Uni-Payloa-vision

For those of you that think of the 1950s as the golden age of Rock ‘n’ Roll, be ready to rejoice: Payola is back! For all the dirty machinations schemed up by music industry executives, payola was one that is actually criminal (rather than just reprehensible), and the one that got all the ink from news media types. And, like I said, it’s back. Latin media giant Univision has agreed to pay the U.S. government $1 million in fines in a plea deal to resolve its rather serious foray into the old pay for play game.

Payola works like this: music industry executives pay radio stations to give their artists’ songs more play time. The listening public a) gets used to the songs and eventually starts liking them, and/or b) starts assuming that said artists are really popular and force themselves to like them in order to be hip with the times. Either way, sales are increased through deceptive practices. And Univision digs it! It’s not as prevalent as the piracy constantly goes on for profit or not. It’s not as sleazy as the execs who screwed unwitting artists out of all their money. It’s not as violent as those who strong-armed artists and competing labels. But as far as music industry scandals go, at least it has the coolest sounding moniker. Yay, Payola!

Technorati Tags: music industry, pay for play, payola, univision

All-electric four-wheeling?

In a deal that looks like it will boost the expertise of both companies, Toyota and Tesla Motors have agreed to jointly develop an electric RAV4 and possibly other models.

Tesla has become the leader in, if not all-electric car technology, then electric car technology with serious curb appeal – something that the big auto makers generally lack. Toyota, aside for the debacles of the past year or so, is a longstanding leader of quality products and especially profit-maximizing efficiency across all industries – something the delivery-challenged startup Tesla could use some help with.

Something in me would have liked Tesla to say on its own and become a dominant auto maker of the future, rather than slowly become part of one of the existing behemoths. It’s good to see idealistic, innovative companies angle to take over the world. But it is hard to deny that this move makes sense all around. All mega-corporations need the occasional infusion of idealism and energy and, while corporate bureaucracy often slows and even kills the startups that get swallowed, Tesla can benefit greatly from Toyota’s backing, expertise, customer base and business savvy. We’ll have to wait and see whether the maker of the Roadster gets digested or boosted by its partnership with Toyota.

Technorati Tags: electric car, RAV4, Tesla, tesla motors, toyota

Bunny for sale?

We’ve all seen those movies where the man who built a company fights to keep it against a tide of back stabbing board members and stockholders giddy to sell out for a quick buck, legacy be damned. Well, there couldn’t be a sexier vehicle to reprise the theme than what’s unfolding now in real life, because the pioneer of porn peddlers wants his smut back.

Playboy long ago went public and goo-goo-eyed centerfold godfather Hugh Hefner this week offered a 40 percent premium over Friday’s closing price for any shares that aren’t already in his fat wallet. His main competition? Archrival Penthouse. That magazine, whose catch phrase isn’t the bunny-eseque “tastefully done,” said it is going to issue a counteroffer.

The internet age, and all the porn producing competition it has spawned, has not been kind to Hef. Playboy’s stock price, which hit a high of $52+ in 1999, has been trading in the $2 to $5 range in recent years. Porn isn’t even the company’s bread and butter anymore. The legacy of porn is. Merchandising is where Playboy is cashing in now. Bunny shirts and panties, licensing and the like, are the main streams of cash that keep Hef awash in pajamas and surgically enhanced, Viagra-fearing trophy pieces these days.

Hef thinks the brand is well-suited for the digital age, and he’s willing to pay to keep his legacy his.

Technorati Tags: Hef, Hugh Hefner, Playboy, porn

Sammy!

Walmart executives really, really like the idea of one-stop shopping. At super Walmart stores, you can get all the things common in large department stores, from clothing to toys, housewares, gardening implements and on and on and on and on. You can also get tires, car repair, money orders and probably tax advice and who knows what all else. The company’s bulk-buying chain, Sam’s Club, follows the strategy with a wide array of products, and they just added one that made the business world go, “Huh?”: Small business loans.

