Spyglass - Laboring Day

Happy Labor Day to those of you in the US. Over here in the UK there is no such holiday and so we toil away, type, type, typing. Which, to be clear, I'd be doing regardless. But to celebrate the holiday in some small way with my American Brethren, I have cracked open a...

Some Thoughts...

🤑 Amazon Takes the Early Lead in 'Hackqusitions' – The deal for AI warehouse robotics startup Covariant marks two such deals for Amazon, while Google and Microsoft each have one. Though Microsoft almost had two and should be credited with the model as it was actually pioneered in an attempt to save OpenAI after the board coup last year. Instead, Microsoft used the rough framework/idea to buy 'hackquire' Inflection. We'll see how many of these can be squeezed through before regulation comes. I suspect a really massive one, like say, Anthropic, might stop the music. So instead that startup may stick with the OpenAI model of "independence". [GeekWire]

📚 The Man Who Built Barnes & Noble Passes Away – A fitting obit for Leonard Riggio, who died last week at 83. While he actually bought the first Barnes & Noble, he's the one who made it into what it became. For a while, that was basically the Blockbuster of books – that is, the hated behemoth that killed local booksellers. But when Amazon entered the market, that changed, fast. Goliath turned back into David and the industry rallied around him. While it didn't work out as badly as it did for Blockbuster versus Netflix, Riggio's days were numbered. It's quite the entrepreneurial story. (And now, incidentally, another bookseller legend, James Daunt, is helping to bring the brand roaring back.) [NYT]

🐭 Disney Content Pulled from DirecTV – These carriage disputes are nothing new, of course. But they seem to be happening more frequently and becoming more severe as they're clearly not just about the actual carriage fees any more as that business continues to collapse and now just as much about the future of television with regard to streaming. And Disney, in particular, is in an interesting position their given large footprints in both legacy broadcast/cable and streaming – with the latter ramping fast in seemingly every way possible. NFL games – starting in just a few days now – always have a funny way of resolving these disputes, fast. [The Hollywood Reporter]

🍎 Atop Apple, No One Ever Really Leaves – Mark Gurman points out how many executives have left Apple in recent years, without really leaving. This is clearly a deliberate maneuver by Apple and it's hard to argue with the results, quite literally. Though you do have to wonder if it also doesn't hold the company back in some ways, notably when it comes to, yes, thinking different. I wrote about this several months back, not just with regard to product changes, but how stubborn Apple had become in its positions around the App Store. Gurman also reiterates that John Ternus is likely next in line to succeed Tim Cook – who, of course, won't actually leave, but will probably become Executive Chairman. [Bloomberg 🔒]

Some Analysis...

Apple and OpenAI Now Have a Way for Money to Change Hands

Apple’s investment in OpenAI would effectively be paying for ChatGPT

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

Emo Sauron

‘The Rings of Power’ doesn’t have long to get on track…

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

The Wolfs of Venice Canals

George Clooney and Brad Pitt give thoughtful, if diplomatic answers on the future of movie distribution

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

As An Aside...

• I can't decide if dating apps using AI as "wingmen" is a new dystopian low or just actually a pretty good idea. There is no in between. [Financial Times 🔒]
• Just how bad is the state of the relationship between Apple and Spotify these days? They are currently arguing over a change to the volume button functionality on iOS, setting new records for granularity. Naturally, Spotify is saying this violates the DMA because they're a big fan of regulation, except when they're not. [TechCrunch]
• The new, forthcoming "bronze" iPhone 16 Pro color may be a lot less "shitty" (read: Zune Brown) than thought. This looks decidedly more "Dune" – the actual name Apple uses for one shade of "Kim Special Edition" Beats headphones. It's almost in between "Dune" and "Moon". [9to5Mac]
• Landon Y. Jones helped popularize the term "Baby Boomer" and led to the rise of People magazine by focusing on color printing, weekend supermarket sales, and yes, women. Fascinating old school publishing life. RIP. [NYT]
• Based off of a new Fidelity markdown of its Xitter holdings, WaPo did some math to determine that we're approaching nearly $30B in value that has been incinerated (on paper) in this deal to date... [Washington Post 🔒]
• This is not a drill: Ian McKellen has been approached to reprise his role of Gandalf in Andy Serkis' forthcoming Gollum movie(s). “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So, they better be quick.” Morbid humor from the 85-year-old actor, who has no plans to retire, but did just break his wrist in a fall from the stage in London... To which I say: Fly, you fools. [Deadline]
• Is Telegram really just a crypto company masquerading as a messaging service? From a business perspective at least, yes. [Financial Times 🔒]
• We were on the verge of a self-retracting lightsaber, but Hasbro walked away, and no one knows why – namely, the inventor. A very strange story; I still fondly recall my lightsaber toy I had as a kid. It didn't retract but it made the appropriate hum when swung. It was red. I was a Sith kid. [The Verge]
• If, like me, you haven't yet gotten around to watching Ridley Scott's Napoleon, perhaps his new three and a half hour director's cut (up from a mere two and a half hours) now live on Apple TV+ will entice you. [Empire]

A Golden "Oldie"...

Ovation Inflation

What is going on at Cannes and *who* is counting?

Spyglass •M.G. Siegler

And I Quote...

"We are selling books. We aren’t selling weapons of mass destruction."

-- Leonard Riggio, who, as noted above, recently passed away after a remarkable career and life, notably building and running Barnes & Noble. This quote is from a 1999 New Yorker interview, when Riggio was still in the thick of running the bookseller and a certain bookselling upstart was coming for them – as was, humorously, the 1998 film You've Got Mail. Times change...