George Gilder has seen the future and...wait for it....he believes TV is "dying fast and it will be followed by Hollywood". Apparently, Gilder believes the abundance of bandwidth will cause the demise of traditional media. Let's be honest, this is an old mantra being recycled for 21st century if you recall Gilder pounded the table in the 1990s on how the power of fiber-optic technology was going to dramatically change how information was delivered. While Gilder was on the mark, he was far too bullish about the rate and impact of change. This didn't prevent people from enthusiastically following his advice, which made Gilder quite wealthy - at least on paper - from selling newsletters and giving speeches. When the telecom/dot-com boom ended, Gilder was suddenly shunned as a stock promoter gone bad. Gilder made his remarks about TV during an AlwaysOn conference appearance, which must be part of an attempt to rehabilitate his tattered reputation. While I'm sure Gilder is trying to be outspoken and controversial, his vision for the future of TV is far from novel or insightful. With the emergence of video-on-demand and IP-TV, everyone realizes how people consume programming is bound to change. Give AlwaysOn domo Tony Perkins some credit for trying to generate some buzz for the conference by inviting Gilder. The reality, however, is Gilder has already enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame but like many one-time high-flying entrepreneurs, he's trying to reformat an old message rather than develop a new take on the world.

Cisco's $61-million acquisition of KiSS Technologies is attention-grabbing and worthy of some analysis. KiSS makes networked DVD players and recorders and other home video products. Its technology can access content on the Internet or from other devices within a home network. The acquisition will let Cisco grow its presence in the home-networking market by leveraging on the Linkysy portfolio. CIBC analyst Steve Kamman thinks Cisco will probably get into the video DVR and set-top box market, which could pit it against players such as Scientific-Atlantic. Kamman thinks Cisco will pursue the IP-TV set-top box market. He does not believe, however, Cisco will aggressive pursue KiSS's cool-sounding "Surround Sofa" project, which involves speakers built into a sofa. "We do expect Cisco to grow by moving into adjacent markets, but don't see "Upholstered Furniture" as a likely new Adv. Tech. area in the near future," he wrote - clearly with tongue firmly in cheek. From a number of perspectives, you have to applaud Cisco's approach to acquisitions. It's aggressive, forward-thinking, pro-active and not without some risk. At the same time, this approach has become increasingly necessary as competition intensifies and there is more pressure to stay ahead of the pack.

Clearly intoxicated by their success in starting PayPal, Peter Thiel, Ken Howery and Luke Nosek have started a new VC firm and made their first investment in an online dating company called Engage. Engage aims to be different from all the other online dating sites by introducing the idea of an online "wing man". With Engage, you start the process by looking for potential dates on their database. When you decide on someone, a pop-up box appears that engages the services of a friend, who sends an e-mail to set up an introduction. The idea, I guess, is this process makes the anonymous nature of online dating somewhat more personal. Personally, I think it's totally dumb - although I must confess to have never used an online dating service and I'm still mystified by how popular they have become. While intriguing, Engage's biggest hurdle is it complicates the dating process with two strangers trying to capture another stranger's attention. In the real world, the two strangers work closely together to get the job done. With Engage, it just doesn't seem to have the same dynamic. Looks like the PayPal boys, who started The Founders Firm to pursue new ideas, may have missed the mark with their first foray into the VC world. The online dating is world is so competitive and crowded, they should have stuck to what they know best - e-commerce tools.

Google posted yet another quarter of eye-popping financial results yesterday as second-quarter profits more than quadrupled on higher-than-expected advertising sales. Meanwhile, Google's share of the global search market rose to 55% in April from 47% a year earlier, while Yahoo fell to 22% from 25%. The obvious questions are: how much better can things get for Google and how high can investor enthusiasm drive its shares, which touched $320 in after-hours trading before dropping to $280 amid concerns over slower sales growth. Google CEO Eric Schmidt appears to be trying to temper the bullish surrounding Google's prospects by suggesting to analysts that 15% sales growth isn't a given. A sign of the times could be the cautiousness of ThinkEquity analyst John Tinker, who achieved some notoriety when he slapped a $330 stock price target on Google several months ago. Tinker now suggests the "easy money" has been made and that institutional investors are no longer under-weight.