If you're feeling down this week, take my hand as we go over some of the more uplifting headlines of the week. The past seven days were more than just layoffs, missed earnings, and guidance knockdowns.
1. I've got a patent, and I'm not afraid to use it
What do you do when you're shedding net subscribers and your profits turn to losses? Ask TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO ) . On the same day that the digital video recorder (DVR) pioneer announced uninspiring financials, it revealed that it is suing AT&T (NYSE: T ) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) for stomping all over its intellectual property in their push into television.
Why not? TiVo has been successful at nearly every turn in its suit against the country's second-largest satellite television provider, DISH Network. TiVo's patents are powerful enough that the country's largest cable and satellite television companies license TiVo's technology for their enhanced DVRs.
It may as well go after the telcos, too, before they get any bigger, making sure that everyone knows who owns the "time warp" rights that make most DVRs tick.
2. Do buy in Dubai
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO ) is starting to become the David Hasselhoff of search engines: The butt of stateside jokes, but a rock star abroad.
Yahoo! is buying Maktoob, an Arabian Web portal with 16.5 million unique monthly visitors. That's not a large number, but 16.5 million is reportedly a third of the Arabic-speaking population presently online. Clearly, the penetration rate will improve in the coming years, and it's great to see Yahoo! jump in early.
The fallen dot-com darling has been a winner when it comes to spotting emerging markets. It succeeded with China's Alibaba and beat out its domestic rivals to hook up with Softbank and roll out Yahoo! Japan during the early stages of that country's online migration.
Investors may not respect Yahoo! until it turns its fortunes around in the U.S., but at least it's got fans elsewhere in the world.
3. All the syllabuses that are fit to print
I've been pretty hard on print newspapers over the past few years, so it's only fair that I praise old media when it does something right.
New York Times (NYSE: NYT ) is turning to some of its star columnists -- Nicholas Kristof, Gail Collins, and Eric Asimov -- to run weeklong courses. Subscribers will pay between $125 and $185 for the mostly online curriculum in the fall.
The iconic paper has run its Knowledge Network for a few years. According to Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab, this is the first time that New York Times is getting its columnists involved.
It's a win-win move. At a time when papers need to scale back on payroll to meet waning print demand, this move provides enterprising journalists with a new revenue stream. Web-based adult education is also smoking hot, even if the platform's success has been primarily on the degree-seeking front.
4. A new beginning for the Finnish
Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) is entering the netbook market. This kind of development often makes the "dumb moves" column, but Nokia is absolutely right in making a push into small computing devices.
The Finnish handset maker is still the global leader. However, it doesn't have a whole lot of stateside panache when it comes to smartphones. It has a few buzzworthy devices on the market, but they just don't have the branded allure of an iPhone or a BlackBerry.
Instead of running a race that it's unlikely to win in this country, Nokia's beating the pack to the next wireless battlefield -- netbooks with built-in connectivity. Good move.
5. YouTube catches something viral
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) wants to make more money from its YouTube site, which has been historically tricky to monetize. The video-sharing site will now cherry-pick original videos that are drumming up a ton of views, and offer the owner a revenue-sharing deal.
This may sound similar to the YouTube Partners program, which has been in place for two years, but it actually digs even deeper into its community.
Google has been slow in rolling out its Partners program, because too many YouTube users upload questionable or copyright-restricted content for which the site can't sell ads. By smoking out the hottest non-Partner videos, Google is able to vet for sponsor-friendly content as it motivates video creators to generate more popular clips.
YouTube needs more than this to become a profitable juggernaut, but sharing more of the wealth is another step in the right direction.
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