February 7, 2008

Some Very Good Advice for Jerry Yang

"98 Billion Dollars. Not including flickr."

Although this video may have been made in jest, Jerry Yang could learn a lot from this Israeli entrepreneur. It all boils down to maximizing value. Yahoo has failed to communicate that Microsoft's bid is too low, and this makes them look (and feel) weaker.

So do the cuddly emails to employees.

When Steve Ballmer gets into the ring, it is time to fight - especially if you're going to be working for him in a few months.

January 9, 2006

FOG: Fear of Google

It used to be FUD, and then it was FOW. Now we're deep in a FOG.

The fear is that Google will be competing with everything, from paypal to television to Dell Inc. This fear of G's (and M's and Y's and E's) potential business strategies inspires all sorts of irrational behavior, and, most significantly, creates a lot of demand where there would otherwise be little. This is where the opportunity comes in, of course.

Whether already present (or in rapid construction), online communities and other web services have been selling themselves to Google's competitors - often at inflated prices. We all love to use del.icio.us, but, really, it is worth the blog-estimated $100 per user?

Apparently it is! Many pats on the back are due to them (and others) for selling dear, by the way.

Beyond the fear/opportunity-induced transfer of resources, a buzzy technology wave leads to the proliferation of new kinds of thinking and a lot of technology R&D. These two benefits far outweigh the hazards.

We just have to remember to always keep the FOG lights on, as developers and as investors.

Some recent FOG:

Libraries urged to embrace Web 2.0 - Information World Review

Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone. - Wired Magazine

Opportunity and Fear as Google Widens Reach - NYT

June 15, 2004

Dozomo: Sold!

Dozomo.com, produced by 24 Hour Dotcom, has sold for US$2,026.00.

Dozomo, The 24 Hour Dotcom

The dotcom silliness is back.

Celebrating, I couldn't resist submitting a bid for Dozomo.com. Having been in existence only 24 hours, Dozomo is being auctioned on eBay. This utility provides a convenient CLI to the largest search engines and web apps.

Some commands I tried:
imdb startup.com
dic silliness
amazon valuation

I bid on this service because 1. Dozomo is a great idea with some interesting and talented people behind it, and 2. I believe that the domain name and service are worth more in future advertising revenue than the current bid of US$1,750.00. The former represents the opportunity, the latter mitigates the investment risk.

The service, which acts as a meta-search engine, has ambitious plans to take on the incumbent google.com and believes its innovative technology will help it become the market leader within the coming year. Source

April 30, 2004

Google's IPO

I am highly impressed with the business wisdom of Google's current owners in how they are structuring the IPO of their company. The technical aspect of the open auction itself is intriguing as well.

The founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin are borrowing many concepts from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, including a strong emphasis on long-term financial performance, writing an annual letter each year, refusing to manipulate earnings, a belief that shareholders == owners, and creating a dual-class ownership structure which gives the founders and early investors greater voting rights.

The Financial Times article Auction decision puts onus on Individual Investor provides a decent summary:

At a valuation of $30bn, this would value Google at about 100 times possible 2004 earnings. This is not entirely out of line with eBay and Yahoo!, which trade respectively at 70 times and 89 times this year's forecast earnings. Yet, there are negative factors to consider.

Google's decision to adopt an unusual dual share structure - designed to give the company's founders control over long-term strategy - also needs to be taken into account. Source.

The Full Text of the Letter from Google's Founders is a must-read. This is a document that is likely to become required business school reading in the near-future:

Our intense and enduring interest was to objectively help people find information efficiently. We also believed that searching and organizing all the world?s information was an unusually important task that should be carried out by a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good. We believe a well functioning society should have abundant, free and unbiased access to high quality information. Google therefore has a responsibility to the world. The dual-class structure helps ensure that this responsibility is met. We believe that fulfilling this responsibility will deliver increased value to our shareholders. Source.

April 13, 2004

Ping ID Completes First Round

Ping ID has announced the completion of $5.8M of financing with Fidelity Ventures. Ping ID supports the Source ID project, the open source federated identiity system. By way of Marc Canter.