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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
As the number 4 online destination with 85 million monthly visitors, YouTube is the go to source for answering the “What do you want to watch?” question. The other night I was searching around and was curious to see if any of the TV shows I’d produced had somehow, ended up on the site. Now, [...]
{ 0 comments }
I posted about this album back in August, when the 40th anniversary of the front cover shot was taken. Back before music was thought of as a product, before the cover, liner notes, disc and even the recordings were considered parts, this iconic album was created. Today marks the 40th anniversary of its release. So [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
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, [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
From leaks last evening, it is sounding like the Microsoft/Yahoo search deal is done, as I’d suggested in an earlier post. Combined, the Yahoo and Microsoft search business will command 30% market share of search – a credible number 2. There is still, what I would term, a lack of clarity around core product focus [...]
{ 0 comments }
