Microsoft after Gates

(Economist)
Microsoft knows what it wants to do when Bill Gates leaves ? but the road ahead will not be easy.

Labels: Market

Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon - The three survivors

(Economist)
And so Yahoo! survives. The internet company?which, at the age of 14, is one of the oldest?appears in the end to have rebuffed Microsoft, the software Goliath that wanted to buy it. It has done so, in part, by surrendering to Google, the younger internet company that is its main rival. In a vague deal apparently designed to confuse antitrust regulators, Yahoo! is letting Google, the biggest force in web-search advertising, place text ads next to some of Yahoo!'s own search results. Google thus controls some or all of the ads on all the big search engines except Microsoft's. Yahoo! lives, but on the web's equivalent of life support.

Labels: Market, Portals_browsers_and_search_engines

XO laptop now shipping with Windows XP

(Heise)
The One Laptop per Child project (OLPC) and Microsoft have agreed to start testing XO laptops with an adapted version of Windows XP. According to a press release, the first computers will be delivered to students in developing countries from June. Windows XP will be part of a software package costing $3. The release says that as the task of increasing the level of education in poor countries is too big for any single organisation, Microsoft and OLPC are committed to working with governments and non-governmental organisations.

Labels: Digital divide, Market

Kid e-Land

(Washington Post)
Disney is launching a virtual play environment that kids can access through Nintendo DS devices and their computers. The software for the service, called DGamer, comes free on copies of a video game tied to the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." Some industry watchers say DGamer is the latest entry in a category that is about to get crowded. As one venture capitalist put it, kid-oriented online worlds are "popping up like mushrooms everywhere."

Labels: Market

Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits

(USA TODAY)
Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites have been the rage of the tech industry for more than a year. Following investments by Microsoft and News Corp., the companies are valued in the billions of dollars and are considered blueprints for how to build a website. Yet a deeper question lingers: How are they going to consistently produce profits to match their soaring valuations?

Labels: Market, Social_networking

Microsoft and Yahoo! - No deal

(Economist)
Rather as John McCain cannot be displeased to have seen Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fighting it out, Google has for the past three months enjoyed watching its only two serious rivals, Yahoo! and Microsoft, tear each other to pieces. But on May 3rd, after a frustrating marathon of meetings, Mr Ballmer walked away.

Labels: Market

Microsoft walks away from Yahoo

(BBC)
Software giant Microsoft has dropped its three-month-old bid to buy internet firm Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on an acceptable sale price. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the offer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.

Labels: Market

Bypassing Carriers for Mobile Content

(Business Week)
Sales of ringtones and games through phone makers and the Web are way up, another sign service providers are losing their grip on the industry

Labels: Market, Mobile_and_wireless

UK - BBC announces Nintendo Wii deal

(BBC)
The BBC's iPlayer video service will soon be available via the Nintendo Wii. The video download and streaming service that lets people catch up with BBC programmes will soon be a channel on the hugely popular game console. The BBC is still at loggerheads with internet service providers (ISPs) over who should pay for extra network costs. ISPs say the iPlayer is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope. Simon Gunter, from ISP Tiscali, is leading a call for the BBC to help pay for the rising costs.

Labels: Market

AOL buys Bebo in $850m cash deal

(OUT-LAW News)
AOL has bought social networking site Bebo for $850 million in cash. The Time Warner-owned web services company said that the Bebo network would be a valuable place for it to sell advertising.

Labels: Market, Social_networking

Warner drops locks across Europe

(BBC)
Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection. Customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany will be able to download albums by artists such as Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Market

Circling the wagons around Google

(CNET.com)
by Charles Cooper Post. Earlier in the week, ComScore reported that Google's paid clicks dropped 7 percent between December and January. That was enough to panic already nervous shareholders who proceeded to dump Google's stock in one of Wall Street's (increasingly common) panics. But Friday morning the Internet ratings agency issued a brief statement meant to contradict the impression that it believes Google has sprung a leak.

Labels: Market

Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google

(Economist)
Microsoft should be allowed to buy Yahoo! - and Google should be free to fight back. see also When clouds collide and A $45 billion bet (Economist)

Labels: Competition, Market

Microsoft bids $44.6 billion for Yahoo

(CNET News.com)
Microsoft went public with a $44.6 billion cash-and-stock bid to acquire Yahoo. In its response, Yahoo called the Microsoft bid "unsolicited" but did not reject it. Microsoft's offer, which was contained in the letter to Yahoo's board, amounts to $31 a share and represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's closing price. Microsoft said it will offer shareholders the option of cash or stock. see also Gates v Google: Microsoft's search for a future on the net (Observer) and How Microsoft-Yahoo could shape social networking (the social - blog on CNET by Caroline McCarthy).

Labels: Market

Location, location, location

(Economist)
Nearly 35m portable navigation devices (PND) will be sold around the world this year, twice as many as in 2006, making personal navigation one of the fastest-growing areas in consumer electronics. The latest versions of these gadgets do more than simply show the stubborn or shy the way. The industry is beginning to focus on the services PNDs could provide, prompting a scramble for the ownership of the digital maps they use. Nokia, the world's largest mobile-phone maker, said that it would acquire Navteq, the world's biggest maker of digital maps, for €5.7 billion. In July, TomTom, a leading PND vendor from the Netherlands, announced plans to buy Tele Atlas, the next biggest mapmaker, for €1.8 billion.

Labels: Market

Clicks and links will bring all the walls tumbling down

(Guardian)
The New York Times has just abandoned its two-year effort to charge for content online, taking down TimesSelect, the pay wall around its columnists and much of its archives. So content is now and forever free. That isn't because people won't pay for content - some did. It's because there is a new economy of content online that isn't built on scarcity and control but instead relies on the idea that content must be public and permanent to realise its value in the wider conversation.

Labels: Market

Angry eBay pulls Google adverts

(BBC)
Auction website eBay has pulled its US advertising from search engine giant and adversary Google. The move comes after Google angered eBay with a provocative decision to hold an event on the same evening as eBay's annual merchants' conference. Google's party was aimed at attracting attention away from eBay's payment system PayPal to its own card processing service, analysts say.

Labels: Market

US - MySpace to acquire Photobucket image-sharing site

(CNET News)
Rupert Murdoch watched Google snatch YouTube, but he's not letting Photobucket get away. Social-networking site MySpace, owned by Murdoch's News Corp., has agreed to acquire Photobucket, the Web's No. 1 photo-sharing service.

Labels: Market, Social_networking