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Archives for the ‘companies’ Category

(Re)branding: Walmart.

By Justen Deal • Jun 29th, 2008 • Category: companies

An (arguably) softer logo? A small “name” change? The world’s largest public company, Wal-Mart, is looking for a fresh start, according to a report yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. In addition to a new orange and blue logo, the company appears to want folks to decapitalize the “m” and drop the [...]



I’m lost, but I’m hopeful.

By Justen Deal • Apr 9th, 2008 • Category: Yahoo!

Steve Ballmer is no Larry Ellison.
Microsoft has found its anemic carrot hasn’t done the trick to convince the folks at Yahoo! that assimilation is in their best interests. Now Microsoft is threatening to use a stick to whack Yahoo! into submission. Note to Microsoft: really, really bad idea.
I blogged almost a year ago [...]



Unaware that I’m tearing you asunder.

By Justen Deal • Feb 1st, 2008 • Category: Yahoo!

Microsoft, this morning, announced it has made an offer to acquire Yahoo! for $45 billion. Great news if you’re Microsoft, but horrible news if you’re Yahoo! (or one of its customers, partners, or shareholders).
I’m sure there’s the temptation, especially by Yahoo! shareholders, to capitulate to Microsoft due to the beautiful run-up this morning of [...]



Sprint, Forsee, Whitworth, and all that jazz…

By Justen Deal • Oct 4th, 2007 • Category: Sprint, governance

The gist: Well, I told you so. That was in December 2004. By June of 2005, I had moved Nextel to my “endangered companies” list. And, here we are today. The Wall Street Journal says the Sprint board has begun quietly searching for a new chief executive, and they hope to [...]



The grass is green.

By admin • Jun 13th, 2007 • Category: AT&T, companies

I’ve probably spent billions of dollars on music, movies, and television shows from iTunes. Or close to that, at least. I’m not a fan, at all, of stealing the creative work of others. I also think the MPAA and the RIAA completely missed the digital boat about eight long years ago, and [...]



You’re old standby.

By admin • Jun 9th, 2007 • Category: Sprint, companies

When I was looking up some details for the Qualcomm piece, I came across an old favorite: the Sprint Trench Coat Guy. Taking over the job of Sprint’s personification after Candice Bergen had done such an amazing job must have been tough, but the fact that you still remember him (and probably still like [...]



The fangs of the world.

By admin • Jun 9th, 2007 • Category: Qualcomm, business

Please allow me to introduce you to Qualcomm. If your wireless carrier is Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, Telus, or Bell Mobility (among others), then you probably already are a friend of Qualcomm (even if you didn’t know it). You see, a whole bunch of the technology inside your phone was developed by Qualcomm. [...]



You might be the type.

By admin • Jun 4th, 2007 • Category: Apple, Palm, business, geek

You’ve probably already heard about the new Foleo “mobile companion” from Palm, which was finally announced last week. You might also have already noticed the somewhat unenthusiastic reception the device and concept have found from journalists and bloggers alike.
Personally, I think the Foleo is an interesting concept that might just find or create itself [...]



It was a slight miscalculation.

By admin • May 31st, 2007 • Category: Medsphere, healthcare

Kenneth Kizer, chairman and chief executive at Medsphere, resigned last week.
In the manual of public relations tricks, I guess issuing a troubling press release on a Friday must have been deprecated in favor of not issuing one at all.
Tim posted word of the resignation at 6:25 Friday morning, while Modern Healthcare got around to it [...]



It’s so easy to forget.

By admin • Apr 19th, 2007 • Category: Yahoo!, business, companies

It’s been almost two years since
I last posted a review of companies I admire or avoid (and those in between, companies that are redeemed or endangered). I didn’t mention Yahoo! in that listing, but things have gone from bad to worse for the company that was once nearly synonymous with the success and [...]