If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em: That would seem to be the principle behind an effort by Verizon to purchase the DVD-shipping and movie streaming giant, though it bears noting that this is reported as little more than rumor at present. It would, however, be fitting with Verizon’s general posture of late; they’ve been open about their desire to enter the streaming movie business, with their CEO last week admitting they’d looked into purchasing Hulu. This would be an advantageous time for somebody to acquire Netflix, as their stock has plummeted in recent months following announced price increases, and the utterly disastrous Qwikster plan; conversely, though, these rumors have sent their stock upwards by 6%. source
Read: Google’s product is competing with our product. Google Wallet has drawn a lot of attention in recent months for its end-to-end reinvention of the paying experience — one that, if it takes off, could make carrying around credit cards a thing of the past. However… the first phone on Verizon’s network that could support the technology behind Google Wallet, the Galaxy Nexus, has the software disabled. The company says they’ve blocked it in an effort to provide “the best security and user experience.” However… Verizon is working with AT&T and T-Mobile on a competing service, Isis, which has yet to launch. Perhaps that’s it? Yeah, we think so. source
» AT&T’s contributions = Rick Perry’s support? Back in May, Rick Perry told the FCC he backed the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. “I believe that this merger will continue to provide for great consumer choice, offer a wide range of service options, and spur continued innovation,” he wrote. He might’ve had a little help from those campaign contributions over the past decade. AT&T has a bit of a history of going out of its way to turn public favor its way, going so far as to bizarrely convince GLAAD to support the merger. With the Justice Department coming out against the merger and AT&T’s contributions to Perry coming under scrutiny, will Perry back down? (Strangely enough, BTW, the Justice Department’s James Cole made a statement that reads like the polar opposite of what Perry wrote: “We believe the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices, and lower-quality products for their mobile wireless services.” Hrm.)
So the big question: Are they close to settling the contract, or did the strike hurt them so much that they had to come back? EDIT: Reuters says the former; they’ve reached a bargaining agreement.
All the benefits that we’ve worked and fought for, 30 and 40 years, they want to take off the table … they want to make us like Wal-Mart workers. No benefits and low pay.Striking Reading, Mass. Verizon worker Paul Murphy • Offering his take on the negotiations that led to the first strike Verizon’s had in over a decade. The strike, which involves the company’s landline workers, flared up after the company pushed to make it easier to fire workers and give raises based on performance, not seniority. The company says that the workers are among the highest-paid telecommunications workers in the industry, and that they have no plans to outsource workers. (h/t John Ness) source (via • follow)
» Verizon’s tough stance led to strike: In the first strike the company has faced in 11 years, many of the company’s field technicians and customer service workers were fending off a tough stance the company took in negotiations — they were hoping to make it easier to fire workers and also wanted to change the method they decided on raises. Verizon’s push is indicative of the evolution away from the more-profitable landline business and towards wireless.
I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
One of the perks of being an early employee...
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
Thanks. I guess my thoughts are as follows:
1. I think...
Two Months Ago I set out to interview the principal cast...
So, I have an issue: If a coffee shop doesn’t have wifi, I’m totally screwed and can’t post. As a contingency plan, I’ve used an iPhone 3G with an old version of the iOS software that supports free tethering. However, at some point that felt wrong/was going to bite me in the rear-end, so I switched to a Virgin Mobile mifi device. However, while the price is OK, the device itself overheats and the network is flaky. Now, my hope was to switch my phone service over to Verizon and pay $20/month for the iPhone mobile hotspot thing, but as you’ll see at the link above, they’ve totally made the overage prices unreasonably high. $20 for every extra gigabyte seems really high — especially with a 2 gig starting point, right? Another option is Clear, which has decent prices, but 4G isn’t supported outside urban areas (and their 3G devices don’t support wi-fi, so no iPad), making it lame for long-distance travel. Any ideas? I’m all ears. — Ernie @ SFB
*EDIT*: To clarify, this is for purposes of tethering the device to my laptop and iPad.
» It’s all about infrastructure: AT&T is trying hard to play catch-up with Verizon, which not only has more customers and bandwidth, but also now has the iPhone. The bummer for T-Mobile users is that AT&T’s monthly rates are far higher than T-Mobile’s, which as you might guess has people worried. While T-Mobile has tried to get ahead of talk like this, the concerns are enough that many analysts are warning that the deal won’t go through.
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