Apple, AT&T Need To Mind The FCC

The FCC won't take Apple and AT&T's dissembling over rejection of the Google Voice application lying down.

• Sep 21, 2009

Dell to Buy Perot Systems in Bid for Enterprise Market Share

Dell's $3.9 billion bid for Perot Systems shows how far the company must go to adequately compete in the enterprise market against IBM and HP. But better to pay a premium for a service provider than to continue being largely a commodity PC vendor, which won't help return the company's margins to their former glory days.

• Sep 21, 2009

Microsoft Say-On-Pay Is Pressure-On-Tech-Firms

On Friday, Microsoft announced that its board approved a say-on-pay plan, in which shareholders will participate in an advisory vote on executive compensation. But this is more than a dry scrap thrown to investors. Even a non-binding vote creates real pressure on top management and, even more so, on other companies.

• Sep 21, 2009

Apple or Google: Who Will Walk the Plank?

After you've spoken with a number of DOJ prosecutors and SEC enforcement attorneys, one thing becomes clear: They hate being lied to. We're not talking petty annoyance. No, these are people who have been known to go after mendacity with a vengeance suitable to Greek mythology. Businesspeople who technically went afoul of the law and might have pulled through have been brought to the ground because they tried to cover up problems by omitting or misstating what they knew. And that brings us to Apple and Google.

• Sep 21, 2009

How Adobe Is Getting Smarter

Adobe's acquisition of Omniture brings the Web authoring software vendor two distinct benefits: a new product to complement its existing suite, and expertise in a new business model (software-as-a-service).

• Sep 18, 2009

Google Docs Gaining 'Impressive Uptick' In Office Share

Google's online office productivity suite, Google Docs, is gaining enterprise share, posing a long-term threat to Microsoft's Office suite.

• Sep 18, 2009

Google Pushing New Product Through Bloggers

Google has been emailing a "small set of expert bloggers," asking if they would be interested in looking at a new product that apparently hasn't yet been announced, according to an email, forwarded to me, from a Google marketing person. The company is offering "a gift package" to ship in the next few weeks, though is giving no indication of what the product is.

• Sep 18, 2009

Are Zune Ad-Supported Apps a Wrong Move?

Microsoft is reportedly relying on ads to support an apps infrastructure for Zune. But while I'm sure the company figures it will jump start adoption because, hey, it's all "free," which means that the app developers get a cut of revenue and are happy, I suspect it's one of those moves that will prove to be foolish. Here's why.

• Sep 18, 2009

Tech Law: Gamer Sues Bungie, DOJ Eyes MicroHoo, K-Mart/Sears Spyware, More

A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world: courts, regulation, and lawsuits, including: gamer sues Bungie over Halo 3 bugs; DOJ to look closely at Microsoft-Yahoo deal; Microsoft escapes patent infringement fine -- for now; FTC gets consent decree over K-Mart and Sears spyware scheme; and social network gaming vendor Zygna sues competitor Playdom.

• Sep 18, 2009

Sirius Has Serious Share Price Hangover

When a company has been hurting and its share price is largely in the toilet, it faces a potentially big problem: delisting. The exchanges demand a certain floor price to remain listed. And today, Sirius XM announced that Nasdaq sent notice that it was out of compliance. In this case, it means that the share price has closed under a dollar for more than 30 consecutive business days.

• Sep 17, 2009

Skype Future Owners Jolted by Joltid

Having been involved in due diligence during M&A myself, I understand that it's a critical activity. And for that reason I have to shake my head at eBay as well as some of the companies taking over Skype: private equity firm Silver Lake and VCs Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. And it all comes down to how ineptly they have dealt with an IP licensing scheme that should have been nailed down literally two years ago.

• Sep 17, 2009

Higher Fees and Other Notes on the Patent Front

USPTO director David Kappos gave a talk earlier this week, and it gives some hints as to what companies might expect on the patent front.

• Sep 17, 2009

Next Steps for Google Books: More E-book Conversion and Retail?

Google has moved in two directions that will be critical for its bigger view of Google Books, and for book publishing in general. And the combination suggests that some deft strategy could leave the company as one of the most powerful players in the market.

• Sep 17, 2009

YouTube Blows Up For Google (In A Good Way)

YouTube is giving users the ability to add interactive features to their videos, thus increasing stickiness and value to Google's model, in contrast to the staid Hulu model.

• Sep 17, 2009

Comparing Bing, Yahoo, Google: Get Beyond Search

A recent Nielsen comparison of search results for U.S. search engines again raised one of those periodic fascinations for the tech industry. This one is called Who's On Top In Search. But I wonder if the measures people are taking do justice to the question.

• Sep 17, 2009

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