Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Yahoo and Microsoft’s dead deal. How could we not think of discussing it? And so we did. We discussed the possibility of shareholder lawsuits, the price of the shares, morale at both companies, and whether or not the executives involved should keep their jobs.

We also heard from Jim Courtney about the ground breaking announcement that Rogers will be the first North American carrier to offer the Nokia N-95, and chatted about how Canadian consumers can take advantage of Rogers’ plans. And we had a good discussion about how public WiFi is being under-resourced due to low capacity back haul.

And yes, although the recording says SquawkBox for May 8th… it actually is May 5th.

On the call: Jim Courtney, Andy Abramson, Ken Camp, Dave Brown, Brad Jones, Ragui Kamel, Adam Somer, Ian Hood, Bill Volk, Mike Pruyn, and Sheryl Breuker.

Enjoy!

 

 Squawk Box May 5 [41:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Widely reported Friday was Rogers Communications decision to bring the remarkable Nokia N95 to Canadian customers. Beginning tomorrow, Rogers will offer the 8G version of this phone for $399 on a 3 year contract. By comparison, discounter Tiger Direct offers the 8G N95, unlocked, for $780.99. A nearly $400 discount is nothing to sniff at!

As I’ve written here many times, the N95 is one of my favourite phones. The camera is second to none in the market, and the N95’s 3G capabilities are truly transforming. Check out my photos and videos from the Police concert in Ottawa. Once you’ve used a device like this, you simply won’t go back.

To get the $399 price you have to sign up for 3 years of the Rogers Vision service. It’s not that onerous. For $20/month you get XM Satellite radio, video calling, video on demand and more. But to really take advantage of all the N95 has to offer you’re going to want to sign up for the unadvertised gigabyte data plan at an additional $65 / month. With that you’ll be able to use services like Nokia’s OVI, and QIK. Ask your Rogers rep on the telephone.

I’m impressed. I’ve thrown a lot of rocks at Canadian carriers, including Rogers, over the last year for their regressive data plan pricing. Rogers has just thrown a curveball back, and I’m loving the opportunity to eat a little crow.

The third Mesh Conference is coming to Toronto May 21st. Having missed the first two, I’m dying to get to this one. The Mesh team has consistently produced a roster of top notch speakers, and this year will be no different. Want to talk digital music? How about chatting with Warner’s Ethan Kaplan? Or Michael Geist… the two of them should be interesting sparring partners! And that’s just a taste of the roster.

The undersold part of Mesh, frankly, is MeshU - a one day “how to” that happens the day before the main conference. If learning from entrepreneurs who are experiencing the same core hurdles and problems that we all see every day is your idea of time well spent… well, MeshU might be just the ticket. Design, development and management strategies from folks who live and breath this stuff day to day.

See you there.

C&D, or cease and desist, letters are one of the staples of trademark attorneys. That this particular letter was sent by Heller Ehrmann on behalf of Facebook over the use of the domain name facebookeconomy.com should come as no surprise. The law is finally catching up with cybersquatters, and demanding that they stop holding valuable trademarks for ransom. Facebook, for some time now, has been moving more aggressively to protect its marks.

At some point, having wasted enough time and money, Facebook will get tough with this clown. And, as soon as the legal bills mount, Mr. Mayhew is going to have to confront the harsh reality that he has misappropriated another’s intellectual property.

All in all, it’s a pretty boring case. Boring, except for the second paragraph, which asserts that Twitter is a Facebook competitor.

What do you think? Is Twitter a competitor to Facebook? Or is Heller Ehrmann attorney Melyssa Minamoto playing fast and loose with the facts to bolster her case that Mayhew is damaging Facebook’s brands?