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Wheels Stay on Yahoo

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:25:26 -0600

NEW YORK AdAge.com -- Softness in ad spending in consumer package goods and finance categories didn&#039t help Yahoo&#039s business this quarter as President Sue Decker cited a &quotmore difficult economic environment than anticipated.&quot

Source: Advertising Age

Lots of Buzz After Bushs Wall Street Quip

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:25:25 -0600

President Bush&#8217s recent comments about the current economic mess &#8212 &#8220Wall Street got drunk&#8221 he said in what he thought were off-the-record remarks at a Houston fund-raiser &#8212 have inspired all kinds of commentary. Much of the more serious-minded reaction was along the lines of the question posed by Portfolio.com&#8217s Megan Barnett &#8220Who does he ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Gatekeeper of the MP3 blogosphere

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:25:36 -0600

Anthony Volodkin couldnt raise any money three years ago when he launched the Hype Machine a digital music startup.

Source: Fortune Magazine

Cisco Buys Software Firm Pure Networks For $120 Million CSCO

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:13:34 -0600

John Chambers Cisco CSCO has purchased Seattle-based Pure Networks which makes home networking software for $120 million. Pure Networks will be folded into Ciscos Linksys group which it already partners with on a product called Linksys Easy Link Advisor a tool that helps consumers set up and manage their home network.The companys last announced funding round was a $12.5 million Series B from Bessemer Venture Partners Ignition Partners and Mayfield in January 2006.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

VCs Have It Wrong No Elevator Pitch? No Problem!

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:49:36 -0600

The accepted wisdom is that every great idea -- or every fundable idea -- has to have a good elevator pitch. In order for an idea to be great it needs to fit neatly into a one-minute description that knocks peoples socks off. Or at least makes them extremely curious.Bull.The truth is that for some ideas an elevator pitch works great. For others not so much. And there is no direct correlation between ease of explanation and appeal or value in the marketplace. The reason for this is simple Some things are better seen and experienced than explained. And I suspect many of the best ideas fit this description.For instance Im not a huge Facebook fan. But that doesnt mean it is not a great idea. And I dont think anyone could understand Facebook without seeing it. I dont think Mark Zuckerberg could have sat a VC down who hadnt seen the site and said This is my idea or this is the idea I stole from the Winkelvoss brothers or whatever. Please invest in me. I dont think it would fly.This is pretty straightforward. With consumer-facing products whether we want to use something is tied to such things as utility ease of understanding and social context. And so much of the first two can only come from actually experiencing the product. The Nintendo Wii is a great example of this. You needed to experience the Wii to really get why how fun it is. Even the iPhone fits this description. Most of the features of the iPhone existed in other phones. Its the design that makes it work.But seeing is believing also applies to data-driven products. Visualizing data in ones head is very hard if you have never done it before. People have varying degrees of capacity for spatial visualization but few of us are good enough to take an abstract description of a data model and to actually imagine what that means. For most people the significance of the model wont mean much if theyre only hearing about it.But when people are allowed to explore real data in real time things become much more clear. FriendFeed is a good example of this Its almost impossible to explain because it is in essence a new data model. You need to experience FriendFeed to get it. And once people do get it they tend to love it.This means there are great ideas out there with bad elevator pitches. And that means investors must either trust the entrepreneur based on reputation or blind faith or they must take the time to really try to understand more complicated product concepts. Or worse they can just avoid any new ideas until they have been developed and tested enough to prove the demand. This is the most common strategy right now in the venture community but it leaves lots of the best ideas undeveloped -- because there is not enough early stage money to help these ideas out. Paradoxically I think these are some of the best ideas.This leads me to an idea that Paul Graham from the YCombinator incubator put forthIve tried to explain this to VC firms. Instead of making one $2 million investment make five $400k investments. Would that mean sitting on too many boards? Dont sit on their boards. Would that mean too much due diligence? Do less. If youre investing at a tenth the valuation you only have to be a tenth as sure.It seems obvious. But Ive proposed to several VC firms that they set aside some money and designate one partner to make more smaller bets and they react as if Id proposed the partners all get nose rings. Its remarkable how wedded they are to their standard m.o.We need more money going into more abstract and less obvious ideas and Pauls idea is the right way to do it. It doesnt take that much money to prove a good idea is a good idea. But often it takes more than an entrepreneur has or can raise. This is particularly true for those ideas that take more insight and time to explain than an elevator pitch affords. Only a relative or someone who knew the FriendFeed guys were from Google would have been willing to put money into that. But not every great idea doesnt come from someone with a brand name. Some might say the opposite is true.So heres my unsolicited advice for VCs. Potentially profitable ideas sometimes take time to really understand and they may take resources to prove. Spend less time and resources on the obvious and more time and resources nurturing ideas that may take more than an elevator pitch to really appreciate. It should be worth your while.SAI Contributor Hank Williams is a New York-based entrepreneur. He writes Why Does Everything Suck? Exploring the tech marketplace from 10000 feet.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Analyst Actions ADC Telecommunications VMware C.H. Robinson

