Electronic Arts' continued pursuit of Take-Two Interactive would not be surprising, given the strength of the "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise. But the real winner would be Strauss Zelnick, who bet two years ago that the troubled independent games publisher would be a value play.

Public media has a dilemma. It has been one of the most culturally, intellectually, socially and politically unique entities in the U.S. But it is woefully under-monetized in today's burgeoning digital world. It doesn't need to be that way. The powers that be at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting and public media outlets can lead change by embracing it.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt was adamant in December when he declared the multinational conglomerate is worth more with NBC than without. "This is the wrong time to think about exiting," he said. That should have halted the incessant speculation about the sale or spinoff of NBC Universal and its assets. But Wall Street remains skeptical. JP Morgan analyst C. Stephen Tusa is the latest to lead that chorus, recommending that a piecemeal sale can generate $10 billion to $15 billion more than the $33 billion value implied for NBCU in GE's sluggish stock price.

One of the most dramatic mandated conversions ever in media--requiring television stations to relinquish their analog signals for new digital ways--has been rooted in a wrong-headed assumption. Just because broadcasters have invested millions each on digital infrastructure doesn't mean they know how to make money with it.

The prevailing Wall Street notion is that the brands that have historically lifted media out of a cyclical economic abyss will come to the rescue as companies fight to restore their public valuations. But this time, the recovery process shows signs of being hindered by the industry's inability to value and adequately consider new competitive forces.

You may never have heard the name Scott Switzer but he may be David to Google's Goliath. His eight-month-old company is the only open source ad server facilitator of scale. This week he will rebrand it from the OpenAds name it has been operating under to OpenX, as part of an expansion intended to give clients more interactive heft. Switzer says his "five-year laundry list" includes initiatives to help publishers grab a bigger portion of text, video and mobile online advertising dollars, partly by aggregating them into like-minded Web communities.

Regardless of whether News Corp. and Yahoo can successfully partner in a defense against Microsoft's unsolicited takeover, their efforts raise an interesting question: Why does News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, who owns MySpace, need a leading Internet search engine?

The aggressive marketing wars waged by cable, telco and satellite companies may look like a fight to the death. In fact, it is only a scrimmage in the battle to manage shifting economic values among rival sectors. When the dust settles on next year's mandated digital television conversion, cable will come out on top, with telcos a distant second.

The resolution of the writers' strike, Microsoft's attempted takeover of Yahoo, the power play between John Malone and Barry Diller--and virtually all media conflicts--have more to do with good old-fashioned math than fancy corporate maneuvers.

The opening day of this week's global Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain was ironic. It was marked by a massive service blackout among North American BlackBerry users. Another reminder of the gaping void between where the most advanced mainstream mobile technology is and where empowered consumers want it to be.