August 16 - 22, 1999
from the Up-To-Date dept
the death of the IPO, Instant Messenging code, intellectual property, and catfights, MCI's network down for the count, studies galore, and the usual mix of IPOs, earnings reports and completely pointless commentary. For all that and more click below for this week's Up-To-Date...********************************************************************* UP-TO-DATE ********************************************************************* The not always serious, not always weekly update on the High-Tech Industry August 16th - August 22nd, 1999 ********************************************************************* Psst! Wanna buy some Iridium stock? I hear it's big in Mexico --------------------- Techdirt on the Web --------------------- Welcome to all the new folks, and there've been a lot of subscriptions recently. Trying to get back on a more regular publishing schedule as we move into the fall, but remember, whether or not Up-To-Date comes out, Techdirt.com is still updating you daily on the web. Vote in the latest poll: Why is August a terrible month to have an IPO? https://www.techdirt.com/pollBooth.pl?qid=augipo and, in case you missed the last poll: What's your opinion of Day Trading? https://www.techdirt.com/pollBooth.pl?qid=daytrade And, some of the fun stories on Techdirt this week: AT&T suing Intel over a $5,000 phone bill: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/990816/216207.shtml For students have no sense of humor and feel the bizarre need to protest just about anything, why not protest eCampus.com's commercials for making students seem dumb: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/990820/1111216_F.shtml China.com's declared profits, but it was really a big accident: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/990820/1116244_F.shtml Do you have an opinion on brain implants? Join the discussion: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/990819/1741255_F.shtml -------------------- Say that again... -------------------- "This thing has gone from unbelievable to unbearable to now unforgivable." - Ken McGee, Gartner Group analyst on the MCI Worldcom network outage that happened intermittently over 10 days "We don't see this as a flaw. It is a concern." - Allen Beckerdite, CTO of Reciprocal, on the fact that Microsoft's new "secure" music format isn't so secure. "We recognize that a vendor has the right to sell through whatever distribution channels it desires. However, we too have the right to be selective in regard to the vendors we select and we trust that you understand that a company may be hesitant to do business with its competitors." - A letter from Home Depot to its suppliers basically threatening them if they decide to sell direct online. "Trading is a fairly bloody business - minus the violence - in that it needs a constant influx of new losers. Extending trading hours will allow more losers to enter the game, which is great." - Alexander Elder, author of "Trading for a Living", getting ready for extended trading hours. "I stop the cab at the side of the road if I have to make a trade. Safety first." - Carlos Rubino, taxi cab driver and day trader (apparently, at the same time). ------------------------------------------ Earnings Reports, IPOs and the like ------------------------------------------ HP had a big increase in profits, and surprised everyone... Dell's profits also rose (by more than HPs) and they also beat estimates... Lycos posts a surprise profit (I think even they were surprised)... Barnesandnoble.com revenues increased a lot last quarter... Quantum cutting 800 jobs as the company continues to struggle... IPOs are becoming fewer and fewer these days: Wink Communications and MyPoints had very good IPOs, but Headhunter.net and Looksmart.com didn't have the same sort of lift.... Other companies, such as Tunes.com and Bamboo.com, have delayed their IPOs due to the market... Of course, that doesn't mean there still isn't money out there for startups. Desktop.com picked up $29 million this week from high flyers Accel and Sequoia... ------------------------------------------------ Rumors, Conspiracies etc. of the week... ------------------------------------------------ Sun to buy Star Office, the software that is a free "clone" of Microsoft Office... Apple's iBook color scheme chosen to match with the Gap's latest product line (Gap CEO is now on Apple's board)... Zap.com to buy online pioneer Echo... ---------------------------------------- News you should have read elsewhere ---------------------------------------- MCI WorldCom had 10 days of intermittent network outages, and people are pissed off, though MCI seems to just be blaming Lucent and trying to sweep the issue under the rug (it was just 10 days, after all)... Intel has decided to drop its graphics chip business (not so long after they were making a big push into that area)... -------------------------- News you could do without -------------------------- Sony PlayStation and Nintendo cut prices on their machines as they get ready for the release of the latest Sega Dreamcast... Court finds that AOL doesn't have a trademark on "you've got mail", "buddy list" or "IM" (and we all feel sooo sorry for them, right?)... CBS buys into more web properties, this time it's Wrenchead.com, a car site, and jobs.com, which is self explanatory... AOL hits 18 million customers... Consumer groups are now protesting the AT&T-MediOne merger (somehow I think those "consumer groups" are supported by some non-consumer companies)... Lycos finally catches up to Yahoo by offering a "build your own store" feature... Oracle signs on with HP to help them develop e-speak and no one cares... Amazon.com suing Amazon.gr for stealing and being generally obnoxious in copying their web site. Amazon.gr plays dumb (and looks dumb)... Home Depot goes full out on the web (and, more importantly, threatens all their suppliers to get off the web - ouch)... Battle lines being drawn in the "next generation television" space as AOL invests in Tivo and a bunch of media companies (including Time Warner, Disney and Showtime) invest in Replay... 