The Netbook Effect on Cloud

One of my toys is the HPMini Netbook. Although its processor is just a bit stronger than a rubber band, it can still run my video conferencing applications (with a built in camera) and it was less than $350. Cheap and small, and great for email/surfing/web apps. Seems that a lot of people are buying these netbook devices in the developed world, and a boatload more are planned to be deployed elsewhere. Clive Thompson just wrote a great article entitled "The Netbook Effect" in the March 2009 edition of Wired, talking about the impact of netbooks on the future of software for laptops. Since the launch of the Eee PC in fall of 2007, over 10 milion netbooks were sold in North America and Europe in under 14 months! Thompson spoke to several experts that conclude that this lightweight device will continue to explode as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other developing nations purchase these inexpensive netbooks as their primary computing devices. What does this mean? It means that more applications will be delivered in the cloud, since these devices are too thin to load bulky software.

As more and more netbooks are deployed worldwide, (think 100's of millions), the future of desktop/laptop computing probably will be in the cloud. Ok all you software houses...you better get ready to send all those software on CDs to the typewriter heap. If you are not delivering as SaaS soon, your competition will probably eat your lunch in BRIC countries and beyond. There are only a few hundred million opportunities in North America and Europe, but BILLIONS in ROW (rest of world). Cloud platforms with global deployments will continue to pop up to support this shift.

So, I guess we weren't crazy to continue to build out our global cloud infrastructure after all. Thanks to the future netbook buyers of the world, our cloud biz will only get stronger.



Scott Charter
WBS Connect

COREXCHANGE EXTENDS NETWORK ACCESS EXCHANGE TO TELX IN DALLAS

NEW YORK and DALLAS (February 25, 2009) – Telx, one of the largest domestic interconnection and colocation data center operators, has added CoreXchange, one of the IT industry’s fastest growing providers of advanced networking solutions, to its roster of global service providers available at 8435 Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. CoreXchange now has a network point of presence in Telx’s facility, providing Telx’s Dedicated Internet Access customers colocated there the ability to connect to CoreXchange’s industry-leading Network Access Exchange. The Network Access Exchange delivers high performance, redundant connectivity to a mesh of six Tier-1 Internet backbones – including AT&T, Global Crossing, and Level 3 – through a fully managed, single connection.

“Telx is all about choices. Adding additional bandwidth and carrier options to our facility at 8435 Stemmons is key to supporting the Telx value proposition,” said Rose Klimovich, Vice President of Product Development and Product Management for Telx. “By working with CoreXchange in Dallas, we are able to offer customers greater bandwidth and a more complete network solution that includes flexible space, interconnection choices, and highly reliable, low latency connectivity. There’s no need to look outside of Telx for additional services.”

Through the new relationship, either Telx or CoreXchange can be the single point of contact to customers in need of a total IT solution comprised of colocation space, interconnections with a wide variety of carrier and business networks, and highly reliable and low latency Internet connectivity. In addition, CoreXchange’s fully meshed topology creates a network in which each network PoP is connected independently to every other PoP, allowing for automatic traffic re-routing in case of a network outage in any point in the network. This creates an infrastructure that is highly resilient for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes.

“CoreXchange customers have high standards in terms of connectivity and network services,” said Julia Morgan, sales executive at CoreXchange. “By building a relationship with Telx in Dallas, we can continue to offer industry-leading connectivity along with cost effective and flexible colocation space. It’s a win-win relationship.”

Key Highlights:
• Provides another choice for network services in Telx’s Dallas facility at 8435 Stemmons Parkway.
• Offers an additional vendor for Telx’s Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) service, providing customers enhanced reliability, resiliency and low latency connectivity.
• Provides CoreXchange with another point of presence, or PoP, in Dallas, and offers services to customers in Telx’s facility.


# # #

About CoreXchange, Inc.
CoreXchange comprehensive networking solutions include colocation, high performance network connectivity, Internet access, disaster recovery, and a business continuance center. Connectivity services are available in CoreXchange's enterprise-class data center or at a customer's remote location, via local loop or metro Ethernet. CoreXchange’s proprietary Pricing Configurator, the industry's first IP bandwidth network configuration tool, provides users with the ability to instantly customize a multi-homed mesh of Tier-1 backbone carriers via a simple web interface. Headquartered in the globally-recognized Infomart carrier center in Dallas, Texas, CoreXchange is led by a highly experienced team of networking services technologists and executives. For more information, visit www.corexchange.com.

