Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

My Predictions for 2008: That There Won't Be Any From BoomTown!

Predictions, schmedictions.

misscleo

As a holiday gift to all readers, BoomTown will refrain from making any big pronouncements about what’s coming in 2008 in the tech sector, because, um, well, I have no idea what’s coming in 2008 in the tech sector. No one could have Miss Cleo-ed all the twists and turns of 2007, for certain.

moneybag

Could we have predicted a tiny start-up with negligible revenues but explosive growth could be valued at $15 billion? We swear on our Facebook profile we could not!

sacredcow

Could we have shamanized that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang would have promised there were no sacred cows at the struggling Internet giant, even though there apparently are herds of them? It’s a mooot point that we would have been unable to do so.

knitiphone

Could we have guessed that Apple stock would be up 135%? You can iTouch my iPhone if I am lying!

Could we have foreseen that a devastating writers’ strike in Hollywood would be waged over nonexistent Web revenues? It’s a tale we could not have created, even with special effects.

Could we have pontificated that Google would take on the cellphone industry? You can ring our bell, but no, ma’am.

Could we have imagined that unusually enthusiastic entrepreneur Mark Cuban would lose his step on “Dancing With the Stars”?

dancingmark

Well, OK, we figured that one out, right after watching the painful “I Dream of Jeannie” dance number, pictured here. (But then again, we were rooting for Marie Osmond.)

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald