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To: stockman_scott who wrote (614)	3/28/2011 7:29:17 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1685

The online retailer appears to be racing Apple Inc. and Google Inc., both of which are also working on similar offerings, known as "locker" or "cloud" services. Amazon Planning Online Media 'Locker' By ETHAN SMITH Wall Street Journal MARCH 28, 2011, 7:11 P.M. ET Amazon.com Inc. is planning to start a service that would let people store music and video online and access it from various digital devices, people familiar with the matter said. The company could announce the effort as early as Tuesday, the people said. Amazon is still working out key legal issues related to the service, these people added. Most notably, Amazon has yet to secure content licenses from at least some major record labels and movie studios. An Amazon spokesman didn't respond to requests for comment. The online retailer appears to be racing Apple Inc. and Google Inc., both of which are also working on similar offerings, known as "locker" or "cloud" services. Such services create an online music or video collection identical to the one on a user's computer hard drive, then let the user access the collection from elsewhere. Amazon has indicated to some outside executives that its new service could allow users to upload personal video. Amazon already gives people access to movies and television shows they buy from its digital-download service. It was unclear Monday what kind of controls Amazon would put in place to distinguish actual personal video footage from movies "ripped" from DVDs without permission. Online technology-news website CNET earlier reported on Amazon's plans. People in the media business have said that under certain conditions, Amazon may be able to offer some kind of locker without obtaining additional licenses beyond those they already have for their digital-download store. However, such a system would likely need to be very basic, requiring compromises that might reduce its appeal to consumers. For instance, it might not be possible to let users access their collections from smart phones or other mobile devices. Amazon executives have told several media companies that they are likely to seek licenses for a more extensive service after this week's expected announcement. Announcing a service before a company has such deals in place can cause headaches for technology companies. For instance, Google began touting a music service in May of last year but even after months of negotiations with major record labels, the company's Google Music service has yet to materialize, as have many of the licenses that would be required to launch it. Similarly, Spotify AB, the European online-music giant, has repeatedly announced target dates for a U.S. launch, only to miss dates after failing to secure music rights. online.wsj.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (614)	3/31/2011 7:19:39 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1685

CRM was up $7 yesterday on news that it had reached an agreement to acquire Radian6: Salesforce Listens to Market Trends, Acquires Radian6 for $326 Million BY FC Expert Blogger Brian Solis Fast Company March 31, 2011 This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone. Salesforce, a purveyor of cloud-based solutions for customer relationship management (CRM) & collaboration for enterprise organizations and small businesses announced that it is acquiring social media monitoring platform Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. Radian6 is used by more than half of the FORTUNE 100 and companies like AAA, Dell, GE, Kodak, Molson Coors, Pepsico, and UPS to monitor, analyze and engage in social media conversation. Chairman and CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff shared his thoughts on the acquisition, "With Radian6, salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring. We see this as a huge opportunity. Not only will this acquisition accelerate our growth, it will extend the value of all of our offerings." With this acquisition, Salesforce is doubling-down its business strategy to boost the "S" in the socialization of CRM (sCRM) and help businesses integrate the social customer into its customer relationship management methodologies. The social customer is forcing businesses to adapt processes and systems as their behavior as well as their needs and expectations are evolving along with their use of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, et al. Consolidation is in the air. With this Salesforce/Radian6 deal, Lithium's acquisition of ScoutLabs and MarketWire picking up Sysomos, we can expect to see businesses place greater importance on the social customer outside of marketing and communications. As my colleague at Altimeter Jeremiah Owyang observed in a recent report, almost 50% of social media programs live inside of marketing today. In order for a business to become a social business, it requires the creation of bridges between business functions and social customers and bridges between existing silos. Salesforce's acquisition of Radian6 clearly places a great importance on monitoring into what Jeremiah refers to as the social business stack. Additionally, the integration of monitoring into a business is the first step toward a long road of change. For the most part, monitoring and analytics services are used to track the state of social for the brand as well as the efficacy of its campaigns. The social business will use monitoring to introduce relevance into the business mix to adapt to the needs of customers internally and externally through a virtuous cycle of… 1. Listen 2. Learn 3. Engage 4. Adapt 5. Repeat The Salesforce acquisition of Radian6 demonstrate the importance of social activity to create a new framework for a new generation of business. It's more than technology, it's not equally about philosophy and social science. With each day that passes, social media plays a greater role in the shaping of customer experiences throughout the entire life cycle. UPDATE: My Altimeter colleague Susan Etlinger adds additional perspective to the discussion, "Salesforce.com acquires Radian6: Implications for the Social Analytics Market." fastcompany.com