Fri - Google's off!

Yesterday, on the back of two product announcements - Google Base and Google Net, Google's stock price went over $400 and their market cap went to over $110M. And the consensus seems that their stock price should go higher.

So, Google is now worth more than eBay and Yahoo comnbined. Google is now worth more than Cisco. Microsoft must be cringing more than ever.

Fri - HP getting back in shape

Mr Hurd does it again. 4th quarter revenues and earnings are up. Revenues are up 7% on last year at $22.9bn and earnings less a $1.1bn charge are up at $1.7bn. And costs cuts are ahead of plan with 15,300 job cuts as opposed to the plan of 14,500.

It seems as though Mr Hurds focus on operational excellence is paying off. It is interesting how HP's fortunes are now improving just as Dell's are not. Oh, the tech business, always full of swings and roundabouts.

The future for HP looks bright too. The test of Hurd and his board will be what to do with HP going forward. Should it sell some pieces off? Should it focus more heavily on corporates at the expense of its consumer products and should it get more into services. Well, time will tell. But at least they are doing a good job for now of executing largely on Fironia's vision.

Fri - Telecom leaders apologise to shareholders

Both the CEO's of mobile giant Vodafone and leading French operator France Telecom have publically apologised to their investors. Both of their share prices continued to tank.

Both CEO's have had to face the ultimate humility and agree that they had perhaps not comunicated bad news in the best possible way. I'm not entirely sure how you communicate bad news nicely, but bear with me.

The real reason that they're aplogising is because their businesses are stalling a little. Vodafone is finding competition across Europe intense and the price of switching customers over to 3G expensive. Plus their Japanese business remains perenially in the toilet. France Telecom is struggling with similar issues bar of course the Japanese part. France Telecom has the added pain of being an incumbent fixed line operator and we all know how painful that is.

Plus, their is one other piece I feel. I think everyone underestimated the success of 3. 3 is kicking rear end after all. They have a great brand, they are seen as cool and innovative and they were the first to grab early mover 3G customers. 3 now have over 10M customers worldwide and growing. And their data services revenues are impressive.

Vodafone and Orange have not yet really seen that much of a hike in ARPU. But they will. It will just take a little longer and cost them more than they thought.

So, why are they apologising? Because it's all the rage right now to bend over for investors - just look at VNU etc. If I was Mr Sarun I would worry less about aplogies and more about how to get Vodafone quickly and successfully through the 3G wave, how to fight off growing global and regional competition, and how to face the new challenges of Wi-Fi and MVNO's. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sure you are worrying about that. Silly me. At least I'm apologising as well. It must be catching.

Oh, and could you do more with Vodafone Live? It's a bit limp isn't it? Or maybe that's just me.

Thurs - blogging becomes increasingly mainstream

Yesterday Yahoo agreed a deal to publish 5 blogsites from Gawker Media in a move that further solidifies the maturing art of blogging and develops it as one that is increasingly merging and converging with mainstream media.

The last six months or so has seen blogging emerge from the cyber underground. First was News Corps bold acquisition of MySpace, then AOL bought Weblogs Inc for $25M and recently Time Magazine agreed to publish Andrew Sullivan's blog.

Everyone is talking about blogging and companies around the globe are desperately trying to figure out how they can become good blogging citizens. Perhaps by leaving it alone! So, what's going to happen to Huffington Post? I wonder...

Thurs - Google launches web listings service

Google has now launched Google Base, a new web site that allows users to post information such as classified advertisments, job listings and recipes in a move that put's it in direct competition with Ebay, online job sites and Yellow Pages directories.

Google Base at lets internet users submit information about a wide range of personal items, free of charge, to a publicly searchable database maintained by Google.

The current version is in beta testing, but can be used to search for almost anything. Current search examples on the site included classified ads for cars, academic courses and Indian recipes.

As Google diversifies away from its core search engine, it finds itself increasingly in competition with Ebay, which has invested heavily in its own search function.

It's well worth trying out. And its easy to use. The question with such a broad listing service as this is which categories of products and services will benefit from the free listing. At this point no-one knows. You'll just have to try it out and see. But, it's another smart move by Google.

Google said that the site has been designed for people who have information they want to share with others but do not know how to gain an audience. Google will host the content but allow the user to add labels with more specific information to attract attention. If the item is highly relevent, Google said it may be included in its main searches or on Froogle or Google Local. Let's see. We'll keep monitoring.

Thurs - US retains control of the internet - for now

The US will keep control of the internet worldwide for the forseeable future, under a hard fought deal reached with international negotiators only hours before Tunis' World Summit on the information society, which opened yesterday.

The EU and other governments had called for an end to the exclusive authority of the US Commerce Department to authorise changes in the master directory of internet addresses worldwide, which is operated by Icann.

