After YouTube: The beginning of the end?

Now that Google has snatched up the leading online video site, will rivals shell out big bucks, or will the competition dry up for smaller sites?

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large
October 10 2006: 5:17 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Has the online video shakeout only begun or is the bubble about to burst?

Google's $1.65 billion agreement to acquire YouTube Monday is the latest, splashiest and most expensive of deals involving companies in the nascent online video business.
Google has continued to impress investors while Yahoo has lagged. And now that Google has scooped up YouTube, some think Yahoo may need to make a big deal of its own to get back in Wall Street's good graces.

Industry experts say that Google's rivals, both traditional media companies and Internet firms like Yahoo!, need to reevaluate their online video strategies now that the search engine kingpin and online video leader have joined forces. "I think certainly there is going to be a lot of activity. I don't think anybody wants to cede the market to Google and there are a lot of media companies that are poised to do something," said Greg Kostello, founder and CEO of vMix, a privately held video site. But some caution that media companies also have to be careful of overpaying.

"You do need to react to this deal if you are a competitor but it's just a matter of how. Google is inflating the value of the market overall because they can afford to do so," said Bill Wise, chief executive officer of Did-it Search Marketing, a paid search advertising firm based in New York.
The $1.65 billion price tag for YouTube may in fact mark the beginning of the end for this latest dot-com craze. Instead of forcing other media firms to make acquisitions, it could scare them off.
"YouTube is a 67-person company in an unproven market that hasn't made any money. So it's seemingly ridiculous amount of money to spend," Wise said.

Who's next?

To that end, other privately held online video search firms with a notable amount of traffic, companies like Metacafe, Heavy.com, Guba and Break.com, could find themselves being able to command much higher prices in a sale than they would have before Google bought YouTube.
"For any of YouTube's competitors, they have to be doing back flips," said Michael Goodman, program manager of digital entertainment with Yankee Group, a tech research firm. "If you are another video sharing site, you have to be thinking please let there be someone else out there that wants to buy."

David Carson, the co-CEO of Heavy.com, agreed that the price Google (Charts) was willing to pay for YouTube caught many by surprise. "The deal is pretty significant in many ways. It certainly made everyone stop and pay attention. Nobody was expecting the valuation to be as high as what it was," he said. Carson said that Heavy.com, which has been the subject of takeover rumors with companies such as Viacom (Charts), News Corp. (Charts) and Yahoo (Charts) often mentioned as suitors, is not looking to sell but that he would entertain the thought of a sale if a good exit strategy presented itself.

Yahoo may have to act quickly

So will any of Google's competitors be willing to spend to keep pace with Google? Scott Kessler, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's, says that Yahoo, which warned of softness in the online ad market last month and has also been hit by delays to its important new search advertising platform, may have no choice but to make a move.

Yahoo has been rumored to be in talks to buy social networking site Facebook and could be forced to make a move sooner rather than later. A spokesperson for Yahoo was not immediately available for comment.

"This increases the pressure on Yahoo to do something. There is this perception that Google is not just executing well but that it is also being more aggressive," Kessler said. Other companies may not have to make such drastic moves though. Microsoft (Charts), which was said to be interested in YouTube, announced last month that it was starting a YouTube rival called Soapbox. And late yesterday, the company said in a statement that it has no plans to make an online video acquisition to counter Google's move.

"We evaluated acquiring this type of technology several months ago. We decided to build our own offering, focused on driving better customer and advertiser experiences through integration with Microsoft assets and services that reach an estimated global audience of 465 million consumers," a Microsoft spokesman said. "We are excited about the potential we are seeing in the beta of Soapbox on MSN and believe building our own solution is a more cost-effective way to compete in this new space," the spokesman added.

However, Wise said that if Soapbox flops, Microsoft could be the one company that can go out and match Google with a big deal of its own.

"The only company that can potentially keep up with the rising prices that Google has set is Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does in response to this," he said.
Analysts said that News Corp., which owns the popular MySpace social networking site, has quickly built its MySpace Videos site to the number two spot behind YouTube. So it probably doesn't need to make a deal and should just concentrate on promoting MySpace more aggressively.

"News Corp. already has a burgeoning online video business with MySpace," said Kessler. A spokeswoman for Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp unit that includes MySpace, had no comment about the Google-YouTube deal.

Bubbles or bargains?

Other media firms have also been increasing their presence in the online video market and could step up their investments even further since they have only spent a relatively small amount so far.

Sony bought online video sharing site Grouper in August for just $65 million. Viacom bought iFilm last year and Atom Entertainment in August for a combined $250 million. And AOL, which like CNNMoney.com is a unit of Time Warner (Charts), has bought a slew of online video assets lately, most recently video search firm Truveo and online video advertising company Lightningcast. Terms of those deals were not disclosed but sources estimated that AOL paid about $50 million for Truveo.

"There will be acquisitions from the big boys. Video needs to be a component of any serious Internet player," said Eric Chin, a partner with Bay Partners, a venture capital firm based in Cupertino, Calif.

And Heavy.com's Carson said that larger media companies may wind up looking to scoop up some of the remaining online video sharing sites because they feel that it is easier to purchase an existing business than invest in building up their own.

"I think some media conglomerates will make smaller acquisitions and you might see some that make some surprising moves based on the YouTube deal. Some companies are starting to realize that maybe they have to buy," he said.

To be sure, YouTube, which has more than 100 million videos downloaded a day and commands nearly half the share of the online video market, was the most sought after of all the privately held video sites. It is the proverbial flavor of the month.

