What is Facebook Workplace?
You may have seen mentions of Facebook Workplace, but what exactly is the hubub? Click
here to read all about it!
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How Can You Secure Your Wordpress Website?
Increasingly, companies are building their websites on WordPress. One of the benefits is that there are lots of ways to increase security on the WordPress platform. You can take a gander at some of our recommendations
here.
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Hello! It's the last Friday of October, and we are just a weekend away from Halloween! Are you going to go to work in a costume? If so, be sure to send us pictures so we can share them in next week's edition!
We look forward to your comments, and have a great weekend!
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There is such a thing as working too much
You might be one of those people who starts to feel tired at 11 PM and then think to yourself, "If I have an espresso now, I could get even more work done!" The fact is, a lot of Americans in the working world are developing extremely unhealthy working habits, and research shows that after 50 hours of work your health worsens, as does your productivity. Read more about this important issue
here.
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To Evaluate Employees or Not to Evaluate Employees...
That is the question. Hamlet didn't know what he was talking about. Does your company still do employee evaluations? There are probably mixed feelings about the process, but this Harvard Business Review article makes a compelling argument for continuing to stick to these evaluations. You can read why
here.
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Alexander Graham Bell. . .What Hast Thou Wrought?
The year was 1984. The phone company (of which there was one and was affectionately referred to as "Ma Bell") split up into 8 companies to avoid a monopoly antitrust lawsuit. Before that, life was simple. We all had the same phone company. There was no internet. There was no Facebook. There were no cell phones. Apple was founded 8 years earlier but was barely out of the gate.
From that point on, it's been a telecommunications/computer/media free-for-all. So many habits have changed in the last 32 years that there is not enough space here to do justice to it. But suffice to say...
- Time, Inc. and Warner Communications merged in 1989 to create Time Warner Inc., valued at $15 billion.
- Time Warner then merged with Turner Broadcasting System in a $7.5 billion merger
- Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC Inc. for $19 billion
- AOL bought Time Warner (can you believe that??) for $160 billion
- Comcast tried to buy Disney but was rebuffed
- SBC Corporation, which had been one of the 8 "baby bells" after the break-up acquired AT&T for $16 billion and then started to market itself as AT&T rather than SBC since the AT&T name reminded people of the good old days (people forget that this AT&T is not the AT&T from the good old days but really SBC in a new suit)
- Time Warner spun off its cable unit to create Time Warner Cable
- Time Warner spun off AOL, recognizing the piece of trash that they had paid a royal ransom for not that many years ago
- Comcast purchased a majority stake ($30 billion) in NBC Universal providing it with much needed content for its cable empire
- Comcast later took full control of NBC Universal when GE divested its stake
- AT&T attempted to buy T-Mobile but was told to get out of town by the FTC and the Justice Department as they didn't want to approve combining the 2nd and 4th largest wireless carriers
- Time Warner spun off its Time Inc. magazine division
- 21st Century Fox attempted to acquire Time Warner but Time Warner said "Thanks but no thanks"
- Comcast tried to acquire Time Warner but the FCC said "no way" as it would give too much control to one company over what Americans can watch and do online
- Verizon acquired AOL (why? I have no idea) to give it an online presence and provide content (this move did not put too much control over our viewing and online habits but the Comcast/Time Warner deal did?)
- Time Warner, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks merged to create the second largest broadband provider (behind Comcast) and the third largest video provider
- Comcast purchased DreamWorks Animation to compete against Disney
- Time Warner purchased a 10% stake in Hulu to increase content
- Verizon and Yahoo merged giving Verizon ownership of Yahoo's internet assets
Which brings us to the proposed AT&T acquisition of Time Warner. Given what has and has not been approved in the list above, who knows if this one will be approved, but there is already tremendous resistance to this idea. The typical line of thinking is that when there is too much consolidation and less competition, consumer prices go up. In this case, that may or may not happen. What could happen, though, is that AT&T could give preference to Time Warner programming such as HBO in its streaming packages. Comcast has already been under fire for showing preference for its NBC properties in how it positions channels on its cable system. These are very murky waters. We will have to stay tuned to see if the waters clear over time but sometimes this M & A stuff seems to happen just to feed the beast that is the stockholders and for no real good reason other than that.
Editor's Note: I wish to thank NPR for the list of mergers and acquisitions listed above.
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Welcome to Face-a-Ween!
Or is it Hallowbook? Anyway, even if you don't have a costume ready for "real life," Facebook has you covered in the digital realm. You can now look like you're wearing a mask on Facebook Live, and there are even Halloween emojis. Thank Goodness! Read all about it
here.
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Feeling Scared? Try Googly Eyes.
As Christopher Walken noted on Saturday Night Live, you need to be able to look in the eyes to see where you stand with someone. Watch this hilarious skit
here.
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