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ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

english.martinvarsavsky.net

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Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#31

Post by lclarkmichalek »

sek wrote: post #11

And E-Plus the third biggest German carrier gets sold to Telefonica for $11.8 billion. Did anybody hear about that? Telcos wanna deny it but it's close to a commodity. This is mostly money shifting around. When was the last time they introduced a game changer? Google Fiber is something else, it's simply 50 times faster than the average Internet connection.

I mean, most people around here would prefer telecos to just be dumb pipes, with the most want innovation being faster speeds. Regardless, some developments I can remember recently:

- 4G roll outs - Essentially free SMS (in the UK at least) - Psudo-phone leasing (http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/vodafone-red-hot/...) - "Home Boosters" (i.e. http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-accessories/sure-sign...) - Stuff like WiFi on the underground (http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/internet/wi-fi/index.htm)

Sure, nothing that changes their core value proposition, but plenty of products that indicate a willingness to "innovate". Things like the home boosters stand out particularly to me; the vast majority of their customers will never need such a device, but for those who do, it will be invaluable.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#32

Post by [deleted] »

mjburgess wrote: post #13

Europeans arent as unreflectingly captialistic and "frontier"sy. Americans have always seen success in business as an crowning achievement. Europeans have traditionally found this kind of pre-occupation with monetary success somewhat crass or trivial. > Europeans don’t realize that if a company that went from nothing to connecting 7 million homes is not celebrated... That's total BS. You dont need a culture of fanati…

[deleted]

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#33

Post by mkr-hn »

1stop wrote: post #17
Hermel wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This effect even gets reinforced by the European journalists: a German speaking journalist will read German and English sources. A Spanish journalist will read Spanish and English sources, etc. Having the "lingua franca" is a huge asset for the Anglosphere. It not only affects the flow of news, it also leads to cultural dominance (everyone watches Hollywood movies, but European movies are primarily shown in their hom…

Language is culture, good luck injecting chinese expressions into english... they just don't work. Language is the way we think, translating the way we think to one language changes how we think (i.e things are lost). > The times where each country could have their own soup are over. There are more people who don't care about the anglosaxon world than there are people who do care (China is a prime example here).

> Language is culture, good luck injecting chinese expressions into english... they just don't work.

Ni hao

English has a lot of loan words and imported phrases, and new ones are always on the horizon.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#34

Post by bogs_carut »

mjburgess wrote: post #13

Europeans arent as unreflectingly captialistic and "frontier"sy. Americans have always seen success in business as an crowning achievement. Europeans have traditionally found this kind of pre-occupation with monetary success somewhat crass or trivial. > Europeans don’t realize that if a company that went from nothing to connecting 7 million homes is not celebrated... That's total BS. You dont need a culture of fanati…

This post contains a lot of loaded rhetoric.

Are you implying that the sort of people who assume the degree of risk required to build a financially-successful business (specifically of the "home-run" magnitude implied by a multi-billion-dollar acquisition, IPO, etc) are merely "self-aggrandizing money-chasers?"

Companies of that scale sometimes have the ability to improve society. There's also the potential for abuse.

But if a culture's general attitude toward aspiring to construct such a business entails disdain and mistrust, it hardly seems illogical to consider the possibility that cultural pressures are turning people away from the desire to do something entrepreneurial.

And that, I think, is the point that the author was attempting to make.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#36

Post by justincormack »

lclarkmichalek wrote: post #31
sek wrote: post #11

And E-Plus the third biggest German carrier gets sold to Telefonica for $11.8 billion. Did anybody hear about that? Telcos wanna deny it but it's close to a commodity. This is mostly money shifting around. When was the last time they introduced a game changer? Google Fiber is something else, it's simply 50 times faster than the average Internet connection.

I mean, most people around here would prefer telecos to just be dumb pipes, with the most want innovation being faster speeds. Regardless, some developments I can remember recently: - 4G roll outs - Essentially free SMS (in the UK at least) - Psudo-phone leasing ( http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/vodafone-red-hot/... ) - "Home Boosters" (i.e. http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-accessories/sure-sign... )…

Unencrypted WiFi on the Underground is a typical telco poorly executed "innovation". They actually promised mobile coverage originally.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#37

Post by coliveira »

mjburgess wrote: post #13

Europeans arent as unreflectingly captialistic and "frontier"sy. Americans have always seen success in business as an crowning achievement. Europeans have traditionally found this kind of pre-occupation with monetary success somewhat crass or trivial. > Europeans don’t realize that if a company that went from nothing to connecting 7 million homes is not celebrated... That's total BS. You dont need a culture of fanati…

Agreed. Having a lot of money doesn't make you a special person. If you're rich and want to be celebrated, you should probably do something worthy of it rather than making money. Similarly, just because a company was sold for billions of dollars doesn't mean it has any importance - just remember the tech bubble.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#38

Post by melvinram »

mjburgess wrote: post #13

Europeans arent as unreflectingly captialistic and "frontier"sy. Americans have always seen success in business as an crowning achievement. Europeans have traditionally found this kind of pre-occupation with monetary success somewhat crass or trivial. > Europeans don’t realize that if a company that went from nothing to connecting 7 million homes is not celebrated... That's total BS. You dont need a culture of fanati…

Bullshit. What is crass is the perspective that Americans are unreflectingly capitalistic and pre-occupied with monetary success.

Most business owners I know started their business because they saw a need for something and they wanted to deliver what was needed. Financial success is important because it allows their organization to continue functioning but it's hardly the top motivator for business owners I've spoken with.

I will concede that there are a fair percentage of businesses that are unreflectingly capitalistic and pre-occupied with monetary success. However, to paint an entire nation with a broad stroke is ignorance at it's worst. It would be the same as saying "The Brits have terrible teeth" or "The French smell." It may be true for a percentage of people but is no way to address a body of people.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#39

Post by bogs_carut »

genofon wrote: post #10
spindritf wrote: post #3

If you primarily rely on sources of information in English (of which I'm guilty, too) then obviously you will be mostly getting information from the Anglosphere dominated by the US because it's, oh you know, richest and most powerful country in the history of the world. This is not some "Americans cover their successes" thing. It's that they matter more. There is an underlying economic reality in which we are lagging…

" richest and most powerful country in the history of the world..." not even close http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pre-modern_great_powers

None of those pre-modern great powers could compete either economically or militarily with the modern United States.

Of course, they might have been relatively more powerful in relation to their contemporaries, but that hardly implies anything relevant about the modern era.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#40

Post by yason »

If I'm not mistaken ONO wasn't a public company so I'm wondering why should basically anyone care except the parties involved?

Reading about big acquisitions of non-public companies (or public companies whose shares you don't own yourself) can sometimes be nice entertainment, but I fail to see the significance of the lack of news coverage as assumed by the OP.

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