Sony and Samsung enforcing minimum pricing on TVs

Sony and Samsung enforcing minimum pricing on TVs
By Sam Byford on May 23, 2012 04:53 am

Samsung and Sony have both started restricting retailers from offering discounts on TVs. The Wall Street Journal reports that the move is designed to protect both the manufacturers' margins and the retailers' profits by preventing "showrooming," where customers check out models in person before buying them for less online. Showrooming was reportedly behind Target's recent decision to stop carrying Kindle hardware, with a source citing a "conflict of interest" in promoting Amazon's products.

Apple has similarly strict policies, and Sony itself already controls the retail price of certain products such as game consoles. However, there is concern that the enforcement of minimum TV prices could drive customers to products from competitors that allow discounting, such as LG and Panasonic. Last month we saw hikes of over $1000 on Sony sets that seemed to confirm its move to a premium pricing strategy, and minimum prices for Samsung's 2012 HDTV lineup leaked back in February. Samsung has also said that it's comfortable with placing a relatively high premium on its laptops.

While it certainly isn't surprising that Sony needs to take drastic measures to put its TV business back in the black, Samsung's division is in fairly rude health. It's understandable that the Korean manufacturer would want to maximize profits, but its ability to compete on price has been instrumental in eclipsing its Japanese rivals. We're not sure how this will end up working out for Samsung and Sony, but one thing is clear — we shouldn't expect to see their TVs on sale anytime soon.



Source: THEverge

Seagate to buy LaCie for $186m as hard drive industry continues shrinking

Seagate to buy LaCie for $186m as hard drive industry continues shrinking
By Nilay Patel on May 23, 2012 10:34 am


The hard drive industry continues to contract: today Seagate announced that it will acquire boutique hard drive vendor LaCie at a total valuation of $186m. Seagate will first purchase 64.5 percent of LaCie's stock from CEO Phillipe Spruch, and then try to buy all the remaining shares over the next few months; if it succeeds in purchasing 95 percent of the company within six months, it'll bump the final price paid to Spruch by 3 percent. Spruch himself will join Seagate as head of consumer products.

The move follows Seagate's $1.4b acquisition of Samsung's traditional hard drive business in December and rival Western Digital's merger with Hitachi in March. While the LaCie buyout is much smaller, it offers Seagate an established consumer brand, a history of innovative design — LaCie has long worked with designer Philippe Starck — and continued vertical integration as more and more storage moves to the cloud. The deal is of course subject to regulatory approval in the US and Europe, but Seagate expects it to close in the third quarter of this year.

BUYOUTACQUISITIONWESTERN DIGITALPHILIPPE STARCKLACIESTORAGE



Source: THEverge

Sky News clamps down on Twitter use

Sky News clamps down on Twitter use
Reporters banned from reposting non-company tweets and told to check with the news desk before breaking news stories

Sky News reporters

Sky News has told its journalists not to repost information from any Twitter users who are not an employee of the broadcaster.

An email to staff on Tuesday laid out new social media guidelines for Sky News employees, including a contentious ban on retweeting rival "journalists or people on Twitter".

The new guidelines also warn Sky News journalists to "stick to your own beat" and not to tweet about non-work subjects from their professional accounts.

Sky News has cultivated a reputation for digital innovation and has used Twitter to break news on events including the Arab Spring uprising and England riots. Journalists at the broadcaster expressed shock and dismay at the new guidelines, which they claim are a retrograde step.

The email to staff, which has been seen by MediaGuardian, said: "So, to reiterate, don't tweet when it is not a story to which you have been assigned or a beat which you work.

"Where a story has been Tweeted by a Sky News journalist who is assigned to the story it is fine, desirable in fact, that it is retweeted by other Sky News staff.

"Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process."

The email says that the guidelines have been introduced "to ensure that our journalism is joined up across platforms, there is sufficient editorial control of stories reported by Sky News journalists and that the news desks remain the central hub for information going out on all our stories".

The email said: "1. Don't tweet when it's someone else [sic] story. Stick to your own beat. 2. Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks."

It added that "on a number of occasions" those guidelines have been flouted "resulting in us running different information on Twitter other Sky platforms or the news desks learning from Twitter details that should have been first passed on to them".

The guidelines on checking tweets with Sky News news desk do not apply to "verbatim reporting" on Twitter of court cases, parliament or judicial inquiries "to which you have been assigned".

A Sky News spokeswoman said: "Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate."


Source: Guardian.co.uk