Margins Check: Yahoo, Microsoft and cellphones in ‘Grand Theft Auto 4’

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–Yahoo and Microsoft continue to dance around the topic of a merger; Yahoo let Microsoft’s offer pass without action. Now the stage is set for a hostile takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft, a situation that could cause investors of both companies angst. Nonetheless, any potential Yahoo-Microsoft combination would stand as a major player on the wireless front.
–In a move that yet again highlights the enormous potential of the video market, The Warner Bros. Television Group announced it will relaunch its currently defunct WB network as an online video site offering both original programming and reruns of shows such as “Friends” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” As more and more content players move onto the online video front, those in the mobile video industry would do well to position for a similar rush into wireless.
–Finally, the long-awaited “Grand Theft Auto 4” video game has hit stores, and industry watchers are expecting huge sales. The game’s story and characters rely heavily on cellphones, and the game’s maker, Rockstar, has worked to integrate the real world of cellphones and the game’s own world via ringtone downloads and other functions. As the lines between real-world and digital-world commerce blur, there may be opportunities that open up for mobile vendors.