Top of the Order:
First and 10? There’s no mistaking the fact that how people watch television is undergoing a revolution. We used to dream of a world when we could get 500 TV channels, and then when we got there, many of us discovered that we didn’t have the interest in, or time to watch, oh, say about 485 of those channels for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Netflix, skinny TV-channel bundles and over-the-top subscription services such as those from HBO and Showtime have all done their part to change the television-viewing landscape. But let’s face it, while smaller TV packages like those offered from Sling may be attractive, they do come with a price. Sometimes that comes in the form of limitations on what channels you can get. And one of the last Holy Grails that the big-name cable and satellite TV providers still wield over their subscribers is live sports broadcasts.
For Amazon and its popular Prime video-streaming service, live sports may be the next big thing it has in mind in its rivalry with Netflix. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is exploring the creation of a package of “channels,” if you will, that would offer live sports from leagues such as the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball. The potential of such an offering remains in its early stages, but the reasons for wanting to give its Prime subscribers access to live sports programming are easy to see.
The main reason would be to attract new subscribers to Amazon’s Prime service. Subscribers currently pay $99 a year for Prime, which, in addition to free two-day delivery on most items they purchase via Amazon, also lets them watch programs, including Amazon originals, on the Prime video-streaming service. The Journal also said that Amazon is looking at offering its own skinny bundle TV channel package, which could include one or more of the live-sports offerings from the major sports leagues.
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Middle Innings:
How Much for That? On Monday, it was reported that Oracle acquired Dyn, a provider of web domain services. The deal was viewed as curious, in part, because Dyn was hit by a cyberattack that shut down several well-known websites for the better part of a day in October. Dyn specializes in services that direct traffic across the internet. As with many of Oracle’s recent purchases, the acquisition of Dyn is meant to boost Oracle’s presence in cloud-based computing.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Fortune reported Tuesday that Oracle paid between $600 million and $700 million for Dyn, according to “a source close to the deal.” Whatever the final price was, it ended up being a pretty good payout for Dyn, as the company is said to have brought in just under $100 million in financing from venture capital and other investors.
More Galaxy Booms? Samsung, still trying to recover from its big recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that was brought about by the occasional phone exploding in some customers’ pants pockets, is now trying to assuage some fears that another of its phone models might be susceptible to blowing up without any warning.
Samsung says that despite some reports that its line of Galaxy S7 phones have exploded, “There have been no confirmed cases of internal battery failures,” among the more than 10 million of the phones in use in the U.S. Samsung did say that there had been “a number of instances caused by severe external damage,” but that no recall of the S7 phones was in the works.
Bottom of the Lineup:
Here’s a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Tuesday …
Movin’ on Up: Gains came from Ultra Clean Holdings, TiVo, Tesla Motors, Rocket Fuel and QuinStreet.
In the Red: Decliners included Palo Alto Networks, FireEye, Silver Spring Networks, Glu Mobile and Impax Laboratories.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 percent to 5,386.35.
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.4 percent to reach 19,023.87. It was the first time the historic stock-market gauge closed above 19,000.
And the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.2 percent to finish the day at 2,202.94.
Quote of the Day: “I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it.” — President-elect Donald Trump, speaking about the possibility that the U.S. might withdraw from the Paris climate accord after he takes office. Trump spoke during a meeting with reporters and editors at the New York Times.
