in the elite category where he deserves to be," said running back Ray Rice, who rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown from 30 carries while receiver Smith had two touchdowns and 98 yards.
The loss was be a bitter disappointment for Manning, who had been hoping for a Super Bowl appearance in his first season for Denver after missing last season with Indianapolis following several neck surgeries.
"We thought we were peaking at the right time but we played a good team," said Manning. "A stout defense with a lot of veteran players. Its very disappointing because of how much effort and hard work this team has put into this season."
Flacco acknowledged some good fortune, in the way that Jones was allowed to get open for the crucial game-tying touchdown.
"You have to get a bit lucky, it worked out and we were able to take a shot and everybody came through and when that opportunity arose, there is no way to explain it," he said.
"It was an awesome football game. It was just crazy."

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Strahan, Sapp, Ogden among Hall of Fame finalists

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Single-season sacks leader Michael Strahan and two players who tried to block him are among 15 modern-era finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Strahan, who had 22½ sacks in 2001 and 141½ for his 15-year his career with the New York Giants, is joined by offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden of the Ravens and guard-tackle Larry Allen of the Cowboys and 49ers.
The fourth first-year eligible to make the cut is defensive tackle Warren Sapp of the Buccaneers and Raiders.
Strahan, Ogden and Sapp all won Super Bowls.
The hall announced Friday that the other finalists are running back Jerome Bettis; receivers Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Andre Reed; LB-DEs Charles Haley and Kevin Greene; guard Will Shields; defensive back Aeneas Williams; coach Bill Parcells; and former owners Edward DeBartolo Jr. of the 49ers and the late Art Modell of the Browns, who moved to Baltimore in 1996 to become the Ravens.
The two senior nominees are defensive tackle Curley Culp — who played for the Chiefs, Oilers and Lions — and linebacker Dave Robinson of the Packers and Redskins.
Between four and seven new members will be selected Feb. 2, the day before the Super Bowl, in New Orleans.
Bettis played for the Rams and Steelers — he won the 2006 Super Bowl in his final game, something Strahan did in 2008. He's in his third season of eligibility and was beaten out by fellow running backs Marshall Faulk in 2011 and Curtis Martin in 2012 for the hall.
Carter, Brown and Reed all were in the top 10 in receptions when they retired. Haley won five Super Bowls, two with San Francisco and three with Dallas.
Greene was one of the first hybrid linebacker-end defenders, which best suited his pass-rushing skills.
Shields was an ironman blocker for 14 seasons in Kansas City. Williams was a versatile defensive back who played on the corner and at safety. He had 55 career interceptions and 23 fumble recoveries.

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Golf-Late long-range birdie putts put Oosthuizen on top

DURBAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - World number six Louis Oosthuizen ended the second round with a real flourish to complete a bogey-free 64 and seize a one-stroke lead in the Volvo Golf Champions on Friday.
Britain's Scott Jamieson, who also recorded a 64, was one behind on 11-under 133 alongside overnight leader Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (68).
Six shots adrift in a share of fourth place on 139 were British pair Paul Lawrie (70) and Danny Willett (70), Frenchman Julien Quesne (67), Ireland's Shane Lowry (69), Dane Thomas Bjorn (70) and Jeev Milkha Singh of India (70).
Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, got his round going by holing a 15-foot putt for birdie at the third.
The South African picked up another shot at the fourth before he rattled off three consecutive birdies from the seventh to go out in 31.
The 30-year-old Oosthuizen then missed a short birdie chance at the 16th before sinking birdie putts of 45 and 25 feet at the 17th and 18th.
"Today was much better in terms of ball-striking," he told reporters. "I hit the ball really well and I putted beautifully.
"I missed a few short ones when I didn't have the right line but I generally seemed to have the speed of the greens and so I was able to make longer putts than usual. It's always nice when you know the putter is working."
Oosthuizen said he took a pragmatic approach to his eight-under round at the Durban Country Club.
"My main goal was to hit as many greens as I could," he explained. "A lot of times I didn't even go close to the pins - I just decided to hit the centre of the greens and it worked.
"You get those days when the putts won't go in and you shoot one or two-under but today the putts went in."
The second round offered something a little different, the professionals competing in a pro-am alongside the main event.
Oosthuizen and playing partner Thongchai were victorious and the sponsors agreed to exchange the South African's prize of a car for the mechanical digger he has coveted for the last two years.
"I'm walking away with a nice gift for my farm. It's going to be a lot of fun to be playing around with it," said Oosthuizen.
Jamieson, who clinched his maiden European Tour victory in Durban at the Nelson Mandela Championship last month, propelled himself into contention with five birdies on the front nine.

