Microsoft helped SCO sue IBM - Ooooh!

Juicy techno, business gossipy news from CNET News.com,

"A former investor in the SCO Group has identified a Microsoft executive who, he said, worked to "backstop" a funding deal that ultimately helped SCO pursue its legal case against the Linux operating system."

The investor was Baystar Capital - and oh my God, they invested in one of my company's once!

HP's ex-CEO wants career in politics - oh my God!

As if HP needed any more media fuzz, now Carly Fiorina, their ex-CEO, has made it clear that she's considering a career in politics.

You'd have thought HP's politics would have been enough for one lifetime - I guess she's a sucker for punishment.

Sprint Nextel in deep doodoo!

Sprint Nextel is looking almost as executive'd out as Airbus (surely not!) as the recent defection of their COO has been today followed by the resignation of their Chairman Tim Donahue. Yep, the guy that made Nextel great.

And according to the company,

"His decision to give up both roles at the end of this year surprised some industry watchers. Sprint Nextel nevertheless insisted that his departure was voluntary and said a successor would be named to the executive chairman’s position shortly."

Which is corporate mumbo jumbo for oh shit we're right up the Keiber pass now and got no one to replace him (yet), but lets pretend like this is just business as usual. HELP!

And they need all the help they can get, 'cos being number 3 is never a good place to be - and the smaller players, T-Mobile in particular, want to eat their lunch.

Hey, they could pull off another merger - that should mask the real internal mess for a while longer. And maybe I should be Chairman!

What will Google do with YouTube?

Well, you don't have to look hard for the lead business story today - yep, its Google snatches up YouTube for a mere $1.65bn (in Google stock).

And who said video over the Internet isn't as hot as a baked potato! It is - and Google/YouTube is now the clear leader (with over a third of the market).

Google promise that the two sites will be run independently, bla bla bla!

YouTube's founders, Hurley (is he Liz's brother?) and Chen, are worth a mountain of Google beans and every smart alec with a web 2.0 video business plan is kicking themsleves for not being YouTube.

And we told you Google would beat News Corp to the checkbook for YouTube - News Corp are just too tight fisted.

And the hundred million dollar/video download question is what the hell will Google do with YouTube? How about more Time Warner/CBS type deals and loads of music videos.

Expect Google to become the catch-all mass market place to post/view/rent any video on the planet - leaving iTunes as the upmarket place to own, manage and carry your movies around as well as flashing them throughout your home!

We'll use both!

News Corp joins the bidding for YouTube!

And as if the Google/YouTube rumours are not enough - apparently they are bidding $1.6bn for YouTube - now the gossip milling around is that Murdoch's News Corp is bidding too.

Who's gonna win?

My money's still on Google - Murdoch's too tight fisted!

Let's see, next week could be decisive.

Google snapping up YouTube?

If you believe TechCrunch, the Wall Street Journal or Reuters, Google looks set to buy YouTube for $1.6bn, which lets face it is a rounding error/couple of months interest for Google.

But, if some pundits are right, Google may end up paying a whole load more if a bunch of potential copyright issues are not resolved at the video sharing site.

My view is that Google will scoop up YouTube so that overnight they become the undisputable leaders in online video. And lets face it, the killer app for the broadband Internet is video.

So who cares about a couple of law suits, eh?

Digital music sales flying - CD sales crashing!

Online music is flying, according to recent research - and physical CD sales are sinking faster than thet Titanic.

According to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ending Oct. 1 marking the end of the third quarter, physical album sales so far this year totaled 370.5 million units, down 8.3% from the 404.2 million racked up in the year-ago period.

However, digital album sales climbed 115%, with 22.6 million sold through September. Downloaded tracks soared 72%, to 418.6 million.

Hit your local iTunes - and tough luck HMV.

HP's Dunn now toast!

HP's ex-Chairman, Patricia Dunn is now formally corporate toast as California's state prosecutor has decided to charge her for her involvement in the board room leaks Vallygate affair.

She loses either way, cos even of she's innocent (can she really be?), its the end of her corporate career. At the worse end of the scale she'll be hanging out with Benie Ebbert and chatting about breaking out!

And I still don't see how Hurd survives long term, he's just too tarnished. And it'll get worse for him yet, you'll see.

US ad sales slump a la Yahoo sign of wider US slowdown?

Sluggish online ad sales for cars and mortgages could signal an overall economy slowdown, Wall Street analysts are increasingly saying thanks to a recent Yahoo warning. Der yeah!

And how about Wal-Marts embarrassing sales slumpo re-forecast today, Nissan's sales decline in the US (lets face it US car company slumps is no longer news), jobs going static, house sales limping etc etc etc.

Got it now?!

Vista blowing up a PC near you!

Microsoft will apparently take much harsher steps to curtail piracy of its upcoming Windows Vista software, including crippling the usefulness of PCs found to be running unlicensed copies.

Yep, they've figured out how to blow up your PC remotely. Just install Vista.

Hurd clean? Come on!

According to Reuters today, an analyst believes HP's CEO should survive the Vallygate affair. Right.

"The big risk is that something happens to Mark Hurd, but I think he's pretty clean," said Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay. "Effectively, he took responsibility, which is a meaningless step because there were no consequences."

No consequences - right. Oh, and pretty clean - right. How could he have been running the company and not been a lot closer to such exciting board room politics? Come on, its the most fun he could ever have while running the company.

Anyone would want to act like Peter Sellers while pocketing a small fortune every year!

Where will Comverse's Kobi Alexander pop up next?

Fugitive ex-CEO of Comverse, Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, accused in the US of hatching a scheme to pocket millions of dollars by secretly manipulating stock options, was granted bail by a Namibian court today, against the governments wishes.

He pleads that he has done nothing wrong and quite openly entered Namibia and lived a public life there. Yeah, but you're wanted in the US love. You did something wrong there - no?

Oh and five bucks for whoever guesses where he'll pop up next. Venezuela could prove popular - mind you Chavez may not need the campaign funds quite yet!

McAfee, Symantec etc take on mighty Microsoft saying Vista security stinks!

McAfee, Symantec and other security software companies argue Microsoft's new Vista operating system will make it more difficult to protect customers because for the first time, they have been denied access to the core of the operating system.

And to endorse this view they today took a full page ad in the Financial Times - now that's costly. And a new angle in marketing??

Microsoft disagree, how could Vista possibly be worse than the current version of Windows. They may have a point.

Oh, just buy an Apple...

Online gambling meltdown - its an iceage!

Online gambling companies look more stuffed than ever, proving that perhaps the biggest gamblers/losers of all will prove to be their investors. The meltdown has begun.

Legislation passed in Washington on Friday would outlaw the processing of bets taken on-line by banks and credit card companies. The act now only requires the signature of the US president to bring it into effect, a move which is expected in the next two weeks.

Oops, but hey, casino's are still hot - just look at Harrah's!

Sometimes the physical world really is still better than the virtual one.

Google announce major strategic acquisition!

Google today announced a strategiclly critical acquisition in its drive to control Internet software and services as Microsoft once did the PC.

They have bought the garage in Menlo Park where founders Brin and Page launched the company.

Actually they bought the house too and apparently paid around $1.25M, proving that they may be better at building search technology than investing in property.

Oh and the owner of the property is a VP at Google - is that nepotism?