That’s right, you’ll soon be able to get a small business loan at Sam’s Club. Well, I guess some businesses already get their inventory from the place, so why not their funding, too? And with credit markets still so tight, it wouldn’t hurt to have the place you are likely to spend some of the money in on the application process. Sam’s Club is gearing up for a trial run of small business loans up to $25,000 for members. They’re partnering with Superior Financial Group for the effort.

Apparently, Walmart has been looking to get a toe-hold in the finance industry for years. For a lot of struggling small business owners out there, this probably seems like the perfect way to do so, and none too soon.

Technorati Tags: sam's club, small business loans, walmart

This would definitely be a porn address

Pornography has a hero’s place in the history of the internet and some day it may have its very own realm there, too.

ICANN, the agency that manages web domains, is considering adding .xxx to choices of web address suffixes. If approved, the addition would not only give porn sites a fitting, marketable suffix, but ease parental and organizational efforts to block porn from certain computers and places like libraries.

Critics arguing against the .xxx addition say it will help porn peddlers increase their already abundant web presence, while promoters say it will only increase ability to police nudie viewing. However, even if .xxx is added, porn sites apparently won’t be forced to use it. It’s unclear why not.

Despite some peoples’ hatred of pornography, it’s viewed by many as the reason the internet exists today in its society-altering form.

When the internet first expanded from a collegiate information sharing system, it seemed doomed to failure. There was considerable expense to build and maintain the system, but virtually no money was being made for all this effort. That’s when porn illuminated the rest of the business world as to the promise of web commerce. Money was rolling in for porn peddlers and fortunes were made by new people every day. Legend has it, the web was thereby saved and porn is the reason we live as we do today.

Whether porn’s role in the internet’s existence is exaggerated is a matter for historians to decide, but it’s clear that it had an important impact on the web’s development. It should have its own realm, but I’d like to hear the reasoning why porn sites wouldn’t have to use a new .xxx suffix.

Technorati Tags: .xxx, internet, porn, pornography

Liquor!

Washington state’s monopoly on liquor sales is facing a pallet-full of trouble. Retailer’s have long bemoaned the state’s liquor laws that preclude anyone but government run stores from selling, but none have battled to change it like the Seattle, Wash. based warehouse store Costco.

Having seen from its wine and beer sales that people like their beverages in bulk, Costco has been clamoring for the past couple years to get in on the liquor trade. Liquor-liking consumers would be happy with the pricing competition a store like Costco would instigate and, ostensibly, state residents would no longer be left dry on Sundays; or pulling their hair out when work runs late prior to a party night.

The wholesaler thinks it already has enough signatures to make the state’s November ballot with Initiative 1100. The deadline to have at least 242,000 valid signatures is July 2.

It’s anyone’s guess as to whether some voters’ worries about expanding the availability of liquor will have an impact on Election Day. There’s also the possibility that citizens won’t want to take this revenue stream away from an already cash-strapped state in such a tough economic time. It’s also possible that, with the government running these businesses, they don’t produce much more of a return than the added sales tax revenue would. Voters will now apparently have a chance to voice their opinions in five months time.

Technorati Tags: Costco, initiative 1100, liquor, Washington state

Low ring-outs abound

This is the economic recovery that won’t get out of its own way.

Every time one sign points to a light at the end of the tunnel, the light just turns out to be an illuminated sign, pointing to another dim and winding path. Whenever unemployment numbers drop, it’s only about a week before we find out the economy actually lost jobs. When we hear the economy gained some jobs, we soon find unemployment actually ticked up. And now that a economists have rejoiced over better retail sales from a year ago, we get a report those sales actually took a pretty big tumble last month, which could mean just about anything … except impending economic recovery.

According to a government report, retail sales dropped 1.2 percent from April to May. There could be many reasons for the drop, ranging from weather to the timing of Labor Day, but the biggest one is most certainly high unemployment, which is really the only measure of economic recovery right now that matters to most people. Executives and major stockholders will get more excited over productivity and the GDP, but 99 percent of people won’t jump for joy until that translates into a thriving job market.

