business

It is a game and it’s not over. The Guardian points out that Sony has trademarked ‘Shock and Awe’ for a video game. A search shows that the phrase is also registered for a firework company and even an underpants manufacturer! Yet more ambulance chasing with the trademark on ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, also for a video game. “Word Mark OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game software Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 78230280 Filing Date March 26, 2003 Filed ITU FILED AS ITU Owner (APPLICANT) Battlefront.com, Inc. CORPORATION MARYLAND 167Steadmans Landing Rd. Dover-Foxcroft MAINE 044263418 “ MediaGuardian.co.uk | Marketing & PR | Sony leads charge to cash in on Iraq

If you subtract the amount of money that people pay Blockbuster in late fees from their revenues then Blockbuster is unprofitable. Then take Netflix, which is premised on not having the revenues that make Blockbuster profitable but leveraging instead the greater effiencies of web based distribution, and subtract the amount of revenue from people who watch less than a few movies a month then you have a non-viable business model. Despite the logistical and technical efficiencies of online businesses, I wonder if many are paradoxically based upon the inherent inefficiency and laziness of people. (People like me, who have had the same 3 movies out on Netflix for 2 months now.)

“Genealogy sites generated $26 million in paid content revenue during third quarter 2002, according to comScore networks. That’s an 86 percent increase versus the year before.” Tuesday

Cisco was the darling of the Internet boom, it provided the term that VC’s loved: infrastructure. No matter how bleak the technology business landscape, wireless is huge, and Linksys are providing the wireless infrastructure. A private company to watch. “Linksys has been ranked as an Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Company in the United States for 5 consecutive years. Only 61 companies have ever made the list 5 years in a row” Linksys: Company Background

Anil rails against De Beer’s monopoly product, concludes that diamonds are for never and warns about unknowingly purchasing conflict diamonds. What about conflict oil?

They couldn’t spell hemorrhage but they sure knew how to do it. “In an e-mail dated March 16, 2000, Idealab President Marcia Goodstein told Gross ‘we are running out of cash. At your current deal rate, we’re not running, we’re hemmorrhage [sic], I can’t even think of words strong enough to express how fast we are going broke.’ That e-mail came at a time when Idealab still looked like a success, at least to outsiders. It had just raised $1 billion from private investors. The following month, the firm filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission to sell stock to the public. Idealab ultimately shelved that plan after the stock market collapsed. “

Buy low sell high – isn’t that the common sense mantra for investing? So on the question of where to invest, given that the safe bets, real estate, cash in the bank etc. don’t look too rewarding. The answer is – invest in the future. A smart Venture Capitalist that I know, someone who I respect cos he kept a cool head through the bubble, said that he wanted to do counter-cyclical investing – exactly. Lets hear it for the Counter Cycle VC. Buy low, sell high, there’s lots of creativity and new ideas out there. The Economist suggests there may be nowhere to invest in 2003 nickdenton.org: 2003 investment ideas

Jeff Jarvis admirably stands up for the role of media companies. What he is points out is that the support for Eldred was more the noble cause of ‘lets root for the underdog’ (the subject of many hollywood films). With more efficient distribution and marketing perhaps leaner media companies will concentrate on getting the best talent in front of any customer instead of any talent in front of the most gullible customer.

Although the Supreme Court ruling is undoubtedly a blow. There is a bright side. Media companies may have won a battle but they are losing the war – digital media fundamentally changes the role of the agent between artists and their fans. If copyright were indefinite, Shakespeare would make more money over time than all pulp fiction. Longer copyrights mean that media companies can take a longer term view and since quality lasts, this means slightly less over-hyped, short-term junk. When you couple this with the fact that the role of media companies as marketers and distributers is reduced by the efficiencies of digital media distribution and peer to peer recommendation, then the need for the middle people is reduced and there is even less money to spend on promoting crap. News From The Associated Press

Jeff Jarvis waves Steve Case off with good riddance. Back in 1993 when the Internet itself was the top item on their hype list, Wired decided that ISPs would wipe out AOL/Compuserve etc. It seemed plausible – why would you pay for access to a walled garden, largely private, non-Intenet service with a crappy interface. What is amazing is that AOL ever became big in the first place when ten years ago they were already an anachronism. AOL actually pulled off something incredible, clearly their marketing, however tacky, worked and they were doing something right. But with a bad product, service and customer support one does wonder what exactly. The depressing thought is that several million of us behaved like Gollum, seduced by a free disk – look, me have shiny, shiny, pretty CD thing. BuzzMachine: Steve case to step down

The Economist resurrect their fictitious perfect investor, Felicity Foresight. $1 invested in shares in 1900 would be worth $9,000 now. However, Felicity’s $1 is not limited to shares and is now worth $2,700,000,000,000,000. So where is the best place to invest in 2003? The Economist concludes that Felicity “would be wise to recall 1931, when the best performing asset was cash, offering 1% interest.” Economist.com | Investing

DaveNet : How to revive AOL Dave Winer discusses AOL but makes a profound general point about how the music industry should deal with digital music: make a distinction between new stuff and archives. Its a very elegant solution. At the moment you have copyrighted media and non-copyrighted media. Classic books that are out of copyright are much cheaper than new ones. The cost being not much more than the printing and distribution. The archive solution creates three categories of digital media: copyright held new media that is being marketed and is paid for on an individual basis; copyright held media that is no longer being marketed and is sold as part of a bulk subscription to an archive; non copyright held media which is free since with digital media there are zero distribution or reproduction costs.