Will Google's Global IP Bid Turn up FTC Heat?

Author: R. Scott Raynovich Categories: Mobile, Technology

As if Google isn't doing enough to rile up the Federal Trade Commission, today it announced that it is offering $68 million in cash to buy Global IP Solutions (GIPS), a company that makes Voice Over IP (VOIP) software. Google's press release says it's offering to buy all the shares of Oslo, Norway-based GIPS for $2.12 a share. GIPS is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and the offer represents a 27% premium over the closing price of May 14, but after being acquired it will be delisted and become part of Google. A Wall Street Journal article noted that GIPS financial performance is quite small -- it only has $12M in revenue and was losing money -- but that its tools will be useful to plug VOIP technology into various Google communications applications.

Twitter and Yahoo Deal Seems Meaningless

Author: R. Scott Raynovich Categories: Media, Technology

I am racking my brain trying to decide what to make of the deal in which Yahoo has announced a partnership with Twitter to more deeply integrate the two platforms.On the business side, there doesn't appear to be much near-term impact, as no money is changing hands or set to change hands. My first conclusion: What an awful press release. The headline is "@yahoo + @twitter Sitting in a Tree... T.W.E.E.T.I.N.G." Seriously. That's the headline. What are we in Kindergarten? On the technical side, the deal is an acknowledgement by Yahoo that it will go with social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter rather than developing its own social networking platform. What's does this mean on the businsess side? I have no idea, but this "deal" is remarkable for its lack of any meaningful business exchange, such as money, revenue-sharing, salesforces, e.t.c. As far as the two platforms being integrated, it's somewhat of a meaningless announcement. The Web is integrating itself. Social networking services are about as integrated as you want them to be. What do I mean by that? Well, because of the proliferation of Twitter APIs and its integration with Facebook and tools like TweetMeme and TweetDeck, you can pretty much plug in Twitter wherever you want, right? The Yahoo announcement comes down to nothing more than them acknowledging that they need to open their platform to more successful social networking platforms, rather than trying to build social networking tools themselves. What about further down the road? On the money side, I imagine that Twitter has some vision of monetizing its feeds here, and possibly plugging into Yahoo's big marketing relationships in the future. Yahoo, meanwhile, wants the traffic. But there are some crucial questions here: Will the existing Yahoo advertisers want to advertise next to Twitter content, or would they rather be placed next to premium content? And how do you count the "Twitter traffic"? Is it the same as a page view on a Reuters story? I am skeptical of the business model here, primarily because most social networks so far have failed to lure the big advertisers, who aren't sure about advertising in the wilds of social networks.Look at what happened with MySpace. Third question: What exactly is Twitter. And what does it mean to be integrated with Yahoo? Well, Twitter is a messaging platform. So, Yahoo has basically decided to integrate a new third-party messaging platform, without paying them any money. I think that's all the deal comes down to. Read on for more news on the topic: Yahoo dramatically expands Twitter relationship (AllThingsD). Yahoo gets closer to Twitter (New York Times) Yahoo to announce broad Twitter partnership (PaidContent.org)

Cisco Yahoo Board Still off the Hook....

Author: R. Scott Raynovich Categories: Macro

Okay, what is the deal with the Cisco stock message board on Yahoo Finance. It is so off the scales with ludicrous threads that it is insane. Many of the other stock threads on the Yahoo Finance board seem perfectly normal. I would love to hear somebody from either Yahoo or Cisco weigh in on how the Cisco Yahoo board is being held hostage by hostile political spammers... "w"'s Iraq Invasion Ruled ILLEGAL! by lobsterman... [18 minutes ago]