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Auctions can be efficient, but they don’t work for everything.  Especially if the sellers see value for themselves in the inefficiency.    That was the message today delivered to eBay from a group of Cable TV networks. 

Discovery Channel, ESPN, Lifetime,  A&E and other national cable television channels announced that they would not participate in an eBay test product to sell advertising slots by auction. 

eBay apparently learned it was being dumped via a press release, the corporate equivalent of a “Dear John” text message.   Sean Cunningham, chief executive of the Cable TV Advertising Bureau (the trade group which was representing the networks), offered little sentimentality in his words.  He said “we were underwhelmed by what we saw on the system and underwhelmed by eBay’s knowledge of our business.”  He further added “We don’t believe that eBay is going to get this right.”

eBay had been working with a group of large advertisers since last year to build the advertising exchange.  Members of the group included HP, Home Depot, Philips Electronics and Toyota. They had pledged to spend $50m of their advertising budgets through the exchange over the next year.

The automated nature of the eBay exchange was criticized, in part, for removing some of the human element from the media buys. Mr. Cunningham said it "lacked the provisions necessary for capturing critical strategy and idea-driven intelligence during a buy." Click to Read More

8 Years ago, Best Buy took a Henry Ford like stance on the colors of Apple Macintosh computers being sold in their stores – they told Apple that Best Buy customer’s could have any color Mac they wanted as long as the color was black (Actually, it wasn’t that strict, and Mac’s didn’t come in black anyway….but Best Buy did take a stand and tell Apple that they would only carry popular colors in inventory.  The company wasn’t willing to carry the inventory, or waste shelf space, on colors that weren’t selling for a product, that no matter how superior in design, wasn’t selling that well either.) 

Apple, at the time, was invested heavily in marketing and brand building efforts that focused on the 5 “flavors” of Macs: Strawberry, Tangerine, Lime, Grape and Blueberry.  The two companies took an all or nothing approach to the negotiation.  It ended up being nothing.  April 1999, Best Buy removed Apple computers from its shelves.   

Now 8 years later, in demonstration of Apple’s increasing clout, and testament to Apple’s iPod and iTunes generated relevance and resurgence (and the success of Apple’s 170 retail stores),  Best Buy is again making room on its shelves for the full Apple Computer product line.

Best Buy said Wednesday that it will create store displays and carry the full Apple line-up (iMac, Mac Pro, Mac Mini and Macbooks) in at least 200 of its stores Click to Read More

I got a panicked phone call from my mother.   “Outlook won’t open.  It’s f*&*#$.  I think all my emails are lost.”

I asked what she was doing when it failed.  Nothing, she said, the problem started as soon as she turned on the computer but it was working fine yesterday.  I had her reboot, run through virus checks; everything I could think of.  Nothing worked.

When I got the computer I found the problem in the error logs: Virus Software.  No, not a virus, I mean – the Virus Protection Software itself was the problem.   The new computer came preinstalled with free trials of MacAfee’s everything-including-the-kitchen-sink security software.  What it didn’t come with was clear notice about what happens if you don’t purchase the software, or uninstall it, before it lapses.

The day that Outlook died, or seemed to, was the day all the free trials lapsed.  The anti-virus component had been paid for; the others were overlooked and ignored.  They didn’t like the lack of attention.  The anti-spam component (I believe) had a bond with Outlook and hung on like a jaded ex-lover.  Outlook tried to function but it was smothered by the anti-spam piece.

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Rumors were swirling that there was about to be a new British invasion, that the Beatles were coming to iTunes.  Instead, at yesterdays much hyped Apple press conference in London new ground was broken in a different direction.  Apple announced that in partnership with label EMI, for the first time, there will be DRM-Free music at the iTunes store.

As part of a deal, the digital catalog of EMI music will be sold in two forms:

• The standard DRM-laden 128kbps AAC file that’s defined iTunes will remain at .99 cents.
• An alternate, higher sound quality (256kbps AAC) download free of any DRM restrictions will be sold at a premium price of $1.29/song

After initially selling through Apple, EMI plans to offer similar rights-free music (and video) through other outlets.  Retailers who participate will be able to choose several levels of quality (including options which may exceed the iTunes peak of 256kbsp). Retailers will also be able to choose between offering the music in MP3, AAC or WMA formats.  

The combined effort will increase the portability of music across different platforms and may influence the market opportunity for smaller player manufacturers.

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What happens when a successful professional athlete nears the twilight of career?  Most seem to follow one of three trajectories:

• The Quiet Departure: characterized by choice to  retire from the limelight to live quietly with family where the great wealth accumulated can be enjoyed or redeployed towards new challenges.
• The Clinger–On: characterized by the desperate effort to hold just a little longer rather than acceptance of the end of one period and the opportunity to begin another
• The Transitional Talker: characterized by a shift to either sports broadcasting or the front office whereby the athlete accepts the end of one career, but can remain close to the sport he/she loves and begin something new.

Curt Schilling, the outspoken, bloody-sock hero of the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series campaign, and todays pitcher for the opening game of the Red Sox 2007 season, has a few years left pitching at an elite level but in seeming anticipation of the next phase of his life, has begun charting a new, and less common, trajectory.

Last fall, Schilling together with partners Todd McFarlane (the famed comic book creator/writer, toy manufacturer, baseball fan and co-owner of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team) and   Robert “R.A.” Salvatore (a best selling author of fantasy fiction and creator of video game storylines)  launched a gaming company originally called Green Monster Games.

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After 6 months of dating, and tabloid-worthy rumors and speculation not far behind the kind of paparazzi press coverage Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan get, Tribune Co. today announced it had settled on a buyer. The newspaper and media giant will be sold to billionaire real estate investor, and local Chicagoan, Sam Zell for approximately $8.2b.

The share price for the purchase will be $34, a premium of approximately 6% over last weeks trading but in line with pricing from September, when Tribune Co. announced it was for sale. That price is less than the average 9.8x multiple of Price to EBIDTA for Tribune’s public competitors.

The transaction will occur in two tender offers, the first for 126m shares will close in the second quarter. The second, for the remaining shares will close in the fourth quarter. The company will borrow the money in two $4.2b increments to buy back the stock.  Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan will finance the deal.

Zell, who recently sold his Equity Office Properties Trust to Blackstone Group for $39b is personally investing $315m and will gain rights to a warrant entitling him to buy 40% of the company.   To reduce the debt load which, including borrowing for the purchase price, will exceed $14b, Zell has announced a plan to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team at the close of the current baseball season.  It’s also a possibility that Zell will consider selling the LA Times property to Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, the LA-based investors who lost out in their bid for Tribune to Zell.

With Tribune a private company, Zell and his management team, will have a better situation to turn around the company than if it remained public.

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