And The Dwarfs?

In my earlier series on Online Video Beneficiaries, I covered Cisco and its “seven dwarf” competitors. Let us look at how Juniper, F5, Foundry, Alcatel, and Nortel have fared since then. [3Com is being taken private, and Extreme, we think, is not going anywhere.]

Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy Amazon is the most popular e-commerce site in the world. We will take a look at the Company’s various online verticals below. Books, Newspaper and Magazines Amazon was started as an online bookstore. It is the largest retailer of books online. It allows users to buy books, magazines and newspapers online. Amazon has

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Cisco Grows Fatter, Shows Emerging Market Weakness: Corelated?

On November 7, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) reported results for the first quarter fiscal year 2008 that ended October 27, 2007. Earlier posts are available here, where I said that Cisco needs to slim down, and here, where I discussed Cisco’s prospects as an Online Video beneficiary. In this post, we will take stock of what

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Video Conferencing’s Unrealized Potential

I recently did an interview with Bob Hagerty, CEO of Polycom, which I strongly suggest you read. My earlier post on the company as one of the online video beneficiaries is available here. Here’s an update on its earnings for Q3 2007 and some analysis of the stock.

Web 3.0 & MSN (Part 5)

Conclusion Microsoft has been reorganizing and rebranding its online properties. The Company has rebranded MSN Messenger and Hotmail as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft is working on improving the underlying technology behind MSN and introducing new features but all this is yet to trickle down to the bottomline. There are rumors of

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Neither Blockbuster, Nor Netflix

I still have my ten foot pole out and it is NOT pointed towards the movie rental industry. Starting with Blockbuster (BBI), I had zero confidence in their ability to execute on a compelling online Web 3.0 strategy. Blockbuster’s past efforts to battle competitor Netflix had cost the company dearly. Trying to dilute Netflix’s momentum,

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Online Travel and Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline

I wondered earlier if Priceline (PCLN) would reach its all-time dot.com high of $104/share ever again. The company not only reached the target but exceeded it, and is currently trading at $120/share. Priceline recently posted earnings for Q3 totaling $104.4 million versus $48.8 million in the same period a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Q3

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Web 3.0 & MSN (Part 4)

Acquisition Strategy Microsoft acquired Medstory and aQuantive this year. Actually both were very good acquisitions. Online Health is a large segment with 31% of the total U.S. Internet users or 55.3 million U.S. Internet audience visiting health information sites each month during the first quarter of 2007. Buying aQuantive was a shrewd move. With the

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