I’m not a big fan of huge conglomerates, but I have to wonder what Carl Icahn is thinking. I’m not so sure splitting Time Warner into four distinct units is the best thing. Hell, I think Sumner Redstone was wrong to split Viacom. Granted, the AOL merger was a disaster and I think they could unload that division and not be hurt, but otherwise I think Icahn is wrong. Yes, I know he’s concerned about stagnating stock value, but that seems to be more of an upper management issue than one of a bloated conglomerate. Time Warner hasn’t had a good CEO yet who knew how to properly utilize its assets. Dump AOL, it’s never been the great value Steve Case made it out to be, but keep the rest and find someone who can manage it properly.
I’ve never been a great fan of Barry Manilow, but neither do I dislike him. Some of his songs are quite infectous: "Mandy," "I Write The Songs," and "Copacabana (At The Copa)" are prime examples of songs that always stick in my head when I hear them. However, I find it shocking that his latest CD, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties of all things, debuted at number one!
With all the hoopla Fox gets for being the most-watch cable news channel, it’s interesting to note that second-place CNN and far back third-place MNSBC are kicking Fox’s ass on the Internet. While Fox has been crowing for years that it’s beating CNN, it’s CNN that has continued to reign supreme online and continues to bring in almost as much revenue as Fox and MSNBC combined! I think this speaks to the kind of people who are interesting these networks. For Fox, I would say their audience is less tech savvy than either CNN or MSNBC’s audiences. In the end, that could be their greatest weakness.