Spotify: “Absolutely not for sale”.

Remember back into the past…like…12 hours ago when we were talking about a potential Spotify + Apple deal? Apparently it isn’t happening. (But that’s what they always say, isn’t it?) Of course, when the communications director (Jim Butcher) of the company in question — A company that doesn’t often comment on internet rumors. — comes forward and bluntly says that they’re not for sale, it tends to hold a bit more weight.

We wouldn’t normally comment on this kind of speculation, but we wanted to make it clear that we have absolutely no intention of selling Spotify. We’re working hard to build the best music service we can and are in this for the long haul.

It’s no secret that Spotify is tearing it up overseas. Adding to the doubt of a potential Apple take over, Apple wouldn’t really gain anything new that they didn’t already acquire when they picked up Lala last year. Of course, common sense, rationalization, and company employee statements are hardly “set-in-stone” proof one way or another. What do you guys think?

Intel picks up McAfee for $7.7 billion

Of all the tech matrimony’s I could dream up, Intel and McAfee is not at the top of my list. But that’s precisely what’s happening. The way McAfee currently does business is by paying distributers (pc manufacturers like Dell) to pre-install their security software before the PC is shipped out. Perhaps Intel is looking for some type of hardware approach to security so they don’t have to pay distributers and partners for the right to include their own security software…err…hardware. Even still, unless Intel has some crazy awesome plan for security-based hardware, this acquisition seems kind of pointless.

All things considered, it still seems like a slightly odd and off kilter acquisition from team Intel. Anyone equally miffed? Maybe the press release will clear things up for you…

New HP printers to feature own email addresses, “print-to” function for wireless devices.

There’s been at least a few times where I’ve wished it was easier to print out some text or document from my mobile device. With the dawn of the App Store, I’ve toyed around with a few wireless printing apps on my iPhone and iPod Touch. But those were really only useful if both the mobile device and printer were on the same network. HP’s new solution however is incredibly ingenious and long over due — give printers email addresses.

The idea is that with an email address, any device — mobile or traditional desktop — can shoot off some pictures or documents to the printer’s email address and enjoy printing from abroad.

The tech is rumored to appear in printers in the near future for betwen $99-$400. Further information regarding the tech as well as information regarding if HP’s recent acquisition of Palm and webOS had any hand in this are unknown at this point.

Either way, I suddenly got excited about a printer. Anyone else?

Would you use a webOS-powered printer?

On the eve of the announcement concerning future HP printers, scanners, and other office equipment implementing freshly acquired Palm and webOS, we have to ask: Would you use a webOS office product?

I think webOS is a great mobile OS that was sadly underdeveloped and mishandled by Palm. The fact that they were literally hemorrhaging cash also didn’t bode well. But a fresh partner of whom has vastly deeper pockets is giving webOS another chance at life.

iTunes Live trademark comes to light. Lala acquistion finally being put to good use?

Who doesn’t love a nice patent leak detailing things to *hopefully* come? While things that go through the patent process don’t always materialize and come to light, the revealing of such things often gives mere mortals an earl look at what could come. For tonight, we’re looking at iTunes Live.

You’ll all remember Apple’s purchase of LaLa many weeks back. Unfortunately for LaLa fans, Apple shuttered the service. To make up for it, Apple converted all unused LaLa credit into iTunes credit to ease of the transition and hopefully turn said users into loyal iTunes users. We’ll see how that little ditty goes.

But the more important question is how exactly will this so called “iTunes Live” operate?

Question of the Day: Should Motorola and Sony Ericsson merge?

Mergers are one of the capitalist societies greatest assets. Some companies just need help. ‘Nough said. Think of two tech companies that you feel would most benefit from a merger. Don’t think of you’re typical successful giant overtaking a small startup. Instead, focus on mergers that would equally benefit both companies. If you’re thinking like WSJ’s Sanford Bernstein, the two top candidates for a merger if there were to be one would be Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

Just think, both companies are pretty decent in their own respects but lack the overall push or pizazz to truly become market leaders. SE designs some truly striking hardware. Software on the other hand isn’t their strong suite. Motorola similarly designs some rather notable hardware — though there’s is more rugged and utilitarian in approach — but is in stark contrast to SE’s more stylish and eye catching appeal. Still, the two could benefit one another.

Just because it makes sense for Moto and SE to merge doesn’t mean it would be easy. Moto is based in Chicago, SE is lightly peppered around Europe in a couple locations. The two becoming one would ultimately lead to some CEO shake-ups and body shifting to say the least. Would it be worth it?

According to Bernstein, a merger between the two would simultaneously boost market share and decrease operating costs to the tune of 10% (decrease in operating costs). Even with Moto’s recent success with the Droid, if past experiences are anything to go by, a 10% boost in market share in the current mobile playing field is nothing to shake a stick at.

So what do you say? Would a Sony Ericsson/Motorola merger be worth everyone’s while or is it an idea destined to doom from the start?

Moco News

iTunes to become an offline/online multimedia giant.

