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Monetize the MySpace Parasites

Posted on Wednesday, Apr 18th

I recently wrote a piece called News Corp: Bewildered Pioneer, where I discussed the rather low rate of monetization of MySpace, News Corp’s crown jewel in the online space. Following that, MySpace blocked Photobucket, Photobucket whined, the media went up in arms against News Corp. This is exactly what I would have done if I

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Active Customer Engagement (ACE)

Posted on Friday, Apr 13th

About 7 years ago, Mark Perry at NEA got me involved with a company that was then called CGTime, later renamed Cariocas. The Founder was a Stanford Game theorist called Yoav Shoham. He had created a collection of game theory based “games” for Active Customer Engagement (ACE). The company was too early, not very well

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Newspapers: Industry in Turmoil

Posted on Friday, Apr 6th

Alan Murray writes in the Wall Street Journal: “Last weekend’s “Billionaires Bid for Tribune” headlines were enough to warm the hearts of us Dickensian scribes who still seek to make a living from impressions on wood pulp. Savvy Chicagoan Sam Zell sold much of his U.S. real-estate empire at the top of the market; could

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McClatchy: Focusing on Online and Local

Posted on Monday, Mar 26th

The McClatchy Company is the third largest newspaper company in the United States. The Company publishes 31 daily newspapers and approximately 50 non-dailies across 29 locations in the United States. The prominent newspapers from the Company include the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, the Charlotte Observer and the Sacramento Bee. McClatchy also owns some

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DJ: Acquiring Online Businesses

Posted on Friday, Mar 23rd

Dow Jones & Company Inc. is a leading media Company engaged in providing global business and financial news across various media platforms that include newspapers, magazines, online content, radio and television. The Company aims to become the number one provider of high quality, easy accessible relevant business content. The Company has three operating segments Consumer

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Cisco’s War Cry Against Microsoft

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 20th

Last week’s acquisition of Webex by Networking giant Cisco is a clear war cry against Microsoft. What battlefield will this war be fought on? My take is, Collaboration will become the battlefield for these two titans’ epic battle. I have already written about this last week. Now, I want to add to the theme by

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NYT: Print to Digital

Posted on Monday, Mar 19th

The New York Times Company is a leading media company that publishes popular newspapers The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers. The Company also owns nine network-affiliated television stations and two New York radio stations. NYT owns approximately 35 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com.

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Microsoft’s Growth Strategy Revisited

Posted on Thursday, Mar 8th

On April 10, 2005, almost immediately after I started this blog, I had written a piece called Microsoft’s Two Should-Be Acquisition Candidates, from the point of view of addressing the growth trends in the SME markets. The two candidates were: Autodesk (ADSK) and PayChex (PAYX). I have to pay close attention to Microsoft, since my

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