Seth Gilbert, 06-26-2008
Wednesday, after the market’s close, Blackberry maker Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) released earnings that narrowly missed guidance for both revenues and earnings per share (EPS). Having never come up short before, and consistently out performed, Wall Street expected more from RIM. The stock traded down heavily after hours. Thursday, the market showed no mercy. Sometimes though, bad news is actually good news. Perspective is everything.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-25-2008
At times during the past couple years Internet video sites have seemed like the fad du jour, like another bubble of inflated expectations waiting to burst. Every few weeks there seemed to be another monstrous financing. $10m invested here. $20m gambled there. Even a pledged $30+ million from time to time. Super Deluxe. 60 Frames. Joost. Veoh. Metacafe. Crackle. Revver. Daily Motion. Funny or Die. Hulu. This Just In. Deca.TV – Every week a new company name to add to the lexicon and the watch list. It was all part of the “next new thing.” The big gamble.
Like any new market, especially one with big opportunity, a certain amount of this speculation is understandable. With billion dollar market opportunity, there is invariably going to be a lot of competition chasing the same trophy. And unequivocally, all these sites were, and are, chasing just that same predictable future – the migration of television and video programming to a time-shifted, place-shifted, long-tail-wagging world of Internet distribution.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-24-2008
In January, Bill Gates took the stage at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show and for the last time mused on the future of computing. One of three things he predicted was an eventual change in user interfaces. There will be more touch. More motion. More gestures. In the future, he said, we’ll migrate away from our dependence on keyboards mice and trackballs; we’ll have more natural interfaces.
In the gaming world, that future is already here. It began a decade ago with the introduction of a range of Japanese arcade games – virtual skiing machines and dance pads. These new peripherals then jumped to video game consoles. Now they’ve been carried in a new direction and lifted to new heights with Nintendo’s motion control systems in the Wii and the introduction of rhythm games like Guitar Hero (Activision) and Rock Band (EA/MTV).
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-23-2008
The rumor mill has a funny way of repeating itself and moving in circles until gossip eventually transitions toward fact. Back in March, the airwaves were abuzz with the prospect that the Beatles digital debut might come by way of Activision’s Guitar Hero video game and not, as widely expected, iTunes music store. That news didn’t pan out. Activision revealed their G.H. pipeline and the special release title in the current lineup turned out to be a Metallica special edition.
Now, a few months later, the Financial Times is reporting on a similar Beatles story. A rumor repeat based on new disclosures. According to the new reports, a licensing deal worth several million dollars is in the works and could be weeks away. The parties are talking.
Fact? Fiction? Full Beatles Edition? Just a few songs licensed for the next Installment of the Game? Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
Through nearly the first 180 days, 2008 has been a busy year for M&A activity . Today, adding to the year’s tally, movie ticketing service Fandango announced the acquisition of Movies.com from Disney.
Under the prior name mrshowbiz.com, Movies.com was launched in 2000 to provide movie summaries, facts and celebrity info. In May, the site drew 1.9m unique visitors.
Fandango, which was bought by Comcast in April 2007, provides online ticket sales for about 15,000 movie screens around the U.S.. The site drew approximately 6.3m unique visitors in May.
The company currently splits its revenue between advertising income and Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-20-2008
When Microsoft set out to buy Yahoo, they acknowledged part of the interest was Yahoo’s talented staff. Now out of it and sitting on the sidelines, seeing a shareholder revolt, and masses of that talent walking out, some Microsoft execs might be singing along to Garth Brooks “Unanswered Prayers” and counting blessings for the deal that wasn’t.
Over the past few days, a host of high profile Yahoo execs have pulled the ripcord, hit the eject button, or to mix metaphors even more, exited stage left.
Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-19-2008
iTunes has long been looked at as the loss leader, the bridge that links Apple’s assorted media products. It drives product sales and helps power iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and Mac multimedia. But that role of servitude hasn’t stopped it from turning into a significant force.
Apple announced today, the iTunes store crossed the 5 billion song barrier. That’s 5 billion songs sold, up a billion from the 4billion announced in January.
At 99cents a song, that means the store has generated nearly $5billion in music revenue. That’s $3.5billion to artists and labels and $1.5billion to Apple (based on widely estimated revenue sharing splits). That’s not too shabby for an auxiliary program that helps promote hardware sales.
As this graphic shows, the escalation in pace at which songs are selling isn’t bad either:
Even more impressive, however, might be the story surrounding video sales. Click to Read More
