Random news that caught my eye today…

 

A New Year’s resolution for Google: Buy MySpace, stat!

“… The stratospheric success of Facebook in 2010 has put Google on edge. Five hundred million-plus users, $2 billion in advertising revenue forecast for next year, the gaming and e-commerce platform of the future, and one out of five pageviews. Can you blame Google for flailing at finding a strategy to compete with Mark Zuckerberg’s social juggernaut?…”

I truly believe that this has been one of the greatest failures for Google, the Social Media space, that is. Except for Orkut’s limited Latin American success. And it truly now makes very limited economic sense to continue attempting to beat down the same road and classify it as sunk cost – how much is Google really willing to sink in. It definitely is too much for just maintaining a presence in the market.

Tech Mahindra Eyes Acquisitions in Latin America

“Indian technology outsourcing firm Tech Mahindra Ltd. is looking for potential acquisitions in Latin America jointly with its software outsourcing unit Satyam Computer Services Ltd. in a bid to bolster the two companies' foothold in the region and cater to global customers….”

It is surprising how little leverage TechM has gained from the acquisition. You would think this would have made TechM a name to reckon with and yet it has really not become a competitor to reckon with. They rarely are threatening anymore other than in the telecom space, where they always were a competition to reckon with, given their vast British Telecom heritage. Maybe TechM should try and leverage the acquired Software Expertise within the Telecom Product Market. Along with their Operations experience they might actually become not only a formidable opposition to the everything everywhere competitors like Infosys, Wipro and TCS but also to the likes of Amdocs and Telcordia.

Microsoft Overhauls Free Antivirus Software

“Without fanfare, on Thursday Microsoft released version 2 of its Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) antivirus software. Firewall integration, a better heuristic antivirus scanner, and network traffic inspection added to Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0.”

Is Microsoft finally playing the underdog. I think it is given the competing behemoths in the security space. Keeping it free and the limited publicity and scary ads points to just that. I have not used this myself as the version 1.0 was a disaster leading me to actually buy an Anti Virus (my pick as Kaspersky – great value for the money) but if it is actually good, I think we have the Symantecs of the world moving uncomfortably in their seats.