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Both America Online and Time Warner bounced back yesterday, their share values rising about what they had fallen the day before. But the debate over whether the deal is a sound one--and whether it will even hold together--continues to rage. Time Warner stock rose $4.375, taking it to $84, or about $20 a share over its price last Friday, when the merger had not been announced. AOL rose $4.50, to 64.50, up 7.5 percent. At $60 a share it was down almost 20 percent from Friday. And there was much clucking of the new togetherness as company executives mugged for photographers and worked the phones to reassure nervous investors. Just one of the issues investors must deal with is the fact that the merged company will be in debt, with no profit prospects for years. But the real issues are how and whether the two dramatically different cultures can merge. Easily the most cogent examination of this issue appears in today's Wall Street Journal, headlined: "Can Time Warner Click With AOL? Here are Eight Things to Watch." It offers merger-watchers developments to keep an eye on over the next few months as signs that the deal is coming together or not. It's well worth reading.
Redesigned Talk appears on Monday
Monday, media-wise, belongs to Tina Brown. That’s when the redesign of Talk appears on newsstands, which is sure to set a-nattering both Tina bashers and fans. Gone is the dark Euro design, which was heavily criticized as entirely too grim for Americans and frankly very un-Tina. Talk now has just one face per cover, this issue’s belonging to Leonardo DiCaprio, rather than the four of the first four issues. There is also an entirely revamped look inside, lighter and brighter. Brown, in a letter to readers, notes that many were offput by the old look. Presumably the S&M imagery is also gone, which was a sure turnoff in the heartland of America, where Brown must win readers for Talk to work. Media Life will review the new issue next week.
TRUSTe seal gains 1,000th site
There are now 1,000 sites on the web which
have been awarded the TRUSTe privacy seal, TRUSTe announced today. TRUSTe is a non-profit
organization that issues online privacy "seals" that are supposed to assure
users of proper privacy policies at web sites. The 1,000th seal goes to a small Boston
software company called X-Collaboration. The TRUSTe seal is awarded only
when a web site abides by the organization's core principles of "disclosure, choice,
access and security." What's more, web sites that take the seal must comply with
TRUSTe's ongoing monitoring and dispute resolution process. But some critics wonder how
much the TRUSTe seal actually means, especially in light of the organization's
disinclination so far to investigate matters of privacy violations-such as the
well-publicized incident in November when it was revealed that Real Networks' RealJukebox
software was secretly
gathering information about its users' music-listening habits. To date TRUSTe has never
withdrawn a site's ability to display its privacy seal.
Women web-shoppers worry about security
A new study by Cyber Dialogue reports that the single biggest thing keeping
women from shopping online is concern about transaction security. Cyber Dialogue says that
anxiety about giving out information and credit card numbers online is a stronger
predictor of whether a woman will buy something online than any other factor, including
amount of internet experience. The study found that fully 40 percent of women who are
online but have not purchased anything online are concerned about the security of the
information they give to web sites. Only 28 percent of women users currently order things
online, compared to 43 percent of men users. Almost 90 percent of online women say that
guaranteed transaction security influences whether they go back to an online shopping
site, and 67 percent say that published privacy policies encourage them to return to
shopping sites. The study also notes that almost 70 percent of women who go as far as
seeking product information online still end up going offline to buy what they were
looking for.
NBC's internet company, known as NBCi, has announced a joint venture with Asiacontent.com, an internet content, advertising and commerce company with eight regional offices throughout the Pacific Rim. The new venture will lead to new community, content, portal and shopping services in a number of Asian and Far Eastern markets, including Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. NBCi will own 35 percent of the venture with an option to increase to 60 percent; as part of the deal, NBCi is also acquiring a minority equity stake in Asiacontent.com. New web sites resulting from the venture will launch "in the coming months," according to the announcement.