The $200 Billion Illusion.

Five years ago, it was not some Luddite tendency that caused me to snort derisively at the news of the AOL Time Warner merger. Notwithstanding my natural cynicism regarding M & A departments and the multiplier effect of the synergy justification, I was mainly appalled by the "gullibility" of the Time Warner board.

There are many things wrong with the entertainment business but, having worked in it, I thought that it did at least give you an intimate exposure to the vagaries of customer behaviour and that a key realisation is that a collection of eyeballs is collected in one place for a specific reason. In this case, that reason was emphatically not a desire to buy entertainment products.

Generally speaking, if you give a waiter your attention, it is not so that you can hear him pitch his screenplay.



ADDENDUM: This shows exactly why You Tube simultaneously is and isn't worth $100 million.