4 folks in NY are charged with manipulating stock values through a newsletter (um, okay, time for me to be careful)... The US Justice Dept wants access to all our computers and stuff (and all the typical scary stuff that you always hear about)... Apple is suing eMachines for not thinking different enough... GPS system rolls over and the Earth continues to revolve around the sun (phew)... CheckOut.com, the new site from Michael Ovitz, doesn't realize the good deal they offer "pre-registered" users is going to get sent around to *everyone* on the internet, and pulls the plug on their servers... ------------ Surprises: ------------ Dutch publishing company VNU buys Nielsen Media Research for almost $3 billion... AOL's President, Bob Pittman is now on Barnesandnoble.com's Board of Directors... Excite@Home puts a ton of money into tickets.com... Benchmark Capital and Toys "R" Us break off their deal to work together on toysrus.com, claiming a difference of "vision" (meaning Toys "R" Us doesn't want to hear what Benchmark tells them the internet is about)... Microsoft, playing the part of the wounded underdog company (ha ha), has decided to publish the specs for their messenger product (now we feel for them, right?). It's a good thing, too, because it turns out that Messenger reveals users' passwords to just about anyone... Cisco and Apple dump a ton of money into Akamai... Iridium, enjoying its Chapter 11 status, is going to expand into Mexico... Drugstore.com's founder is leaving (well, he's got enough money these days)... HP tells folks to skip Merced (pretty bad, considering they're half the design team)... Motorola buys Metrowerks... Big name VCs ditching IVP and Brentwood to form a new, Internet only, VC firm... ------------------------------- (Mis)Uses of Technology: ------------------------------- Tiny little computers... Levi's new SF store keeps biometric customer data... Hydrogen powered cars... Internet kiosks at your local gas station... Goodwill has an online auction site?... SBC's "email only" phone service... 7-Eleven to offer online "virtual" Slurpees that you can send to your friends (now, *this* is what web progress is all about)... Amazon sets up "Purchase Circles" which is basically a good way to create peer pressure to buy stuff... eBay pager from SkyTel... Iridium shares (which are suspended from trading due to that whole Chapter 11 thing) are up for sale on eBay (at a slight premium)... MP3 Anywhere lets you broadcast MP3s from your computer to your stereo... ---------- Studies: ---------- Maybe the US isn't so prepared for Y2K afterall. The General Accounting Office has found that only 3 states have proven they're ready, and the Navy has released a report suggesting that many cities may experience water and electrical system failures (comforting)... More than 3 times the number of current online investors should be trading online in the near future, according to Gomez Advisors... Nielsen reports that the amount of time spent on the Internet went up in July as compared to May (apparently, the summer hasn't dragged folks outside)... A new report from Shop.org predicts e-commerce sales this year will surpass $36 billion (as opposed to $15 billion last year)... Spending on internet advertising rose last month and people are making a much bigger deal of that fact than they should... A study from Purdue University, shows that companies that add a .com to their name increase their valuation significantly, no matter what they actually do... 29% of farmers in the US are connected to the Internet according to the US Agriculture Department... ----------- Overhype ----------- E*Trade getting into after-hours trading. Is this a good thing/bad thing? Does it really matter?... Universities having sponsored web sites... Another virus for everyone to scared about, this one to make all the news on Christmas Day... -------------- Predictions: -------------- Sega Dreamcast is going to flop (okay, okay, that one was too easy)... ------------------------ Too much free time: ------------------------ The ever useful "Customers Suck" web site: http://www.customerssuck.com/index2.shtml Reminds me of: http://www.despair.com/demotivators/ap24x30prin.html which I have hanging above my desk. ********************************************************************* Up To Date is written by Mike Masnick from whatever news he hears from whatever sources they happen to come from. It is not intended for any uses other than as one of many possible ways to follow what's going on in the hi-tech industry. I certainly wouldn't rely on it as your only source of info. And, of course, my comments may not accurately reflect reality. Finally, an explicit warning about investing: I do not, under any circumstance, consider any piece of information in this newsletter "investment advice" and neither should you. If you would like to subscribe to the email version please send an email to utd-sub@techdirt.com with "Subscribe Up-To-Date" in the subject heading. Up To Date is also available on the web at https://www.techdirt.com/uptodate/ If you want more in depth, daily up dates, along with your own commentary head over to https://www.techdirt.com/ Comments are always welcome! Email: feedback@techdirt.com *********************************************************************
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