With Tivo prepared to offer searchable, downloadable advertising, I wonder if it enhances or detracts from a Google acquisition? In a previous post, I thought a Tivo-Google marriage made sense because it would offer Google an easy and relatively inexpensive way to establish a foothold in the television market. Now, I'm not so sure. If Google is interested in this market, there are other routes it can take other than spending $500-million on Tivo. For example, it could sign deals with cablecos such as Comcast, which appears to be a strong Google ally, to offer AdSense/keyword advertising on a PVR device. Google could also strike deals with a DVR makers to produce a low-cost product with Google AdSense as a built-in feature. As Om Malik points out in the latest issue of Business 2.0, Google M&A strategy is focused on technology and people rather than full-fledged companies. This pretty much eliminates Tivo as a takeover candidate - not even taking into account the competition it's facing from cablecos, satellite TV and, increasingly, telcos. A more likley scenario is Google deals with a wide variety of service providers to create revenue-sharing advertising opportunities in whiche content and relevant-based advertising are seamlessly merged. So where does leave Tivo? I suspect it will carry on with its throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy until something works.

Has Halifax becomes the hot, new high-tech centre in North America? The city certainly has to be feeling pretty good after convincing Research in Motion Ltd. to create 1,200 jobs there over the next five years. These aren't low-paying call-centre jobs but "technical service" positions where people handle problems that the carriers' customer reps can't resolve. The Halifax facility will also take care of RIM's top15,000 corporate customers. So why Halifax? Aside from C$19-million government aid,  the province of Nova Scotia has a strong post-secondary education system, lots of people who want to stay in the province rather than "go away" to Ontario, and close proximity to the Eastern Seaboard. I suspect Nova Scotia will also bend over backwards to ensure RIM has everything it needs to start doing business without any bureaucratic  hurdles. Still, it's a big coup for Halifax given RIM must have been swamped with attractive offers from Canadian and U.S. cities for the new facility. (RIM already operates similar centres in Waterloo, Asia and Europe). It's also a major public relations/goodwill coup for RIM, which scores huge points with Canadians and the federal government.