Japan To Bail out America?

Doron's Take:

In a move to expand out of Japan, senior sources at the “big three” Tokyo megabanks told The Financial Times today that they had readied a combined cashpile of as much as $10 billion and were open to negotiation with any struggling Wall Street bank that approached them for a cash infusion. You might ask why Japan? I think the Japanese banks are smelling opportunity here to expand overseas operations after over 20 years of operating in the strict confines of Japan's domestic market after the bursting of the Japanese bubble.

Oracle Buys BEA

Doron's Take:

Oracle continues on its buying spree. The acquisition of BEA propels Oracle ahead of IBM and makes them the number one player in middleware. Middleware is a general term for any programming that serves to "glue together" or mediate between two separate and often already existing programs. Middleware is typically used for messaging so that different applications can communicate together. Looks to be a great deal for both companies. Interesting to see what the two companies' customers think?

India Unveils World's Cheapest Car

Doron's Take:

For the same price as a high-end DVD player, India unveiled the world's cheapest car today. Read Jim's post on it here. I'm skeptical that it will really be a disruptive innovation. There's been a lot of innovative cars launched over the last 10 years, how many of them really caught on with the masses? Filling it up with gas for 6 months is about the same cost as the car. How useful is the low cost of the car if all the car's doing is sitting on people's driveways cause they can't afford to gas it up?

Is Sun/Google Android fight overblown?

Doron's Take:

From what Jonathan Schwartz has been saying, it doesn't look like he's looking for a fight with Google! Read his blog post on the partnership here for more.

Sun/Google Android “fight” overblown by ZDNet's Ed Burnette -- Ever since Google kicked off the Open Handset Alliance and released the "gPhone" Android SDK for mobile devices, the blogosphere has been buzzing about a new conflict brewing between Sun and Google over the future of Java. But I'm here to tell you, it's all bunk.

Facebook Founder Goes on 60 Minutes

Doron's Take:

Turn on your t.v. this Sunday at 7 pm for an interview with Facebook founder, Zuckerberg. I'm sure it'll be a worthwhile one. The reporter Stahl focuses heavily on the controversy surrounding Beacon, the advertising beacon used by Facebook. We all heard the story of the guy who bought his girfriend a diamond ring online and before he knew it his girlfriend and his entire Facebook network knew about it. Well, so much for the surprise proposal he planned for his girlfriend.

Facebook, one of the fastest growing sites online has 60 million users. Zuckerberg started Facebook while a student at Harvard and he's now worth $3 billion based on the Microsoft deal. But sounds like the $ hasn't gone to his head yet as he showed up to the interview in sweatshirt and sandals. :-)

Click here now for a preview, 60 Minutes interview with Zuckerberg. He'll speak to Beacon, the controversial advertising device many accused of invading the privacy of Facebook users.

Intel Leaves One Laptop Per Child Project

Doron's Take:

In reading the buzz around the below news today, it sounds like Intel didn't want to do what Negroponte wanted which was to stop selling its Classmate PC while it was part of the OLPC, which is currently shipping its XO laptop based on a chip from AMD.

CNET reports that after settling their dispute just 6 months ago, Intel and Nicholas Negroponte have parted ways. The two had joined forces in bringing PCs to children around the world.

Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project had brought Intel on board as a partner and a possible future supplier. Intel was the 11th member of the OLPC's board, joining other companies such as Google, eBay, Nortel and Intel's bitter rival Advanced Micro Devices.