About Telx
Telx is a world-class leader in providing interconnectivity solutions through their network-neutral and network rich, colocation facilities. With over a dozen facilities in North America, Telx offers cost effective networking solutions for customers to seamlessly access diverse global networks and exchange information in a secure and reliable environment. Over 600 leading telecommunications carriers, ISP’s, content providers and enterprises rely on Telx’s world-class team to support their mission-critical global infrastructure needs and to create a global connectivity marketplace to dramatically expand their business growth opportunities. Telx is a privately held company headquartered in New York City with facilities in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Miami, Phoenix, Charlotte, and Clifton and Weehawken, NJ. For more information about Telx, visit www.telx.com.

Contact: Karyn Price
Bailiwick Company for Telx
+1 609 397 4880 ext. 204
kprice@bailiwickpr.com

Kristin Herring
For CoreXchange
+1 214-673-6364
kh@kristinherring.com

Total Video Streams Surpass 10 Billion in January 2009

In January 2009 the total videos streamed online surpassed 10 billion for the first time ever. President Obama's address obviously helped but Hulu and CNN also posted huge numbers to the Nielsen rating system.

According to the New York Times Nielsen released its January VideoCensus data today, reporting that total video streams over the course of the month crossed the 10 billion mark, and the overall number of unique viewers surpassed 135 million.

After only slight gains from November to December, Nielsen had YouTube kicking things up a notch, with 5.8 billion streams and 92 million unique viewers in January, up from 5.5 billion streams to 84 million people in December.

January's 10 Billion streams is a symptom that TV and videos online are here to stay. The flat screen TV's in the living rooms are actually monitors or the monitors are actually flat screens.

The cable companies have begun to shift toward a triple play of phone service, internet service and cable TV service. They have begun to make this shift because there are many free resources to find the TV content online.

The demand for IP Transit (internet, bandwidth, dedicated internet access) is growing at a very rapid pace. The ability for the service providers to recover money for the content has begun to deteriorate.

The price for bandwidth is also dropping at a rapid rate. Since the price on bandwidth have dropped it has eaten into the profits of the cable companies who deliver the service, the same service which all of these streams have been viewed.

The bottom line is that networks will be asked to provide more and more service at a lower and lower price. Sooner or later there will be a shortfall in the system.

If you look at the major networks here in the USA, the only major network who has not gone through some sort of chapter 11 filing is Level 3 whose stock is not exactly trading at an all time high.

President Obama is going to be the first President to hire a CTO for the country. Lets hope he can take some time to tackle the major internet backbone issues we will face. Right now there is a circular process of bankruptcy which is only hurting the tax payers.

Something has to give and with 10 billion videos streams there needs to be more attention paid to this topic. Many have said the internet will be the vehicle to pull this country out of this recession. It certainly helped the countries in Asia to stay ahead of the curve.

Supreme Court Rules Overturns Ruling in Favor of AT&T

The Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling on whether or not AT&T violated antitrust laws in pricing its wholesale DSL lines at a price above its retail rates.

According to Bloomberg News the justices today unanimously rejected a claim that AT&T’s Pacific Bell Telephone unit engaged in a “price squeeze” aimed at driving out competition in the market for digital subscriber line, or DSL, service. The ruling, which reversed a lower court, extends a line of decisions limiting antitrust suits.

The case stemmed from the federal requirement that AT&T and other dominant local phone carriers make their lines available on a wholesale basis to rivals looking to compete at the retail level. The issue was whether the larger companies could be sued for setting their wholesale rates so high -- and their DSL retail rates so low -- that rivals couldn’t compete for DSL customers.

“If both the wholesale price and the retail price are independently lawful, there is no basis for imposing antitrust liability simply because a vertically integrated firm’s wholesale price happens to be greater than or equal to its retail price,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

The ruling is not only a victory for AT&T (SBC) it is also a win for fellow RBOC's (Regional Bell Operating Carriers) Verizon and Qwest.

Now the RBOC's can set their wholesale prices just high enough to put a squeeze on their competitors. The anti trust comes into play because those who are competing with the RBOC's rely on them to procure their service.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for competition in the Central Offices. This was targeted at local phone service but since DSL runs over a copper phone line, it falls under these same rules.

