Monthly Archives: April 2008
A Senior Moment?
Rupert Murdoch seems to be having a senior moment. One day he’s meeting with Jerry Yang in an effort to align News Corp with Yahoo and Google, the next he’s talking about working with Microsoft to take over Yahoo. Either way it sounds as if he’s trying to get someone who knows the space to handle his Fox Interactive Media, owner of MySpace.
I’m getting the impression Mr. Murdoch is more interested in “the deal” than the “vision.” Frankly, he knows how Microsoft makes money, so I’m betting that the Microsoft play is where he’s likely to land – if he does land. And that’s debatable given some of these tactics. Maybe his recent dinner with Jerry Yang was strictly intell gathering. If it was, I bet Roy Bostock was not at the table.
PS. I wrote some time ago that Mr. Murdoch’s purchase of The Wall Street Journal, would lead to creation of the world’s biggest business social net. That would have been vision.
PPS. For a fun look at a Visual Guide to the Yahoo Mating Dance, click on the Dan Farber link: http://www.zude.com/index.htm?pg=MAIN&btnbar=3&pgid=62208041108532417674
Eee pc
There is a new type of notebook computer in town which some are calling the netbook. It is so named because it is light, fast and Internet-centric. Many of the notebook providers have these computers either on the drawing boards or heading to a store near you. The price points are low and manufacturers are betting that netbooks will create a larger user market and not cannibalize margins of the current market.
Digital Distribution Empire
On the Fence About MySpace Music
A turn off.
Good exhaust.
Place-shifted TV
At the PSFK Conference in NYC last week Mike Hudack of Blip.TV brought up the notion of “place-shifted” TV. Many people today “time-shift” TV, which means they use digital video recorders to alter when they watch favorite programs. But in place-shifted TV they alter the device they watch a program on and therefore the place. One of Mike’s favorite tech shows he watches on his iPhone, presumably when he has some downtime. Big HBO productions, on the other hand, are reserved for his hi-def flat screen at home. That’s when he wants the best quality sight and sound.