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After the Republican Party and its biggest super PAC and dark money supporters suffered a painful string of defeats on Election Day, the media wasted little time in declaring outside money a dud. But their stories forgot to consider a crucial piece of the puzzle: the role of outside money in primaries.
Though understandable immediately after the general elections, this oversight has contributed to the oversimplified and often misleading “dud” narrative that has emerged about independent spending. This misconception becomes increasingly important as the press takes on the biggest question now facing Washington, DC: whether conservatives in Congress can reach agreement with President Obama on major tax and spending issues. Outside spending groups and their power to make game-changing contributions in primaries—particularly in the Republican Party—will likely prove key factors in shaping the budget and spending negotiations taking place in the coming months.
How super PACs succeeded in 2012
Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting
FCC
March 20th, 2013
10:00am
See http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db0313/DOC-...
Here's the agenda:
- Improving 9-1-1 Reliability: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to improve the reliability of 9-1-1 service nationwide based on the recommendations contained in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau’s January 2013 report on the impact of the Derecho storm.
- Office of Native Affairs and Policy Annual Report: The Office of Native Affairs and Policy will present a report on the Commission’s work with Tribal Nations and Native communities in 2012, highlighting regulatory and Tribal consultation efforts, and providing examples of projects expanding the reach of voice, broadband, and radio broadcast services.
Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting
FCC
February 20th, 2013
10:30
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, 2013:
- Improving Wireless Coverage for Consumers Through the Use of Signal Boosters: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to significantly enhance wireless coverage for consumers, while protecting wireless networks from interference by adopting new technical, operational, and registration requirements for signal boosters.
- Increasing the Amount of Spectrum Available for Unlicensed Devices in the 5 GHz Band: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to substantially increase the amount of unlicensed spectrum available to accelerate the growth and expansion of new Wi-Fi technology offering consumers faster speeds and less network congestion at Wi-Fi hot spots.
Reading through proposed legislation can be mind boggling, especially for a novice. The average proposed law is full of instructions to strike this, add that and amend to read thus. The natural way to make proposed bills more accessible to the public would be to employ smart software that allowed citizens to toggle back and forth between the current version of the law and a new “redlined” version with all the proposed changes, said Harlan Yu, a technology consultant and open government advocate. The result would look something like tracked changes in a Microsoft Word document. The problem, Yu said, is that for about half the U.S. Code, Congress hasn’t specified exactly where new legislation should be placed. In those cases, non-partisan staff in the House of Representatives’ Office of the Law Revision Counsel fits new legislation in where they think it makes most sense. While the language in those sections carries the full force of law, the organization of the sections does not, so it’s impossible to create an authoritative redlined version.
Just Putting Bills Online Doesn’t Tell You What They Mean
AT&T is constantly fighting to improve bandwidth on its overcrowded network, which has seen mobile data usage explode 30,000 percent between 2006 and 2012. The carrier has found a solution in small cells, which can bring nearly perfect usability to areas prone to dead zones and dropped calls.
AT&T tested small cells in Crystal Lake Park, Missouri and Waukesha, Wisconsin. In Crystal Lake Park, where the technology was used in a highly populated neighborhood, the small cell increased traffic by 17 percent and also boosted outdoor areas to nearly 100 percent usability. Waukesha was a test in an enterprise environment, specifically a large building dotted with dead zones. The addition of small cells gave the area almost 100 percent coverage and virtually eliminated dropped calls. AT&T did not, however, specify what happened to download speeds after small cells added all those users to the network.
AT&T Trial Shows Small Cells Bring Nearly Perfect Coverage to Problem Areas
Clearwire, the wireless Internet company that agreed to be acquired by Sprint Nextel, fell in trading after Dish Network said it won’t seek regulatory action to block the transaction.
Dish in a letter told the Federal Communications Commission it decided not to file a petition opposing Sprint’s acquisition by Tokyo-based Softbank Sprint’s Clearwire transaction is being reviewed as part of the $20 billion Softbank bid. The U.S. Justice Department, in a filing posted today on the FCC’s website, asked the FCC to defer consideration of the Softbank acquisition. The department, including the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security are reviewing the proposal for national security and law enforcement issues, according to the filing. Dish said it is in “continued negotiations” to acquire Clearwire.
Clearwire Falls After Dish Says It Won’t Block Sprint
Apparently, YouTube is aiming to co-opt the dual revenue stream of cable TV, hoping to launch paid access to two dozen or so "channels" for somewhere between $1 and $5 per month as soon as Q2 of this year. The real surprise? That YouTube seems to think it can make any kind of real money here.
The devil is in the details, of course: What's actually going to be available and how much will it cost? I'd be astounded if YouTube were able to acquire a substantial number of paying customers by offering a la carte access to any of its current lineup of original channels. Maybe there's something else those guys have up their sleeves, but I can't see anybody paying a buck or two per month for the stuff you can get on, say, The Comedy Shaq Network, The Pet Collective or even The Spangler Effect. I like The Onion, but will anyone pay to watch kinda-sorta-funny parodies like America's sexiest hula-hooper?
YouTube About to Find Out If A La Carte Works
A new report from CB Insights breaks down the acquisitions of 2012, taking a look at the 2,277 private tech companies that were acquired, and examining some trends in mergers and acquisitions:
- Of the companies that were acquired, 76 percent had not raised any investment and instead obtained funds through other avenues,
- Facebook and Google made the most acquisitions last year, doing 12 acquisitions each, with Facebook making acquisitions primarily for talent,
- Out of all the companies acquired, just eight were acquired for more than $1 billion. Those eight companies amount to less than 3 percent of all acquisitions in 2012. 80 percent of companies were acquired for less than $200 million, and more than 50 percent were acquired for less than $50 million, and
- California saw the most acquisitions, but New York saw the highest percentage of acquisitions of internet companies.
Breaking down 2012 tech acquisitions by the numbers 2012 Tech M&A Activity Report – Private Company Acquisitions (CB Insights)
According to a new CB Insights on mergers and acquisitions in 2012, education technology was by no means the top industry by deal volume — that honor goes to web and mobile commerce — but given all the investor money entering the sector, we thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top companies responsible for exits.
According to the research firm, there were 48 ed tech deals in 2012, down slightly from 51 in 2011. John Wiley & Sons, the 200-year-old publisher, was the most active buyer, acquiring three companies. Publishing giant Pearson, learning management system Blackboard and private equity firm Vista Equity Partners each bought up two companies. The biggest ed tech deals of the year were Pearson’s $650 million purchase of Embanet Compass, which provides online learning services to colleges and universities.
Who were the top ed tech acquirers in 2012?
On Dec. 10, 2012, Chris Vein checked out as deputy CTO of the White House and checked in to the World Bank -- as chief innovation officer for Global Information and Communications Technology Development. When it comes to open government and innovation, Vein knows his stuff. As deputy CTO of the White House for nearly two years, he spoke frequently about creating the next generation of government, using open innovation and open government to do so.
Chris Vein Leaves White House for the World Bank