The RBOC's will contend they have provided a place for competition and the rates they chose to charge are what they deemed fair market value.

The retail rates which the RBOC's will market might fall under some promotion or special but none the less be will be less expensive than the wholesale rates they are charging the CLEC's who rely on the RBOC's for the service.

Needless to say this case will get appealed and we have not heard the end of this. As the economy looks to find any way to rebound, it seems the large RBOC's are definitely looking a little bit like a monopoly with this ruling.

Microsoft Layoffs Still an Issue

Microsoft had made it publicly known that they planned on cutting 5000 jobs. Most of the press releases were not followed up with the fact that they plan on filling those jobs with 2000-3000 foreign workers. These foreign workers are clasified as H1-B guest workers who work under the permission of a visa.

According to The Seattle Times Microsoft, which uses more H1-B guest-worker visas than any other U.S. company. Some employees and politicians say Microsoft should get rid of the foreign workers first.

“If they lay people off, are they going to think of America first or are they going to think of the world first?” Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator from Iowa, said in an interview. He sent a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer the day after Microsoft announced the job cuts last month, demanding Ballmer fire visa holders first.

One thing Senator Grassley might have overlooked in his letter to Steve Ballmer, is that Ballmer has a responsibility to the Microsoft shareholders.

The announcement of the new hires did flame the discussion on who has to go first. Many here in the States are making the argument that they should fire the foreign employees first.

This line of thinking is fairly flawed. It seemed to me that if one employee out performed another the choice was clear. This was from a very passionate stand point. From a business stand point if there were two employees and they did the same thing yet one was a third of the cost, then the choice was also clear.

The decisions to lay people off are always difficult so when it does happen companies hope they go smoothly. According to The Wall Street Journal, The company on Monday conceded it committed a faux pas when it notified some former employees that Microsoft had given them too much severance money and asked them to return the overpayments. For laid-off Microsoft workers, it was surprising enough when the software company announced the first mass job cuts in its history in late January. Dunning them because of a foul-up of Microsoft’s own doing seemed like adding insult to injury.

“This was a mistake on our part,” Microsoft said in a statement. “We should have handled this situation in a more thoughtful manner.”

Microsoft said 25 former employees got the severance over-payment notices.

These tough economic times bring out the weirdest in situations. 12 months ago, 25 laid off people would have gone and had a little extra fun in their spare time. Not so lucky these days.

The world's economy is in uncharted water for our generation. It still may get worse before it gets better. As for Microsoft, they too may see more layoff's. Hope they calculate the severance correctly the next time.

Facebook Fine Print Causes Tension

In early February the social networking site Facebook updated their terms and conditions. According to legal representative Suzie White, who said Facebook "simplified and clarified a lot of information that applies to you." At issue is the clause that says users, by signing on, give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" to use, retain, and display content posted to the site. Facebook removed language saying that the license expires when a user leaves the site.

According to Business Week On Feb. 15, The Consumerist, a consumer blog, called attention to the changes, saying, "Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later."

The article also noted, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog entry that his company's policies are comparable to those of e-mail service providers. "When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created—one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox," Zuckerberg wrote. "Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like e-mail work."

It seems entitlement has taken over some Facebook users. Zuckerberg has every right to protect his users. Facebook would be doing themselves harm if they did anything malicious with the content. But as we have all see on Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator, people will do things on the internet that they would not ordinarily do otherwise.

Common sense says if a consumer is using a site and is not comfortable with the T's and C's, they can chose not to use the site. Although many feel Facebook is as essential to life as air or water, in reality there are other social networking sites.

Facebook does own the intellectual property. They should take the appropriate measures to protect themselves and their consumers. It's nice to see them doing the responsible thing as their site grows in popularity.

New York Porn Tax Faces Increasing Opposition

ALBANY, N.Y. — In light of a $15 billion state budget deficit, N.Y. Gov. David Paterson (D) has proposed an additional 4 percent tax on all "digitally delivered entertainment services," including online adult content.

The "iPod" tax targets any digitally delivered material. The tax is hardly focused on music. This economy is forcing people to face the fact that the adult entertainment industry is real, and by real I mean real profitable.

California had a 25% porn tax rejected in 2008. Most feared the companies would relocate.

Washington's porn tax, recently proposed by state Rep. Mark Miloscia (D), would impose an 18.5 percent tax increase on all products and services that "are primarily oriented to an interest in sex."

