NBC and Microsoft Break Up

NBC and Microsoft broke up. The two were in a partnership for many years and MSNBC.com was the last form of said partnership. The website still exists but is completely owned by NBC and is now NBCNews.com. According to “Microsoft and NBC end 16-year MSNBC partnership” by Erin Kim of CNNMoney.com reports, “Comcast, the media giant’s parent company bought Microsoft’s 50% share in the online news site.” MSNBC.com redirects to NBCNews and “in early 2013, MSNBC.com will relaunch as the separate online home for NBC’s cable network of the same name.”

The article states that in 2005 MSNBC TV had gone under the control of NBC. After the schism, the network became “a politically progressive alternative to News Corp.’s Fox News Channel” but the site did not. With the two entities sharing two names but not the same position on content, the current break up should “settle any confusion between the two – although, the channel will keep the MSNBC name. Now, both are suppose to share content but have two different names. 

HP CEO May Be Ousted by Board

Hewlett-Packard’s board will most likely oust current CEO Leo Apotheker. According to James Bandler and Matt Vella of Fortune via CNNMoney.com, “a person familiar with the matter” stated the board would consider Meg Whitman as the permanent replacement.  Meg Whitman is best remembered as former eBay CEO and is currently a HP director.

Apotheker has been CEO for less than a year, but lately investors haven’t been happy with the company’s confusing communication on its future strategy. The company recently announced that it was restructuring. It would discontinue its TouchPad, WebOS, and consider getting out of the PC business. After the announcement, the company released a desktop, continued TouchPad marketing, and announced it would resurrect the TouchPad (although it’s clearly liquidating remaining product).  All of this is a completely different from the WebOS and TouchPad vision supported by the CEO when he first arrived.

News of the potential ouster and replacement by Whitman led HP’s stock up 8%.  This is compared to the 40% decrease in the stock value within the year.

TechCrunch Creator/ Blogger to Leave AOL Over Conflict of Interest

Michael Arrington, editor and founder of TechCrunch has parted ways with AOL, owner of the blog. Although AOL and Arrington just joined together last year, the break up seems to stem from a conflict of interest concerning Arrington and his latest business. According to “Tech Blogger Parts With AOL” by Claire Cain Miller of NYtimes.com, Arrington started CrunchFund, “a venture capital fund backed by AOL that invests in start-ups like those that TechCrunch covers”.

The conflict of interest arises from TechCrunch being a very influential tech blog. Arrington would be reviewing companies that he could also choose to invest in or already has invested in. Would he stay impartial in his reviews? This is the kind of question that most journalists seek to avoid but Arrington is a blogger. Some bloggers make it very clear that they are not journalists even if their blog may have more influence than typical media outlets.   As Jeff Jarvis, “director of the interactive journalism program at the City University’s Graduate School of Journalism of New York” is quoted in the article as saying

“There are all sorts of people who don’t call themselves journalists now who traffic in information, as governments put out data, companies put out raw information and people in the course of their business gather and share information… That’s the way Arrington saw TechCrunch”

Caroll Bartz, Former CEO of Yahoo, Fired Over the Phone

Chairman Roy Bostock fired Carol Bartz as CEO of Yahoo yesterday via a phone call. After the firing, she wasted little time revealing its simple details; she sent an email to her employees stating:

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward”

 Yahoo has had a rough couple of years. Their share of ad revenue fell to 11% from more than 16% and other companies, such as Google and Facebook, have increased. Bartz was hired in 2009 with the expectation that she could motivate Yahoo’s comeback. Investors were displeased with Bartz considering Yahoo has continued their downward slope. In June, Investors called for her ousting but Bostock backed the CEO.

The company is said to have done a “strategic review” of ways to move the company forward and the firing was part of the plan. Bartz had one year left on her contract and CFO Tim Morse will be the interim CEO.

