ACQUISITIONS More Music For Yahoo!
Launch Media is going to become part of Yahoo!, as the huge portal and
search site gloms onto the music service for about $12 million. The Launch.com
website will be integrated into Yahoo's music content related environs
such as Yahoo Broadcast, Yahoo Music and Yahoo Radio. Helping ease the
deal is the fact that Launch managed to settle a suit filed against them
by Universal Music Group (among others) charging copyright infringement,
all due to the Launchcast radio portion of the website’s service.
A nonexclusive licensing agreement has been signed by them with Universal
for use of their recordings and they will also pay for content previously
broadcast on the site.
In related news, the distribution deal Yahoo maintained
with Inside.com has now been cancelled, due to tensions between both companies.
Content was provided to Yahoo by Inside.com, but disagreements surfaced
over a news report whose source and accuracy had been questioned. The
CEO of Inside.com, Steven Brill, had called the Yahoo news posting a hoax,
with Yahoo claiming the substance was correct, although the attribution
was incorrect. Expect such hassles to continue between content suppliers
and sites that publish their work, as the former go after paid access
for their expertise while the latter remain hinged to paid advertising
to support their offerings.
BUSINESS No Break Up—Yet!
Thanks to a federal appeals court in Washington, the breakup of Microsoft
as ordered by a lower court is now definitely in doubt. The appellate
court has referred the case back to the lower court and has vacated the
breakup order, indicating that a breakup is not justifiable and that some
of the arguments offered by Microsoft during the trial to halt any such
action against the company were viable and founded presentations. Additionally,
a judge other than Thomas Penfield Jackson must now hear the case back
in the lower court. Gates skates again!
BUSINESS Microsoft Owns Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympic Games will be highly reliant upon Microsoft, as
that company has just obtained the rights to produce as well as host the
official website for this event. This is the first time Microsoft has
ventured into such sporting waters and will produce the official URL with
NBC through their MSNBC.com asset. Expect a full push by MSN Network to
promo all sorts of Olympic events and to offer reports throughout the
Olympics.
PARTNERSHIPS Phone Player
Setting consumers up to eventually pay for content delivered to their
wireless appliances, RealNetworks and Symbian have decided to partner
their talents. This will lead to an audio/video player being included
in Symbian–OS–based mobile phones, much in the same way that
the Nokia 9210 contains the RealPlayer Mobile. This means the player could
eventually show up in Motorola, Panasonic, Siemens and Sony devices.
SECURITY Big Bucks In Firewalls
According to IDC, the $1 billion mark will be overtaken this year by the
firewall/VPN security appliance market. The research company states that
revenues reach $943 million (US) with expectations for such to reach $4
billion by 2005. Responsible for most of the worldwide revenue (54 percent)
is the U.S. market, but this region’s growth will slow through 2005
as other regions increase their market share up to 31 percent by 2005.
The current market leader as far as revenue is concerned is Cisco, with
a 45 percent share. These offerings combine hardware, networking technologies
and software and their main function is to operate as a firewall, fully
equipped with VPN capabilities.
