Thought Beans Blog

NBC universal & News corp video website targeted against Youtube has been branded as Hulu. Hulu website will be launched in September & has been giving invitation for private beta. With the competition from youtube hotting up, this will serve as a major platform for the companies to increase their presence. Distribution partner sites include AOL, MSN & otehrs.Hulu has raised more than $100 million for funding & it is said to be developing it’s own embeddable player. Though the combo NBC & news corp video site news created lotz of buzz, the name has generated another level of buzz.

The left parties hardning stand on the Indo US nulear deal is going to be more powerful than the actual nuclear blast. In any deal there is always positive & negetive factors. India is already reeling under severe power shortage & the assitance from the US would have helped tide over the power crisis. The left should look at how their chinese counterparts are progressing. The problem is India doesnt have the required nuclear technology. So it is better we go ahead with the deal & try to get the technology for overcoming the shortage.

The Subprime mortage meltdown in the US has sent shivers across the global stock markets. The stocks across NY, London, tokyo are tumbling. The european banks which had exposure to the Subprime market of US are feeling the heat. The paris based BNP paribas has suspended the mutual funds exposed to the US subprime market. many are fearing that the days are somewhat comparable to 1930’s great depression. This could also mean the end of chaep credit for the market. Many of the big players in the US mortgage market have seen their capital erode from the market. Even the rating agencies which provide rating for the bonds of the Securities are also in the dock & may be part of the investigation for the mortgage fruad.

Flickr is set to join the list of Myspace, Youtube & others in adding the video section. Compared to others flickr will be a late entry to the segment. Flickr is synonymous with Photo sharing globally & how the videos will fit into its core competencey will have to be seen. It is better flickr restricts itself to videos of travel & other related fields than going for all the categories. Flickr in order to be successful will have to offer some USP which differentiates it from other video sharing sites. There are many instances of websites diversifying from the core competetency & finding it difficult to follow the market leader. Compared to other photo sharing sites i like Flickr because of its good design.

Robert Nardelli, former CEO of Home depot, will be donning the role of boss at Chrysler. Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity owner is appointing Robert Nardelli as the CEO for Chrysler. Robert Nardelli has had no automotive experience as also the Boss at Ford. Nardelli will have huge challenges at Chrysler to turn it around. He has to make negotiations with the UAW for pensions & wages related issuses. Nardelli was ousted from home depot over the compensation related & poor performance. As per the NY times report his compensation will be tied to performace of chrysler.Daimler Chrysler Sold the Company it purchased 9 yeras ago because of huge losses. At the time of merger, it was hailed as transatlantic merger. But soon it was a clash of cultures. See more of NYT report here.