Valleywag
Comcast's acquisition of Fandango, announced this afternoon, is a classic boom-time blunder by an aging corporation eager for the internet limelight. The theater ticket retailer, which we said last month was up for sale, is a perfectly fine business, but the cable provider's rationale for the deal is spurious. Like a mismatched couple put together by an over-eager online dating service, the two companies have nothing in common apart a vague shared interest in movies.
For the superstitious, here's a sign that the combination is jinxed: Comcast plans a new site, which happens to be a concatenated version of the two partners' corporate names: Fancast. Echoes of 2000, when Vivendi and Vodafone sought to bring entertainment with to mobile phones, with the equally unfortunate Vizzavi. Why are these hybrids so cursed? Because, as brands and as products, they're designed, not for consumers, but to massage two corporate egos so that neither gets jealous, and create a bogus impression of synergy.
An ill-omened hybrid
Comcast's acquisition of Fandango, announced this afternoon, is a classic boom-time blunder by an aging corporation eager for the internet limelight. The theater ticket retailer, which we said last month was up for sale, is a perfectly fine business, but the cable provider's rationale for the deal is spurious. Like a mismatched couple put together by an over-eager online dating service, the two companies have nothing in common apart a vague shared interest in movies.
For the superstitious, here's a sign that the combination is jinxed: Comcast plans a new site, which happens to be a concatenated version of the two partners' corporate names: Fancast. Echoes of 2000, when Vivendi and Vodafone sought to bring entertainment with to mobile phones, with the equally unfortunate Vizzavi. Why are these hybrids so cursed? Because, as brands and as products, they're designed, not for consumers, but to massage two corporate egos so that neither gets jealous, and create a bogus impression of synergy.
3:42 PM on Wed Apr 11 2007
By Nick Denton
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