As if iTunes wasn’t already massive enough, Apple’s recent purchase of La La could spell a tidal wave of change making it’s way though Cupertino. For the longest time, Apple has stood against the onslaught of online streaming services such as Last.fm and Pandora to name a couple, saying that “consumers would rather own their content”. Fair enough. I in fact would rather “own” my content as opposed to paying a set fee every month to “borrow”/stream content with no physical or digital back up of my own. In one fell swoop by purchasing La La, Apple completely wiped out any recollections I had of them trying to fight the advancement of online/streaming services. La La itself was a very unique online offering to say the least. The service would scan your hard drive in search of media content. Whatever content was on your hard drive you were allowed to stream for free via La La. Any content on La La’s site that you didn’t own you had the option of streaming one time for $0.10 or purchasing the song outright. Talk about innovative and cool!

Further bolstering this whole “tidal wave of change” at Apple comes by the fact that permanent positions within the company were made for several exec’s of La La to likely further develop iTunes and push it ahead in the realm of streaming content.

Going back to La La’s old model highlights one key thing: If Apple were in fact looking to relaunch iTunes as a new monster, streaming content, storing vast libraries, and allowing users to purchase music aside from streaming would no doubt require a huge amount of storage space. Apple already has some pretty beefy servers. But taking on something as large as they’re suspected of doing would require a completely separate facility. Could this be the facility Apple was scouting earlier this year in North Carolina?

The clues all point to an obvious answer. The answer of course being that Apple’s acquisition of La La wasn’t a “just because we can” move. At the very least, iTunes will be gaining some pretty cool streaming features and services within the app with more involved solutions being a full migration of iTunes to the web to Apple opening up their own streaming service removed from iTunes. If you’re asking why Apple would want to do that, I can only say “bloat”. iTunes while universally recognized as “the” music player/digital music store of choice by countless millions, the increasing amount of work Apple is requiring of one of it’s most popular projects is beginning to show. iTunes just isn’t as fast, simple, or easy as it used to be. A separate streaming solution either as a web app of sorts or complete website service all on it’s own would still be unique and relieve the iTunes app/name itself of being so weighted down.

Though until Apple officially announces anything or insiders close to the plans get a case of loose lips, it’s all speculation and dreams for us. What is Apple working on? What does the future have in store for Apple, iTunes, and the way we consume content as a whole?

TUAW > Mac Rumors

Facebook was almost Comcastic — Why?

The big news in the media world this week is Comcast’s acquisition of NBC. With anti-trust/monopolistic worries creeping to the forefront of our minds, we can all agree that it is a sensible purchase. Comcast controls many aspects of the media world, why not have their own channel of sorts. Again, it makes sense. New news today filtering out that details Comcast’s plans and strategy on this long and winding road to gobbling up a company had many stops along the way. One stop in particular that seems a bit odd to me is Facebook. Yes, Comcast was actually considering purchasing Facebook.

There’s one that that really confuses me about that however. They’re basically two completely different companies dealing with two completely different regions of the “media” world — if you could even say Facebook is a media company as to me, I see them more as a social networking first business. It comes off looking a lot like the botched eBay/Skype deal that ultimately ended up in eBay taking a loss and dumping Skype. Mind you, Skype back in it’s early days was a quickly innovating and fast moving company. After being picked up by eBay, that pep-in-the-step momentum died as Skype has pretty much remained motionless the last several years. Would it have been the same for Facebook if Comcast had purchased them? Would Facebook have caught MySpace-itis and rapidly fallen from it’s king pin position?

I guess all I really want to ask you is “Why”? Comcast is obviously hungry for new markets at the moment. But simply buying someone just to make yourself bigger isn’t exactly the smartest business move. Anyone care to share their thoughts?

Alley Insider
Second,

Verizon sends rebadged Alltel employees packin’

Today is probably not the best day to find out you owe $2,500 in back taxes, receive a letter notifying you of your late rent payment, or even going out to spend money on a beer if you find yourself a new ex-Alltel/Verizon acquired employee. Though crying in your beer may be the only thing that makes you feel better. I must stress however that crying in good beer is a travesty — meaning a lesser beer is a more desirable tear collector. What constitutes a good beer? Anything that has “light” or “low-cal” absent is at least a good start. Now that I’ve somehow managed to start talk about beer, let’s say we get back on track. Shall we?

Job losses after acquisitions are hardly anything new or surprising. When company A acquires company B, it’s always assumed and known that at least some employees from the company being acquired are going to lose their jobs. You just don’t need a bajillion finance managers etc. etc. Also common knowledge, the dominant company isn’t going to cut their own staff to make room for new “foreigners”. With that said, the loss that many ex-Alltel employees are feeling today is certainly unfortunate. The bulk of the losses are coming from Alltel’s Little Rock building — which by the way, the local government wasn’t too pleased as many high paying positions are now removed from the local economy. Then again, few people on the “lower end” of a take over are ever pleased with how it goes.

But it could be worse…*insert insanely witty comment contrasting a good, bad, and ugly situation here while showcasing your ability to toy with the English language*

BGR > Wireless Week

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