interesting, I would say this is no different to any other inovation we have had in the past. Look at the car for instance it doesn't matter how fast it can go according to it's speedometer or what version of gas you buy, you are limited to the speed limit on the road you are travelling on at that time. So mobile Telco's will need to play a more direct role in delivering content more efficiently, for instance why have all the infrastructure laid out and bandwidth paid for for all the $$$ flying past which they can't get in on. Why not host something, apps, search, whatever and make mobile data, faster and more efficient. Hell how come no matter what TV you have you can get a decent picture without any download issues. Maybe we are too focused on hardware and not delivering stable, fast, realtime content.
Well on the other hand look at how much these, huge cash (no ideas) rich companies spend prematurely buying out new ideas before these startups have flourished, thinking this will help their brand and traffic stats. However, If they succeed acting like an incubator, awesome ideas will have the time to blossom (with cash and high level support).
Now that makes sense iani, if what I predict below is correct about FB and the fact that Spotify have secured a US deal with Sony and EMI + they might buy Warner Music. All of these put together would give them a tried and tested advertising model away from search ads, at better margins than Apple. Plus maybe musicians would possibly feel better, as less companies are taking cuts before the musicians get paid. That said Spotify have 1m paid customers and musicians are sort of only just understanding this new model...imagine their tunes were selling (bought or in exchange of an add) to 550m+ listeners. Plus why do you want a Spotify app when you could access it all from FB. Love it or hate it, but for the end user simplicity counts.
Maybe he is trying to buy a record label for Facebook, as that is pretty much the only thing FB are not able to get into fast - music. Buying Warner Music (via SP) would enable FB to rapidly sell music via FB like iTunes. Also putting the recent FB purchase of Israeli startup Snaptu in the same context, they might well be trying to create their own mobile OS - which will be FREE to mobile phone manufactures similar to Android. Massive advantage to FB if they do this is they have 550+m users that mobile operators would love to tap into with very litte marketing effort.