According to New York Daily News, following the New York proposition, the "iPod tax" was immediately met with criticism from not only the adult entertainment industry, which has largely dismissed the tax as a publicity stunt, but also from the conservatives, who fear that such a tax would "legitimize" the downloading and viewing of adult content.
"You're sending a message to children, and you're sending a message to teenagers: If you're taxing it, how can it be wrong?" said state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long. "I don't know how you can sink much deeper."

There is so much wrong here, I am not sure where to start....

1. Those who are worried about legitimizing porn because of taxation, need to understand it's not the taxation that legitimizes the Adult industry, it is billions of dollars per year in revenue that legitimizes the Adult industry.

2. Another way to check the popularity of the Adult Industry is to watch the traffic rankings for most visited web sites. According to the Alexa Global 500, a site that ranks the most visited sites, in the top 100 in the world, numbers, 35, 42 and 49 are adult sites. CNN.com is #50, ESPN is #65, Apple's home page is #72 and The New York Times is # 97. Also to note 14 sites in the top 50 were Google sites, which makes that 35 rank a lot higher when you pull out all of the Google sites.

3. If they do pass this law, how are they going to enforce it. Will they monitor every box in every data center? And even if the government passes a law to monitor every server, how will they know what to look for? Then the question will come up, if a company is selling the service in a state but the servers are not in that state, is it taxable?

Right now Japan does not allow Adult content to be procured inside their borders, so most of the Adult companies rent space in Hong Kong or Hawaii. Toronto has some similar laws which push everyone over the border.

The adult industry is gigantic and is not going away any time soon. To try and tax based on the transfer will be hard to enforce. If they do enforce it, the hosters will relocate and the state will most likely lose out on that revenue long term.

The tax is a short term solution to a long term problem. Yes it will generate revenue short term, but it does not seem to be the answer.

TELX TO PROVIDE COLOCATION AND INTERCONNECTION SERVICES

New York, NY (February 10, 2009) – Telx, the interconnection company, announced today that it has been chosen by Bermuda’s Cedar Cable Ltd. to provide colocation and interconnection services within Telx’s flagship 60 Hudson Street facility in downtown Manhattan. Cedar Cable has constructed a new subsea cable known as CB-1 that will land along the east coast of the U.S. and be backhauled directly to the Telx facility at 60 Hudson Street. There Cedar Cable and its customers can access hundreds of carriers, Internet service and content providers and other business networks to facilitate connections. Cedar Cable is an affiliated company of The Bermuda Telephone Company Limited which will be providing cable station services for the CB-1 system in Bermuda.
Telx offers Cedar Cable the most cost-effective means of connecting the networks its customers need to conduct their daily business, while offering network redundancy security and technical expertise to assist with hub implementation and management.
“As a new company offering connectivity to our customers in Bermuda, we wanted our services to provide a high-level of connection up-time without the cost associated with making interconnections through a primary carrier,” said Raymond Charlton, Vice President of Cedar Cable Ltd. “Telx provides our customers with access to a wide array of carriers, ISPs and other businesses giving them many interconnection options which they can then make available to their end users. The colocation of so many telecommunications providers within the 60 Hudson Street facility also results in cost efficiencies for our customers. Telx has demonstrated the high degree of professionalism and expertise that we wanted in a provider. They have indicated that their redundant power and HVAC systems did not lose power during the significant disruption to the power grid that occurred during the blackout of 2003.”
With the construction of the CB-1 system linking Bermuda to the Telx facility at 60 Hudson Street in New York, Cedar Cable’s customers have many choices for connecting to carriers and businesses in the U.S., Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.
“By backhauling fiber to New York, Cedar Cable gains significant cost efficiencies and a large variety of choice when it comes to potential network connections for itself, its customers, and its customers’ end users,” said William Kolman, Telx EVP of Sales. “We’re pleased to provide the choice, flexibility, and reliability that Cedar Cable requires in an interconnection partner. We look forward to helping Cedar Cable grow its new business through our relationship.”




Telx

Today's Business World is Unpredictable... Or is it?

Today's business world seems very unpredictable. Companies are taking drastic measures in order to maintain in 2009. They are forced to make cuts just to please the street, but the question should be how long will those one time moves be able to really have an impact for.

