Market Currents

• Wednesday, November 25, 2009

• 14:33 PM Clearwire (CLWR +5%) gathers another $920M in financing for a recent total of $2.8B, more than enough to reach its goal of providing 120M people with wireless 4G Internet by the end of next year. The funding adds fuel to an ambitious bet on WiMAX by Clearwire backers Sprint Nextel (S), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner (TWX) and others. Comment!
• 10:50 AM Reflecting on the emerging News Corp. (NWS) / Microsoft (MSFT) / Google (GOOG) content/search war, The Economist wonders if Tim O'Reilly is right for dreading the war for the web: "A handful of well-funded and robust platforms locked in heated competition could be better for consumers and generate more innovation than Mr O'Reilly's vision of an internet made of many 'small pieces loosely joined'." Comment!
• 08:10 AM Two more publishers say they may yank stories off Google's (GOOG) search engine and hand them exclusively to Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, following Rupert Murdoch's (NWS) lead. MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of the Denver Post, plans to block Google when it starts charging readers for online content next year. And Morning News owner A.H. Belo (AHC) says it may start charging online subscription fees and block Google. 4 Comments

• Tuesday, November 24, 2009

• 09:32 AM Google (GOOG) says it will license TiVo's (TIVO) audience data to integrate with its Google TV Ads platform. The deal gives advertisers access to even more viewership data, "making Google's dataset one of the best in the industry," it says. "Advertisers can use this data to understand which audiences and ads are most effective, which we think will ultimately lead to more relevant ads for viewers." 1 Comment

• Monday, November 23, 2009

• 14:31 PM Rupert Murdoch point/counterpoint: Murdoch's a fool for the threats to pull News Corp. (NWS) content from Google (GOOG) and sell it to Bing instead (MSFT): "We don't live in Murdoch's world anymore." Murdoch may be a genius if Bing's bling is enough; Google traffic is a fig leaf if it doesn't pull its weight in advertising dollars. 2 Comments
• 08:56 AM Sources say News Corp. (NWS) and Microsoft (MSFT) have discussed a tie-up which would see News Corp. getting paid to remove its news websites from Google's (GOOG) search engine. Microsoft, which relaunched its search engine as Bing this year, has reportedly talked with other online publishers about a similar move, as it looks for ways to grab market share from Google. 2 Comments

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 14:18 PM At its press event (liveblog), Google (GOOG) says its Chrome OS is still a year away, but adds all code is open source and available to the coding community. Brian Chen wonders if the OS is still targeting netbooks, a slowing segment of computing. Comment!

• Wednesday, November 18, 2009

• 09:10 AM The Google Phone is very real, and it's coming soon, TechCrunch says. "The next 'super' Android device will almost certainly be a HTC phone that’s much thinner than even the Droid (MOT) or iPhone (AAPL) – The Dragon/Passion. This is the phone the senior Android guys at Google (GOOG) are now carrying around and testing." Comment!

• Tuesday, November 17, 2009

• 16:55 PM ComScore's latest search rankings have Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) gaining, and Yahoo (YHOO) slipping - again. Google grows to 65.4% from 64.9%; Bing goes to 9.9% from 9.4%; and Yahoo slips to 18% from 18.8%. 1 Comment

• Friday, November 13, 2009

• 07:04 AM Dell (DELL) confirms plans to enter the smartphone business, and announces partnerships with two of the world’s largest mobile operators - China Mobile (CHL) and Claro (AMX). The initial Mini 3 smartphones will be designed around the Android (GOOG) platform. Comment!

• Wednesday, November 11, 2009

• 13:45 PM Rupert Murdoch's (NWS) trash-talking of Google (GOOG) et al. and their stealing his content is just hot air, Slate's Jack Shafer says, citing as proof Murdoch's reluctance to actually file a fair-use suit, despite the threats. One possibility: Murdoch's lawyers realize a lawsuit could expand fair-use rights, rather than limiting them. Comment!
• 13:24 PM Experian Hitwise says Bing's (MSFT) search market share increased 7% in October, at the expense of rivals Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO), whose market shares fell 1% each. Google's share now stands at 70.6%, to Yahoo's 16.1%, Bing's 9.6% and Ask.com's 2.6%. Comment!

• Tuesday, November 10, 2009

• 17:29 PM With Baidu (BIDU) disrupted by an ad system switch, Google (GOOG) may finally have an opening to try to make inroads in China, one of the few places where awareness of the search leader is low (see chart). 4 Comments
• 09:58 AM Clearwire (CLWR +1.4%) confirms it's raising another $1.5B. Sprint Nextel (S) will put up $1.18B; Comcast (CMCSA) $196M. Time Warner Cable (TWC) $103M. Intel (INTC) $50M. Eagle River $20M. And Bright House Networks $19M. Google (GOOG), also a key JV partner, took a pass. Clearwire will also sell $1.45B in senior secured notes to pay off an existing facility. Comment!

• Monday, November 9, 2009

• 12:34 PM Google (GOOG +1.7%) says it will buy privately held mobile-ad technology firm AdMob for $750M in stock, a week after rumors that Apple (AAPL) was floating a $400M offer. Comment!
• 08:54 AM Sources say Sprint Nextel (S) and a number of its Clearwire JV (CLWR +6.9%) partners are preparing to pump another $1.5B or more into the wireless broadband provider. $1B of a new infusion would come from Sprint, with Comcast (CMCSA), Intel (INTC), Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks kicking in another $500M. Google (GOOG), a key JV partner, isn't thought to be involved in this round. Comment!