Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from MediaFile:
Tech execs, where would you put a million dollars?
Most top technology executives are used to juggling businesses worth hundred of millions of dollars, yen or euros. But this week at the Reuters Technology Summit, we asked: if we gave you $1 million to invest anywhere -- but not in your own company -- where would you spend it?
INTERNET / STARTUPS
If you want the quick answer, I would invest it in Twitter. I'm sorry that we weren't in it. I don't know where it's going and it would be a fun ride.
-- Tim Draper, managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
I would love to work more with some of these interesting startups like kiva.org that are developing interesting and innovative ways to create micro-lending programs for folks around the world.
Sybase CEO: Call centers may become passe’
Someone stealing your identity? Using your credit card to buy a flat screen TV…in Germany? Credit card companies often catch those shopping anomalies and quickly alert you. But Sybase CEO John Chen says that increasingly you may not get a phone call asking “are you in Germany right now?”
That’s because companies are trying to save money by using new technology. So rather than staff a room full of people to call you when they detect a problem — they will automate the process. You’ll simply get a text message.
Alphabet-shaped recovery? Try bathtub-shaped
We’ve all heard discussions on what letter of the alphabet the economic recovery will look like. Will it be “V” shaped — as in, a sharp plummeting, followed by an equally sharp upswing? Or more “U” shaped — a downturn followed by a flat period before the recovery starts? Is the lightness we’re witnessing in the economy the mid-point in a more extended recovery process, mirroring the letter “W”? And heaven forbid, let’s not even think we might be stuck in an “L” shaped economy, with no near or medium-term hope of improvement.
We asked the chief executives of Sybase and Symantec, our first two guests at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, what they thought the recovery graph might look like.
Sybase isn’t voting for “American Idol”
Contrary to popular belief, the smash hit talent show “American Idol” isn’t bringing in boatloads of money for everyone involved.
So says John Chen, the chief executive of Sybase Inc, a business software maker that builds technology for both wired and wireless devices. Chen was asked at the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit whether he’d like to get the contract for “American Idol” texting, which is how TV viewers vote for their favorite performer.
