Andrew Baron to Microsoft: Zune you
Drew’s blog entry on the forthcoming Zune promotion on Rocketboom says he’s been losing sleep over the deal. He’s decided to back out of a deal with Microsoft that “will be a big traffic loss for us.”
I really love Apple and will stick by them in this competition. I also remembered from last year that Microsoft was the first company to really make me feel as though I was being taken advantage of personally.
Drew’s also concerned that the Microsoft logo agreement would leave Rocketboom unable to criticize the company.
“That’s just not a reasonable restriction for Rocketboom.”
I can’t see why Drew felt the need to publicize the fact Rocketboom won’t be publicizing the Zune. Contractual terms notwithstanding, he’s certainly free to back out on a deal. Airing this where plenty of other people could pick up on it and comment doesn’t seem to accomplish anything.
If I’m Paul at Microsoft, I’m not going to be recommending any deals with Rocketboom in the short term.
My cynical theory, and answer to your question of what Andrew Baron hopes to gain by this move is simple: The reason he’s publicly airing this dirty laundry is that he’s hoping to gain some more notoriety and make up some of the traffic he’s bound to lose from his failed deal with Microsoft. If the deal had just died a quiet death, there would be no news stories about it, no bloggers buzzing about it… No reason for anyone who didn’t already know about RocketBoom to seek them out.
Mission accomplished Andrew. Mission Accomplished!
Eric