…when you think of the benefits of small loans, achieving peace and stability isn’t the first idea that springs to mind. But it is exactly what Yunus, 66, is aiming for. While he may not be brokering treaties, he’s actually promoting peace by uprooting one of the root causes of conflict: poverty. At the same time, he’s demonstrating how effective entrepreneurialism can be.
More at Businessweek
It’s official now. Google acquires YouTube for a whopping US$1.65 billion, in an all-stock deal.
While the markets reacted favorably and analysts seem happy, here is an interesting (and expected?) reaction from Steve Ballmer, as reported by Patrick Thibodeau of Computer World.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today all but dismissed Google Inc.’s just-announced $1.65 billion purchase of video-sharing service YouTube as a waste of money … “If you look at most of the content up at YouTube today, it is copyrighted material,” said Ballmer. For all the chatter about how YouTube is all about home video, in the end people want to see things like replays of the recent 60 Minutes interview with former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairman Carly Fiorina, said Ballmer.
Related links
Business 2.0
Netribution
Computer World
Business Week
ZDNet
WLTX
ITBlogWatch
Steve Ballmer
The Hype Machine tracks songs and discussion posted on the best music blogs. Easily listen, discover and buy songs that everyone is talking about!
For any media-minded investor, the appeal of Volodkin and the Hype Machine is easy enough to see. Since the rise of Napster, the music industry has been in a prolonged state of upheaval – one that is only growing more chaotic. New tools are being invented (Pandora, Last.fm) for navigating the new digital soundscape. New avenues for promotion (the MP3 blogs) are emerging as star-making vehicles for acts like Arctic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley. (The summer megahit “Crazy,” for example, first showed up on the Hype Machine last October.)
In this context, it’s not surprising that the Web is also enabling what Volodkin(20-year old founder of Hype Machine) calls a “new kind of conversation about music.”
Related Links
Business 2.0–Capturing the buzz
Hype Machine