Business – Page 4 – Richard Bennett

Ericsson buys Redback

Now here’s a “holy mother of god” moment: Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s agreement to buy Redback Networks Inc. for $2.1 billion reflects how the explosion in video and other multimedia services over the Internet and a surge in broadband subscribers are driving phone and cable companies to upgrade their networks and spurring big makers of … Continue reading “Ericsson buys Redback”

Now here’s a “holy mother of god” moment:

Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s agreement to buy Redback Networks Inc. for $2.1 billion reflects how the explosion in video and other multimedia services over the Internet and a surge in broadband subscribers are driving phone and cable companies to upgrade their networks and spurring big makers of networking hardware to unite.

Ericsson, a Swedish provider of equipment and services for telecommunications infrastructure, said it will pay holders of the Silicon Valley seller of routing equipment $25 a share, or 18% more than Redback’s share price before the announcement. Ericsson characterized the price as a 60% premium above the 90-day average for Redback stock.

The companies said the deal will make them more effective suppliers for the fast-moving market. It also could help Redback contend with larger competitors such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc.

At the end of the day, don’t the phone companies always buy the Internet companies?

In their own words

Occasionally, we run across someone who claims the New York Time lacks a liberal editorial slant, and we find that bewildering. In the announcement of Gail Collins’ retirement as editor of the editorial pages, the Times acknowledges it: The Times editorial page has long been regarded as one of the most liberal within the mainstream … Continue reading “In their own words”

The Times editorial page has long been regarded as one of the most liberal within the mainstream media, and the change at the top is expected to continue that outlook.

It seems to me that this should clear up the confusion.

Political Punch

Commenting on former President Clinton’s psychic meltdown on Fox News Sunday, MSM figure Jake Tapper finds Clinton is fibbing again. Here’s what Newt Gingrich said about the Osama bombings: “I think the president did exactly the right thing,” said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said. “By doing this we’re sending the signal there are no … Continue reading “Political Punch”

Commenting on former President Clinton’s psychic meltdown on Fox News Sunday, MSM figure Jake Tapper finds Clinton is fibbing again. Here’s what Newt Gingrich said about the Osama bombings:

“I think the president did exactly the right thing,” said House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said. “By doing this we’re sending the signal there are no sanctuaries for terrorists.” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) called the attacks “appropriate and just,” and House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) said “the American people stand united in the face of terrorism.”

And that was the typical Republican response. It was the MSM that pushed the “wag-the-dog” scenario, not the Republicans, with the exception of crazy John Ashcroft and Dan Coats of Indiana.

Microsoft going nuts

This whole Bill Gates stepping down thing is totally weird: In a press conference held Thursday after the stock markets had closed for regular trading, Gates announced that over the next two years he will gradually step away from his daily responsibilities at the company he co-founded some 30 years ago. Microsoft’s Chief Technical Officer … Continue reading “Microsoft going nuts”

This whole Bill Gates stepping down thing is totally weird:

In a press conference held Thursday after the stock markets had closed for regular trading, Gates announced that over the next two years he will gradually step away from his daily responsibilities at the company he co-founded some 30 years ago.

Microsoft’s Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will immediately assume the title of chief software architect,

Gate has admired Ozzie for a long time, for reasons never clear to anybody but himself. Ozzie created Lotus Notes (“Usenet with pictures”) and a gruesome Notes clone called Groove. If Ozzie’s vision replaces Gates’, Microsoft surely will go into the dumper.

The two-year transition plan bears close watching. My guess is that before two years is up Gates will change his mind and realize he needs to stick around.

The stock is basically flat since the announcement, I’m guessing Wall St. doesn’t believe it either.

Jeff Jarvis, the guy who wants the FCC to regulate the Internet but not TV, comments at the Guardian’s site:

Gates was merely the best businessman ever born. He was ruthless. But capitalism is ruthless. It is a system. And it is that system – not his operating systems – that made Gates so damned big. Gates was not an inventor and innovator and I’ll argue that – his prognosticating books aside – he was no visionary. He was an exploiter.

…and I respond:

When I first met Bill Gates he was head of a 12 man company struggling to find buyers for BASIC (and that counts the part-timers and contractors.) He struggled and fought to get where he is.

His legacy is actually very simple: a computer on every desk. (And also: in every briefcase, and soon in every living room.) It’s an awesome legacy, and nobody should try and diminish it with sour grapes, class envy, or basic stupidity.

When he had to, he wrote original code; when he could, he bought code from others (MS DOS was bought from Seattle Computer, where it was called SB-86); and when he absolutely needed to, he created hardware such as the cute little ergonomic keyboards and mice that are the best in the business today.

