What happened during the last two weeks in the world of B2B and beyond? Here’s some feedback on the most memorable news!
1. Teleworking: a not so good idea?
Even though we’ve often praised telework (“work from home”) over the years, Yahoo! is flip-flopping. From now until the beginning of summer, all its employees working remotely will be summoned back to the office. Why? Working in the office facilitates collaboration between coworkers and encourages creativity.
2. I had a dream: looking at my Apple watch though my Google glasses!
You were probably living in a bomb shelter (obviously without wireless) if you missed the latest rumors about the Apple watch and Google glasses. These two projects make two opposite bets: democratize screens in everyday life with the Apple watch or, on the other hand, definitely go without it by with Google glasses. To be continued…
3. Marriott and IKEA: an interesting union
Aiming to cover all segments of the European hotel market, the American hotel chain Marriott International has partnered with IKEA. If Marriott isn’t (yet) sleeping in a “FJELLSE” bed, it does hope to learn a lot about the “IKEA business model:” prefabrication, standardization and economies of scale. The first Moxy Hotel (new name) will open in 2014, and will be located in Milan.
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4. Bell/Astral: Act 2, Scene 1
After raging reactions from the recent refusal made by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) to validate the alliance between these two companies, Bell persisted and offered a new deal to bid for Astral. The objective of Bell’s new offensive is to show the CRTC that Astral’s acquisition respects the regulation relative to competition in the audiovisual sector. One can only imagine the headaches this will cause all the strategists and analysts concerned.
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5. Some people win the lottery, others pay fines of 732 million dollars
This is the case with Microsoft, held responsible by the European Commission because of its browser, Internet Explorer. Reason for the sanction? By integrating the Windows Explorer browser to every Windows operating systems, Microsoft was accused of harming other internet suppliers (Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari etc.). In the past, Microsoft was ordered to pay over a billion dollars by the same European Commission for similar practices.
