A long-delayed analysis of Microsoft’s most-recent earnings, which gives color to the company’s recent acquisition of Xamarin, and why the future is looking bright.
WhatsApp Drops Subscription Fee, Messaging’s Monetization Potential, GM Acquires Sidecar Remnants
WhatsApp unsurprisingly dropped their subscription fee and, paradoxically, increased the services value. There are much better ways to monetize messaging. Plus, why it doesn’t matter what car makers do.
Marriott Acquires Starwood, Online Travel Agents and Aggregation, Surviving as an Incumbent
The impact of the Internet continues to reverberate: in this case, there is a clear link between Aggregation Theory and the tie-up between Marriott and Starwood.
Activision Blizzard Buys King Digital, EA and the Disruption Narrative, Apple TV Gaming
Activision Blizzard is buying King, the makers of Candy Crush Saga; the mobile games maker is probably worth more to a company like Activision Blizzard than they are by themselves. Plus, both EA and Activision Blizzard beat earnings expectations — does that mean the gaming disruption narrative is wrong?
Meituan-Dianping Merge in China, Facebook Messenger’s Business Model, Facebook and Teens
China’s O2O market is in the consolidation phase, and the competition is fierce. That, though, helps highlight why an advertising business model is sometimes so attractive, like, for example, the one that Facebook has. Plus, why the “Facebook has a problem with teens” narrative really isn’t a big deal
AWS Re:invent, Pure Storage IPOs, Dell to Buy EMC; Enterprise Disruption; Dell’s Logic
Three news events from last week — Amazon’s AWS conference, the Pure Storage IPO, and Dell’s plan to buy EMC — make for a text case of disruption in all its forms.
Okta is a Unicorn, BlackBerry Acquires Good Technologies
Okta is an important company in part because what their existence says about Microsoft’s challenges in the enterprise space. Plus, Blackberry acquires Good Technology, making them the market leader in device management.
Airbnb’s Externalities, Sharing and Culture, PayPal Acquires Xoom
Yesterday’s discussion of Airbnb was in part focused on the broader implications of the sharing economy. Truthfully, though, Airbnb deserves more attention for its externalities — it is in many ways more radical than Uber. It’s also not clear it will work in every culture.
Then, a brief discussion of Paypal and Xoom and how different degrees of trust require different types of business models.
Daum Kakao Buys Path, Amazon’s Funnel, More from Mary Meeker
Messaging apps are great examples of the power of funnels, and of how difficult they are to build. Meanwhile, Amazon expands and leverages theirs, plus my five favorite Mary Meeker slides.
Semiconductors and Industry Cycles, Deals Galore, Intel to Acquire Altera
After a brief follow-up to my Google I/O Daily Update, I dive into the history of semiconductors and how it fits the traditional industry cycle. Then, an overview of recent transactions and how they fit in.