Archive for October, 2006
Pulling the Plug on Tivo
I’ve pulled the plug on Tivo (TIVO) after three years of great service. With my recent FiOS TV subscription, I needed HD capability and I cannot justify paying $800 for hardware I get for free from Verizon (VZ). I just wish I had tried to cancel my Tivo service earlier as they offered to cut the per month fee in half if I stayed. That’s a bad leading indicator for the health of this company.
Akamai Alpha No More
Akamai (AKAM) was an exception in my portfolio. I typically avoid high P/E high market cap companies, but Akamai had a unique and dominant position in the marketplace that I felt people overlooked. But I’ve synthetically hedged out Akamai holdings since September 22.
I’m not off to a great start with Verizon FiOS TV. Installer pulled a no show at my home this morning. No call, no warning, nothing. I phoned in and spoke to the same lady who took my order. Her explanation? Their systems ‘changed’ and my order was ‘lost’.
Unbelievable. I’m waiting for a call back to find out when I can spend another morning waiting for an installer to show.
Update: - Verizon executes about as good of a recovery as one could expect. They rescheduled me for a Saturday, tomorrow, and credited me $100. Plus, they didn’t try and hide the fact they screwed up.
Unlike the majority of people I know, I like Ottawa. And I’m not Canadian. Business rarely takes me there. But it will next week.
14 Channels and Nothing On
A Nyquist portfolio company reported earnings recently. It’s a small market cap tech firm, <