categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Comcast Acquires YouTube?
There are a number of articles on YouTube today: TechCrunch, GigaOm, PaidContent, along with a comparison from LightReading on video sharing sites. The business model question on YouTube continues to come up, people assuming that they will eventually monetize the eyeballs. YouTube could also become the empowering engine for VideoSharing for various sites like TimeWarner,
As AOL Reinvents Itself
A smart little acquisition occured today. AOL bought an Instant Messaging service that powers, among others, MySpace. Userplane licenses its technology to more than 100,000 sites. I really like plays like this that power thousands of web sites. Photobucket is an example of a similar play, that acts as a repository for photos that can
Microsoft Is A Slow Coach, BUT …
Nial Kennedy, popular blogger and web 2.0 geek has just decided to quit Microsoft, after four months of working there. Reason? Frustration! No doubt, Microsoft has become a slow coach. They can neither hire talent, nor retain talent. But. Look at Nial Kennedy’s resume. He doesn’t stick around anywhere for very long. Certainly not long
Google Gets MySpace
Google + MySpace = ~ 1 Billion Dollar deal. MySpace already makes $350 Million a year in revenues, but a Google deal will add a great deal of structure to their advertising. Of course, this just pushed the valuations of FaceBook and YouTube up another notch as well. Some exits are in the wings for
IBM’s Enterprise Software Acquisition Spree
Oracle gets all the media attention, but IBM has been quietly buying up enterprise software companies. They have bought the following software companies in the last 2 years: Isogon, software asset management solutions. Micromuse, Ascential & Cyanea, performance management solutions of web-based business apps. DWL, Customer Data Integration (CDI) Middleware. Collation, IT service management software.
Philips Semiconductor: Sold
Philips spins off its chip business. KKR & Silverlake team up on this LBO deal, beating TPG, Bain Capital, Francisco Partners, Blackstone, Apax, etc. The disposal is part of a group strategy to move from a focus on high volume electronics and implementing a strategy to build a Healthcare, Lifestyle and Technology company with a
CNet’s Savvy Steps
CNet buys baby site, car site, and expands beyond tech, reports Rafat Ali. Earlier, they bought food site Chowhound. I conjectured in a previous post how a next generation new media empire would be built. Well, CNet could roll up a lot of great micro-media web properties, including Rafat Ali himself, to become the next
Yahoo + Newspapers
Read about Yahoo’s discussions with Newspapers, an industry reeling from the invasion of new media. The most important dimension to watch in this set of dialogs is Local, whether that is Local News, Local Search, Local Services, Local Networking … The newspapers have a good handle on the Local dimension, much more so than Yahoo