Creating strategic alliances...

Companies create strategic alliances with other firms for a variety of reasons but most importantly to gain a mutual competitive advantage over their respective competitors.  Earlier this year in March Directv created an alliance with Invision to launch a sales system that will manage Directv's advertising sales for both linear and addressable television.  The program "Dealmaker", will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Directv's sales operations.    When Directv acquired a rival Primestar in 1999 they were able to add almost 2.1 million subscribers as well as 11 high powered satellites.  Managers at Directv believed that this acquisition would enable them to be more competitive with their biggest rival, cable.  In the same quarter Directv also acquired US Satellite Broadcasting which was a premium multiple channel movie service.    

More recently, Directv's CEO Mike White is flirting with the idea of Acquiring Dish once again although he is sure that the deal will get shot down again.  Mr. White is also considering the idea of acquiring Netflix as well as Hulu which is a website where users can watch previously recorded television shows.  Not only would the Netflix and Hulu deals provide   stronger diversification, it would also provide shareholders piece of mind since Directv has seen its profits start to marginalize.  It seems that the only thing holding Mr. White back is The Department of Justice.  Directv must be on the right path to more successful ventures in the future because Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway, bought over 4 million shares in 2011.  This is significant because Buffet has typically steered clear of tech stocks...