The deal leaves the status quo untouched but does commit the US to start the process of increasing cooperation with other countries on a more equal footing.

This leaves the management of the internet to Icann and is a good thing. They have proved to be responsible and efficient and the US Commerce Department doesn't seem to meddle. Moving the internet to becoming managed by an international committee could be a disaster and slow progress considerably.

Thurs - $100 laptops coming

Nicolas Negroponte, founder and Chairman of the legendary Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab has for years been trumpeting the importance of finding ways to reduce the digital divide between technology have's and have nots and particularly between the developing and developed nations.

Now, finally, comes the answer. Negroponte with sponsors including Google, AMD and Murdoch have just launched a $100 laptop for the poor in developing nations such as Africa and Latin America.

The laptop's features include a tough screen that can switch form colour to black and white to make it easier to view in bright sunlight. The laptops are incased in rubber and they have a hand crank which provides power when there is no electricity.

The software has been stripped to the basic and the laptops have a 500MHz AMD processor (no wonder they're sponsors) and runs on free linux software. It connects to the internet through wi-fi.

They cannot store much data as they have no hard drive. Instead they use flash memory like a digital camera or mobile phone.

Negroponte's group haven't sold any of these computers yet, but are apparently making progress with numerous governments and Brazil and Thailand in particular. They want to sell them through their education ministries. Negropente announced that production would start at the end of next year, with up to 10M shipping in 2007.

This is a fabulous idea. Lets hope its a success. This could finally bring computing and the internet to children all over the world.

Mon - Google launches free web analytics

Google is shaking up the web analysis market and strengthening its key advertising business today with the launch of a free service that measures the effectiveness of websites and online marketing campaigns.

Google Analytics has been developed from software acquired when Google bought Urchin, a web analysis company, in March. Urchin was charging $199 a month for an on-demand version of its product and offered enterprise installations for Fortune 500 companies such as Procter & Gamble.

This announcement strengthens Google's advertising solution even further against the other portals (as if they needed the help!). Plus, yet another example of software for free over the internet. This is good news for users of Google's Adsense.

Mon - Microsoft lobbying for help in EU anti-trust

Microsoft's behavior just keeps changing. First they tell us that the future is software over the internet and that they're shifting their entire business model to take account for it. Then they leak an internal memo and as a result tell the world that they have been left behind and risk being left behind for good if they do not embrace a new era of change and stop missing opportunities such as RSS, Skype, Blackberry, etc etc etc. And it looks like Ray Ozzie is increasingly setting product and technology direction - not Billie.

Now we hear that Microsoft is trying to lobby for the US government and US companies to help them fight the anti-trust hearings that went against them in Europe last year! Microsoft needing help from the US establishment? That's a first.

All of these tremors coming out of Seattle are the signs of a company that is running scared and confused. Microsoft is being attacked on so many fronts that they seem to be struggling to keep their balance. They need to take a collective sigh and focus on the new direction. It will be scary for them as in the world of software as internet service where it is often free, they are laggards and running from far behind the pack.

It may take Microsoft two years to stop the rot and change direction for real. By then, Google, Nokia, salesforce.com, Linux, SUN, etc etc etc will be even further ahead. They have to stay the course. And live.com will need to go through many more iterations before Microsoft can make anything of it. Good luck guys.

Thurs - Ex Microsoft and Oracle CFO becomes CEO at Liberty Media

John Malone has persuaded Greg Maffei, up until recently CFO at Oracle to join Liberty Media as CEO.

Liberty Media is a loosish collection of investements in Cable and media assets. Liberty Media owns QVC, Starz Encore and a controversial 19% ownership in News Corp. John Malone believes passionately that media companies need to change in the face of the broadband internet in particular.

Maffei seems a good match, having experience in the tech sector, in cable and in telecomms and a staunch M&A deal guy. This must mean that Liberty will soon be back on the acquisition path and could be bad news for Murdoch at News Corp?!

Wed - Microsoft's memos show fear of being left behind

Today the press is awash with leaks of Microsoft internal memo's showing that they are in fact etxremely concerned about the threat that the software services revolution could have on their business.

The software services revolution, they now recognize, has two terrifying potential implications for Microsofts current modus operandi. 1. Software is bought and used oiver the internet, not via CD's. 2. The software is often free - its the service that makes the money. Google of course are often cited as the almost perfect example. None of us pay to use Google's search software, or email service etc etc. They make money from the adverts they show us.

If you take software as services to its utlimate natural conclusion - which of course may never happen - then one could argue that all software will one day be free and either delivered by cyber software philanthropists and an open source style movement or bundled with a service.

And the software services revoltion is gathering intense momentum and creating huge franchises for at least Google and Yahoo. Microsoft's late to the game and will have to do a lot better than 'live.com!!' But Billie seems serious and Microsoft has little choice.

And Microsoft seems to be changing. One interesting development is that Ray Ozzie, a techie guru only brought into Microsoft recently and a big believer in online services (he invented Lotus Notes) is increasingly the voice of technology change and even strategy at Microsoft. So, can he with Billie and Stevie turn the Microsoft ship around fast enough? Probably, if they all push in the same direction and go like hell.

Either way, the software industry is in for one massive new change. We must at least thank Google and even Mr Ozzie for that.

Wed - Cable & Wireless a private equity target?

Private equity groups seem to be extremely busy running their rulers over European telco assets. After all the industry is ripe for consolidation as we keep stating here at TechBoard. But, today we had an interesting jab from Cable & Wirelss stating that because of their lack lustre share price over the last few months, they believe that they must now be a private equity target.

It seems that their management might even be happier running C&W as a private company rather than having to put up with the vagaries of the market - have they ever worked with private equity outfits?

And perhaps they are dodging the real issue which is that even though C&W has made real progress under Caio and Lapthorne, it is still largely a fixed line voice company that is a little behind the broadband curve. I'm not sure that the acquisition of Energis really changes this. And investors have gone more sour on fixed line only telco's.

The part of the business that really makes money is their Carribean franchise. Which is nice if you like the sun, but probably a little far removed for their investors to get too excited about.

So where should C&W go? Well, its probably a little too late for them to try and get into the faster growing mobile game - so their only option other than getting bought out now is to batter down the hatchets, ignore their share price and keep focusing on being a strong broadband provider in their markets as well as providing corporate telco services.

This doesn't sound very sexy and its going to be tough hanging in their while they wait to upgrade their networks, but broadband is the future and they have a sensible balance sheet. Plus, the list of companies leaving the UK voice market just keeps growing. They could thrive just by being a survivor. At least their a stronger number 2 to BT again?! Oh, and both BT and C&W must be kicking themselves for not having any real mobile assets today. Wi-Fi's their only hope now.

Wed - Pixar flying with profits surge

Pixar Animation sprang a surprise for their investors and the market as they announced 3rd quarter profits about double the level film studio said they were expecting. I guess that means this was a surprise to Pixar as well?

Pixar released no new films for the quarter, but did well from home video/DVD sales of library movies, particularly Finding Nemo and Toy Story.

Pixar has had a bit of a tough run recently, so some good news has to be welcome and indeed their stock price shot up 10% last night. Mind you, things need to get better, as their revenues and earnings for the last quarter were broadly flat on the same quarter last year.

Is Mr Jobs too focused on Apple? I mean, its not like animation is no longer the rage. Maybe there's just more competition.

Tues - Microsoft targets server growth and launches SQL 5

So five years later Microsoft finally launches SQL Server 5. I mean, how many tech companies could genuinely survive a 5 year major product development cycle that looks around 2 years late? Well, it seems Microsoft can. For, infact, the Server division, responsible for SQL Server and other products and tools is thriving.

Microsoft's server division has become its most significant source of growth. It has contributed more than any other part of the group to Microsoft's overall growth over the last 4 years. This has accelerated over the last few quarters, with the division accounting for 40% of grwoth in its last fiscal year to end June, and 49% in the most recent quarter.

With revenues set to grow above $10bn this year, the server division has become Microsofts first truly successful venture beyond the desktop. This should make Oracle more than a little concerned and make sense of their attempts to diversify their business more and more into applications.

Mind you, its not all rosy at Microsoft's server division. They have to get future release cycles down to 2 years and still pack enough features to compete effectively. They also have to stave off the ever growing threat from open source products (Apache in particular) and they heve to keep the anti-trust folks at bay. But, hey - its Microsoft - no problemo!

Tues - Wind another consolidator in European Telecoms?

Wind, seems to be on the mend and making noises about buying other European telco assets. After all, Wind, the phone and internet company Egyptian financier Naguib Sawiris bought from Italian utility Enel in August had a 3rd quarter profit from a year ago loss as it added customers.

The aptly named Weather Investments, Mr Sawiri's buy-out vehicle, bought Wind in a bid valuing the business at nearly $15bn. He plans to use Wind to expand wireless operations into Europe. He certainly has a brand there - even though the Brits may have a few baked beans jokes for it!

Given that Sawiri is also Chairman of Orascom Telecom which runs wireless networks in 7 Middle Eastern countries, he could be on the verge of building a pan European and Middle Eastern regional powerhouse. So, it looks like Europe may get yet another telco consilidator. They surely can't all win(d)?!