Gaddafi deals blow to laptop initiative
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has dealt a blow to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s efforts to begin mass production of millions of notebook computers for poor children in developing countries around the globe.
Last year, as formal ties between the United States and Libya were restored, OLPC Foundation founder Nicholas Negroponte announced that Gaddafi had ordered 1.2 million of the devices, making him the non-profit group’s first major customer.
Last week Nicholas Negroponte told Reuters in an exclusive interview that the Gaddafi Foundation had cut its order for the inexpensive laptops by 700,000 units to 500,000, possibly delaying the launch altogether.
Gaddafi’s decision to more than halve his order means that Negroponte is scrambling for business in other countries around the globe.
Negroponte didn’t give a reason for the change. But the dropped order came as the laptop’s price rose to $176 – from an original target of $100.
Nicholas wasn’t the only Negroponte, who was disappointed by Gaddafi. Earlier this month his brother John, who is a U.S. deputy secretary of state, traveled to Libya as the highest-ranking American official to visit the country in half a century. But he left without meeting the Libyan leader.
Prior to his trip U.S. senators had urged Negroponte to hold Gaddafi responsible for “acts of terrorism” during his visit.
No bonus, please, we’re Tribune
This one goes out to those of you who think that the suits are always out to make a killing.
Some of Tribune Co.’s top executives will limit or decline their share of a $6.5 million bonus pool, the Chicago Tribune reported on Saturday. The pool was set up to reward Trib executives who worked really hard on a transaction that will see the company go private in an $8.2 billion deal funded by a boatload of debt and financing from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. The company will be employee-owned, and is hoping to pay down its debt even as the outlook for the newspaper business worsens.
Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons already forfeited his share, but he apparently is not the only one. For at least one exec, it just didn’t seem like the right thing to do when the publisher and broadcaster is trying to thin the ranks to save its shekels.
From the article: “FitzSimons opted out of the pool, which was set up to pay $6.5 million to 32 unnamed executives if the transaction closes as planned. And the company’s latest filings show that Scott Smith, president of Tribune Publishing, has also forfeited his $400,000 bonus.”
More from the Tribune: “With Tribune going through a difficult period and ‘making tough decisions about staffing,’ [Smith] said, it would be better for him to ‘focus on what was best for the company.’”
Other execs limiting their shares: “Donald Grenesko, senior vice president for finance and administration, and John Reardon, president of Tribune Broadcasting, will receive smaller bonuses than the company indicated in an earlier filing. Grenesko will receive $400,000 instead of $600,000; Reardon will get $200,000 instead of $350,000.”
That doesn’t mean a future of penury, we should note. The pool is now worth $5.2 million and will be spread among more top executives than previously planned, the Trib reported.
XM Notes: Portables take back seat
The embattled plan to marry satellite radio outfits XM and Sirius has yielded much hyperbole about competition, monopoly, licenses and valuation. That’s left a dearth of news or discussion about the actual services, since both have been preoccupied since, say, CES.
It’s unusual, to say the least, for two companies that over the past few years engaged in a bidding war for content — from Howard Stern and Oprah, to NASCAR and Major League Baseball. Also, where are the cool new receivers?
XM Satellite gave an update during its quarterly financial conference call on Thursday:
* General Motors recently produced its 5 millionth XM-equipped vehicle * XM plans to “roll out 2 new plug-and-play radios (for cars) by mid-summer.” The company gave no other details, and did not mention any new iPod-like models, such as its Pioneer Inno from more than one year ago. * XM President Nate Davis acknowledged that there has been a dearth of new products lately, but not because of the merger — it’s all about selling what they already have and focusing more on cars.
“No, it’s not merger related. We go through a product development cycle. In the late 2005, early 2006 period we had a significant effort going to the development of affordable products. But at the same time, you know, we lost energy around plug and play. We needed to reinforce our efforts in those areas.
The reason you haven’t seen a lot of new wearable, portable market products is because we have been spending some time … moving through the inventory we have got. We have new products coming out in the time frame.
