Tim Howell’s Weblog

To me, live TV means watching a program - often a sports event - at exactly the same time that event is happening. There is definite value in this, and that is why paid TV providers such as Sky here in New Zealand have so many subscribers.

Can Sky therefore explain why last night, when we were watching supposed live coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament, that their coverage was probably 1-2 hours behind what was actually happening? How did we know? We surfed over to Sky news and got details of the Lleyton Hewitt vs. Robin Vik match which was two sets ahead of the match we were watching.

For a company that makes most virtually all of its money from web-based advertising, Google is now extending its reach into other media following its acquisition of DMarc Broadcasting.

According to the News.com article, “Google plans to integrate DMarc technology into its AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers” and this is seen as a precursor to further ambitious moves as Google extends the AdWords advertising platform into other forms of media.

Exciting for advertisers who will be able to take advantage of increasingly specific, targeted advertising; and further indication that Google intends to be even more influential for buyers and sellers alike.

Last week it was announced that Quest Software acquired AfterMail. For those of us involved since the early days, this was great endorsement of our achievement of developing and selling a leading software product from New Zealand. As part of Quest we now have the resources and complementary capabilities required to make our product a market leader in this space.

This deal has received some coverage in the New Zealand press, including:

• AfterMail sells to go global (Stuff)
• AfterMail sold to Quest for US$45 million (Computerworld)
• Quest snaps up AfterMail in $65m deal (National Business Review)
• AfterMail sells to US firm, for up to $65m (New Zealand Herald)

For other thoughts on the acquisition and what it means to the team, refer to Rod’s and Nic’s blogs.