From Cnnfn.com: "America Online and Time Warner's
newly completed marriage got a thumbs up from
investors Friday, a day after federal regulators finally approved
the groundbreaking merger following a year of wrangling over the
future of competition in the Internet-related services arena...
"The companies sewed up the $111 billion deal late
Thursday, shortly after the Federal Communications Commission
approved the pact, the final hurdle to creating a company with
more than $34 billion in annual revenue and a wealth of brand
name properties such as Time Magazine, Warner Brothers film studio,
CNN and the AOL Internet service...
"At a news conference announcing FCC approval, Kennard
said the three conditions imposed on open
access, instant messaging and AT&T's divestiture of Time Warner
assets were aimed at protecting consumers.
"The first ensures open access to AOL's high-speed
Internet cable lines to rival Internet service providers, and
requires that AOL allow unaffiliated ISPs to control the first
pop-up screen.
"Second, the FCC also is requiring that AOL Time Warner
open up the instant messaging platform to at least three competitors
and make it interoperable with competing messaging services.
"Lastly, regulators also are calling for AT&T (T:
Research, Estimates) to divest its stake in Time Warner Entertainment."
Read the entire story here.
From Reuters: "A planned book about a mysterious invention
said to be more important than the World Wide
Web and capable of generating fantastic riches has gripped a down-on-its-luck
technology industry in need of a miracle.
"Harvard Business School Press is said to have paid $250,000
for a book detailing 'IT,' a device code-named Ginger
that is set to be unveiled next year by millionaire inventor Dean
Kamen...
"Details of the machine are contained in a book proposal
by journalist Steve Kemper, a freelance writer for 
publications
such as Smithsonian, a popular scientific magazine for which the
author profiled Kamen in 1994...
"The invention is said to take just 10 minutes to
assemble using simple tools. Ginger machines may cost less than
$2,000 a piece when they debut in 2002, Inside.com said...
"Technology leaders like as Apple
Computer Co. co-founder Steve Jobs, Amazon.com
founder Jeff Bezos,
and top venture capitalist John Doerr are said to have been enthralled
by a demonstration of a prototype device and to have invested
millions of dollars.
"Investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston expects
that IT can generate more in its first year than any start-up
ever, which would make Kamen richer than Bill Gates within five
years, according to details of the proposal reported by Inside.com.
"Jobs reportedly predicts cities will be built around
the machines. Bezos calls the product 'revolutionary.' Kamen claims
it will transform social institutions and shake billion-dollar
companies. None of those involved, including the publisher, the
literary agent or the backers, would comment on the story."
Read the entire story here.
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First of all, thanks to BuySellBid.com's
Dave Martin for giving us the "heads-up" on this
story.
Does anyone else think that maybe, just maybe, this
won't turn out to change
all our lives? That maybe a serious business venture would
be introduced without a "medicine show?"
Has anyone heard those radio commercials for some product
called "Oscar," that's "so revolutionary,"
they can't talk about on the radio? "It's like owning
your own ATM!" Can someone explain what this product
actually is, tell me the name of one person who's become rich
with the Oscar, and why owning an ATM would be all that great
anyway?
No, we don't think that actress Tina Louise really
has anything to do with this "Ginger" thing -- it's
just that it's not every day that we get to put her photo
in RAIN.
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From the press release: "Arbitron announced that
KING-FM,
a Seattle-based Classical FM radio station, has
taken the number five spot in the October Webcast Ratings with 242,500
Aggregate Tuning Hours (ATH)—the sum total of all hours that listeners
tune to a given channel...
"Arbitron Webcast Ratings currently measures 2,233 stations
and channels, an increase of nearly 1,200 channels since September.
These channels represent more than 16,800,000 total hours of tuning
in October. Figures in this release are based on data collected
by Arbitron Webcast Ratings by Dec. 15, 2000."
Read the press release here.
As always, to see the latest Arbitron Webcast Ratings, click the
link in the left-hand menu under "Metrics."
From the press release: "New York talk radio station,
WABC-AM, reclaimed
the top spot in the MeasureCast
Internet
Radio Top 25 ranking for the week of January 1, 2001...
"While Internet radio listening was down during the
December and New Year's holidays, it rebounded during the first
week of January with listenership rising steadily as the week went
by. Wednesday, January 3, saw the largest number of Internet radio
listeners, with the Friday, January 5 audience tuning in longer."
Read the press release here.
As always, to see the latest MeasureCast rankings, click the link
in the left-hand menu under "Metrics."
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From Reuters: "Trading of
Audiohighway.com
shares was halted on Thursday after the online information and
entertainment company said it petitioned for Chapter 11 protection
in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose, Calif.
"The Cupertino, Calif., company announced in November
that it was cutting back its business operations and laying off
a substantial portion of its workforce due to a downturn in the
financial markets and the market for Internet companies (reported
here
in
RAIN)...
"The Nasdaq Stock Market halted trading in audiohighway.com
for 'additional information requested,' at a last sale price of
3/8."
Read the story
here.
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