We’re not really chasing, chasing growth in the retail segment as well, knowing we had to put more of our dollars, promotional dollars, in the OEM sector, we haven’t put as much in the retail sector. So we could have put more money into that area but we really wanted to drive it into OEM because that’s growing so much.”
Mr. Schmidt goes to Washington
Google under Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has never been shy about breaking into areas you never knew the company would find interesting.
Now it’s jumping into politics. The company will spring for 40 people to attend a workshop held by the Personal Democracy Forum on May 18 at Pace University.
Here’s a description of the workshop in the forum’s own words: “The conference will feature keynote speeches and panels by prominent political and technology leaders who are using the Internet to rewrite the rules of political contests and redefining democracy. All participants at the Personal Democracy Forum will be exposed to information on how to master the political blogosphere, social networks, voter generated content including online video, raising money online and how to impact voter and constituent participation.”
The announcement comes a day after another big online player, the MySpace social network, said it would stage an online reality contest series where the winner would get $1 million to spend on a new political party, donate to a political cause or use to launch a presidential bid.
Question is, could Schmidt take the White House with $1 million?
Kutaragi to Sony: Buh-bye
Renegade Sony exec Ken “Father of the PlayStation” Kutaragi will resign from executive duties at Sony at the next shareholder meeting in mid-June, ending an era in which a new entertainment icon was born.
From the press release: “After completing the launch of PlayStation 3 worldwide, Mr. Kutaragi has decided to pursue his dreams beyond PlayStation and to accelerate his network vision.
In Kutaragi words: “I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. after introducing four platforms to the PlayStation family. It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting-edge technologies with creative minds all over the world. I’m looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavors.”
In January, the FT reported Kutaragi was working on a Sony Computer Entertainment and BandaiNamco game software joint venture called Cellius. It’s aim is to develop games for the PS3′s Cell Broadband Engine. No word on whether he’s sticking with that.
We’ll miss the straight-talker who rarely minced his words. On one occasion years ago, he once told this reporter (while working at another publication) that Sony was in talks with Apple Inc., during a bathroom break at Allen & Co.’s mogul fest in Sun Valley. In another, at a video game convention, he told us about discussion to spin off PlayStation.com (this was the Web 1.0 era).
But his hard-charging disposition was what got him into trouble eventually. At a press conference in Sept. 2006 — ahead of the PlayStation 3 launch when they were forced to halve shipments to the U.S. and Japan — he blamed Sony’s electronics division: “If we’re asked whether Sony’s quality of manufacturing has declined, I would have to say ‘yes,’” Mr. Kutaragi told reporters at the time, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Kutaragi’s straight-talk also landed him in hot water with gamers ahead of the launch of PlayStation 3, when he referred to the machine’s hefty $600 price tag as “too cheap” and suggested people would be willing to work two jobs to cope.
Can you repeat the question?
Why did Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone let one of his babies, Viacom, sue Google to high heaven for copyright infringement, and the other, CBS Corp., ink a deal with the suit’s defendant within days of each other? News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin had an interesting theory: amnesia.
“Sumner forgot that he controls both companies,” Chernin quipped, drawing laughs from the audience at the “Predicting the Future in a Fractured Media World” panel discussion at the 10th Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. “I meant that affectionately,” he added.
Meanwhile, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had this to say about U.S. President George W. Bush: “I’m a supporter of President Bush, but I do believe he is a bad, inadequate communicator.”
With friends like these …
Media server
Theres never a bad time to be a lawyer in the media business but April marked an especially good month. Just ask Warner Music Group chief Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s legal advisors:
- On April 10 Bronfman fired a lawsuit at former employer Vivendi, the French media giant charging it with cutting his pension payments by about 65 percent.
- Ten days later, on April 20 AnywhereCD, a two-week old online retailer, sued Warner Music for breach of contract. On the same day Warner Music filed an action asking the court to enforce its termination of contract with the company founded by Michael Robertson, former MP3.com founder.
- Three days later, on April 23 Bronfman was sued for $100 million by Dick Snyder, a former CEO of publisher Simon & Schuster, who claimed he was never compensated for conceiving the 2003 buyout of Warner. In a statement, Bronfmans lawyer, Orin Snyder (no relation) described Snyders claims (the other one) as absolute fiction.