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:13:09 -0600

Source: Business Week Investing

S&P Picks and Pans Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Yahoo WaMu Pfizer Travelers AT&T Alcatel-Lucent

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:13:09 -0600

Analysts opinions on stocks in the news Wednesday

Source: Business Week Investing

15 C.P.W. a Bullish Sign or a Bubbly One?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:13:25 -0600

While the real estate bubble has popped on Main Street the party is still going strong at 15 Central Park West the newly built Goldman Sachs-backed condominium complex that is home to many of New York&#8217s financial moguls.According to recent reports some of the condos there are going on the market for several times what ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Quick Tips Making Up With Clients

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:49:27 -0600

How to rebuild a business relationship with disgruntled clients.

Source: smSmallBiz

Need a Slogan? Ask Your Harshest Critic

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:49:15 -0600

NEW YORK AdAge.com -- The CW has decided the best way to deal with parents&#039 disapproval of its steamy teen shows is to use their denunciations as its latest marketing slogan.

Source: Advertising Age

YouTube GOOG Dangling New Ad Strategy To Lure Hollywood. Can It Deliver?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:13:43 -0600

At least three Hollywood studios are talking to Google and YouTube about deals like the one video site struck with Lions Gate LGF last week CNET reports. Thats interesting but not revolutionary The LGF pact which gives the studio a cut of revenue generated when users watch clips from movies like Dirty Dancing is itself modeled on other deals YouTube has cut with content producers. Like say CBS which puts up a smattering of clips like this Letterman monologue on its own branded YouTube channelGreg Sandoval correctly notes that the more authorized content YouTube can get on the site the more ad inventory it can sell which is a good thing. And the pacts also make it harder for the studios to sue YouTube a la Viacom. Also a good thing. But Greg says Google andor the studios are considering something much more interesting -- tracking down unauthorized video clips and monetizing them by inserting adsGoogle has also piqued the interest of some in Hollywood with new ad-delivery and content-tracking technology that the company is developing according to three studio executives who spoke to CNET News. Google could one day enable content owners to insert ads into unauthorized video clips wherever they might be posted online.This concept also isnt completely new At one point the big music labels were playing with a similar strategy download an illegal Madonna track and youd get a hectoring message telling you not to steal andor to go buy the song. But pursuing something like this would seem to be a problem for YouTube.Thats because YouTube insists that its not violating copyright rules if it happens to host copyright-violating videos -- because it has no idea whats actually on the site. Theres lots of reasonable skepticism about that claim -- for instance if YouTube doesnt know whats on its site how is it keeping it almost entirely porn-free? And those claims are in large part central to the Viacom lawsuit.While we we can imagine a scenario where YouTube argues that it doesnt know what videos its serving ads to -- Its all automated! We swear! -- its hard to see advertisers going for that pitch. So in order to make this work YouTube would have to know what clips its serving ads on which ends up undermining its original legal defense. So whats going to give Googles legal defense? Or its desire to make money on its $1.65 billion purchase?

