Maybe they should quit the prediction biz:
There will be a backlash in the green movement after it becomes clear that many of the companies claiming to be green are in fact nothing of the sort. Businesses that proclaim they are "carbon neutral" will find that such proclamations no longer carry much weight among far more skeptical media and consumers.
Nope, much to Business Week's chagrin, I'm sure.
At least one major U.S. airline will buy another in 2008. The most likely scenario is that Delta Air Lines (DAL) will go after Northwest Airlines (NWA), United Airlines (UAUA), or JetBlue Airways (JBLU). When that happens, others will scramble to cut their own deals.
Nope. Update: They nailed this one. My bad.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will enter the Presidential race in February, after it becomes clear which nominees will get the nod from the major parties. His multiple billions and organization will impress voters—and stun rivals. He'll look like the most viable third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt.
Nope.
The music industry is in crisis. The key reason is that CD sales are plummeting. Now, it's going to get worse. This year, the most important retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Best Buy (BBY), will look to radically downsize their CD sections. Perhaps there will be no more than one aisle, chock-full of mainstream pop titles.
Nope, though this one is inevitable.
Social network fatigue will set in as people tire of getting yet another invitation from so-called friends to join yet another social network. And, in the wake of Facebook's fumbled social ads initiative, it will become even more apparent there's no obvious way to pitch products on these sites without turning off members. Social features will wend their way into all kinds of Web services, from search to news, but the gold rush in social networks themselves will begin to wane.
Nope.
For years, gearheads have dreamed of getting all that video from the Internet onto the big 52-inch screen in the den. But it's a pain. Look for that to change in 2008. While Apple TV has been a dud, Steve Jobs & Co. will make an aggressive play this year for the most important screen in the house. Perhaps Apple will even make a gorgeous TV itself, with all the necessary Net capabilities inside. And if Apple can't do it, someone else will.
Nope. Again, this one is inevitable, but no one (outside from the idiots at Business Week) thinks convergence is happening for at least another 3-5 years.
German electronics giant Siemens (SI) will agree to pay more than $1 billion in fines to avoid prosecution by the Securities & Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Dept. on charges it paid hundreds of millions in bribes to win foreign contracts.
Apparently, Siemens and the SEC spent all of 2008 "negotiating". But I can't see any evidence any fine has been paid. I guess there are three weeks left in the year.
If a recession finally hits, Web 2.0 companies will find there are neither enough ad dollars out there for all of them to survive on, nor enough big corporate buyers such as Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and traditional media companies to buy them all out. What's more, venture capitalists may decide that momentum looks better for clean-tech investments than for Web startups that depend on a cyclical business like advertising. So more will join the "DeadPool," as the Web startup blog TechCrunch calls its list of failed companies.
Tell that to Huffington Post, which just got $25 million from Oak Partners, or -- heck -- my own SB Nation, which got a mid-seven figure investment from Accel Partners.
When will the world see $100-per-barrel oil? Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at London-based Barclays Capital (BCS), is betting that 2008 will be the year.
Woo hoo! They got one!
For a decade, a Net-happy world has cheerfully shared personal information online, with relatively little mainstream concern over privacy. Now, the issue may come to the fore, as carriers and cable companies deploy click-tracking software and publicity about China's Olympian Internet oversight leaks into the news.
True, there's a small group of civil libertarians concerned about things like FISA and whatnot, but it's a small group. These fears have not gone mainstream, unfortunately. This is another blown call, but one I wish wasn't.