From the category archives:
Aol. starts life as a new public company this Wednesday. Not as the once all conquering AOL, but as the newly re-branded, seemingly apologetic Aol. As it departs from the Time Warner stable, I can imagine the TW sentiment is somewhere on the harsh side of “good riddance to bad rubbish”. It would be impossible [...]
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Lots of blogging about the lackluster track record of media mergers in the wake of the official announcement of the Comcast/NBC Universal deal. My POV differs from that of Michael Wolff’s assessment on Newser, although I’ve ordered The Curse Of The Mogul cited in his blog. This is a merger that will work, and will redefine [...]
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A couple of years ago I spent some time digitizing some of my production work. Most of it is on a mix of source formats, 1/4 inch analog tape, DAT, CD, and even a few reference copies on cassette. For anyone who has undertaken format conversion, I feel your pain. While ultimately rewarding, it’s a time [...]
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Over the weekend I was thinking about what the core requirements are to force a change in a consumer’s behavior. For instance, how could Microsoft get someone to not just try Bing, but become a regular user, when Google is more than good enough for most users and searches. Or, could Fox Business materially disrupt [...]
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Last Friday, CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba (population 51,000) signed off after the 6PM newscast. Dark, for good. CTVGlobemedia, who owned the station, stated that a deal to sell it to Bluepoint Investments for $1 Cdn. had collapsed when Bluepoint walked away from the deal. CKX-TV had been on the air since 1955, and was the [...]
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MediaNet officially announced their new API Platform yesterday. You can see the release here. The team has been working on this platform for a number of months, and it’s great to see it in the market. In addition to Intertech, Mog, iLike there are some large portals not mentioned in the release, who are launching products [...]
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There’s a palpable change in the air this month. A year after Lehman’s collapse, it feels like the market forces have finally pushed Play, taking us out of our prolonged Pause. The steady stream of acquisitions (Disney/Marvel, Adobe/Omniture) as companies seek to broaden their businesses, the Dow and NASDAQ at highs not seen since last October, [...]
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iLike’s sale to MySpace, announced earlier this week merits comments on a couple of points.
First, it’s fire sale time. At roughly $20 million, this represents a new low for music-based valuations. In halcyon days, we had seen the prices climb. From Real’s $36 million acquisition of Listen.com in 2003, to Yahoo’s 2004 $160 million acquisition [...]
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Two long-established brands recently took the tack of dropping the nouns from their names: Pizza Hut and RadioShack – which are now known as The Hut and The Shack. Here’s why one find success through the name change and derivative market opportunities, and one won’t.
By morphing from Pizza Hut to The Hut, the new brand [...]
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Seems like it’s a summer of recollections of 1969. The Apollo 11 moon landing, Woodstock’s 40th Anniversary next week, and today, in between the two, Londoners celebrated the 40th anniversary of the iconic Abbey Road album cover shot. A moment in time, contemplated by so many music fans, recalled countless times during repeated listenings. While [...]
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