While there has been a lot of attention on the VCs that hit the jackpot with Skype (Draper Fisher Jurvetson, etc.), there are likely dozens of VCs that took a pass when the company was seeking capital. At a VON panel today on VC investment in VOIP, David McCarthy, managing director with BCE Capital, said he didn't jump on Skype because he couldn't figure out their business model. "Shame on me but I generally pass on things without a business model and will likely do so again in the future." Kudos to McCarthy for being honest about what coulda/shoulda/mighta been but truth be told, there are hundreds of intriguing technology companies like Skype looking for private equity. If they're really, really lucky, it all works out for everyone but the vast majority never go anywhere.

As the music industry clamors for Apple to budge off selling iTunes songs for 99 cents, Steve Jobs gently criticized it for getting "a little greedy". That's putting it nicely as the big music labels demonstrate their gift of misreading the market and how their industry is evolving.
If you're curious about why Jobs picked Apple Expo in Paris as the forum to send a message to the music industry, HardMac's Blog has some insight into Jobs' "manipulation" skills.

I capped off a long day at Fall VON by appearing on the bloggers panel (the play by play is provided here by Alec Saunders) and a dinner with many of the folks who write blogs about the industry. Aside from finally putting faces to names, there was some great conversations about what's happening. With Google unveiling more details about its WiFi plans yesterday, there was plenty of talk about where the company is going with its quiet dark fiber purchases. David Beckemeyer, PhoneGnome's inventor, thinks Google is clearly looking at much more than reducing its carriage fees. He believes the search engine giant is probably looking to deliver rich services such as video. The big question is how does Google deliver its services to the "last mile"? WiFi is in the spotlight but Russell Shaw believes Wi-Max could come into play what with Clearwire's plans. Motley Fool's Seth Jayson says there is reason to fear Google's server access plans given traffic will flow through Google's servers and be encrypted. While this could let Google deliver very targeted advertising and services to consumers, it also opens the door to some serious privacy issues despite Google's "don't be evil" mantra.

According to CEO Bill Owens, Nortel Networks will take its time before it hires a new CTO to replace Gary Kunis, who quit in May along with COO Gary Daichendt. "It is a very important part of Nortel," Owens told Reuters. "We're making billion dollar bets in many (technological) areas and you just need to be really certain you're going in the right direction." Here's a few strategic ideas for Nortel: how about buying Peerio (the last man standing after Avaya acquired Ottawa-based Nimcat Networks for $46-million earlier this week) to get into the P2P IP PBX market, or maybe Digium (Asterisk) to enhance its foothold in the IP PBX sector?
Update: Nortel also plans to unveil a new core and edge router strategy after its partnership with Avica Systems "didn't give us the traction we need", according to Peter Kelly, who leads Nortel's enterprise unit in Europe and the Middle East. Not sure whether this will mean the creation of its own technology, an acquisition or partnership with a vendor such as Juniper. There's also a report Nortel is in discussions with Rogers Communications to sell its corporate headquarters in Brampton, Ont. Apparently, Rogers is "bursting at the seams" after acquiring Microcell last year.