But Yankee Group's Goodman pointed out that News Corp. paid only $590 million for MySpace last year.

"Is this an Internet boom or bust? When you see a nearly three times increase in what Google paid for YouTube than what News Corp paid for MySpace for a company with even less of a business model than MySpace, you have to ask those questions. This could be the precursor of the Internet bust part 2," he said.

Microsoft releases 6 patches for flaws

By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released six patches to fix software flaws that carry its highest threat rating, including three for defects that attackers were already trying to exploit.

The company said all six of the critical flaws could allow an attacker to obtain some access to other people's computers. The Redmond software maker also released four other patches to fix vulnerabilities that the company deemed less severe. Customers can download all the patches for free on Microsoft's security Web site and also can sign up to have them automatically delivered to their computers. The automatic update system went down for several hours Tuesday, but the problem was later resolved.

Microsoft said last month that it knew attackers were already trying to take advantage of defects in its Windows operating system, Microsoft Word software and PowerPoint presentation program. Christopher Budd, a program manager with the Microsoft Security Resource Center, said that the company had seen limited attacks exploiting the flaws, but were nevertheless recommending that users apply those and other patches immediately. Such vulnerabilities are rare. In most cases, security experts quietly provide Microsoft evidence of a security flaw, allowing the company to fix the problem in secret and release a patch before attackers can take advantage of it.

But recently, the company has been hit with a number of so-called "zero-day" attacks, in which flaws are targeted before Microsoft is aware of them or can release patches. Such attacks have prompted some security researchers to release their own interim fixes. Microsoft also has occasionally taken the unusual step of releasing patches outside of its normal monthly fix schedule, so users can be safeguarded more quickly. Budd said Microsoft isn't seeing any specific pattern to the burst of zero-day attacks. But he said the company is seeing more focus on attackers trying to infiltrate computers through applications — such as Word or PowerPoint — rather than the Windows operating system.

Microsoft software is a constant target of Internet attackers, in part because the company's products are so widely used. Microsoft has yet to release a patch for one other publicly known flaw — one affecting the Internet Explorer browser that is part of its Windows operating system. Budd said the company was seeing very few attacks as a result of the flaw.

Cola Raises Women's Osteoporosis Risk
October 6, 2006 08:42:19 PM

PST By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

Cola may not be so sweet for women's bones, according to new research that suggests the beverage boosts osteoporosis risk.

"Among women, cola beverages were associated with lower bone mineral density," said lead researcher Katherine Tucker, director of the Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. There was a pretty clear dose-response, Tucker added. "Women who drink cola daily had lower bone mineral density than those who drink it only once a week," she said. "If you are worried about osteoporosis, it is probably a good idea to switch to another beverage or to limit your cola to occasional use."

The report was published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
About 55 percent of Americans, mostly women, are at risk for developing osteoporosis, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. In the study, Tucker's team collected data on more than 2,500 participants in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study, averaging just below 60 years of age. The researchers looked at bone mineral density at three different hip sites, as well as the spine.

They found that in women, drinking cola was associated with lower bone mineral density at all three hip sites, regardless of age, menopause, total calcium and vitamin D intake, or smoking or drinking alcohol. Women reported drinking an average of five carbonated drinks a week, four of which were cola. Bone density among women who drank cola daily was almost 4 percent less, compared with women who didn't drink cola, Tucker said. "This is quite significant when you are talking about the density of the skeleton," she said.

Cola intake was not associated with lower bone mineral density in men. The findings were similar for diet cola, but weaker for decaffeinated cola, the researchers reported. The reason for cola's effect on bone density may have to do with caffeine, Tucker said. "Caffeine is known to be associated with the risk of lower bone mineral density," she said. "But we found the same thing with decaffeinated colas."

Another explanation may have to do with phosphoric acid in cola, which can cause leeching of calcium from bones to help neutralize the acid, Tucker said.

One expert agrees that women should reduce the amount of cola they drink. "I would expect this finding," said Dr. Mone Zaidi, director of the Mount Sinai Bone Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City. "It's probably a caffeine-related problem." Women should limit their caffeine intake, Zaidi said. "Caffeine interferes with calcium absorption, which results in less bone formation," he said.

This can be a problem for younger women who never develop peak bone density, Zaidi noted. "Younger women who have a lot of coke will not form bone to an extent their peers would; so, years later, in menopause, they are going to be disadvantaged," he said.

Love one person, take care of them until you die. Have a good life. Be a good friend. And try to be completely who you are. And figure out what you personally love. And like go after it with everything you've got no matter how much it takes.

- glaiza -

wala ako malay s picture n yan...

My Immortal - Evanescence

I Love You

With my every breath, with all I have left, from the deepest depths of my heart, with all of my strength, with ten miles' length, every thought I think, and for the length of forever, as long as we're together, through good and bad weather, until the very end of days, until God takes my breath away, until death separates our ways, when no one is there, when you think no one cares, when love seems too rare, when everything's gone, when all has withdrawn, when hopelessness dawns, and when you fall down, when your dreams come unwound, when hope can't be found, and when you make mistakes, filled with hate, when you're old and gray, i think and for always, until then, remember and don't forget and be happy.. even then, I'll love you.

Love fulfilled sees where we could have gone the way of love before, if we'd known how, and how insecurities limited many of our choices. Love fulfilled perceives new meaning and higher reasons behind many of the mysteries of why things happened as they did. Living from the heart is business — the business of caring for self and others.Understanding this will take us past the age of information into the age of intuitive living.

- wala name =p -

"It is not just the things in common that make relationships enjoyable, but the little differences that make them interesting."

- mike & glai