Earlier today, in light of recent revelations about Mapping the iPhone World: Apples Carrier Agreements Visually and By the Numbers
[Update June 4: Japan was up for grabs and NTT DoComo was rumored to be front runner for local iPhone distribution there. In a surprise twist, Apple appears to have opted to give the lucrative contract to number three provider, Softbank. Softbank has just over 18.8m subscribers, equal to about 18.8 percent market share. They also have only about one third the subscriber base of NTT DoCoMo but they are growing more aggressively.]
The anticipated d-day (delivery day) for iPhone 2.0 is rapidly approaching. With it, the buzz machines are in overdrive and speculation about features and functions is bordering on frenzy. Some outlets are showing “leaked” pictures, others claiming the inside track on feature sets. Amidst this circus, which seems to be running without need of further factual fuel, Apple has been steadily working a different agenda: expanding their potential market through new global carrier partners. The depth and scope of this new found reach, from India, to Scandinavia, to Hong Kong, by the numbers, and in graphics, is as impressive (if not more so) than the volume of hype.
This edition of Metue’s “By the Numbers” report takes a one stop look at the iPhone by carrier relationship. Like the game of risk, this one is all about Apple’s sweeping tide across the map of the world.
For the quick overview of this data, there is a visual map. It shows existing market penetration and carrier partners. (Clicking the link, or clicking the thumbnail image above, will feature the full size version.)
For greater detail, tables presented below run through the data used for the map. These include a chronological list of carrier partnerships announced along with the geography covered and total available subscribers per carrier. Click to Read More
No Limit Icahn Poker: FTC Greenlights More Yahoo Investment
At this week’s D6 trade conference a question was asked of Rupert Murdoch about Carl Icahn’s grab at Yahoo. Mr. Murdoch, often frank and to the point, replied “that’s not serious. He just wants to make a few hundred million bucks.”
Accurate or off base, one mogul’s insight on another is always fascinating. Here, I’d suspect the conclusion is true as well. Icahn is a special kind of value investor – he looks for corporate weakness and tries to turn it into short term investment opportunity. He’s an opportunist imbued with the mentality of a trader, together mixed in with the instinct of a predator and the guile of a poker player. He’s honed his game over years of practice. The playbook is in memory; tried and true. Yahoo, as a target, was looking weak. The opportunity was there.
Microsoft Live Search Books Euthanized
From futuristic “Cloud Computing”, to search, from advertising to applications, Microsoft and Google have been battling each other for greater share of Internet audiences and eyeballs for a few years now. By last June, digitally indexing books looked set to be another one of the fronts in which the companies would face off. What a difference a year makes. This week, Microsoft quietly discontinued their Live Book Search project.
In a blog post on May 23rd, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s VP of Search, Portal and Advertising, made the disclosure. Click to Read More
Hedge Funds Following Icahn to Yahoo, Microsoft Unimpressed
Where there is smoke there is usually fire. A similar maxim is often true with investors: where one big name goes, others usually follow. It’s something of a law of opportunity, an investor piggy-back clause. People follow success and will ride its coattails. So where Warren Buffet invests, others follow. Where Icahn goes, others go too. With Yahoo the bulls eye in Icahn’s game du jour, that’s not good news for the company’s management.
Time Warp: Corporate Raiding Redux. Yahoo, CBS, CNET and Icahn
The big merger news this week was supposed to come Friday with the expiration date of Electronic Arts hostile takeover for Take Two. Unfortunately, a number of people didn’t get the memo. Instead, Thursday became the big day for M&A activity with not one but two major announcements lighting up the news wires.
On one front, CBS stepped up to rescue CNET from the grips of activist shareholders by means of a $1.8billion cash tender offer. Elsewhere, financier Carl Icahn went public with his plans for Yahoo. He’ll begin the process Microsoft was unwilling to initiate: a tender offer to take control of Yahoo’s board of directors.
Three major deals in a week – two of them hostile and one something of a white knight rescue… it almost seems like we’ve slid back to the 80’s. Click to Read More
The Official Words: Icahn to Bostock, Bostock to Icahn
Carl Icahn today made his interest in Yahoo official. More details on the proxy fight can be found in the related summary article here on Metue. Here, reprinted in entirety are the letters exchanged between Carl Icahn, initiating the attack, and Yahoo’s Roy Bostock, acknowledging it. (Biographies of his proposed board slate are available here).