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

CBS.com Ads Even More Shows For Oldsters

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:13:43 -0600

CBS doesnt seem too worried about porting its industry-oldest TV demographic online. The network said today its releasing some more shows from deep in the ParamountCBS library Dynasty 1981 Beauty And The Beast 1987 and Have Gun - Will Travel 1957. Thats in addition to the last library-dump that included Hawaii Five-O and Perry Mason. CBSs average age online 39. Average age on TV 54.Weirdly CBS isnt allowing embedding on any of these new old series and seems to have turned off the embed feature for all full-length episodes. Well check it out. In the meantime heres a clip from Swingtown which isnt actually an old show but is set in 70s See Also Time To Figure Out The Internet Average Network TV Viewer Now 50 Years OldCBS Pulls Five More Shows From The Vault Throws Them OnlineCBS Adds Yahoo To Video NetworkCBS Figures Out The Web Free Violent Video

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

NYT.com Our Ad Rates Are Holding Steady. We Just Need To Sell More Ads

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:25:45 -0600

A silver lining in the New York Times dismal Q2 online display ad rates are holding steady on NYTimes.com in the face of a pretty challenging ad market the company says. The problem? Theyre not selling enough of them.Some notes from the Q2 call on NYTs digital businessesNYT digital chief Martin Nisenholtz says pricing of premium online ad inventory was up over Q1 but saw continued bifurcation between rates for premium ads and remnant banner ads sold by ad networks.50% of ad inventory on NYTimes.com is sold on higher-margin CPM basis rather than cost-per-click basis for remnant ad inventory.Display advertising was soft at About.com but Nisenholtz attributes this not to the economy but to execution issues that are being addressed.And on the print businessThe overlap between print subscribers of the NY Times and the WSJ is 11% more significant as the WSJ attempts to gain market share by increasing non-business news.CEO Janet Robinson says the NYT has reduced its newsroom staffing by 100 to 1250 since the beginning of the year but adds its still at a very high level. Hence plans to increase buyouts this year.See Also NYTs Ugly Q2 Misses RevenueWhats Next For The NYTimes Online? Widgets iPhone Apps APIs And MoreNYT Q1 Slide Continues Digital Not Helping

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Meetup Lands Union Square Ventures Money

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:49:34 -0600

New Yorks most visible venture capital firm is investing in one of New Yorks most visible startups Union Square Ventures says its put an unspecified amount into Scott Heifermans SA 100 #5 Meetup which it dubs the original Web Meets World company.Why? On USVs blog partner Brad Burnham SA 100 #27 paints his view of the future of the WebTwo things will need to happen if the recent pace of innovation on the web is going to be sustained over the next few years. The next generation of services will need to have an impact on the real world and the real economy not just an attention economy driven by self expression and discovery online. These new services will also need to reach real people many of who use few if any web services today.Meetup certainly reaches a lot of people many of whom are presumably real -- the company says 1.7 million people RSVP for more than 100000 monthly meetups in more than 3500 cities.We have been wanting to invest in Meetup for years but we never could find the right entry point that worked for us and the company and its founders adds USVs Fred Wilson SA 100 #3.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

What Will Mark Zuckerberg Announce Today?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:13:36 -0600

Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage at Facebooks f8 conference in San Francisco in about five hours which means the Web is full of speculation about what he might announce. Heres a handy scorecardPreferred Apps This story broke yesterday when Kara Swisher reported that Facebook was going to tap some apps as preferred today weve confirmed it independently. But there were few other details. Mike Arrington says that the system will actually be three-tiered preferred normal and spammy and that each tier will have different rules for invites notifications and news feed entries.Facebook Connect Two months ago Facebook announced Facebook Connect which allows users to bring their Facebook data to outside Web sites. So expect to see a formal launch of the product today.Payment System This is probably the least likely. Facebook has been toying with the idea of launching a PayPal-like system for applications but we hear Zuckerberg isnt sold on the idea. The blog Inside Facebook reports that Facebook is in fact building a system but it wont be ready for preview today. Mike Arrington disagrees.We think the tiered apps and Facebook Connect sound fine but were most interested in the payment system because it has real potential to help solve Facebooks revenue problem. And if Facebook doesnt introduce one soon expect to see someone else beat them to it. Slide founder Max Levchin tells us that if Facebook doesnt build a payment system he can use for apps like SuperPoke hes just going to have to do it himself. And given that he helped build PayPal way back in 1998 we believe him.See AlsoReport Facebook Will Tap Some Apps As PreferredVC Funding Drying Up For Facebook Apps? Dont Blame FacebookReport Facebook Isnt Launching Payment System Next Week

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Apple Steve Jobs Was Ill Now Hes Fine. But We Wont Say That On The Record AAPL

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:13:32 -0600

After describing Steve Jobs health as a private matter during Mondays earnings call and sparking even more discussion about Steves health Apple appears to be trying a new tactic Unofficially spreading the word via the press that Steve is OK.A source close to Apple told BusinessWeek that they have near-certainty that Jobs cancer has not returned. And the NYT reports that Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well and that four years after a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer he is cancer free.Thats great to hear. But the Times story citing Apple sources also notes that Jobs has been suffering from nutritional problems in the wake of his cancer surgery and that earlier this year he had a surgical procedure this year to address a problem that was contributing to a loss of weight. In other words Anyone who thought Steve Jobs looked unhealthy this year isnt imagining it -- the problem is serious enough that Steve has gone under the knife.Apple is now is in an unpleasant bind one that we dont see getting resolved soon Its CEO for reasons we can sympathize with doesnt want to open up his medical records to the world. But because the company cant or wont come out and emphatically state hes in good health his condition is going to remain under scrutiny. And if you dont believe us ask the Wall Street JournalThe dearth of information has led investors to do their own digging over the years. In 2004 one hedge fund hired private investigators to tail Mr. Jobs to hospital appointments in the hopes of figuring out how sick he was said a portfolio manager at the fund. Eventually he said Mr. Jobs seemed to catch on and became harder to track.More recently hedge-fund managers said Tuesday fund managers have talked of asking doctors to closely analyze pictures of Mr. Jobs to monitor changes in his physical appearance and have been talking about once again hiring investigators to find out Mr. Jobss prognosis.

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Paulson & Co. Said to Target New Fund

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:49:24 -0600

Paulson &#038 Company the hedge fund firm whose founder John Paulson made a mint on bearish housing bets last year is starting a fund to provide capital to financial firms hurt by mortgage writedowns Bloomberg News reported.Bloomberg said the fund hasn&#8217t set a fund-raising target but hopes to open as soon as December. Go to ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Bank Investors Redefine Bad News

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:49:24 -0600

Can the bad news for banks get any worse?After the last week brought another round of woeful quarterly results from the industry capped by news on Tuesday of multibillion-dollar losses at the Wachovia Corporation and Washington Mutual that question is nagging banking executives and their investors.Kenneth D. Lewis the chief executive of Bank of America ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Movers Yahoo WaMu Boeing Costco EMC VMware

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:25:08 -0600

Stocks in the news Wednesday

Source: Business Week Investing

The price of Olympic glory

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:01:41 -0600

Two athletes are striving for immortality in the same sport. But the cost has been high in both money and family sacrifice

