Ha, ya, I just said the same thing in reply to piqufoh regarding pocket change. The technical and focus issues I think could easily be handled by hiring a few people and having them 100% dedicated to Reader. $10M should be more than enough for that. You'd still be talking about revenue per employee of at least a couple million. (Google as a whole, with ~$50B revenue and ~50k employees averages about $1M revenue per employee.)
The potential legal and especially reputation issues I hadn't considered though. If they're trying not only for internal, but also external focus - essentially shaping how people think of the company, which seems obvious now that you mention it - I could see how they would consider 'niche' products like Reader detrimental even if they do make good money.
The potential legal and especially reputation issues I hadn't considered though. If they're trying not only for internal, but also external focus - essentially shaping how people think of the company, which seems obvious now that you mention it - I could see how they would consider 'niche' products like Reader detrimental even if they do make good money.