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Did Google Really Seriously Consider Buying A Stake In The NY Times?
from the seems-doubtful dept
Fortune has a story that's getting plenty of attention claiming that Google "seriously considered" an opportunity to purchase 19% of the NY Times that is being held by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners. Of course, no one seems to explain why Google would seriously consider such an investment. It seems like any analysis, whether serious or not, would suggest that such an investment would make almost no sense for Google, and almost certainly would cause more trouble than it was worth. It would, for example, freak out other newspapers, who despite their sudden desire to get Google to fund them, would claim that Google was unfairly favoring the NY Times at their expense. It would also raise all sorts of questions about how Google runs a content play. While Google has experimented with content plays with things like Knol, the company's focus has always been on enabling content creation -- not on funding content itself. In fact, it's this fundamental misunderstanding that has newspapers incorrectly thinking Google is trying to kill them, rather than recognizing it's actually helping them.
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Hurting newspapers
And is it just me, or would someone like Google owning a large stake in the NY Times cause a world of issues?
Maybe Google just don't want the NY Times to disappear, simple as that.
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Wait for the fire sale.
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Re:
Google would still have the news search still be the same.
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Re:
Let's quote from the article:
"Scott Galloway, a Web entrepreneur and New York University Business School professor who is one of two Harbinger appointees on the Times board, made an overture to Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) co-founder Larry Page about Google buying the Times Co. Even though Google CEO Eric Schmidt has publicly lamented the state of the newspaper industry and dismissed the notion of Google investing in it, people involved said the company looked seriously at the opportunity before deciding to pass."
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It's Political
I'm no McCain fan but clearly the right has a sneaky new monster enemy if this purchase goes through.
Do no evil huh?
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