Friday rants: $25,000 acquisitions; 100 days too long; Dow Jones and Rupe
A few rants ahead of the weekend...
One rule of thumb in the news business is that you usually don't have to waste your time reporting a merger or acquisition where the deal value is roughly $50 million or less.
Depending on the editor each newsroom had its cut-off. For some it was $100 million. Others don't blink unless the price tag hits $500 million or so.
Apparently this rule of thumb doesn't apply to bloggers. Michael Arrington announces that TechCrunch acquired InviteShare, a newly launched site TechCrunch just profiled a few days ago. Apparently Arrington like the site so much he bought it.
I monitored the reportage on TechCrunch's acquisition via Techmeme for giggles. And then the Download Squad struck with this headline:
I just had to click. I figured Brad Linder may have missed a zero (maybe two) or something. Nope the value was $25,000.
Now TechCrunch's purchase may be the deal of the century, but did it deserve all the attention? Let's put $25,000 in perspective:
Nearly every Toyota model will cost you $25,000 or more. I can't wait to see the coverage when TechCrunch the Toyota Camry Hybrid as its corporate car.
Jerry Yang: How dare you take 100 days to figure something out!
Yahoo's earnings arrived on Tuesday and as expected they stunk. And the outlook was cut. And Jerry Yang said he was going to take 100 days to figure out Yahoo's new strategic plan.
The reaction: Why does it take 100 days to figure out what's wrong with Yahoo? After all, every blogger on the planet can give Yang a laundry list.
Om Malik asked: "Am I the only one who is wondering why he needs 100 days to review the business?"
Actually Om, we were all wondering. And we were all wrong.
Let's face it--100 days isn't that long. And Yahoo is huge. Meanwhile, there's no need to rush, screw up the fix and then require a do-over.
In other words, let's give Jerry a break--unless his strategic plan really stinks.
Rupe and Dow Jones: Will this saga end already?
As most of the planet knows Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. wants to buy Dow Jones--for $60 a share.
Instead of the Bancroft family, which controls the voting shares in Dow Jones, saying "woohoo" there has been non-stop back and forth. And to make matters worse each volley is reported. Finally, the Dow Jones board--probably as sick of the headlines as I am--approved the deal. On Monday it's up to the Bancrofts.
The sick joke here: There's no one on earth right now that will buy Dow Jones for $60 a share. And if Dow Jones really irks Rupe and he pulls out the stock will be back at $30ish before you can say "oh s--t."
So what's the holdup? Apparently editorial independence. Folks are worried that Rupe will make the Wall Street Journal look like the New York Post. I'm worried that Rupe will screw up the Journal. However, the alternatives to Rupe look much worse--the man will invest. While we're at it we should also get real here about this editorial independence worry: Does anyone worried about Rupe's editorial influence actually read the Wall Street Journal's editorial page?
Seems to me that Rupe doesn't need to influence anything. The WSJ and Rupe are already aligned on the political front.
Disclosure: I want Rupe to buy Dow Jones. Why? He use his Fox Business Channel to squash CNBC--and rid the world of vapid and sensational business coverage (Dow 14,000 countdown clocks anyone?). Just for the record I have no plans of watching the Fox Business Channel--which will probably be as vapid or worse. My advice: Watch Bloomberg TV for your business news.