Google acquires broadcast rights of YouTube

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.

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Steve Ballmer

Gurus on Business Strategy

I think life is all about circles and not straight lines. You can
jump onto the circle anywhere you like. Number one, is having
vision–call it an objective, call it a goal, it is the idea of where
you want to go. The beginning of strategic thinking is where
you are working out the vision strategy, then it’s mapping out
the ways in which you could deliver that, like policies you put in
place. Overall a series of moves in chess is a strategy. Each move
is a tactic
Lord Thurso

In the book, ‘Gurus on Business Strategy’, Tony Grundy starts off with a
definition of Strategy and then goes on to give a brief introduction of
the most influential gurus and their contribution to the business world.

The book is a good start for any business-strategy enthusiast; it also
serves as a decent reference for a seasoned guy.

So, if you are in the rush for a meeting and you need a quick refresh of
some of the top-notch concepts, this book comes in quite handy.

What is the Hype Machine?

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

ET, IT…and the rest