The news of the firing sent Yahoo’s stock up 6%. So far, the reason Bartz chose to break news of the firing, especially the part about being fired over the phone, hasn’t been revealed. Usually such detail is saved and not revealed by the fired employee in order to give that person a chance at another position. Nevertheless, Bartz put herself out there and now she has a bigger career crisis management problem as the media is going crazy about the CEO fired over the phone.

The articles read and you should read them also for more information:

"Bartz Fired as Yahoo CEO Amid Plans of Strategic Review" by Douglas Macmillan, Ian King, and Ari Levy of businessweek.com

"Carol Bartz is out as Yahoo CEO" by Jessica Guynn of Los Angeles Times

Netflix and Starz Deal is Dead - Netflix Will Lose Starz Content

The same day that Netflix’s 60% price hike took effect Netflix lost Starz. “Starz to pull content from Netflix as talks fail” reports that the two companies were in talks to renew their current deal. The deal expires February 28.

Starz not only carries content from its channel, but also “exclusive rights to first-run Sony Corp and Walt Disney Co movies”. The bad news sent Netflix shares down in after-hours trading. The article states that a “source familiar with the negotiations” reported that Netflix offered $200 to $300 million and Starz was not pleased with the amount.   

Starz’ statement concerning the breakup:

“…a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging”

No More Google Realtime Search - Their Contract Ended w/ Twitter

I am an avid user of Google Real-time search or should I say was. For the past couple of days, I tried to use real-time to check if Hootsuite was having problems and I found the option gone. Google has gotten a recent update, maybe to integrate Google+, so I assumed the feature was lost in the update. But according to “Google shuts down Realtime Search as Twitter deal expires” by Laurie Segall of CNNMoney.com, the real-time option has been eliminated from Google.

Google and Twitter’s contract to having the real-time option has expired on the 2^nd ending the two-year deal. The statement from Google about the expiration:

“Twitter has been a valuable partner for nearly two years, and we remain open to exploring other collaborations in the future”

“We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We’re exploring how to incorporate our recently launched Google+ project into this functionality going forward”

Twitter:

“We work with Google in many other ways”

CNNMoney is reporting that Google+ might be the reason behind the contract expiration; the new social media is supposed to have its own real-time option. As Google put it,

“Out vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources”

Hopefully, some sort of real-time twitter related search will be at Google. I tend to use real-time search to find out news or problems (of course, by first checking the actually news first) such as tech problems, phone app outages, traffic accidents, etc. If the feature is going to be available via Google+, it’s probably time for me to make a Google+ profile.

Owner Allowed to Lockout Players - Again

As the football spins in the drama that is the NFL labor disputes… Back in March, the NFL owners imposed a lockout on players after mediation failed. A lockout means no work, whatsoever, for the players. After this, the player’s union decertified as a means to file a suit to end the lockout. Last month, a judge ruled the owners must lift the lockout.

The draft went on as scheduled; young hopeful happy men without a clue that soon the lockout would be reinstated. Yesterday, an appellate court ruled that the owners can lockout players. “NFL Owners Win Ruling to Continue Lockout” by Matthew Futterman reports, “as a result, barring a settlement, the NFL lockout will continue through the appeals process, which could last into the summer”.

Training camps are planned in July and the season in September. The NFL stated that they hoped this new decision would lead to a more negotiations to prevent a delay of the season.

Of course, the NFL would say they hope for more negotiations; they don’t have to worry about paying players and as stated in my first post on the lockout, the owners are financially stable to survive a season cancellation.  On the other hand, some players are not financially stable to handle a work-less season and with freshly drafted rookies awaiting their future, the lockout clearly gives the owners the upper hand.  As before, I’m still hoping for an article detailing the potential financial impact of a cancelled season. I perceive that a cancelled season would be bad news for many major cities who receive economic benefits from home games and not to forget advertising and the niche businesses that cater to fans during the season.

Please remember the NFL is a business. I’m not a hardcore fan but I write about the disputes because it’s business news.

