Virgin, Universal on Cusp of New Media Business Model

U.K. cable TV operator Virgin Media and music company Universal are touting their new partnership in a music downloading service as a first because it allows unlimited downloads for a fixed fee. (Microsoft has allowed unlimited streaming, but that has less consumer appeal.) It may be positioned as a way to combat piracy -- people who get as much as they want have fewer reasons to purloin -- but the real achievement may be stumbling toward a payment model that could work in a modern media age.

• Jun 16, 2009

Sun Cleared Of Wrongdoing?

Sun shareholders convening today to approve the company's acquisition by Oracle can breathe a sigh of relief. The company seems to be in the clear today, although as recently as April 30 (ten days after Oracle announced its bid), Sun was concerned that it might have breached the Foreign Corrupt Prac...

• Jun 16, 2009

Dell Buying, IBM Selling Business Units?

IBM's recent lawsuit against Dell may be a continuation of the recent wrangling the industry has seen over employees who are perceived as making a different to companies, such as IBM's other recent suit against Apple over chip executive Mark Papermaster. However, it also offers some insights into the strategies of these two major tech players.

• Jun 16, 2009

Salesforce Missing Mobile Target

Salesforce.com is trying to goose margins by introducing new ways for customers to use its cloud-based development platform, but it's still missing in action where mobility, perhaps the fastest-growing tech segment, is concerned. The company said customers can now build applications and Web sites...

• Jun 15, 2009

Will Lowered Mac Prices Boost Unit Sales as Piper Jaffrey Thinks?

According to Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster, Wall Street doesn't appreciate the sales boosting power that price cuts on Apple's notebooks will have on Mac unit sales. But it may be that investors have become wary of Munster's predictions, as they are often significantly off the mark. And, in this case, there is additional evidence suggesting against the sudden appearance of increased price elasticity.

• Jun 15, 2009

Another iPhone Release Kerfuffle; Palm Learns Too Well

The past two times Apple has released a new iPhone, there were lines and frustration as the activation process fell apart. Hopefully it won't happen again, but there are already signs that things are not smooth at operations, though whether the problem of Apple or AT&T, it's tough to say.

• Jun 15, 2009

Tech Law: Activision Sues EA, Google Appeals $761 Small Claims Verdict, More

Activision sues EA; Rambus drops some patent claims against Nvidia; Google appeals $761 small claims verdict; Symantec and McAfee settle with New York; Microsoft settles with Mississippi; Vizio gets ITC stay in Funai action; judge tosses Wii patent suit; and Canada denies Amazon a patent on one-click ordering.

• Jun 15, 2009

Amazon Settles Suit with Toys "R" Us for $51 Million

According to an SEC filing today, Amazon has entered a settlement in the long-running lawsuit with Toys "R" Us. The terms require Amazon to make a one-time payment of $51 million in the third quarter of this year.

• Jun 12, 2009

SAP Getting Agile And Mobile

SAP has caught on to this Internet thing a lot faster than the other large traditional software companies it competes with in the business applications space. While it's unlikely to sell software services outside its current installed base for the next couple of years, it's probably going to suffer ...

• Jun 13, 2009

Gartner's Take On IT Spending -- Companies Scale Back

The other day, I mentioned Forrester's take on enterprise IT spending, at least in terms of software. Gartner has come out with its own study on IT spending, the the results look a bit more sobering.

• Jun 12, 2009

Tech Firms Become Conglomerates ... Unsuccessfully

My colleague Michael Hickins wrote an illuminating post yesterday about big business ignoring Cisco's united computing system, which is supposed to be a data center platform that could rival those of IBM and HP. That got me thinking about a number of news items and thoughts that have been kicking around, with tech vendors missing big success in all sorts of "additional" business lines. Once again I find myself wondering whether a major mistake companies are making is diversification. Not in avoiding the strategy, but in going about it the wrong way? If you watch business history, you see similar themes reoccurring over time. The current flailing about by so many tech vendors smells a lot like the conglomeration fiasco of a few decades past.

• Jun 12, 2009

Microsoft Does "Impossible", Separates IE from Windows

Microsoft has announced a special edition of Windows 7 that won't include Internet Explorer 8. The move is intended to satisfy European Union regulators and their antitrust investigation into the company. But, wait -- there's something really familiar sounding about all of this. Oh, right -- this is exactly what Microsoft had once told U.S. regulators was impossible.

• Jun 12, 2009

Big Business Ignoring Cisco In Droves

Cisco's designs on server domination lie in tatters on the data center floor. It turns out that it's having far more trouble than reported convincing customers to even consider its plans for a unified computing system (UCS) that would rival other platform vendors like HP and IBM. Data centers fig...

• Jun 11, 2009

Angels Go Where VCs Fear To Tread

Paul Kedrosky got a lot of attention yesterday for a paper he wrote showing that venture funds are not providing investors with enough returns and suggesting that the venture capital industry should essentially right-size itself by half. The sector must shrink its way back to health if venture capi...

• Jun 11, 2009

Microsoft Out of (MS) Money

As proof that a combination of a large bank account and persistence aren't everything, Microsoft is discontinuing its Microsoft Money software. The notification has officially been released: With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, th...

• Jun 11, 2009

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