Guys Upstairs - Tech

The Nintendo Wii will soon be offering a video service in order to establish a new revenue stream. Nintendo will be partnering up with the ad agency Dentsu to offer cartoons and other entertainment programs. In order to differentiate it from existing content delivery services the two companies will be be offering programs created specifically for the new service. While this may help set it apart from competitors, they should still offer existing programs akin to Hulu in order to please everyone. The service will start early next year in Japan and will not be seen overseas until late in the year.

Nintendo has already raked in more cash than it knows what to do with, so why do they need a new revenue stream? Hopefully it’s in order to fund more R&D to creating more creative and innovative ideas.

[Yahoo]

Jerry Yang, the CEO of Yahoo, has stated in a company memo that he will be stepping down. He will be holding the position until a new CEO is selected, but will plan to remain actively involved as an executive and board member. Jerry Yang has held the position after taking over for Terry Semel in what has been a rough year and a half. The stock price for Yahoo has been in constant decline and Yang has botched more than one large deal.

Taking the position of CEO in June 2007, Yang developed a plan to help Yahoo compete against Google. There have been several major cuts in staff, including an Oct. 21announcement that 10% of the 15,000 staff would be let go. Microsoft made an offer for the company in February with a bid of $31 a share, much higher than the stock price of $19.18 at the time. After months of negotiations in which Yang wanted a much higher price, Microsoft withdrew their offer in May. Following the Microsoft fiasco, he made a deal with Google to display ads next to Yahoo search results. This was supposed to bring in $250 to $430 billion in the first year, but Google backed out earlier this month after pressure from regulators with concerns about antitrust issues. It has been said that without the Google deal Yahoo would have to strike a deal with Microsoft or merge with AOL. Yahoo and AOL have talked about a merger for months and with Yang stepping down Microsoft may be looking to make another deal.

Yahoo stock jumped more than 10% today, with a high of $12.40.

[NY Times]

Mmmm….spam, don’t you just love opening up that tin can and…wait, not that spam? While spam filters now are doing a decent job of filtering out a majority of e-mail spam, there is still much that can get through. McColo is a web hosting company that was a breeding ground for spammers. Companies that dealt in counterfeit pharmaceuticals and child pornography (hopefully not both at the same time) used the San Jose based hosting company. After the two internet service providers for McColo cut off their web access on Wednesday, the volume of junk e-mail dropped drastically.

Computer security experts are critical of the timeliness of the response and felt that action should have been taken sooner. There has been plenty of evidence in the past that pointed to McColo and its clients and their involvement in e-mail spam. Shutting down McColo could prove to be a double edged sword since the spam will be more disperse. When the majority came from McColo, it was relatively easier to protect networks.

[Washington Post]

Image courtesy of Ars Technica