December 26th, 2007
News to know: Globalization, randomness, iPhone, robots and more...
Notable headlines:
The subprime mortgage meltdown has triggered a global investment tsunami, with foreign governments and equity firms rushing to bail out U.S. financial institutions. Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. acquired $4.4 billion in Merrill Lynch stock and took an option to buy an additional $600 million in stock by March 2008. The China Investment Corp. arm of the Chinese government will buy up to 9.9 percent of
If U.S. investment banks continue to make bad decisions, the cash rich foreign bailout sources will accumulate more shares and leverage in those firms. In effect, ownership will become more multinational, but not necessarily multilateral, which will create some interesting board room dynamics.
Technology is another area where globalization and foreign investment into U.S. firms will escalate. For example, in 2004 China’s Lenovo unburdened IBM from its PC division for $1.75 billion, and IBM maintained a nearly 20 percent stake in the company. One-fifth of IBM’s more than 355,000 employees are located in India. India’s IT services giant Wipro is making a bid to acquire France-based IT consultancy CapGemini for around $7 billion. Indeed, the world of economics is getting flatter and more complex.
In the life is random category, a 350-pound Siberian tiger escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo last night, killing one twenty-something visitor and injuring two others.
A look back at 2007
McKinsey Quarterly: Eight business technology trends to watch
IDC predictions for 2008
- Chrisotpher Dawson: Why can’t all Microsoft products be like the XBox?
- News.com: Apple and Google, telecom’s new stars
- David Morgenstern: Don’t take your iPhone to a hot yoga class?
- Jason O’Grady: The day my iPhone touch screen died
- Roland Piquepaille: Military robots from 2007 to 2032 (at right)
- Garett Rogers: Google sends out presents to loyal advertisers
- Russell Shaw: Please no “yapping away” on Skype in the air
- Heather Clancy: Pondering the green-ness of storage
- Joe McKendrick: Oracle’s Ellison says SOA migration rate is ’slow’
- Slashdot: Google Reader shares private data, ruins Christmas
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
