While 2008 finished off with companies doing their best to cling on to anything to avoid from being sucked into the maelstrom, I think - despite the continued stock market meltdown - that many companies are seeing some stabilization in their core business. In other words: yes, 2008 Q4 saw a rapid evaporation of booked business, but 2009 is not looking as dire as some expected.
Online Remains a Beacon of Growth continue reading...
Amazon.com is taking on Ze French by trying to offer consumers free shipping. On the surface, you wonder, why is the French government upset? But looking at the nuances in the matter, I agree with the French.
Booksellers have complained about Amazon.com’s decision to waive S&H, the matter has gone to court and Amazon has lost. It has been forced to pay a $1,000 fine every day for 30 days, after which point the Courts could lower or raise the fine. Amazon is trying to reverse the rule:
Cédric Manara, a law professor and e-commerce specialist at Edhec, a French business school in Nice, said he would not be surprised if the court raised the penalty, and that Amazon “had no chance” with its appeal. continue reading...
2007 will go down as the year of the book. All right, that’s a blatantly false statement, but it does make for a good headline, no?
Maybe 2008 will earn that title. After all, what gathers steam and momentum in one year can always trace its roots to the previous year, no? continue reading...
Apparently, traditional media’s love and hate relationship with YouTube took an interesting turn tonight: NBC canceled its channel on YouTube.
I won’t comment on that directly since WatchMojo.com is a content provider on YouTube and enough people are already commenting on the unconfirmed news, but I’ve been meaning to look at the interesting dynamic between traditional media companies and web video startups, and this is one more chess move in the big game that’s really only starting. continue reading...
Paid Content reports that RH Donnelly bid the highest for Business.com, going all the way up to $345M for the company that started off with a $7.5M purchase of a URL and a subsequent $10M funding round.
RHD, a publicly traded firm, did $1.895B in 2006 revenues, but only 2% of that (according to PaidContent) - or $38M - came from the Web. So, to remain relevant in the 21st century, it is spending over 10x that in order to reposition itself and strengthen its online presence. In a way, it makes sense, I can’t for the life of me imagine upcoming and existing generations turning to books and print in general for directories and what not… continue reading...
During Euro 2004, I got an email from IGN Entertainment’s VP of Corporate Development regarding a relationship between my company and his. We were the largest men’s lifestyle publisher, they the largest publisher of video game information. They were about 5 times larger than us in terms of audience. Their revenues dwarfed ours.
Between then and May 2005, IGN was in acquisition talks with us and it was becoming clear that we would soon be acquired and my job would become redundant. A part of me tried to stay, but IGN basically showed me the door. As such, I began to contemplate my next venture as early as 2004. continue reading...