Today's business community is a little frantic. Assumptions are made about the economy based on major corporations like the GAP closing stores or Nortel Filing Chapter 11. The uncertainty is palpable.

Take a minute to dissect what we know, for one thing, lay off the Peanut Butter. According to CNN.com , the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. Yes that does put a damper on some of our afternoon snacks. So, what else do we know for sure.

We know that if the product is strong, it will sustain in this economy. According to Bloomber News Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, reported fourth-quarter profit that fell less than analysts estimated after income rose in Europe and costs fell because of improved technology to track sales.

The shares jumped 7.6 percent in New York trading after Coca-Cola reported earnings of 64 cents a share, excluding a writedown tied to its distribution business.

Coke has withstood the test of time. In order to survive 2009, the product needs to be solid.

Another certainty we will need to pay attention to is adaptation. Charles Darwin wrote, ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.’

We see this today. As large as Google is, they sure do move quickly, if something is not working, they move in a different direction. According to Bloomberg News, Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, announced plans to shut its three- year-old radio-advertising business and cut as many as 40 jobs, saying the investment didn’t provide enough of a payoff.

Google's long term sustainability will have a lot do do with adaptability. Radio advertising is simply not profitable right now.

Continuing to be proactive will be what kick starts many organizations but what is going to be undeniable is looking back at history and learning from the mistakes of others.

An article in the New York Times shows that if the US wants a little insight into what is going on here today, they only need to look 6 years in the past at what happened to Japan. The article states, The Japanese have been here before. They endured a “lost decade” of economic stagnation in the 1990s as their banks labored under crippling debt, and successive governments wasted trillions of yen on half-measures.

There are a lot of parallels between the recession of today with what Japan witnessed between the early 1990's and around 2002. The article challenges the Obama administration to learn from their mistakes. In the end Japan's real estate market lost money for 15 straight years.

In no way am I suggesting the U.S.A. will see anything like this, but it is worth noting that we might not be the first to experience this type of recession.

It is easy to throw one's hands up in the air as if to seem helpless in this economy but if attention is paid this thing might not be too bad. So long as companies out there remain nimble, pay attention to history, stop for a Coke from time to time and stay away from the peanut butter, life should return to normal in no time.

Level 3 Posts First Profit Since 2003 Among Other Surprises

One thing is for certain, it is very hard to predict what happens next. Level 3 Communications posted it's first profit since 2003.

According to the Rocky Mountain News, Level 3 Communications lost money in 22 consecutive quarters - to the tune of $4.15 billion in total. The $44 million profit came from one time gains and deep spending cuts, including the elimination of 450 jobs.

The profit milestone was soon forgotten because of a decline in revenues from $1.1 billion to $1.05 billion. The fact that Level 3 missed revenue projections clearly worried investors.

Level 3 shares rose 20 cents to $1.20 in early trading then plummeted, finishing at 85 cents, down 15 percent.

Level 3 believes it is moving in the right direction. Their network is very reliable but it seems their many mergers were very difficult for them to manage from a process perspective.

Level 3 has boasted for some time they have been the only major network not to file Chapter 11. I hope the measures they have taken in the first quarter are enough to keep their vision alive.

Another Denver Telco, Qwest Communications, made news for their forecasting. Qwest Communications beat their fourth quarter forecasts and their stock rose $.8 to $3.45 per share on an otherwise very bad day on Wall Street.

The strong quarter was attributed to the 1700 employee layoffs along with strong customer retention.

For these two large carriers it seems if their management keeps their cost of good down while holding on to their revenues they might come out of 2009 in a sustainable position. Each will have customers fall into hard times, which will be out of their control, which means they should plan for even more fall out.

The major difference here is Qwest has the regulated side of the house to rely on for revenues. Level 3 does not have the government regulated service to lean on so it offers less certainty to it's investors.

There will be more changes coming for both companies. On the Level 3 front, there may be more acquisitions on the horizon, who knows these two Denver Telco's may even be a good fit for each other.

Salesforce Moving Forward Minus Three Top Executives

There are winds of change blowing in Silicon Valley at the Salesforce.com headquarters. The software company will be moving forward without three top executives, most notably, President and Chief Strategist, Steve Cakebread. Cakebread also acted as the CFO for 6 years.

“The resignation is for personal reasons and does not involve any controversy or disagreement with the company,” the company said in the filing.

