Hard-driving media players battle it out
Seagate Technology and Western Digital are two Californian companies that dominate the global hard drive market and are in constant, close competition with one another.
Western Digital overtook Seagate in the first three months of 2010 in hard drive shipments for the very first time on a quarterly basis, according to a recent iSuppli report. On Wednesday, it unveiled its latest attempt to challenge it in the media player category, with the WD TV Live Plus HD. Read more
Why higher taxes on VC are a good thing
Nobody likes to pay more in taxes. But venture capitalists don’t have much of a leg to stand on in their fight over the way VC profits are treated in the US.
And there is more than simple equity at stake here. If anything, higher taxes might actually be a good thing for VC – at least, as far as the investors are concerned, if not the many others who have been riding this particular gravy train. Read more
@BP_America versus @BPGlobalPR
BP has finally made a move on its Twitter nemesis.
@BPGlobalPR has been spoofing BP’s public relations operation since mid-May. Its caustic updates reach almost 150,000 Twitter followers. @BP_America, which the real BP has updated sporadically since 2008, has fewer than 15,000.
That’s up from just a couple of thousand a month ago. After a quiet few days in the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP started to engage with its critics on Twitter, and it recently acquired a “verified account” badge.
But BP is still struggling to make itself heard in the Twitterverse, while its evil twin has thrived. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