Is the software perfect? Of course not, it never is, but it’s a several steps above Linux and in stability and hardware support, and massively more popular than the boutique Mac OS.

Microsoft has so many bitter critics that it doesn’t get the credit it should. Word for DOS was light-years ahead of Wordstar, and a direct descendant of the word processors its architect Charles Simonyi had build for Xerox and at UC Berkeley. Windows was designed by the same guy, according to methods he’d devised at Xerox again. Apple’s Mac and Lisa were stolen from the same lab.

Gates’ genius was in part the recognition that software doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful, but it does have to strive to out-perform the competition one way or another.

But it was also in part the recognition that any opportunity that he didn’t grab would be taken by somebody else, sooner or later.

I’m not convinced we’ve seen the last of Bill Gates. The anointed successors aren’t half the man he is between the whole lot of them, and I can’t see him sailing off into the sunset to sip drinks with umbrellas in them while there are so many fun new things to do with computers that would otherwise not have his name on them.

If this is the end of the road for Gates, the computer business will be the poorer.

Apple goes Windows

This had to happen: Turning a decades-long rivalry on its head, Apple Computer introduced software today that it says will easily allow users to install Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system on Apple’s newest computers. The software, Boot Camp, is available as a free download on Apple’s Web site and will be part of the next … Continue reading “Apple goes Windows”

This had to happen:

Turning a decades-long rivalry on its head, Apple Computer introduced software today that it says will easily allow users to install Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system on Apple’s newest computers.

The software, Boot Camp, is available as a free download on Apple’s Web site and will be part of the next version of Apple’s operating system, Leopard. It works on Apple’s three lines of computer that run on Intel chips — the Mac mini, the iMac and the MacBook Pro.

I told you so (and so did John Dvorak).

So what’s happening here? Easy, Apple has realized they’re now an MP3 company and not a computer company. So it makes no sense to spend as much as they do on OS development for their computers when they have low-cost alternatives. One way they could go is to Linux, but it’s got so many warts it’s not worth the bother, so the default choice is Windows. Now what happens if Apple packages all their software for Windows, but it just works better on their hardware than anybody else’s? They sell a bunch of hardware, and they sell a bunch of software, so everybody’s happy, including Microsoft and Intel.

What’s the hang-up? It’s interesting to note that Media Center won’t run on the Apple hardware. That should be a gigantic clue to what comes next.

Moving on up

Matt Welch, the man who invented the Warblog, has moved into the Big House with a shiny new job editing the opinion pages at the LA Times. He’s going to be shaping the national political dialog: I’ll be helping shape the section; editing and writing both columns and editorials, hopefully bringing some new voices to … Continue reading “Moving on up”

Matt Welch, the man who invented the Warblog, has moved into the Big House with a shiny new job editing the opinion pages at the LA Times. He’s going to be shaping the national political dialog:

I’ll be helping shape the section; editing and writing both columns and editorials, hopefully bringing some new voices to paper, and cooking up new schemes in the steamrooms under Spring Street. I’ll have the pleasure of working for a smart editor I have a great deal of faith in, Andres Martinez.

And not only is he free from the stifling politically correct conformity of Reason Magazine’s Burning Man crowd, he’ll get to be a frequent object of the wrath of assistant DA and petty Times-hater Patterico Frey.

This is definitely a step forward for civilization.

Housing bubble bursting

New home sales declined 11.3% last month, the biggest drop in more than a decade: WASHINGTON — New-home sales posted the biggest fall in nearly 12 years last month, while a strong surge in the volatile aircraft sector boosted demand for expensive manufactured goods. Amid mounting interest rates, sales of single-family homes decreased 11.3% to … Continue reading “Housing bubble bursting”

New home sales declined 11.3% last month, the biggest drop in more than a decade:

WASHINGTON — New-home sales posted the biggest fall in nearly 12 years last month, while a strong surge in the volatile aircraft sector boosted demand for expensive manufactured goods.

Amid mounting interest rates, sales of single-family homes decreased 11.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.245 million, the Commerce Department said Friday. The plunge was the deepest since sales fell 23.8% in January 1994. Wall Street expected an 8.7% slide.

“The sharp drop in new home sales may be the first sign that the housing market is finally hitting a wall even if the level is still decent,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland, Pa…

The Commerce report on new home sales showed inventories climbed to a record last month, while prices tumbled. The average price of a home decreased to $283,300, down from a revised $290,600 in October. There were an estimated 503,000 homes for sale at the end of November, a record high. That represented a 4.9 months’ supply at the current sales rate — the highest since 5.0 in December 1996.

