SHARING://Tips for WSJ and NYT readers

The New York Times recently had a deal with Answers.com. It allows an online reader to see dictionary information on any word by pressing alt + click. It even scans adjacent words to make sure the information is relevant (in case of homonyms). Pretty neat.

I'm not sure if a similiar service of the online Wall Street Journal is common knowledge. Select a word and right-mouseclick it, and you'll see related WSJ-articles.

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION://Trading, 4G, place-shifting and wVoIP

Check out my Dutch language client facing blog. I try to focus more on stocks in my universe, but this post on disruptive innovation is a little bit outside that realm.

UPDATE://Shared service and leverage, telco/B2B convergence

Short updates on two previous posts:

Shared services: operators in India call for the establishment of a single "entity to lay the most modern and scaleable infrastructure and allow other operators to ride on that infrastructure".
A comparable idea (however different) is coming from BT: a BT Consultancy to help other operators build an all-IP NGN, to put some leverage on BT's 21CN efforts.

Telco/B2B consolidation: how about KPN + Wolters Kluwer? KPN is launching KlasseTV (Classroom TV) consisting of video clips supporting K-12 education.

MONETISATION://Divide and conquer Yahoo! and Google

It's a sellers' market. Top internet sites (MySpace, YouTube, AOL, eBay, Amazon, iTunes) attract interest from Google, Yahoo! and others to provide services and monetisation efforts. As these are potential competitors, the favored strategy is: divide and conquer.

• eBay: alliances with both Yahoo! (US) and Google (non-US) for paid search etc.
• CurrentTV: Google provides statistics and Al Gore is a Google advisor. However, the video deal went to Yahoo!.
• MySpace: Google for ads, eBay is rumoured to be partner for ecommerce and payments.
• Apple: Google is the search engine in the Safari browser, Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board. So, it looks like it will be Yahoo!, not Google, to win the video deal.

SHARED SERVICES://Wholesale operations in diverse industries

Shared services form an interesting link between telecoms, internet and media companies.

• Telecom: wholesale services, structural separation, network services. See BT Openreach or perhaps Telecom Italia. Also, OPTA is considering how the new All-IP network that KPN plans is best opened to the competition. Any outcome is possible: resellers only, double street cabinets, structural separation or an Australia style joint effort from altnets aimed at a new FTTN (KPN style) or FTTH network (Verizon or Iliad style).
• Internet: see my previous post on Amazon.com. And to take this one step further: what could Google do with its massive server network? EBay is doing a little by providing infrastructure to the e-Media Exchange initiative from the advertising community for buying media.
• Media: Switzerland Inc was suggested for the newspaper industry. Also, in this artcle a Publishing Cooperative is suggested for society publishers.

Wholesale services are a growing activity (even at a telco like BT) or a new source of revenue, albeit at a relatively low margin.

WEB SERVICES://More wholesale store services from Amazon.com

Amazon extends the leverage on its infrastructure by adding two services for SMEs (both in beta):

• Fulfillment by Amazon (handling fee 0.50 $/item + 0.40 $/pound + storage fee 0.45 $/cubic foot/mo)
• WebStore by Amazon (commission 7% + 60 $/mo)

From the release:

Fulfillment by Amazon frees online sellers from the time and money required to store, pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for the products they sell online. Businesses simply send their products to an Amazon fulfillment center where Amazon stores and sends those products to customers who order them on Amazon.com or the business's WebStore. Amazon will also manage post-order customer service such as customer returns and refunds for businesses that use Fulfillment by Amazon. WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create their own privately branded e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Businesses can choose from a variety of website layout options and can customize their sites using their own photos and branding.

ENABLING DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION://India in WiMAX, Gates in OA publishing

Two very diverse forms of enabling (potentially disruptive) innovation, WiMAX and open access scientific journal publishing. Kind of significant developments, because India is a large market and because Bill Gates has quite a few dollars.

• India has finally shortlisted a number of frequency bands for WiMAX. This could bring deployments closer in a country that is specifically suited for the technology (low fixed line penetration, large rural areas, high economic growth).
• The Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation donated $1.1m to a new PLoS journal (PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases). That is backing from a deep pocketed source.

FTTH://Grass roots initiative in the Netherlands

Planet Multimedia reports the launch of Stichting Glazenkamp (a pun on the Hazenkamp area of the city of Nijmegen and the Dutch word for fiber i.e. glas), a non-profit, supported by the city of Nijmegen, Radboud University and Surfnet.

So, no telco, no city, but a grass roots start-up.

The interesting parts of the story:

• Bit rates are very high, at an average of 94 Mbps.
• 28 Homes are connected and the target is 2500.
• The organisation claims its success depends less on scale than on concentration and social cohesion of the participants. There will be no call-centers but instead the inhabitants will take care of issues themselves. Full roll-out depends on at least 50% taking part.
• The network is open for service providers.
• It piggybacks on the TeleMANN network of Nijmegen's Radboud University, supplying fiber connections to students in a nearby area, which buried some extra ducts.

CONSOLIDATION://KPN takes out another DSL rival

KPN buys another rival ISP in the Netherlands, this time Tiscali NL. Its market share will rise by 5 pp to 44%.

Observations:

• At 44% KPN is not yet at regulatory risk, but OPTA will be alerted. KPN is quietly trying to buy a DSL monopoly.
• The price seems low, at 5.1 x EBITDA 2006 v. 8.1 for Tiscali as a whole. KPN pays EUR 255m = 21% of the total EV (which obviusly includes a takeover premium) for 13% of the total revenues and 36% of the total EBITDA. On the other hand, Tiscali has no standalone future, so KPN might have waited a little longer. And the Netherlands is among the most mature of its operations (LLU coverage 60% v. 18% in the UK and 40% in Italy).
• KPN outsmarts France Telecom (which should be strengthening its new Orange operations), Telecom Italia (which should be adding a retail operation to bbned, which would not be for sale anymore, but everything is uncertain now in Italy) and Tele2 (which should not stop adding scale, after the Versatel acquisition). Of course, the Netherlands is a small place for those big guys, but they should not allow KPN to make this kind of deals.
• Tiscali will update its Business Plan during the week of October 9. They seem committed to the UK and Italy. Consolidation is continuing.

SPECULATION://Telco + B2B media

If telcos (BT, KPN) are so keen on expanding in health IT services, and telcos want to be in the media business all over again (Telecom Italia), then what is next: BT buying the Health unit of Reed Elsevier?
No wait, a full merger of BT Global and Reed Elsevier!