Comcast is going after Disney, which has created big buzz in the newspapers (Los Angeles Times — San Francisco Chronicle — San Jose Mercury — Los Angeles Daily News — Wall Street Journal — Washington Post) but not that much on the blogs, except for Tim Oren’s savage attack:
Let’s keep this short and sweet. Anyone thinking they are going to merge a content business and a network transport business and add value hasn’t been paying attention for at least ten years.
Tim’s stating the conventional wisdom, of course, but at some point the technology and the marketing will be advanced to the point that a merger like this one is actually going to work. Comcast has a vehicle for delivering pay-per-view, customized programming that the satellite companies and the Internet can’t match, and Disney’s got content, so if this merger goes through and Comcast promotes new services, it may actually turn out to be something. Comcast has a former Disney guy on board, and I suspect he’s got some more specific ideas in mind than the loons at AOL had when they scooped up Time Warner. I’m not ready to poo-poo this deal myself.
Personally, I had a great time in Austin and did some good work in Hillsboro, so life is good.
I wish I’d known — I would have bought you a breakfast taco or something.