There have been other signs the housing market is cooling after years of climbing prices and brisk construction activity. For instance, U.S. existing-home sales in October fell 2.7%. Financing costs have been creeping upward. Freddie Mac data show the average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.33% in November, the highest monthly level since 6.49% in July 2002.

Excellent.

Cost of Fitzgerald investigation

One of the crazy factoids that’s buzzing around the left side of the blogosphere says that Fitzgerald’s investigation into the Joe Wilson matter only cost $723,000. It’s been on Daily Kos and 30 other blogs, and widely used by Air Hysteria’s hosts. It’s based on a sloppy reading of a story in the Washington Post: … Continue reading “Cost of Fitzgerald investigation”

In its first 15 months, the investigation cost $723,000, according to the Government Accountability Office.

But it’s not true.

GAO does report on some of the expenditures of Special Counsels, but their reports don’t come out for a year after the expenditures are made. Every six months, they issue a report on the expenditures that were made in a six month period ending six months before the report, so we don’t have figures for the past year.

The reports that we do have are pretty sketchy, as they don’t include all the personnel costs associated with government employees, like Fitzgerald himself, for example.

Fitzgerald started in Dec. 03, and the report for the period ending Mar 04 shows personnel costs of only $13,330. That’s one cheap lawyer.

In the next six months, ending Sept 2004, Fitzgerald got his operation ramped-up and charged $584,899, again exclusive of certain personnel costs for government employees.

In the next half-year, Fitzgerald charged $112,550 plus an additional $35,195 for Justice Department lawyers and an unspecified amount for FBI investigators:

Also, certain costs were incurred by detailees from the Federal Bureau of Investigation involved in the investigation but the associated costs were not readily identifiable. Such costs of detailees are not reflected in the statement of expenditures

So that’s already $759,236 not counting FBI agents and anything that happened since March of this year. Certainly, the costs are in the millions already, but we won’t know the basics for a year, and even though we won’t know the whole story. One thing is clear, however: the costs of this investigation are already a lot more than the figure used by the Kossacks.

And yes, this type of investigation is cheaper than Ken Starr’s, but no more substantial.

Kaus on the Judybats

Mickey Kaus is kind enough to answer the question we posed yesterday on the press obsession with Judy Miller. with six reasons. First on the list echoes what we said yesterday: a) Treason: Miller wasn’t just perceived as in cahoots with neocons in foisting the war off onto the public. She was doing it from … Continue reading “Kaus on the Judybats”

Mickey Kaus is kind enough to answer the question we posed yesterday on the press obsession with Judy Miller. with six reasons. First on the list echoes what we said yesterday:

a) Treason: Miller wasn’t just perceived as in cahoots with neocons in foisting the war off onto the public. She was doing it from within the New York Times, which the Left correctly perceives as one of “its” institutions. As a traitor within the liberal camp, she has to be expelled and punished, in a way she wouldn’t be punished if she’d been an equally mistaken and influential reporter for National Review. The host body rejects her.

And most intriguing is the femme fatale angle, which certainly explains Arianna’s personal obsession. While Arianna’s looking hotter with her recent facelift, botox job, and blonde hairdo, the former wife of a gay man isn’t really in the running for the race Miller’s been winning for twenty years. Andrew Sullivan disagrees, however.

Not getting it

Can somebody please explain to me what’s so all-fired significant about Judith Miller? She’s all the leftwing blogs have talked about for the last week, to the point that their obsession with her has drowned out some truly important things, such as the Iraq constitutional referendum and Game 5 of the NLCS. And there was … Continue reading “Not getting it”

Judith Miller is just some reporter who happened to get tipped-off that Joe Wilson was selected to go drink tea in a hotel room in Niger for a week while asking people if they wanted to confess to committing any felonies because he had a nepotism connection in the CIA. His mission was silly, his handling of it was silly (clue: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence), so his selection had to be silly.

In the course of communicating the nepotism angle to reporters, some Administration officials may have inadvertently run afoul of some arcane law owing to Plame’s long-ago status as a covert agent, so in the end what we have here is more a Comedy of Errors than an evil Neocon plot to undermine the security of the republic. The leftwing obsession with a story that’s obviously technicality and small potatoes simply undermines their credibility with the voting public.

The media are clearly fascinated by Miller because she’s one of them, and one with a number of enemies because she hasn’t always toed the approved Bush-hating line that’s expected of elite journalists, but the rest of us don’t have that excuse. And one sad consequence of this great Miller pile-on is the complete marginalization of America’s Mom, Cindy Sheehan, who just got a new car, and the world’s leading intellectual, the grammarian Noam Chomsky, who just won a poll.

It’s all very sad.