And so it happens. The Inquirer is reporting that Google is about to acquire YouTube. If this should happen, surely this would be the year of the merger. Google is rumoured to have offered $1.6 Billion which is a solid figure given the impending copyright issues that could arise in the near future. MySpace has a better business model and could easily kill YouTube.
Would Microsoft throw in the towel(s) and realise that they are now just another firm that cannot seem lead through innovation, in-fact the only trend they have spotted is on-line collaboration using sharepoint and office live (really a possible alternative revenue model).

A Gartner report suggests that the number of desktops being sold is in decline while the number of laptops sold is increasing, thus profit from software (mainly Operating System, OS) should remain fairly stable (also assuming that the desktop decline is due to people abandoning them in favour of laptops). One can also argue that the emerging world market would help buck this trend and help increase revenue. However we should not forget that most emerging world PC’s are sold for less than they do in the developed countries.

Yahoo has done well with yahoo mail, news and even inked deals with eBay but has failed to capitalise on the earlier success of launch. Yahoo could have easily turned this site into YouTube a couple of years ago. This year is a lesson that has innovation written all over.

Forbes is reporting that HP has acquired hot rod PC maker, Voodoo PC. Dell recently acquired Alienware which was also a gaming PC maker. The climate during the Dell acquisition is very similar to that surrounding the HP acquisition. Dell had been under-performing with lower than expected financial statements plus the fact that Intel tied up with Apple. How did Dell react? Dell not only acquired Alienware but announced that it would start using AMD chips as opposed to Intel only chips. This may have taken the heat of them for the mean time but with Apple’s continuous resurgence Dell may still be coughing and sneezing for some time.

Back to HP whose chairman recently resigned because she had apparently authorised the use of some crooked methods to unearth the mole within the board. Suddenly Mark Hurd see’s the need to change the focus by announcing that HP had acquired Alienware, well this might not be the case. But the computing industry just got a whole lot serious.

Congratulations to the chaps at Voodoo and HP for making the industry a lot more interesting.