Margin Check: T-Mobile pondering role in cycling, Disney buys a Penguin and tracking cabbies

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–German-based wireless giant T-Mobile is reportedly reviewing its sponsorship of the T-Mobile cycling team following repeated drug scandals during the recently completed Tour de France. The company, which has been a major sponsor of the cycling team for more than 15 years and spends more than $15 million per year on the team, was rocked by confessions prior to the start of the race by former members of the team to using banned drugs in the past as well as one of its riders testing positive for drug use prior to the event. The T-Mobile team brought in American and former VoiceStream Wireless Corp. executive Bob Stapleton as its new general manager this year in an attempt to clean up the cycling team. While sport sponsorships are still considered an excellent way to reach mass audiences, companies are having to take a closer look at potential repercussions negative publicity can have on a brand.
–The Walt Disney Co. broadened its reach into the online world with the acquisition of social network portal Club Penguin for a reported $350 million. Club Penguin, which targets children between the ages of 6 and 14, will be integrated into Disney’s Internet Group and can snag an additional $350 million pending its earnings performance over the next two years. Disney’s investment bodes well for the exploding social networking space that is just beginning to tap into the potential of wireless.
–The New York Taxi Workers Alliance said it plans to call a strike next month if the city goes ahead with its plans to install GPS tracking devices in all 13,000 taxi cabs by Oct. 1. The Alliance says the devices are an invasion of privacy to its more than 8,400 members. GPS services, which have been a boon for wireless carriers and customers, still have some social kinks to work out.