When it came to selling books online, Barnes & Noble found that the only prize for coming second, was coming last. Ironically, Amazon's new search division, A9 are now doing their best to prove this dictum wrong by chasing after Google and Yahoo.
It seems what was new is old again. With Yahoo! delivering a spectacular profit result this week, the old economy parentals are looking jealously at a sector which after the nineties crash, seemed reassuring destined for extinction.
Just when you thought the last 'Phantom' had been exorcised from the 'Opera', the shiny suits of entertainment world unveil yet another dastardly product extension plan to torment us all.
Some off the cuff remarks by Peter Chernin, COO of Newscorp, at a recent US investment conference had the Street murmuring that Murdoch might soon make a big play in the videogame space.
The last time the US cable industry played musical chairs - the theme was convergence. Despite an antiquated network and a crushing regulatory regime, TCI managed to sell to AT&T in the late nineties on the dream of a single high tech network that could provide everything from movies on demand to phone calls. What the telco giant didn't realise, was just how many billions it would take to upgrade the cable network to do just that.
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