The old adage “Content is king” doesn’t seem to be borne out by the post-bubble resurgence of new media. The three companies that have benefited by this resurgence the most are Google, Apple and YouTube, which is now part of Google. None of them create content. In the post-bubble period the market values created by the three companies are as below:

1. Google – $144 B (Google was privately held before their IPO in August 2004).
2. Apple – $51 B (incremental since March 10, 2000)
3. YouTube – $1.7 B for an 18 month old startup.

On the other hand, Time Warner has lost a whopping $197 B in market cap from its high in March 2000. CBS, Viacom and Universal haven’t done too well either.
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…….Or Why I chauffeur at the tennis tournaments

Let’s face it – which well-off Indian in their right mind would willingly do a chauffeur’s job? Not me! Chauffeurs mostly drive and then sleep between driving assignments. For the most part, my memory of drivers is that of utterly bored, sleepy looking folks who often look like they are doing me a big favor!

So when a friend mentioned that her husband was a volunteer driver at the Seibel Open tennis tournament in downtown San Jose, I was intrigued.

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