| MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks To Extend Fall Next Week; Financials In ...
The market's attention is poised to stay trained on the financial sector after the group suffered its worst week in years as Merrill Lynch & Co.'s (MER) chief executive was forced out and Citigroup's (C) board prepared to decide whether to accept the resignation of CEO Chuck Prince as well. 'The market is obsessed with these credit problems. People feel like they're standing in a mine field and they don't know where all the mines are,' said Brian Gendreau, investment strategist at ING Investment Management. 'We're looking for an opportunity to go back into equities. I just don't think next week is going to be the time. There's still just too much uncertainty.' The unraveling of the subprime mortgage crisis on Wall Street shook the financial services sector and much of the stock market during the past week, with uncertainty about the extent of losses in the collateralized debt obligations business locking up many of the global credit and derivatives markets.
Winds of change sweep through digital TV
A decade on from the UK launch of digital TV, IPTV and internet TV technologies are taking on cable and satellite. But how is the fight shaping up? For big telecoms companies looking to make their telephone networks more attractive to consumers, IPTV - short for internet protocol TV - is a way to add value to their traditional voice services as well as add some fizz to their broadband access offerings. But in the UK, the going has been slow. The IPTV services from BT and Tiscali (through its purchase of Home- Choice) account for less than 100,000 users between them. A third IPTV offering from Orange (part of France Telecom) for the UK market has been delayed from last year; it still does not have a firm launch date although it has announced content deals with Disney and MGM. A second mobile operator, 02, also has plans to launch a UK IPTV service to complement its mobile offerings.
Linspire 6.0 Includes Lawsuit Protection
Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu founder and head of Canonical, took to his blog earlier this year to express his distaste for the covenant principle. "A promise by Microsoft not to sue for infringement of unspecified patents has no value at all and is not worth paying for," Shuttleworth wrote. "It does not protect users from the real risk of a patent suit from a pure-IP-holder." Linux with a Lineage: Verio Dedicated Servers deliver SAS70 Certification for critical data security and scalability, a Tier-1 Global IP network and premier data centers, and a dedicated, certified support team. From Verio, an industry leader with more than 500,000 business customers. Make the move. .
Gadgets swamp our digital future
Amazon is about to launch its own music service and is getting strong backing from the music firms keen for iTunes to lose its dominance. Pepsi is backing a promotion that will give away one billion songs on the service. The soft-drink giant was once a partner with iTunes. "They don’t play nicely with each other," said one media executive. "Everyone’s talking to everyone these days. And one of the top topics of conversation is how we make sure Apple doesn’t dominate." While the competition looks tougher, it would be a fool who wrote off Apple’s chances of leading from the front in the second digital decade. Sikes said he had initially not been a big fan of the iPhone. There are other phones on the market that are faster and smarter.
Channel chokers
Strengthening the workforce, beefing up marketing activities and setting aside incentives for the channel usually occupy a pretty high place on the list of categories that take precedent. But it would be interesting to know how many brands are allocating funds for the sole purpose of ensuring business partners in each individual market receive suitable training. Vendors might laud the Middle East as a region that warrants their undivided attention, but if there is one area where a high proportion fall persistently short then it's getting resources into markets outside of the UAE. When I say resources, I'm not calling for manufacturers to establish scaled-down offices in each country, but to take the bull by the horns and engage with partners on a personal level. The only way that resellers can truly develop their breadth of skills and technological understanding is if a vendor has solid policies and procedures in place for transferring knowledge.
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