Carpe Max

AT&T, IBM in $5B Telecom, Networking Contract

NewsVisual did some great research on this deal. They found that strong ties exist between the two companies through UPS and the Council on Foreign Relations www.newsvisual.com/new... . Directors from both AT&T and IBM are or have been Chairman/CEO at UPS. Two Directors at IBM are also currently Directors at CFR. It seems these ties probably played a key role in this deal.

Google-Doubleclick Deal Faces Congressional Scrutiny

This whole situation seems a bit strange to me for 2 reasons: first, this is Microsoft complaining about a possible monopoly, and second, Microsoft tried to buy Doubleclick. Basically, this is just part of the wider war that Microsoft (and Yahoo!) are in with Google. The WSJ even reported earlier that Microsoft tried to use backroom ties to pressure ad firms, Time Warner, and AT&T to not support this deal. Here's the WSJ article and some interesting maps from NewsVisual showing the ties Microsoft has to Time Warner and AT&T which they probably used to pressure them www.newsvisual.com/new... . Microsoft's ultimate goal is to regain some of the online ad market.