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Late long-range birdie putts put Oosthuizen on top

DURBAN (Reuters) - World number six Louis Oosthuizen ended the second round with a real flourish to complete a bogey-free 64 and seize a one-stroke lead in the Volvo Golf Champions on Friday.
Britain's Scott Jamieson, who also recorded a 64, was one behind on 11-under 133 alongside overnight leader Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (68).
Six shots adrift in a share of fourth place on 139 were British pair Paul Lawrie (70) and Danny Willett (70), Frenchman Julien Quesne (67), Ireland's Shane Lowry (69), Dane Thomas Bjorn (70) and Jeev Milkha Singh of India (70).
Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, got his round going by holing a 15-foot putt for birdie at the third.
The South African picked up another shot at the fourth before he rattled off three consecutive birdies from the seventh to go out in 31.
The 30-year-old Oosthuizen then missed a short birdie chance at the 16th before sinking birdie putts of 45 and 25 feet at the 17th and 18th.
"Today was much better in terms of ball-striking," he told reporters. "I hit the ball really well and I putted beautifully.
"I missed a few short ones when I didn't have the right line but I generally seemed to have the speed of the greens and so I was able to make longer putts than usual. It's always nice when you know the putter is working."
Oosthuizen said he took a pragmatic approach to his eight-under round at the Durban Country Club.
"My main goal was to hit as many greens as I could," he explained. "A lot of times I didn't even go close to the pins - I just decided to hit the centre of the greens and it worked.
"You get those days when the putts won't go in and you shoot one or two-under but today the putts went in."
The second round offered something a little different, the professionals competing in a pro-am alongside the main event.
Oosthuizen and playing partner Thongchai were victorious and the sponsors agreed to exchange the South African's prize of a car for the mechanical digger he has coveted for the last two years.
"I'm walking away with a nice gift for my farm. It's going to be a lot of fun to be playing around with it," said Oosthuizen.
Jamieson, who clinched his maiden European Tour victory in Durban at the Nelson Mandela Championship last month, propelled himself into contention with five birdies on the front nine.
Ernie Els, Nicolas Colsaerts and Francesco Molinari were eight strokes off the lead while Padraig Harrington was a further shot adrift on 141.

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Microsoft taps Krikorian to help run its Xbox business

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it hired technology entrepreneur Blake Krikorian to help run its Interactive Entertainment Business as the world's largest software company plans bigger things for its Xbox gaming console.
Krikorian will be corporate vice president for the Interactive Entertainment Business, reporting to Marc Whitten, chief product officer for the division, Microsoft added.
The appointment follows Microsoft's recent acquisition of Krikorian's company, id8 Group R2 Studios, which had developed an application that allows users to control home heating and lighting systems from smartphones.
Microsoft is trying to transform Xbox from a gaming device into a broader service that controls most aspects of home entertainment, including music, movies, TV and sports.
"We look forward to his contribution to our team as Xbox continues to evolve and transform the games and entertainment landscape," Whitten said in a statement.
Krikorian's Sling Media - which was sold to EchoStar Communications in 2007 - made the Slingbox device for watching TV over the Internet.
Krikorian resigned from Amazon.com Inc's board in late December after about a year and a half as a director at the company, the Internet's largest retailer.