NFL Players In a Lockout

As of this weekend, NFL Players are in a lockout. With labor contract extensions as a hope to successful negotiations, such negotiations have failed. I am not a hardcore NFL fan, but I’m writing about the labor negotiation from an economic perspective. After all, the NFL is a business, owners are employers and players are employees. This tends to get lost amongst the sports fanaticism and “celebritization” (it’s not a word but you know what I mean) of players. According to Matthew Futterman in “NFL Girds For Fight, Says Loss is Covered”, a lockout means

“[end of]  all off-season workouts and off-season pay immediately. The drafting of college players will still take place next month, but without a resolution, training camps won’t open in July and the season won’t start on schedule in September.”

While the distribution of $9.3 billion in revenue is the issue of the dispute, the article has stated that NFL owners are financial stable to handle a season cancellation. Unfortunately, the dispute has brought to the light the reality that some NFL players don’t make the millions of dollars that their celebrity image suggests. Some players may not be financially ready for an unemployed season.

Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin Fired After Less Than 6 Months

It only takes six months to test a CEO? Jack Griffin was hired in August as Chairman and Chief Executive of Time Inc. Yesterday, it was announced he’s been fired. According to “Time Inc CEO Jack Griffin Ousted” by Jennifer Saba, the problem is he clashed with the company. The statement from Time Warner Inc Chief Jeff Bewkes:

“Although Jack is an extremely accomplished executive, I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with Time Inc and Time Warner”

Apparently, his employees didn’t like his leadership style. There were “behaviors” that drove his image as a bad leader. The fear was he would encourage executives to leave; instead, the company let him go. I would hope Time Inc made an effort to speak with Griffin about his leadership style or to “make it work”. Either he was a horrible boss not willing to change or had a style not willing to be accepted by executives. This ousting leaves me with the question: Was the board/ company not aware of his leadership style when they placed him as CEO? Time Warner should have known; I would assume the company/ board has a detailed process for picking a CEO, including taking a look at their leadership styles used in their previous positions. Six months does not seem like enough time to work with a CEO. 

Quick News: Sara Lee Bidding, Netflix 4th Quarter, Sony's New Handheld

“Bids for Sara Lee Could Come as Early as Friday” reports…

Sara Lee bids may be coming this Friday at the request of the failing company. The possible bids may range between $19 and $21 a share. The company might be split up.

“Netflix Profit, Outloook Impress Investors; Shares Leap” reports…

Netflix is now “the third largest U.S. video subscription service”. They had an amazing fourth quarter: $595.5 million in revenue, $47.1 million in earnings, and additional 3 million subscribers. The fourth quarter was higher than expected. It seems Netflix is a bigger threat to the cable industry than previous expected. I wrote about the cable industry's negative views of Netflix in "Netflix vs. Cable/ Media Industry".

“Sony Unveils New Handheld Device to Take on Nintendo” reports…

Smartphones and the iPad have now become gaming consoles, replacing sales usually expected by handheld gaming devices. Sony is creating much anticipation about its new handheld. Its codenamed Next Generation Portable and will have 3G wireless connectivity, 5- inch screen, which will most likely be touchscreen. It has also been noted that Sony will introduce the new PSP which might also be a phone. I look forward to upcoming advertising from Sony and reviews of their new handheld.

Motorola Breaks Up, Now 2 Separate Companies

Motorola has split. It seems, for some time, Motorola had two focuses, the mobile market and corporate market, which had created a de facto division within the company. Paul R. La Monica of CnnMoney.com reports in “Motorola finally breaks up. What Now?” that Tuesday morning the company officially split into two. The two divisions are Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. The stock ticker also reflected the division; MOT became MMI (mobility) and MSI (solutions).

This isn’t bad news as shareholders have been waiting years for this moment. Now that the company is split, each side can effectively focus on their goals. The obvious goal for Motorola Mobility is the smartphone and tablet market. Sanjay Jha, the CEO of Motorola Mobility, stated in an interview (the video is embedded in the article) that the two companies were entirely different and will perform better separated.