Source: Money Magazine

Laying Out Lehmans Options

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:13:23 -0600

Lehman Brothers&#8216 stock seems to have stopped its free-fall for the moment but Wall Street is still gravely concerned about its future.The firm led by longtime chief Richard Fuld Jr. pictured above continues to hold a mountain of risky hard-to-value securities tied to mortgages real estate and buyout loans and its clients are watching carefully ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Joost Launching In China. But When Will It Re-Launch Here?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:37:34 -0600

Joost is betting the farm on a re-launch of its once-hyped now un-loved P2P video service probably later this summer. But thats not stopping the company from expanding abroad It is launching a Chinese version today as a joint venture with TOM GroupThe joint venture will source primarily Chinese-language programming from within China. It launches with 16000 hours of video and content deals with CCTV CAV Warner Home Entertainment China Record Corporation and BTV Media among others. TOM will sell advertising for the service while Joost provides the underlying technology.Of the technology It appears the Chinese version of Joost requires the same kind of cumbersome software download that has hobbled its growth in the U.S. Joost is busy fixing that problem for the US and were told the new Web-based version will launch later this summer.See Also News Corp. COO Chernin Hulu Will Go International SlowlyJoost CEO Weve Figured It Out This TimeJoost Web Version Almost Ready Still Requires Software Download

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Weak Liquidity Abounds Moodys Says

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:37:23 -0600

It didn&#8217t get too much notice outside of the oil patch but Tuesday&#8217s bankruptcy filing by SemGroup LP &#8212 which Forbes.com last year called the 12th-largest private company in the United States &#8212 was one of the bigger corporate flame-outs of late. And there could be more where that came from.A recent report from Moody&#8217s ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Big tech getting weaker

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:25:42 -0600

Not all precincts have reported yet but the early results show that tech is losing in a global landslide.

Source: Fortune Magazine

NYTs Ugly Q2 Blows EPS Misses Revenue

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:25:32 -0600

Another miserable quarter for the New York Times NYT which couldnt clear its revenue goal and missed badly on EPS. Advertising revenue is down 11.8%. Things will continue to stink indefinitely the paper says because the economy is lousy the ad climate is bleak ... and its a newspaper company.CEO Janet Robinson says that the last quarter was awful because of the continued effect on our businesses of the U.S. economic slowdown and secular forces playing out across the media industry. Still bad now she says To date in July we have seen the effects of the deepening economic slowdown particularly in categories sensitive to the price of oil - airlines hotels and autos and we expect that will continue for some time.The goodish news Internet ads continue to grow and for this quarter at least have turned around a worrisome deceleration trend the About.com unit though saw its growth slow. And news that that will be interpreted differently by shareholders and employes The company is stepping up its cost-cutting measures. It now expects to spend $40 to $50 million on buyouts this year up from a previous target of $30 to $35 million.Revenue $742 million down 6% vs. $754 consensusEPS $0.15 vs. $0.22 consensusOperating profit $40.3 million down 7% yy.Digital Ticking up and reversing a deceleration trend -- Internet revenues up 12.8% yy vs. 11.6% growth last quarter. Internet ad sales are up 18.3% yy last quarter they were up 16%About Group Up 15.8% to $28.6 million last quarter the unit was up 25%See Also NYT Q1 Slide Continues Digital Not Helping

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Sharpening Your Skills Balanced Scorecard in Action