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FireEye raises $50 million as it prepares for possible 2013 IPO

BOSTON (Reuters) - Cyber security firm FireEye Inc, which named former McAfee Chief Executive Dave DeWalt as its CEO in November, said it has raised $50 million in new financing as it prepares for a possible initial public offering this year.
FireEye sells technology that helps businesses protect themselves against malicious software that gets past traditional anti-virus programs sold by companies including Symantec Corp and McAfee.
The firm said on Thursday that it had raised an additional $50 million in venture funding from new and existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs , Juniper Networks Inc and Silicon Valley Bank.
FireEye had raised $51 million in prior financing rounds, according to a company spokesman.
The company also named six new executives on Thursday.
In November, when DeWalt was named CEO, he told Reuters that FireEye had "a high chance" of going public in 2013.
DeWalt resigned as president of McAfee in 2011 after engineering the sale of the company to chipmaker Intel Corp for $7.7 billion.

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T-Mobile’s CEO trashes AT&T’s ‘crap’ service, analyzes mobile porn consumption

When you’re CEO of America’s No.4 wireless carrier, you can afford to be a little colorful. Per PCMag, T-Mobile CEO John Legere decided to bring some much-needed spice to the Consumer Electronics Show this week by speaking candidly about his company’s rivals and the state of the mobile industry as a whole. Legere said that AT&T’s (T) mobile data service in New York is “crap” before backtracking and saying that he didn’t mean to ”say the network’s crap, it’s just not as good as ours.”
[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]
On Verizon (VZ), Legere praised the company’s “beautiful network” and said that it deserves credit for “the way they covered those dust bowl states with LTE.” However, Legere also dinged Verizon for its decision to go with shared data plans and questioned whether such plans would be economically feasible for both users and carriers going forward.
[More from BGR: Is BlackBerry back? Strong early BlackBerry 10 demand could signal RIM comeback]
“Shared data plans are a thing of the past,” he said. “A 10-gigabyte, 5-device shared data plan, when Joe Schmoe Junior starts to watch porn on his phone, isn’t going to work.”
And finally, Legere defended his company’s decision to ditch smartphone subsidies all together and suggested that people who believe smartphone subsidies save them money are just suckers.
“You are not getting a $99 phone,” he said. “Anyone who thinks they are, come with me into the back. While you’re handcuffed, they go into your pockets and they take your money.

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Exclusive: BlackRock to buy Credit Suisse's European ETFs - source

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc has won the bidding for Credit Suisse Group AG's European exchange-traded fund business, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The deal is expected to be announced shortly, said the source, who declined to be identified because the deal is not yet public. The value of the deal could not be determined.
A BlackRock spokeswoman and a Credit Suisse spokeswoman declined to comment.
Credit Suisse put its $17.6 billion ETF unit up for sale in October, sources told Reuters at the time.
In November, Credit Suisse said it was integrating its private banking and asset management divisions into a new wealth management unit.
BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors, the asset management arm of State Street Corp, were among the companies bidding for the business, but State Street dropped out of the bidding in December.
Credit Suisse is the fourth largest ETF provider in Europe, with 58 ETFs and a 5.3 percent market share as of December 31, according to ETFGI, a London-based ETF research firm.
BlackRock is the largest ETF provider in Europe, with more than 42 percent of the $331 billion European ETF market. Its 202 European iShares ETFs had $139.6 billion in assets as of December 31, the research firm said.
Credit Suisse's ETF business would be the second international ETF business BlackRock has acquired in the past several months.
BlackRock bought Toronto-based Claymore Investments, a Canadian ETF operation, from Guggenheim Partners LLC, in March.
"This acquisition shows BlackRock's further commitment to being the dominant player in ETFs in every market they are in," said Dave Nadig, director of research at IndexUniverse LLC, a San Francisco-based firm that tracks ETFs.
In October, BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence Fink told Reuters it was looking at a "fill-in ETF acquisition in another country.

