There were great ratings for the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals. More than 2.3 million people watched the game on Versus. This is great news for all.
Daily Archives: May 27, 2008
Wednesday is First of Award Days for Alex
NHL TO HONOR 2007-08 AWARD WINNERS IN
The National Hockey League will honor the winners of three major regular-season trophies and will present two special awards at a luncheon Wednesday in the Grand Ballroom of the Omni William Penn Hotel in
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals will receive the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for leading the League in points and goals with 112 points and 65 goals, respectively. The William M. Jennings Trophy, awarded the goaltenders who play a minimum of 25 games for the team that allows the fewest goals during the regular season, will be presented to Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek of the Detroit Red Wings, who combined to allow just 184 goals in the 82 games.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin will receive the Mark Messier Leadership Award, presented to the player who exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice, and the 10th annual NHL Foundation Award, recognizing the NHL player who applies the core values of hockey (commitment, perseverance and teamwork) will be presented to Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Trevor Linden of the
The other major regular-season awards will be presented at the NHL Awards Show on Thursday, June 12 at the Elgin Theater in
###
Sell Off
Maybe the Washington Post is rebuilding through the draft? 
Maybe this is all part of a rebuild plan? Now if they can win the lottery and draft a once-in-a-generation journalist, all will fall into place.
I remember a Washington Post columnist stating after our sell off to start our rebuild…”If I was a Washington Capitals season ticket holder, I would go to Ted Leonsis’s home and burn my season tickets and throw them onto his lawn.” I am proud to say that I am not canceling my subscription to the Washington Post!
Consolidation of Big Companies will be Bad for Small Companies
Sometimes I think we all forget how important a healthy big company ethos is for our industry. The big four on the Internet – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL – all provide the lion’s share of revenues to the industry via check-writing from an AdSense or Advertising.com-like services but they also provide the acquisition engines to provide exit paths for smaller companies. These acquisitions help the larger concerns remain vital, to grow and to provide new management. They also provide venture capitalists with a way to get liquid on their investments in smaller growth companies.
I was reading a piece in Portfolio Magazine and it reminded me of how aggressive Yahoo had been in terms of buying up smaller companies during the last dozen years or so.
Check this out:
1997 - Net Controls
1998 - Classic Games, ViaWeb, Yoyodyne
1999 - Broadcast.com, Geocities
2000 - eGroups, Kimo
2001 - Sold.com, LaunchMedia
2002 - HotJobs, Inktomi
2003 - Overture
2004 - Kelkoo, Musicmatch
2005 - Alibaba, Flickr, Del.icio.us
2006 - Kenet Works, Wretch
2007 - Right Media, BlueLithium
2008 FoxyTunes, Maven Networks
In all, Yahoo has injected more than $15 billion in acquisitions in the last ten years and $25 billion in total on all investments and acquisitions over the years. They have made more than 50 acquisitions and investments in total. They have created a great ecosystem; helped consolidate piece parts of the Internet to help drive their growth; and provided many riches for founders and for VC firms alike. We should all be pulling for their success.
Rolling Thunder for POWs and MIAs
This is one of my favorite weekends in Washington, DC. I love these people. I love what they stand for - it is so American, it is so righteous. “Bring ‘em home” that is all they ask. And they are so right!
Ad Price Index Site
A friend sent me this link. It is a good one. Here is a site that monitors the fluctuations in ad CPM prices for sites around the web. It shows that for the most part ad prices drop and CPMs drop around the web as there is so much inventory available and third party networks rule.