Since domestic sales account for more than two thirds of the U.S. economy, maybe executives and stockholders would best serve themselves by undertaking a united mass hiring; after all, unemployment is the real thing keeping the economy down. It would be like a private sector stimulus operation. Aren’t they the ones who say the private sector can do anything better than the government? Maybe they should prove it. Instead, companies are leery of any substantial hiring until a recovery begins, but it won’t. Nobody’s hiring.

Technorati Tags: economic recovery, economy, retail sales

Is that unleaded?

Bio-refining company ZeaChem Inc. broke ground June 2 on a cellulosic fuel plant in Boardman, Ore. The new facility’s focus will be on making transportation fuel from fast-growing poplar trees in the Northwest, along with the chemical ethyl acetate, which is used in myriad products.

The federal government and many businesses have been interested for some time in making fuel from non-food plants. Forest giant Weyerhaeuser has teamed with oil behemoth Chevron to study the prospect, though nothing very solid has come from it. Weyerhaeuser is leaning toward harvest grass from its tree farms, rather than using the trees themselves, which are best suited for lumber.

The Boardman facility is different in that it will be using poplar. There is a small market for poplar for hardwood and furniture, but it doesn’t reflect the tree’s possibilities. Poplar is one of the fastest growing trees in the U.S. In certain states, the trees can grow up to 10 feet a year, and they can become so abundant they annoy foresters trying to get to more lucrative wood.

This new bio-refinery is expected to have a capacity of 250,000 gallons a year. In a press release, ZeaChem says success of the Boardman plant will lead the company to build more commercial scale bio-refineries.

Technorati Tags: bio-refinery, boardman, cellulosic fuel, zeachem

Fillerup

For years politicians and Boeing have been calling foul on what they say are subsidies that Airbus parent EADS receives from the European Union. Thursday, they did something about it – the US House of Representatives voted to force the Department of Defense to consider it as an unfair advantage when reviewing bids for its massive upcoming fuel tanker contract.

This is a long-standing dispute wherein Boeing claims EADS funding from the EU are illegal subsidies that allow Airbus to undercut Boeing prices while still turning a profit. Airbus counters that an excess of government contracts in effect give Boeing a leg up.

Maybe there’s another solution for Boeing proponents. EADS supporters will say it’s patently unfair, and it would definitely give Boeing an advantage in competitive negotiations, but I believe it’s honest. It is this: subtract the money the government gets back in the form of taxes when considering the true cost of one contract or another.

This could include the 35 percent Corporate tax on Boeing’s contract-related profit and taxes employees pay on their contract-related income, plus related shareholder taxes. And then there are the US companies from which Boeing might buy materials and services for the job. Subtract their related corporate, shareholder and employee taxes. Of course, the same consideration would be given to all bidders, but Boeing would likely win out against Airbus.

Hey, through taxes, the government is making this money back from these contracts. Shouldn’t that be considered?

Technorati Tags: airbus, Boeing, eads, subsidies, tanker

TV!

Google is taking another tremendous leap toward its apparent aim of becoming the central portal to not only the internet, but all of sedentary life.

Futurists have long predicted the melding of television with the internet, the world’s number one time suck and its No. 2 (which is which varies depending on who you ask). Others have tried it, but so far no one I know has an internet TV, and especially not one that fully combines the two in a way that fulfills the potential as foretold by tech soothsayers. It’s still inevitable.

I lived more than half my life without the internet, and I wouldn’t dream of it now. Today’s kids already get most of their video entertainment from the internet, and television isn’t about get e-victimized like newspapers.

It’s just a matter of who would do it, when and how. Well who else would it be but Google? And when is a better time to start than now? And how else but by making some smart partnerships with the technological experts that could bring it all together?

Google, Logitech, Intel and Sony have come together to make TVs “smart” (think: evolution of cell phones). This wave of the future is set to come out in the fall in U.S. Best Buy stores. The rest of the world will have to wait. No price has been set. There is no timeline for when Google will take over the world.

Technorati Tags: Google, internet, television, TV