AllThingsD » domestic

AOL's Biz Dev SVP and Strategy Chief Heads to Spotify

Kara Swisher — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:19:15 +0000

Jared Grusd, AOL’s SVP of business development and chief of strategy, is leaving the New York Internet giant to work at Spotify, according to sources close to the situation.

At AOL, according to his bio, Grusd “oversees the organization responsible for all domestic and international strategic partnerships and commercial alliances for AOL and each of its operating units. He is also responsible for identifying and evaluating new corporate strategies and opportunities for the company.”

The marathon fiend and former Google exec — who held top legal-deal jobs there — also serves on AOL’s Executive Management Team.

It is not clear what the well-respected Grusd will be doing at the online music service, which has been expanding its executive ranks as it has moved aggressively into the U.S. market. But sources said it was a high-level position in New York.

Spotify recently hired former Clear Channel exec Gerrit Meier as GM of distribution and partnerships, reporting to U.S. head Ken Parks.

Spotify also just scooped up former AOL sales head Jeff Levick — another Google alum — as its chief advertising officer.

The departure of Grusd further thins out the exec ranks at AOL, which is still mired in a turnaround under the leadership of CEO Tim Armstrong (yes, he too is a former Googler!).

I lobbed a query into AOL PR for comment, and am awaiting news of my news.

Year of The Mac? How About "Years of The Mac"

John Paczkowski — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:32:18 +0000

Back in January, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster proclaimed 2010 the “Year of the Mac.” Now, with the year nearly over, it’s looking like he was right.

The latest domestic sales data from NPD shows Apple on pace to sell between 4.1 million and 4.3 million Macs in the December quarter. Which would make for another record breaker in an ever-lengthening string of them. After all, Apple’s U.S. Mac sales are up 20 percent year-over-year for the first two months of the current quarter. And with international sales growing faster than domestic, the company will likely see between 22 percent and 28 percent year-over-year growth.

If that trend continues–and with the recent refresh of the iMac and MacBook Air lines, there’s no reason to think it won’t–2011 could end up being the “Year of the Mac” as well.

A 4.3 Million Mac Quarter for Apple?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:24:03 +0000

Apple is headed toward another record-breaking quarter for Mac sales. That’s the indication from the latest NPD retail data, anyway. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster looked over NPD’s numbers for the first month of the September quarter and figures Apple is on pace to sell between 4.1 million and 4.3 million Macs during the holiday shopping binge–which is in line with Wall Street expectations of 4.2 million.

“This early data, along with our assumptions for international Mac sales, which are growing faster than domestic Mac sales, and the final 2 months of the quarter, implies (year over year) Mac unit growth of 22%-28%, in line with the Street at about 24% y/y growth,” Munster wrote, adding Apple may see an additional bump thanks to the new MacBook Air. “We note that the all new 11″ MacBook Air launched on 10/20 alongside a redesigned 13″ model, and we believe the first full month of new MacBook Airs (Nov.) could also drive unit growth in the quarter.”

Japan No Longer Home For Panasonic?

Juro Osawa — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:09:39 +0000

In Japan, if you buy a map of the world, it will probably have Japan right at the center–-with the Eurasia continent to the left, and the Americas to the right.

That’s what the world used to look like to the country’s electronics makers. But now, Panasonic Corp., like many of its Japanese peers, is drawing a new map.

“We now view Japan as just one of the regions of the world,” said President Fumio Ohtsubo at a press briefing in Tokyo last week. “We need to get rid of the notion of a ‘domestic’ market.”

As part of its new business plans announced last week, the company said it will do away with the current distinction between “domestic” and “global” segments of its consumer products marketing operations.

Even after a number of Japanese consumer electronics brands, like Sony and Panasonic, expanded globally and became household names around the world in the 1980s, Japan was always very much home turf, where they developed and manufactured most of their gadgets and appliances before shipping them overseas. And the country’s fairly large population of more than 120 million, its robust economy and the wealth of its consumers meant the domestic market was too important to ignore.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Silicon Valley, Mind Your Manners–A Squad of Intellectual Property Cops Arrive at the Justice Department

Kara Swisher — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:00:52 +0000

Let’s make short work of this: Yesterday, the Justice Department named 15 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys to the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property program, as well as 20 Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents, to police intellectual property violations, both domestic and international.

