Whether you call it a credit crunch or a credit squeeze, there’s evidence to be found that the chilled climate for deals has spread from the realm of the mega-deal into the middle market. To discuss the new economic realities in deal-making, The Deal convened a panel, “Deals in the Middle Market: How do they differ in this climate?” at the recent Private Capital Symposium, held in New York City.

For this podcast, panelists Steven Rattner, managing director, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, and James Epstein, partner, Pepper Hamilton, spoke with PodTech’s Jason Lopez.

The Deal’s Private Capital Symposium brought together private equity professionals, angel investors, buyout and venture investors, corporate acquisition professionals, M&A advisors and professional services providers. The event took place in New York’s Essex House, on May 14, 2008.

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This year’s Spring IDF, in Shanghai, brought the global community of Intel developers to one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, to discuss one of the most rapidly-changing technologies, and the incredible impact that all of that change is bound to have. Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger, referred to Intel’s efforts broadly as “architecture for life.” If it sounds ambitious, it is.

The speed of change in the software world is daunting. In his own keynote, SVP and General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group at Intel, Anand Chandrasekher, noted that everyone is trying to “unleash the Internet, unwire it, and make it go mobile.” Again, the words sound almost obvious, like common sense. They’re not.

It’s true that Intel specializes in bringing incredible advancements to technology on a tick-tock product development schedule that allows industries to grow and thrive. You can see in the matter of weeks and months that Intel’s efforts go from being rumor to being confirmed technological advances (like the recent Dunnington news) that the world is watching itself change in real time. It’s true that a lot of time at IDF in Shanghai was devoted to presentations on specific technologies, platforms and products.

We heard a lot more about Nehalem, about visual computing, about multithreaded CPUs (And just for fun, compare this detailed look at Intel’s sometimes-inscrutable codenames with a detailed look at those same codenames, from a slightly different perspective). Keynotes from Gelsinger and Chandrasekher, along with Software and Solutions Group General Manager and Intel Vice President Renee James and Intel’s Andrew Chien helped to clarify just how much more mobile our technology will allow us to be.

But always in the backdrop was Shanghai. In this video podcast, Jason Lopez connects the dots between Intel’s efforts to push technology past its limits and Shanghai’s amazing journey to pass its own.

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Charles Ditkoff is managing director and co-head of the global healthcare services group with Banc of America Securities. In this podcast, from the Healthcare Dealmaking Symposium hosted by The Deal in New York City, Ditkoff speaks with PodTech’s Jason Lopez about the state of I.T. in the medical industry. Ditkoff participated in the symposium’s panel discussion, “Market Spotlight: Healthcare Technology–Deals on the Rise?”

Health care technology continues to attract capital, raking in the majority of dollars invested in health care mergers and acquisitions. With billion-dollar deals on the decline, there is equal opportunity for strategics and private equity in the health care technology segment.

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Recently, NPD Group reported that Apple’s iTunes store moved into the number two spot in 2007 for music retail sales in the U.S. (Wal-Mart remained at number one.) Selling music has been tough — ever since the RIAA took on Napster and Grokster, less downloaded music is being paid for, not more. Where does this leave Apple? In this podcast, PodTech’s Jason Lopez and Kevin Edwards discuss why Apple has been relatively comfortable in an industry where the profit margin appears to be razor thin.

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Last October, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook, suddenly placing Facebook’s value at a lofty $15 billion. Now, we see that revenues for 2007 came to around $150 million, while expenses still leave the company with a negative cash flow that could be as high as $150 million next year.

Microsoft’s recent move to acquire Yahoo!, which began with a telephone call from Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang (a call that Ballmer later claimed was “definitely not a courtesy call”) prompted us to revisit the Facebook/Microsoft relationship – what it means for Facebook, and what Microsoft might have been thinking last Fall.

As Facebook moves to launch versions in Spanish, with more languages coming soon, analysts are looking again at the juggernaut, guessing about whether breaking into languages will erode its power as a single network around the world. Meanwhile, widgets and applications continue to proliferate, and Microsoft’s role in aiding advertising at Facebook continues to be a work in progress.

Forrester Research senior analyst (and former host of PodTech’s own Web Strategy show) Jeremiah Owyang speaks with PodTech’s Jason Lopez about Facebook’s evolving business.

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PodTech’s Jason Lopez and Kevin Edwards roamed the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show floor where it seems Apple rules–in certain product categories–without even being there. In this 18 minute podcast Kevin and Jason check out a few of the many products made for iPods/iPhones and talk about Apple at CES 2009 in anticipation of the MacWorld Keynote Address next week.

Also, Kevin spews his Mac-cult inspired thoughts on Steve Jobs delivering the keynote at CES 2009

See the Flickr photo set for this podcast.

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Broadband connectivity is crucial for emerging communities and markets. Until recently, many governments turned a deaf ear to the calls for infrastructure in many of the world’s poorest cities and in rural areas where outreach was almost non-existent. But the urgency has been made clearer as communities, technology companies and non-governmental organizations have begun partnering in initiatives to bring the Internet and other broadband services to the world’s people. At the Third Global Knowledge Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (December 11-13, 2007), many activists say the effort can’t happen without corporate cooperation. Alcatel Lucent’s Valerie Faudon says such meetings help galvanize projects like Broadband for All (BB4ALL). PodTech’s Jason Lopez filed this podcast from Kuala Lumpur.

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In a country marked by influences — Berber, Arab, Jewish, French, Spanish — Morocco faces the challenge of absorbing one more: information technology. Countries like India, China, Brazil and Nigeria have seen the astonishing impact that simple PCs can have on an economy – but the key to unlocking the potential of an information-driven workforce is always the same — education. Morocco wants to create its own Silicon Valley. Intel Chairman Craig Barrett visited the country to reaffirm the company’s commitment to helping Morocco shorten its road to literacy. PodTech’s Jason Lopez filed this podcast

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Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, fresh from the Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, toured Nigeria’s National Hospital in the country’s capitol of Abuja, as well as a school in the Jabi district of the city. Barrett also serves as chairman of the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID). PodTech’s Jason Lopez followed along and posted this audio podcast.

More about the Connect Africa effort.

Related Stories: IntelWorldAhead

More info from Intel’s World Ahead

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Intel Chairman Craig Barrett is traveling this week in Africa, as part of an ongoing effort by the United Nations, the International Telecommunication Union and private enterprise to improve Africa’s Information and Communication Technology, or ICT infrastructure. Barrett, who heads up the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID), is accompanied by PodTech’s Jason Lopez, who files this podcast report from Lagos, Nigeria. The digital divide is at the heart of this week’s Connect Africa Summit, but from Lopez’s reporting so far, it’s not just a digital divide.

More about the Connect Africa effort

Related Stories: IntelWorldAhead

More info from Intel’s World Ahead

Photo by Zouzou Wizman, via Flickr/Creative Commons

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