The Startup Channel

Screen Shot 2013-02-28 at 6.40.46 AMWe interrupt this book for a quick update on what’s happening in my so-called career. Shortly before beginning this serialization of Accidental Empires I explained that I would be doing some new projects including a book and a startup about startups – The Startup Channel (thestartupchannel.net). The latter project will now launch in April so it’s time to explain.

The Startup Channel will be an online video channel about startups and startup people. You’ll find it probably on YouTube unless some other Internet video outfit makes me a better offer (hint, hint). We’ll be launching with 40 hours of pre-produced content, which is a lot for online video where the […]


By |February 28th, 2013|2013, Advertising, Breaking News, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Industry, Internet, Media, Social Media, Startups, Television, Venture Capital|13 Comments
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Apple's challenges require leaving Steve Jobs behind

new_apple_campusThis is the second of two columns about the future of Apple. My last column looked at Apple’s immediate challenges in the iPhone business, while this one looks at the company’s mid-to-long term prospects and how best to face them. The underlying question is whether Apple has peaked as a company, but I think the more proper way to put it is how must Apple change in order to continue to grow?

Even as some analysts are downgrading Apple based on reported cancellation of component orders, saner heads have been crunching the numbers and realized that Apple still has a heck of an iPhone business. So if you are a trader I […]


By |January 17th, 2013|2013, Business, Companies, Computing, Gadgets, Internet, Media, Movies, Music, Phones, Software, Tablets, Technology, Television|70 Comments
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Apple’s challenges require leaving Steve Jobs behind

new_apple_campusThis is the second of two columns about the future of Apple. My last column looked at Apple’s immediate challenges in the iPhone business, while this one looks at the company’s mid-to-long term prospects and how best to face them. The underlying question is whether Apple has peaked as a company, but I think the more proper way to put it is how must Apple change in order to continue to grow?

Even as some analysts are downgrading Apple based on reported cancellation of component orders, saner heads have been crunching the numbers and realized that Apple still has a heck of an iPhone business. So if you are a trader I […]


By |January 17th, 2013|2013, Business, Companies, Computing, Gadgets, Internet, Media, Movies, Music, Phones, Software, Tablets, Technology, Television|70 Comments
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Silicon Valley conquers Hollywood, part 3 — think small, not big

Some readers of my last column in this series seem to think it was just about the movie business but it wasn’t. It was about the recorded entertainment industry, which includes movies, broadcast and cable television, video games, and derivative works. It’s just that the movie business — like the mainframe computer business — learned these lessons first and so offers fine examples.

Whether from Silicon Valley or Seattle, technology companies see video entertainment as a rich market to be absorbed. How can Hollywood resist? The tech companies have all the money. Between them Amazon, Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft have $300 billion in cash and no debt — enough capital to buy anything. Apple all by itself could buy the entire entertainment industry, though […]


By |January 4th, 2013|2013, Business, Industry, Internet, Media, Movies, Technology, Television|91 Comments
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Silicon Valley conquers Hollywood, part 2 — There’s no business like show business

theproducersA friend of mine who is a securities lawyer in New York worked on the 1985 sale of 20th Century Fox by Marvin Davis to Rupert Murdoch. He led a group of New York attorneys to Los Angeles where they spent weeks going over contracts for many Fox films. What they found was that with few exceptions there were no contracts. There were signed letters of intent (agreements to agree) for pictures budgeted at $20-$50 million but almost no actual contracts. Effectively business was being done, movies were being made, and huge sums of money were being transferred on a handshake. That’s how Hollywood tends to do business and it doesn’t go down very well […]


By |January 3rd, 2013|2013, Internet, Media, Movies, Technology, Television|33 Comments
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Silicon Valley conquers Hollywood, part 2 — There's no business like show business

theproducersA friend of mine who is a securities lawyer in New York worked on the 1985 sale of 20th Century Fox by Marvin Davis to Rupert Murdoch. He led a group of New York attorneys to Los Angeles where they spent weeks going over contracts for many Fox films. What they found was that with few exceptions there were no contracts. There were signed letters of intent (agreements to agree) for pictures budgeted at $20-$50 million but almost no actual contracts. Effectively business was being done, movies were being made, and huge sums of money were being transferred on a handshake. That’s how Hollywood tends to do business and it doesn’t go down very well […]


By |January 3rd, 2013|2013, Internet, Media, Movies, Technology, Television|33 Comments
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In the land of the blind Krikorian could become king

krikorianThis may seem like a distraction from my theme of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but please stick with me for a moment as we consider the fate of Blake Krikorian who is best known for the Slingbox and now seems to be selling his current company, the awkwardly named Id8 Group R2 Studios, Inc.. I think Krikorian’s career arc and our fascination with it give some insight into the whole tech-vs-Hollywood theme, showing how aimless and confused are some of these big technology companies.

The post I read that got me thinking in this direction came from Kara Swisher at allthingsd.com, which is part of the Wall Street Journal. Krikorian is reportedly selling his […]


By |January 1st, 2013|2013, Business, Companies, Internet, Media, Movies, Technology, Television|54 Comments
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Silicon Valley conquers Hollywood 2013 — Setting the scene

winter-is-comingI wrote here nearly a year ago that there would be no more annual lists of predictions and I’m sticking to that. I’m trying to retire, remember? The ads are gone, you might notice, and with them my income. But I’m not out the door quite yet and have time for a series of columns on what I think will be an important trend in 2013 — the battle for Hollywood and home entertainment.

The players here, with some of them coming and some of them going, are Amazon and Apple and Cisco and Google and Intel and Microsoft and maybe a few more. The battleground comes down to platforms and content and will, by 2015 […]


By |December 29th, 2012|2012, Internet, Media, Movies, Technology, Television|67 Comments
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YouTube might be the best place to watch the Olympics (if it doesn’t break)

Update at 7:00PM Saturday – It’s the speed of the PC. A dual-core 2-GHz iMac is jerky while a 2-GHz four-core I7 Mac Mini runs fine. A 2.4-GHz AMD four-core PC running Windows 7 Professional runs fine, too.  But I can’t watch the Olympics on a 2 GHz iMac, a 2 GHz Mac Mini, or my mid-2010 MacBook Pro (also 2-GHz). All three computers have two cores and are at their max RAM. Yes, I can slow down the connection, but anything above 360p clearly has problems (240p is best) and this on a 25 mbps Internet connection. Understand that in each case I’m starting with the resolution setting on “auto,” so […]


By |July 28th, 2012|2012, Breaking News, Internet, Media, Technology, Television|46 Comments
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YouTube might be the best place to watch the Olympics (if it doesn't break)

Update at 7:00PM Saturday – It’s the speed of the PC. A dual-core 2-GHz iMac is jerky while a 2-GHz four-core I7 Mac Mini runs fine. A 2.4-GHz AMD four-core PC running Windows 7 Professional runs fine, too.  But I can’t watch the Olympics on a 2 GHz iMac, a 2 GHz Mac Mini, or my mid-2010 MacBook Pro (also 2-GHz). All three computers have two cores and are at their max RAM. Yes, I can slow down the connection, but anything above 360p clearly has problems (240p is best) and this on a 25 mbps Internet connection. Understand that in each case I’m starting with the resolution setting on “auto,” so […]


By |July 28th, 2012|2012, Breaking News, Internet, Media, Technology, Television|46 Comments
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