The jobs of Gary Hanna, the executive president of enterprise sales, and Dave Orrico, another sales executive, have been eliminated.

The company is obviously bracing for a tough 2009. The revenue growth for Salesforce has been very impressive. Some credit Salesforce with the momentum the hosted CRM's are having. Many software manufactures have taken their service to the cloud in hopes to replicate the success.

According to a New York Times article, in November, Salesforce posted third-quarter revenue of $277 million, up 43 percent. It also reported net income of $10.1 million, compared to net income of $6.5 million in the same period one year earlier.

For the fourth quarter, Salesforce has forecast revenue of about $285 million. That matches the average forecast from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who also expect earnings of 7 cents per share.

In 2009 companies will be less likely to spend money on hardware, infrastructure and employees. They will be more interested in keeping their services in the cloud where they can run lean and efficient.

WBS Connect Expands Network Service Offerings with Tata Communications

DENVER, Colo., February 09 2008 – WBS Connect, a Colorado-based global technology services company today announced it has expanded its worldwide data network footprint with Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications.

WBS Connect offers services in Hong Kong, London, New York, Los Angeles and Denver using Tata Communications’ global 10G IP backbone.

During the first two quarters of 2009, WBS Connect plans continued expansion into additional global commerce areas served by Tata Communications.

“Our collaboration with Tata Communications is very exciting,” said Mike Hollander, co-founder of WBS Connect. “They are a gigantic presence in the communications world and have access to a multitude of potential users on a global level. We see this as a huge victory.”

Tata Communications is a member of the $62.5 billion Tata Group. Tata Communications’ range of services include transmission, IP, converged voice, mobility, managed network connectivity, hosting and storage, managed security, managed collaboration and business transformation for global enterprises and service providers, as well as Internet, retail broadband and content services for Indian consumers.

WBS is now connected to one of the largest Tier 1 global IP backbone circling the globe with only one single ASN having more than 85 IP pops located in 27 countries around the world.
“We are thrilled to be extending our global reach with the help of Tata Communications,” said Scott Charter, managing partner of WBS Connect. “Their international presence, and in particular their strong influence in emerging markets, will enable us to provide our leading edge networking solutions to customers in more parts of the world.”


About WBS Connect
WBS Connect is a privately-held provider of global technology services. The company was founded in 2003 by managing partners Scott Charter and Mike Hollander. It leverages multi-gigabit commitments with IP transit carriers to offer high bandwidth Internet connections and data networking services worldwide. WBS Connect also offers data center colocation, expert managed network services, high definition video conferencing, and cloud computing services. They have a presence in over 300 carrier-neutral data centers across the world, and have access to over 70,000 network nodes. For more information visit the WBS Connect website:
www.wbsconnect.com.

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WBS Connect

WBS Connect Overview

WBS Connect

Time Warner Loses $16 Billion in 4th Quarter

Time Warner who is made up of the likes of Warner Brothers, AOL, Time Warner Cable, HBO as well as a number of high profile franchises lost $16 Billion in the 4th Quarter of 2009.

According to Variety, the source of the massive hit was a $24.2 billion writedown of the value of franchise agreements belonging to Time Warner Cable (of which it owns 84%) and the decline of certain Time Inc. and AOL assets.

The article went on to note that revenues were down over 13% from 2008. Shareholders such as Google were likely to pull out and add sales were significantly down on the AOL front.

Time Warner has a lot of valuable content and needs to figure out a way to capitalize on it. They have an internet presence, a television and a movie presence. From a media stand point they are really covered if they could only capitalize on some of their efforts.

Since Time Warner Cable is such a drain, they should really look to Comcast or Cox for a potential Merger to continue to move forward in this tough economy.

Whatever the reason, $16 Billion in a quarter is a big loss.

Bill Gates Releases Swarm of Mosquitos into Crowd

While speaking at the TED 2009 conference in Long Beach, CA, Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitos into the crowd.

According to Channel Web Gates said, I brought some mosquitoes -- we'll let them roam around the auditorium. There's no reason only the poor should experience this," Gates reportedly told shocked TED attendees. Gates then informed attendees that the mosquitoes didn't carry malaria.

Since stepping down as the head of Microsoft Gates has spent the majority of his time with working on the The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates should be credited with the Web 2.0 as we know it today and now spends his time making the world a better place, if he wants to release a few mosquitos, fine by me.





Channel Web
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation