All Things Digital

Although we did not raid the offices of Silicon Alley Insider and “steal” Peter Kafka, as the fanciful SAI kingpin Henry Blodget alleges–had it been a raid, BoomTown would have properly hog-tied Blodget so he could not make such spurious allegations!–it is true that SAI’s current managing editor (pictured here) will be coming to work for us at AllThingD.com soon.

Indeed, Walt Mossberg and I, as well as the rest of the ATD team, are thrilled that Peter is coming onboard at the end of October. He will write a daily still-unnamed new media blog from New York City.

Walt and I have long wanted to bring in someone located on the East Coast and away from the echo chamber that Silicon Valley can be because we both feel the ongoing digital revolution is taking place over a number of key industries all over this country and the world.

Peter was our first choice and has been on my must-read list since I began this blog. He is sharp, witty, confident and has the kind of reporting and writing chops that we think are key to giving readers high-quality, standards-based content they can trust.

With extensive connections across the media, advertising, entertainment and tech sectors, Peter will be doing original reporting, getting scoops, doing interviews, making videos and providing much needed and clear-headed analysis that he is so well known for.

Peter has worked at SAI since mid-2007. The first hire at the start-up tech business analysis site, he has focused on enterprise and beat reporting, as well as breaking news.

Previously, he spent 10 years as a reporter and editor at Forbes and Forbes.com covering media and technology. There he launched two tech columns, coordinated the video staff and represented Forbes on industry panels and in TV appearances for CNN, BBC and CNBC.

Peter was also a staff reporter with City Business in Minneapolis and a staff writer for the Minnesota Real Estate Journal in Bloomington from 1993 to 1997. Earlier, he was a stringer with the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel in Madison, Wis.

He holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Wisconsin and resides in Brooklyn, NY.

More importantly, Peter is a newly-minted father, which should give him more practice in prolonged sleep deprivation needed for his blogging.

He will begin at ATD on Oct. 27.

Along with Walt and me, Peter joins senior news editor John Paczkowski, author of the rocking Digital Daily column, who formerly wrote the award-winning blog, “Good Morning Silicon Valley” at the San Jose Mercury News, and Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Boehret, who writes the most excellent weekly Mossberg Solution column.

We hope you are as thrilled as we are that Peter is coming soon to the ATD site.

(And if you want a little taste of Peter’s work, here’s a post he did yesterday on an appearance by Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes at the Goldman Sachs media conference and another on Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. [News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and of this Web site].)

While Walt Mossberg’s review of Apple’s (AAPL) latest version of the 3G iPhone is getting all the buzz after it appeared last night, BoomTown is more riveted to the ad next to it showing my longtime partner in a very natty suit and tie (pictured below).

Oh, I have seen a suit on the typically more casually dressed Walt before–at my wedding and when Walt got a big award from Columbia University recently. But we really like the photo of him in what looks like a James Bondish Brioni in the ad for his debut this week on the Fox Business News.

He had previously appeared weekly on CNBC, which has a deal with The Wall Street Journal for appearances by reporters.

(Fox Business is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Journal and this site.)

Walt will be appearing now every Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET on Fox Business, but will also appear tomorrow at the same time to talk about the newest iPhone.

In the review, Walt gave the new device a thumbs up, although with some caveats.

He wrote:

Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

Is it just me or did anyone else find the T. Boone Pickens (pictured here) quote about why he bought 10 million shares in Yahoo a little scary and a lot appalling?

“The only thing I know about Yahoo is what [CNBC Host] David [Faber] just told me, and that Carl Icahn is a big shareholder,” said the folksy chairman of BP Capital yesterday.

Yes, Icahn, the well-known Internet expert!

Actually, all the Luddite-leaning Icahn knows is how to squeeze money out of desperate and troubled companies (most of whom, to be fair, deserve the squeeze).

Which is why the entry into the game of all the corporate raider’s vulture-ish pals should be very, very disturbing to Yahoo CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang.

Because, whether or not Yahoo (YHOO) liked the unsolicited takeover incursion of Microsoft (MSFT), at least it is a technology company that valued and appreciated and understood the intricacies of Yahoo’s business.

Icahn, with all the delicacy of a meat grinder, would just as soon dismember Yahoo, if he got control and could not easily turn around and sell it off to Microsoft.

And, although there are a lot of lousy ways this situation could eventually turn out, that is perhaps the lousiest.

If Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang thought Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was scary, meet persnickety investor Carl Icahn.

According to CNBC, which was doubtlessly leaked the threat by the clever billionaire to test the waters, he has bought as much as 50 million shares in the troubled Internet company as part of a potential proxy fight.

Following the CNBC report, The Wall Street Journal reported that Icahn was leaning toward launching the proxy fight, using that 4% stake he has apparently amassed since the Yahoo-Microsoft tussle ended May 3.

Another activist investor, The Journal said, also thinking of getting involved was Firebrand Partners’ Scott Galloway, also known as the thorn in the New York Times’s side. (His SuperPoking inexplicably did nab him a board seat.)

Oh, dear.

But sharks do come when there is blood in the water, of course, as there has been since Microsoft (MSFT) abandoned its takeover quest for Yahoo (YHOO) after repeated rejection from Yang and its board.

It is not clear what Microsoft will do.

Icahn’s efforts seems clever, using similar tactics as he did in the BEA Systems-Oracle fight, trying to get just a few board seats to force Yahoo to sell to Microsoft.

But he better hurry–anyone wishing to wage such a proxy battle has until Thursday to do so to get on the slate at Yahoo’s July board meeting.

In honor of the Icahn entry, here’s an anticipatory video for Yang for the meeting, so he knows just what’s coming:

If you are a glutton for punishment, here is the entire video from the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley chapter’s annual “Media Influencer” dinner, held at the Computer History Museum last week.

BoomTown was one of the tech writers on the panel, which was talking about what the big trends in tech in 2007 were and what they would be in 2008. The others were: Victoria Barret of Forbes, CNBC’s Jim Goldman, Business Week’s Rob Hof, The Wall Street Journal’s Don Clark and Robert Scoble of Scobleizer. (USA Today’s Jon Swartz could not attend.)

Venture capitalist Ann Winblad moderated the event.

Here is the whole thing:

And here is my video of the event too (and here is the post):

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

Last night, the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley chapter held its annual “Media Influencer” dinner at the Computer History Museum, which featured a spate of tech journalists pitching a large room full of PR people about what’s hot in the sector.

Turning the tables this year–and apparently getting “honored” by the group–were: Victoria Barret of Forbes, CNBC’s Jim Goldman, Business Week’s Rob Hof, The Wall Street Journal’s Don Clark, Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and BoomTown. (USA Today’s Jon Swartz could not attend.)

Venture capitalist Ann Winblad moderated the event, which seemed akin to trying to herd cats.

Some of the topics included: Facebook (of course, and whose PR head Brandee Barker appears in the video below after a harrowing day handling Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes,” which is doing a piece on the social-networking site with an apparent focus on–also, of course–privacy); the impact of the possibly looming recession on tech; Apple’s iPhone (of course, of course); Google (triple of course); the resurgence of the enterprise space; and the fate of Yahoo.

Here is video of the event:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

Did I wangle a seat right next to soon-to-be Dow Jones owner Rupert Murdoch last night at the Web 2.0 Summit dinner?

Of course I did, continuing in the shameless BoomTown tradition of trying to get gratis meals with moguls (like our ongoing efforts to raise money for DonorsChoose.org and get a free lunch with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang).

(Here’s a picture above that I nicked from Valleywag, as they called me “abrasive” in their post and said I was carrying water for News Corp.-owned MySpace with my incessant questions about rival Facebook’s business model and insane valuation. To the first, I say that’s like a commercial sander calling Comet abrasive and, to the second, I obviously now have to start slapping MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe’s handsome face around to maintain my scratchy cred.)

In any case, the News Corp. chairman and CEO could Web 2.0 it up with the rest of the geeks, as it turned out, and managed to touch on topics ranging from the Facebook valuation to the state of the media industry to the need for even more digitization across the landscape.

If you want to see Murdoch in action, here’s some snippets of his onstage interview, along with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe with conference co-host John Battelle. It’s a little hard to hear, but worth the watch.

He talks about such topics as his love of Silicon Valley, the future of MySpace (owned by News Corp.), the renewal of DeWolfe’s contract, Google, Facebook, his hope for the New York Times (Would he like to kill it? “That’d be nice,” he answered.), the “half-dead” CNBC (the main competitor of his new Fox Business channel) and, of course, his plans for his newest shiny toy, The Wall Street Journal (more culture!).

I asked him, no surprise, about the $15 billion Facebook valuation, which prompted Murdoch to say News Corp. was drastically undervalued. That’s cheeky!

Thanks also to the other Web 2.0 Co-Host Tim O’Reilly for asking Murdoch when he was going to fire BoomTown! Job security? Nope! Rupe’s answer: “There’s still time!” (Hopefully, after he shivs the Times and CNBC.)

Here the video: