JUST A FRIENDLY ROUND IN THE RING
Tech columnist Robert X. Cringely has an interesting article on Skype and Murdoch`s intentions in briefly considering buying it for $3 billion. As Slashdot puts it:
"ansak writes "Bob Cringely's latest article shows evidence that some aspects of the 90s bubble are indeed back: Why would Rupert Murdoch think of paying $3 billion for a mostly free online service like Skype?
But his last line shows a keen understanding of Murdoch's skills and methods: 'By putting Skype in play, he distracts for no money at all most of the major media companies.
And while they try to figure out how to respond to VoIP, old Rupert will be attacking them on some completely other front. He'll be stealing their shoes.'"
If that is the case. he has been "feinting" on Internet matters with his peers for over a decade. Notable is his speech to his peers that I posted on a few weeks ago.
His recent announcement of a Fox Internet unit (discussed in this post), arguably also has these elements.
Then again, maybe he`s just another Skype fan. There are a few things to like about that company. as I noted a few months ago.
If you like this bit of Cringely speculation, you`ll also like his column on the "impending war" between Microsoft and Intel.
As this 1998 article notes here, Muhammed Ali`s rope-a-dope strategy has been played by some of the best in the tech world:
" Muhammed Ali was facing one of his toughest opponents ever. Grizzled and worn from years of boxing, Ali wondered if his best fight would be good enough to keep his championship belt. This opponent had taken him to the limit before, and Ali decided that something special was needed to give him an edge, something that his opponent would not be prepared for and would likely be unable to counter effectively. Ali decided to employ a strategy he called Rope-a-Dope: just wait at the ringside and position himself defensively, wait for his opponent to tire himself out with ineffective blows, and then finish him off.
This strategy of using an opponent's own aggressiveness against him was somewhat effective, though certainly anything from being a crowd-pleaser. Amid boos and jeers, Ali managed to avoid enough serious blows to win the bout and maintain his heavyweight title. Not exactly the prettiest bout in world history, certainly nothing for ringside scholars to provide to their students in the way of form, the tactic nonetheless did the job. Although some would question the sportsmanship of such a strategy, there was nothing in the rules against it, and the title stayed with Ali.
When facing an extremely aggressive opponent, one particularly prone to swing for the knockout punch at every turn, IBM has found the Rope-a-Dope strategy to be surprisingly effective. Instead of engaging Microsoft directly in a bitter head-on battle for software supremacy, IBM has taken a defensive position that relies on its unassailable reputation with major corporations, yet leaves the foundation operating system position firmly in Microsoft's camp. IBM knows that the scoring punches are tallied in the areas of middleware, transaction processing, and secure commerce, so it yields the less lucrative but heavily marketed operating system territory to Microsoft."
Defined this way, both Mr. Murdoch AND Intel`s moves could be seen as a defensive, rope-a-dope strategies.
In the latter case though, it increasingly seems like Microsoft is starting to play the rope-a-dope strategy against Google and Yahoo! The recent employment legal tussle between Microsoft and Google is a case in point, especially against the hiring backdrop for the best and the brightest (see this BusinessWeek article, again via Slashdot).
I think Skype will sell in the next 6 months to Yahoo, Google, MSN or Comcast for $2b - I hope this boom lasts longer than the last. (we did have continual growth for a long time, but 2000-2005 wasnt fun)
Nice post.
http://benbarren.blogspot.com
Posted by: Ben Barren | Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 05:20 AM