AMAZING HONDA COMMERCIAL

Jul 8, 2003 | business, video

You’ve just gotta see the Honda commercial airing in the UK. Here’s a page where you can view the commercial in your browser – Flash required. It’s about 4Mb total, so it may be jerky or slow to appear on a dialup connection. Here’s an article about how the commercial...

ICANN, VERISIGN, AND AMERICAN CONTROL OF THE “WORLD WIDE” WEB

Jun 23, 2003 | business, Internet

ICANN was intended to be an autonomous, independent body charged with making decisions about the World Wide Web, particularly concerning registration of domain names. Its main benefactor is Verisign, formerly Network Solutions, the company that at one time had a...

AMERICA’S TWO BOOK MARKETS

Jun 18, 2003 | business

Hillary Clinton’s memoirs had the highest opening day sales in the history of nonfiction. The fifth Harry Potter book will undoubtedly have the biggest launch ever for a work of fiction. But the publishing industry is in trouble and most publishers are struggling...

WAL-MART TAKES OVER THE WORLD

Jun 10, 2003 | business

Every so often some business kowtows to Wal-Mart by changing the cover of a book or magazine or releasing an alternate version of a CD with family-friendly lyrics or the like. Those things seem strange to me, but it’s because I keep forgetting just how big Wal-Mart...

THE GREAT REBATE SCAM

Jun 10, 2003 | business

Like most people, I’ve never liked rebates, but I take it seriously – I will pay more if that’s what it takes to avoid a rebate. Slate has a good article about the rebate game – why they’re offered, and what the manufacturers and retailers do to delay, trick...

COREL ACQUIRED BY VECTOR CAPITAL

Jun 6, 2003 | business

Corel announced today that it has agreed to a takeover bid by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based company that already owns a substantial stake in the company. At $1.06 per share, the purchase price almost exactly equals the amount of cash that Corel has on hand....