The new FBI agents nearly double the number working on copyright issues and will be part of “intellectual property squads,” located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Why all the muscle? Pressure from the entertainment industry no doubt.

Here’s the full press release from the DOJ:

Department of Justice Announces New Assistant United States Attorneys and FBI Agents to Combat Intellectual Property Crimes

WASHINGTON, April 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/–As part of the Department of Justice’s ongoing initiative to confront intellectual property (IP) crimes, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler announced today the appointment of 15 new Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) positions and 20 FBI Special Agents to be dedicated to combating domestic and international IP crimes.

These new positions–announced on the 10th annual World Intellectual Property Day–are part of the department’s continued commitment to combat the growing number of IP crimes here at home, and abroad. The new AUSA positions will be part of the department’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) program.

“Intellectual property law enforcement is central to protecting our nation’s ability to remain at the forefront of technological advancement, business development and job creation,” said Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler. “The department, along with its federal partners throughout the Administration, will remain ever vigilant in this pursuit as American entrepreneurs and businesses continue to develop, innovate and create.”

The 15 new Assistant U.S. Attorneys will work closely with the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) to aggressively pursue high tech crime, including computer crime and intellectual property offenses. The new positions will be located in California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

The 20 new FBI Special Agents announced today will be deployed to specifically augment four geographic areas with intellectual property squads, and increase investigative capacity in other locations around the country where IP crimes are of particular concern. The four squads will be located in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia. The squads will allow for more focused efforts in particular hot spot areas and increased contact and coordination with our state and local law enforcement partners. The 20 new agents will join the 31 agents devoted to investigating IP crimes who have already been deployed to field offices around the country.

“Theft of intellectual property–from inventions to trademarks and copyrights, to industrial designs and trade secrets–is a worldwide problem. It affects individuals and corporations financially and can threaten public safety. The additional FBI agents will significantly strengthen the efforts of our squads investigating intellectual property rights violations and help bring to justice those who seek to profit from intellectual property theft,” said Assistant Director Gordon M. Snow of the FBI Cyber Division.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Grindler serves as chair of the department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property, which was established earlier this year by Attorney General Eric Holder to coordinate the department’s efforts on IP crimes. The task force focuses on strengthening efforts to combat intellectual property crimes through close coordination with state and local law enforcement partners as well as international counterparts. As part of its mission, the task force works together with the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), housed in the Executive Office of the President, to implement an Administration-wide strategic plan on intellectual property.

The task force includes representatives from the offices of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, and the Associate Attorney General; the Criminal Division; the Civil Division; the Antitrust Division; the Office of Legal Policy; the Office of Justice Programs; the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee; the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and the FBI.

World Intellectual Property Day was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to recognize the importance of protecting intellectual property rights and enforcing their laws. Each year on April 26th, WIPO and its member states seek to increase public understanding of intellectual property through activities, events and campaigns.

magicJack: Cheap, Way Overhyped, But Really Works

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:06:20 +0000

When I see a high-tech product that’s advertised mainly via frequent hard-sell TV ads, as if it were a diet pill, I tend to assume it can’t be very good, especially if its price is absurdly low. So, I haven’t paid much attention to a product called magicJack, a small $40 adapter for your computer that claims to let you make unlimited domestic phone calls over the Internet with your home telephone free for a whole year—and for just $20 a year thereafter.

But after receiving reader requests to review magicJack, I decided to do so. To my surprise, it worked pretty much as advertised. It has a few drawbacks, and extra fees for added services, such as vanity phone numbers. But I found magicJack easy to set up and easy to use, and it yielded decent, if not pristine, call quality. I even tested customer support—a source of complaints online—and found it friendly, fast and responsive.

[ See post to watch video ]

MagicJack looks like an oversized USB flash drive. On one end is a standard USB connector for the PC; on the other is a standard phone jack to plug in a phone. It’s compatible with PCs running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, as well as with all Intel-based Macs. It works with both corded and cordless phones, and comes with software for dialing, though you can also dial directly from a connected phone.

The low annual fee covers calls to and from any phone on any telephone network—landline or cellphone—not just phones connected to computers or to other magicJacks. The only restriction is that the numbers called must be in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. You can also buy low-cost prepaid international minutes, or take your magicJack abroad to make free calls home. You can move it among different computers and locations.

MagicJack can also be used without a phone handset, via a computer headset or the computer’s built-in microphone and speakers.

YMAX’s magicJack

There’s nothing new about Internet phone calling. Companies like Vonage and Skype have been doing it for years. But magicJack is different. It emphasizes calling to and from phones on regular wired and wireless phone networks, and its prices for calls to and from such non-Internet-connected phones are much lower.

For instance, the lowest plan advertised on Vonage’s (VG) Web site for calling regular phones in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico is $17.99 a month, or about $216 a year, versus magicJack’s $20. And Vonage gives you only 500 minutes a month, while magicJack sets no limit. Skype charges per-minute or monthly fees for calls to regular phones and an added fee to receive incoming calls.

The maker of magicJack says its low prices are possible because the product is produced by a privately held Florida company called YMAX, which is also a phone carrier. The company also runs ads inside its software. You can buy the device at a wide variety of stores, even drugstores and convenience stores.

I tested magicJack on both a PC and a Mac. The software resides inside the magicJack itself and installs each time you connect it.

In my tests, I made and received calls on both computers, using a single landline phone and using a cordless-phone system in my house after plugging its base station into the magicJack. In the latter case, I could make and receive calls from cordless phones all over my house. I exchanged calls with both landline phones and cellphones from the magicJack.

The call quality was good, except for a few times when the connection got scratchy for a second or two. Most of the people I called said they couldn’t tell I wasn’t on a regular call. The system offers voice mail, call forwarding and conference calls, and you can save contacts.

A couple of times I didn’t get an immediate dial tone, and had to hang up and try again.

The biggest downside of the magicJack compared with regular phone service is that you have to be running an Internet-connected computer, with a magicJack installed anytime you want to make or receive calls. Also, as with all Internet phone systems, you have to register your address with 911 emergency systems.

With magicJack, you get a new phone number. The company says it is working on allowing you to port your existing landline number. You can keep your landline number for use on some phones or when you’re not using magicJack.

I found magicJack worked better on Windows than on the Mac. At one point, magicJack customer support had to send me software to patch the Mac version. But the company claims it is fixing that with a new Mac version coming soon.

YMAX also says it plans to roll out this year a Skype-like service that won’t require any magicJack hardware, just a PC or an iPhone. It also plans a new version of magicJack to turn cellphones into wireless magicJack handsets.

I don’t know if those diet pills in the TV ads work. But magicJack does.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Microsoft Says It's Done Buying Search. Writing Big Checks for Search? Different Story.

Peter Kafka — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:23:05 +0000

Because it’s her job, a Reuters reporter asked Steve Ballmer today if he’s planning to make any big, splashy M&A deals to boost his search business. And because it’s the truth, the Microsoft CEO said, no, he probably isn’t. Actual quote: “No, I wouldn’t expect it.”

What else would you expect Ballmer to say? Now that Microsoft (MSFT) has got its hands on Yahoo’s (YHOO) search business–without paying a “boatload” for it–there isn’t a whole lot left to buy.

Emphasis on the word “buy.” Microsoft may still be willing to write a big check to boost its search share, specifically to get its hands on queries controlled by Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL, which has about three percent of the domestic search market.

AOL currently outsources its queries to Google (GOOG) in a deal that is said to make quite a bit of money for both sides of the table because AOL’s core user base tends to click through at a much higher rate than the rest of the Web. But AOL’s Google contract is expiring, and both Mountain View and Redmond are thought to be in hot pursuit of a new one. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, though, is taking his time about his decision.

Also in the potential mix for Microsoft: A deal with News Corp. (NWS), which owns this site. Google’s $900 million search deal with News Corp.’s MySpace and IGN sites expires next year, but unlike the AOL deal, it has been a disappointment for Google.

It’s hard to imagine Ballmer spending much to wrest that one away, but News Corp. digital boss Jon Miller is doing what he can to drum up interest: He’s been talking up the idea of bundling multiple News Corp. properties–like, say, Dow Jones–into a larger deal. But since many of those properties have their own particular agreements and peculiarities, that’s going to take some doing.

NPD: Mac Sales Up Seven Percent, iPod Sales Down 16 Percent

John Paczkowski — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:15:37 +0000

Apple’s September quarter is shaping up to be a good one, if the latest metrics from NPD as reported by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster are any indication.

According to the research outfit, Mac sales for July and August are up seven percent year-over-year. If this proves true, Apple (AAPL) should sell somewhere around 2.75 and 2.8 million Macs in the quarter, which would match or slightly exceed Wall Street consensus estimates. IPod sales should meet estimates as well, though NPD reports that year-over-year sales during July and August were down 16 percent.

Munster figures Apple will sell 9.5 million to 10.5 million iPods for the quarter. The Street is looking for 10 million, and with the launch of the newest nano, Apple will likely meet this goal.

“We are expecting reacceleration in the final month of the quarter given the new iPod nanos that shipped on 9/9,” Munster explained. “Also, iPod international is growing faster than domestic. In other words, we believe the actual reported numbers for iPod will be slightly better than NPD would suggest.”

Mac Shipments Up. Also, Mac Shipments Down.

John Paczkowski — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:26:48 +0000

Domestic Mac shipments for the second quarter of 2009 rose to 1.422 million, a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase.

Or, they fell to 1.2 million, a decline of 12.4 percent.

All depends on whom you believe, Gartner or IDC. According to Gartner, Apple has an 8.7 percent share of the U.S. market. According to IDC, that share is 7.6 percent. In a quarter that saw overall PC shipments in the U.S. decline 1.2 percent or three percent, that’s either pretty damn good or troubling, again depending on whom you believe.

Good thing both firms describe these estimates as “preliminary,” right?

Anyway, according to Gartner’s preliminary data, Apple (AAPL) maintained its position as the nation’s fourth-largest computer maker in the second quarter, ranking between Acer and Toshiba. According to IDC, it dropped to fifth, one spot above the dreaded “All Other Vendors” segment.

So what are we to make of this? A disparity of more than 200,000 units between the the Q2 domestic Mac shipment estimates of two top market research outfits? Is it a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Or a 12.4 percent year-over-year decrease?

I have no idea. And clearly, Gartner (IT) and IDC (IDC) don’t either. Best to just wait until next Tuesday when Apple announces definitive sales figures during its third-quarter earnings.

Insert Bad "Wi-Fli" Pun Here…

John Paczkowski — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:39:46 +0000

American Airlines (AMR) domestic passenger jets are fast becoming a fleet of airborne Wi-Fi hotspots. After a successful six-month pilot program on 15 planes, the airline will expand its in-flight Wi-Fi service to 300 more over the next two years.

Provided by Aircell, the service will cost laptop users $9.95 for flights of less than three hours and $12.95 for longer flights. Travelers using Internet-ready handsets will pay $7.95 regardless of the length of their flight. And make no mistake, the data show they will pay. Apparently, $10 is a pittance for distraction when you’re trapped in a center seat on a packed flight with “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” as your only in-flight entertainment.

“[People are] working, they’re doing their e-mail, they’re going into their corporate networks, they’re going to their Facebook page, they’re Twittering, they’re doing YouTube and other video sites, but they’re in fact doing more of it,” Aircell CEO Jack Blumenstein told the Dallas Morning News. “The data shows that people use almost twice as much of data during the course of a session and stay on almost twice as long as when they’re at a hotel or a hotspot on the ground. People clearly are engaged by it when they’re flying.”

[Image credit: Flickr/Bekathwia]

Insert Bad "Wi-Fli" Pun Here…

John Paczkowski — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:39:46 +0000

[Image credit: Flickr/Bekathwia]

Tribune Files for Chapter 11; Who's on the Hook?

Peter Kafka — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:07:36 +0000

As predicted, Sam Zell’s Tribune Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the company’s initial filing, it lists assets of $7.6 billion and $12.9 billion in liabilities.

Much of that debt belongs to big banks, of course–J.P. Morgan (JPM) has more than $1 billion by itself. But Tribune (TXA) owes lots (though much smaller amounts) of money to lots of media companies, too–mostly dollars that the company’s TV stations owe various studios.

Here’s who’s on the hook:

Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros. Television: $23.7 million
News Corp.’s (NWS) Twentieth Television: $8.1 million
Disney’s (DIS) Buena Vista Entertainment: $6.2 million
GE’s (GE) NBCU Domestic TV: $4.9 million
Sony’s (SNE) Sony Pictures Television: $2.2 million
Nielsen Media Research: $1.9 million
Viacom’s (VIA) Paramount Pictures: $1.69 million

Here’s the complete filing (click button on top right to enlarge):
Tribune’s Bankruptcy Filing

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business samuel zell tribune