- The next day, Bertelsmann, the German media giant settled with Warner for $110 million over Bertelsmanns role in funding the original Napster service.
Five suits in three weeks proves one thing. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was right. Lawsuits are just another negotiating tactic in the media industry.
Omnicom’s cool with Google-DoubleClick
Google Inc.’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. has been greeted with jeers and criticism by some digital-privacy advocates who say it will allow advertisers to collect way too much data on consumers.
Even top advertising executives — including WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell — have expressed concern over the combination.
But Omnicom Group’s CEO John Wren is one ad man who has a different take, saying the combination will be good for the industry since it’ll bring the privacy issue front and center. He even called the deal “pretty cool,” which, compared to the criticism it has taken elsewhere, sounds like a ringing endorsement.
What’s Wren thinking?
“What it’s going to raise — and this will be a very good conversation in the marketplace — are privacy concerns. The technology that exists far exceeds the laws and thinking of the people that are going to be impacted by it,” he told investors on a conference call.
Wren welcomed what he said would be a healthy debate that will ultimately clarify privacy laws when it comes to consumer information on the Internet.
“I’m encouraged by the deal, because I’m most encouraged by the discussion that the deal is going to cause the marketplace to have. Any definition will be positive for us.”
Tribune sharpens its scissors
They say the first cut is the deepest, but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt as bad. Tribune Co. plans to cut as many as 250 jobs at its two largest papers, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Up to 150 Times employees will be eligible for a voluntary buyout, while an unspecified number could find their exit less voluntary, a Times official said. Another 100 Chicago Tribune jobs will be eliminated through buyouts and layoffs, a spokeswoman for the newspaper confirmed on Monday.
Here’s what Times publisher David Hiller told employees in a memo on Monday: “We also have to look at our staffing levels again, as painful as it is, and as many times as we have done it before. The fact is we have to take actions to keep staffing in line with the revenue picture, which currently is falling in the core print business.”
And here’s an excerpt from another memo from Times editor James O’Shea: “I did not come here to preside over a decline of this great newspaper. I consider the loss of each and every journalist or employee in this company a failure. I guarantee you I have worked extremely hard to minimize any staff reduction. I will also guarantee you that I will work just as hard in the future to avoid another day like this.”
O’Shea also took a stand for the rank-and-file who have apparently been asking him about Tribune executives and the millions in bonuses they are getting for completing an $8.2 billion transaction to take the company private and larded with debt: “A number of you have asked me how we could cut jobs to save millions of dollars at a time when a group of unnamed executives will reap bonuses and stock grants worth millions when the change of ownership is complete. I cannot – and will not – defend any such bonuses. Frankly, I understand why you are angry about these plans.”
We asked Hiller about that too. Here’s his response: “I think unfortunately the way this happened is people have singled out one piece of a bonus for people who have worked hard to get a very large transaction done.”
Rockstar Steve Chen
A clearly bashful Steve Chen was mobbed by fans at the Committee of 100 conference in Manhattan last week, upstaging financial industry luminaries KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Nvidia’s Jen-Hsung Huang. In fact, the name of the guy, who co-founded the top online video destination YouTube dotted discussions of the Internet and technology throughout the conference.
So has the life of the geek turned millionaire changed since Google snapped up the company for $1.65 billion, Google’s second biggest deal ever?
When moderator ABC News correspondent Lynn Sherr put the question to him during a luncheon discussion on Saturday, he played coy. ”No, you can still catch me online at 3 a.m. The entire office still rolls in at noon.”
Sherr pressed further. Sherr: So have people who wouldn’t talk to you before, now talk to you? Especially girls. Chen: It’s a … Yes.
One person unlikely to be drawn into Chen’s newfound charisma might be the woman on the right, MTV Brasil host Daniela Cicarelli. The former model sued YouTube after someone posted a video of her having sex with her boyfriend on the service, which also inspired a Brazilian court to briefly block the service from the region. That was, of course, BEFORE the billion dollar deal.
(Chen photo: Wikipedia.org / Cicarelli photo: Reuters)
It’s all about money for girls, As a guy you will always pay for it.