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:37:19 -0600

PublishedJuly 23 2008Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills.Questions to be AnsweredHow does the Balanced Scorecard BSC improve corporate governance?Does customer profitability increase using the BSC?Can BSC measures reduce the gap between strategy and execution?Does the BSC work in testing strategy?How can the Balanced Scorecard improve corporate governance?Working Paper Improving Corporate Governance with the Balanced ScorecardThe authors review the key roles of corporate boards and recommend a Balanced Scorecard approach to help boards work smarter not harder. Key concepts includeReforms such as Sarbanes-Oxley have increased the amount of work that boards need to do. A Balanced Scorecard approach can help boards use their limited time effectively.An enterprise strategy map and enterprise Balanced Scorecard should be the primary documents distributed to the board in advance of meetings.Does customer profitability increase using the BSC?A Balanced Scorecard ApproachTo Measure Customer ProfitabilityHappy customers are good but profitable customers are much better. In this article professor and Balanced Scorecard guru Robert S. Kaplan introduces BSC Customer Profitability Metrics. From Balanced Scorecard Report. Key concepts includeIn their zeal to delight customers some companies actually lose money with them by becoming customer-obsessed rather than customer-focused.The BSC adds a metric that summarizes customer profitability.The ability to measure profitability at the individual customer level allows companies to consider new customer profitability metrics such as percentage of unprofitable customers.Can BSC measures reduce the gap between strategy and execution?The Office of Strategy ManagementMany organizations suffer a disconnect between strategy formulation and its execution. The answer? HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan and colleague Andrew Pateman argue for the creation of a new corporate office. Key concepts includeThere is a persistent gap between the strategic goals that organizations set for themselves and the results they achieve.An office of strategy management is intended to close that gap. At the corporate level of an organization it oversees all strategy-related activities&mdashfrom formulation to execution. It is typically an outgrowth of a Balanced Scorecard program.The purpose of an OSM is to unlock value by making strategy execution a distinct and recognized competency in an organization.Does the BSC work in testing strategy?Working Paper Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24To what extent do Balanced Scorecards provide useful information for testing and validating an organizations strategy? Analyzing Balanced Scorecard data from Store24&mdasha privately held convenience store retailer in New England&mdashthis study investigates whether when and how information about problems with the firms strategy was captured in the multiple performance measures of its Balanced Scorecard. Key concepts includeStore24s Balanced Scorecard contained useful and timely information for detecting problems in its strategy.The results also suggest that Store24 executives eventually learned about problems with the strategy despite a lack of reliance on such formal analysis.Analysis of the Balanced Scorecard could have yielded more timely information as well as more detail on why the strategy was not working as planned. Multiple measures in a Balanced Scorecard might systematically be used to test how well different drivers of performance are working to achieve strategic objectives and superior financial performance.&nbsp

Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

CollegeHumor Finally Graduates To MTV

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:01:37 -0600

Took a while but its a done deal IACs CollegeHumorConnected Ventures dudes finally have an MTV show. Or at least a six-episode commitment for this fall according to MediaPost. Sadly the report doesnt have any other details and CollegeHumors Ricky Van Veen wouldnt cough any up either.So while our assumption is that as previously reported the show will be based around the exploits of CollegeHumors Jake and Amir we cant confirm that. We can show you a clip of the guys playing with Julia Allison however.See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.See Also Jake And Amir CollegeHumors Lo-Fi Funny GuysCollegeHumor Dudes Move Offline Onto Dorm WallsCollegeHumor Guys Secret Success T-ShirtsCollegeHumor Dudes On Joost Today MTV Soon

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Cuomo Said to Prepare Fraud Charges Against UBS

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:37:24 -0600

New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is preparing to file civil securities-fraud charges against UBS The Wall Street Journal reported.The suit which reportedly may be filed as early as this week would mark the first case to stem from the state&#8217s investigation into the auction-rate-securities market The Journal said adding that Mr. Cuomo may ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Kleiner Perkins Leads Round for Zynga

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:25:26 -0600

Kleiner Perkins Caufield &#038 Byers has led a considerable $29 million round for Zynga Game Network which makes casual games for social-networking Web sites like Facebook.While The Wall Street Journal cited the financing as a sign of investors&#8217 growing interest in into social network plug-ins paidContent.org noted that the V.C. heavyweight&#8217s participation in the round ...

Source: DealBook - New York Times

Best places to live

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:13:12 -0600

Americans are flocking to places that offer big-city opportunities and amenities -- with a lot more green space and a lot less stress. See the top 10 Great American Towns.

Source: Money Magazine