Roger Kay

Google is not the source it once was, argues analyst Kay. Advertising considerations have undercut its previously less-biased approach to information, as is happening across the net. This is a major cautionary tale about where we're headed. And it makes him nostalgic for print, where nothing ever goes away.

Private platforms for distributing news and announcements have surpassed public ones in importance. Case in point: Twitter is morphing into an official channel for the government. Roger Kay connects the tweets between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Blockchain—the technology behind (or interwoven with) BitCoin—is the main story. The "cryptocurrency" is almost a distraction, a sideshow to the real deal. Blockchain is a public ledger, a record against which anyone can see whether a transaction contained therein is valid. The applications may be mind-boggling.

Entire armies of reporters did an amazing job of capturing the insanity of the CES show in all its glory. Instead, here are a few highlights that struck me, my moments of epiphany. There were three, maybe four. Everyone at the show tries to stand out one way or another, but it’s pretty difficult. There were 170,000 people all seeking attention. I was struck especially by TVs from Samsung and a compelling talk by Ericsson's Hans Vestberg.

Wall Street fashions come and go. Does a company do better as an ever-accumulating conglomerate or a thinning-down disaggregator of business units? Eager investment bankers, hungry for fees, apply different rationales in different times. Hewlett-Packard and Compaq were better together. Now HPE and HPQ, are better apart. Or so they say. And the transaction occurred, generating vast fees for lawyers, bankers, and consultants. The benefit to shareholders, employees, and customers? Unclear.

Amidst all the brouhaha over Dell’s $67 billion bid for EMC, one unremarked fact is that Dell will have to again begin reporting financial results to the SEC. Michael Dell happily rid himself of that onerous task almost two years ago. But this is a different and more energized Dell than the business that went private in 2013. Dell has managed to retain his operating scope and freedom of action, even as he leverages up the company with his name on the door.

Smarter telemedicine can help healthcare providers deliver better outcomes to patients at lower cost with less intervention, and using fewer case managers. Qualcomm Life is a new division of the chip company that creates smart cloud-based healthcare systems based on devices around the home. Like Intel’s investing in drones and Apple’s moving into cars, it is part of a larger trend in which traditional tech companies are branching out to new and adjacent areas as core markets mature.

Few threats are more on the minds of business leaders than cyber attacks and data breaches. Companies that have been attacked range from Barnes & Noble to Home Depot to J.P. Morgan to Staples, Sony and Target. Now a variety of big insurers have created policies and services to cover this new set of threats.

As the on-demand economy grows, people increasingly rent things just when they need them, with services like TaskRabbit, Uber, Airbnb, and RideShare. And urban bicycle rental services are burgeoning. In Austin, Texas recently, I discovered the one there is impressively well run. It integrates just the right cyber and physical elements to deliver a glass-smooth experience.