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Chrysler 2012 Jeep sales topped 700,000 worldwide for first time

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC's Jeep brand sold more than 700,000 vehicles worldwide for the first time in 2012, an increase of 19 percent from the previous year, Chrysler said on Wednesday.
Mike Manley, head of the Jeep brand, said he expects 2013 sales to continue to climb as upgraded versions of Jeep's biggest seller Grand Cherokee, as well as a new midsize Jeep SUV, are introduced.
Jeep's 2012 sales of 701,626 topped the previous global high sales mark of 675,494 set in 1999.
Among Chrysler's four main brands, Jeep is the one that has the most global reach.
The Grand Cherokee full-sized SUV, the compact SUV Compass, and the Wrangler, are the three nameplates of Jeep that are most aggressively marketed outside Jeep's North American base.
Sales of the Grand Cherokee rose 26 percent at 223,196 worldwide. Compass sales rose 20 percent at 103,321, and Wrangler sales rose 16 percent at 194,142.
Sales in Asia in 2012 rose 94 percent, were up 29 percent in Europe and up 18 percent in Latin America. Jeep's sales were up 13 percent in the United States at 474,131.
The new midsize Jeep SUV will replace the Jeep Liberty in the brand's lineup.
In the United States, Chrysler's top-selling brand last year was Dodge, which sold 825,917 vehicles, up 16.5 percent.
Chrysler Group is majority-owned by Italy's Fiat SpA .

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Nike wins trademark case in Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nike Inc won a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court barring a smaller rival from suing to void the company's trademark for its top-selling Air Force 1 sneakers.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a unanimous court on Wednesday that Nike's promise not to pursue an infringement lawsuit against Already LLC, maker of Yums sneakers, meant that the Texas company could not pursue its own trademark challenge.
"Already's arguments boil down to a basic policy objection that dismissing this case allows Nike to bully small innovators lawfully operating in the public domain," Roberts wrote. But the argument did not justify letting its lawsuit proceed, he wrote.
Wednesday's decision upheld a November 2011 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
James Dabney, a lawyer for Already, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did Nike.
Wednesday's decision may help companies such as Nike rival Adidas SE and luxury goods makers Coach Inc and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA , which often sue to prevent alleged imitators from interfering with their revenue streams and customer goodwill.
The case began in 2009, when Nike claimed in a lawsuit that Already's Sugar and Soulja Boy shoes infringed Nike's trademark on the stitching, eyelet panels and other features of Air Force 1. Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon, launched the low-cut Air Force 1 sneaker in 1982 and sells millions of them each year.
After Already countersued to void the trademark, Nike dropped its lawsuit, believing Yums was not a commercial threat, and gave a promise in the form of a covenant not to sue Already.
But Already, based in Arlington, Texas, refused to drop its own case and accused Nike of dropping the original lawsuit to deprive courts of jurisdiction.
DOROTHY'S RUBY SLIPPERS
Roberts, however, said that allowing Already's lawsuit to continue would encourage large and small companies to use litigation as a "weapon" rather than as a last resort to settle disputes, which could discourage innovation.
"Accepting Already's theory may benefit the small competitor in this case," he said. "But lowering the gates for one party lowers the gates for all. As a result, larger companies with more resources will have standing to challenge the intellectual property portfolios of their more humble rivals - not because they are threatened by any particular patent or trademark, but simply because they are competitors in the same market."
Roberts also agreed with Nike that Already was unlikely to produce any shoe that would not be protected.
"If such a shoe exists, the parties have not pointed to it, there is no evidence that Already has dreamt of it, and we cannot conceive of it," Roberts wrote. "It sits, as far as we can tell, on a shelf between Dorothy's ruby slippers and Perseus' winged sandals."
Justice Anthony Kennedy concurred in the decision, saying that other companies should not assume they can automatically end rivals' trademark cases with covenants similar to Nike's.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor joined Kennedy's concurrence.
Two companies with well-known trademarks, clothing maker Levi Strauss & Co and automaker Volkswagen AG , filed briefs supporting Nike.
The case is Already LLC v. Nike Inc, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-982.

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