Full FeedTough crowds at SXSW heckle reporter
Under normal circumstances a Q&A session with a tech CEO is a fairly bland event. Sure sometime you get a Ballmer-esque monkey-boy moment, but usually it’s an opportunity for the CEO to break some news and to get out without looking clueless. This week though we are reminded why a room full of tech-savvy web developers is a very different crowd.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was to appear in what was billed as a keynote but ultimately was a sit down Q&A with Business week reporter Sarah Lacy. Lacy and Zuckerberg have a history together in that she has written a book about Web 2.0 and this newest wave of internet movers and shakers that Zuckerberg is currently riding. It should’ve been a simple session with everyone going home with some more extra information on Facebook and not much else. It wasn’t.
Ask.com to cut 8% of it’s workforce
Is that the sound of bubbles popping I hear? Ask.com has announced that it is cutting 40 jobs in a restructuring move.
“Today, we unveiled a new direction for Ask.com,” Ask.com Chief Executive Jim Safka said in a statement. “Moving forward, we will focus on our core customers, and what they come to Ask.com for most: answers. Our loyal base of 45 million unique users come to Ask.com for answers at a rate that is three times more than any other major search engine.”
Google invests in Genome project; continues world domination
Google has continues to invest in projects other than what advertisements to post when someone searches for LOLcats by throwing the weight of it’s giant stacks of cash at Harvard’s George Church. Dr Church plans to spend $1 billion to tie DNA information to each person’s health history in an attempt to create a database for finding new medicines. His credentials are high as he helped develop the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984.
It’s good to see the heavyweights of the tech industry to contribute to the overall science community. American science has been suffering in the last few years even as interest in technology has been on the upswing and this type of investment can only help in the long term. Unfortunately, share holders are only willing to go along with these kinds of investments for so long before they get antsy. Let’s all hope that day isn’t too soon approaching.
Read [Bloomberg]
RelatedHelio is half a billion dollars in debt
Niche cell service Helio has amassed a fantastic $560 billion dollars in debt over the last three years. Helio, which is co-owned by Earthlink and SK Telecom was created to bring many of the cellphone features that Asian customers enjoy to the US. Losses have increased steadily over the three years with an understandable $47 million in losses in 2005, a worriesome $192 million in 2006 and finally a downright staggering $327 million in 2007.
There is some good news for the Helio faithful. Sales actually outpaced looses in 2007 with losses increasing at 70% and revenue jumping 264%. There is also the fact there is serious restructuring going on at corporate headquarters as well as dropping prices on phones and services which is bound to help. Regardless of these positives majority owner SK Telecom might look at unloading their stake soon.
Read [Silicon Alley Insider]
RelatedeBay hires new CEO for Skype
eBay continues their upper management shake-up that began in January with the exit of longtime CEO Meg Whitman by hiring new CEOs for both internet telephony service Skype and Shopping.com. Current Shopping.com president and Evite co-founder Josh Silverman will take the reigns at Skype. Andre Haddad is replacing Silverman at Shopping.com. Haddad has been with eBay since his startup iBazar was purchased in 2001.
Silverman is replacing the temporary Skype CEO Michale van Swaaij who has presided over Skype since co-founder Niklas Zennstrom left amid eBay’s unfortunate 1.4 billion write down of Skype.
The online auction giant has been suffering some ugly moments recently with sellers organizing a boycott over new rate structures. It remains to be seen if Silverman has any new ideas that will help eBay find a way to make Skype a more coherent part of eBay’s business structure.
Read [CNET]
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Consumers didn’t choose the winner in HD format war
I’m glad the format war has ended. It means a slight return to sanity for consumers wondering how to spend their dollars at the check out counter. It certainly goes a long way toward the everyday consumer adopting an HD disc-based format. According to an analyst at ABI research the end of the format war was not the true measure of consumer demand when it came to the choice of HD format. The true decision was made by Warner brothers decision to jump ship to Blu-ray. The decision to switch may have been principally decided not by which format the consumers of Warner’s preferred, but by a nearly $120 million payoff from Sony. That payoff created a signal that retailers like Wal-Mart and rental companies like Netflix followed. Consumer sales did not overwhelm one side or the other. Consumers didn’t receive a benefit or feature that made one format superior to another. A simple back room corporate deal seems to have ended the war. This is not how a consumer demand driven marketplace should work.
SCO receives $100 million in private equity
The money pit that is SCO seems to have gotten a lifeline this week in the form of a $100 million dollars in private investment from Stephen Norris Capital Partners (SNCP) and some of its undisclosed associates. There is apparently a restructuring plan in the works. SCO famously attempted to become profitable by suing everything that moved in the Linux world. This detestable plan ended in epic failure and SCO was almost universally reviled by the tech community. Any plans SCO might have for returning to this tactic seem extremely unlikely to succeed. Why would anyone invest in such a mess?
HotOrNot sells for $20 million
Based on recent reports, HotOrNot is about to be purchased for $20 million dollars by investors connected with Avid Life Media. Avid Life is reportedly interested in setting up a larger HotOrNot media company and might be in the buying mode for a few other similar properties.
HotOrNot was originally founded back in 2000 by James Hong and Jim Young and has consistently generated enough traffic to attract interest. HotOrNot makes most of it’s money from advertising and premiums charged to their user base of nearly 5 million. Their annual revenue is estimated to be around $5 million, with $2 million in profit. Hong and Young will no longer be operating the business on a day to day basis and seem pretty happy with that.
“We’ve been working on HotOrNot for seven years now,” said Hong, adding “It’s time to break up with this girlfriend.”
Via [Tech Crunch]
RelatedYahoo set to buy Maven Networks
After Yahoo spurned Microsoft as it’s suitor, it seems that Yahoo isn’t going to let the letdown of that massive buyout slow them down. Yahoo is buying online media provider Maven Networks for a reported $160 million dollars. The Cambridge Massachusetts-based Maven Networks has helped professional media companies create, distribute and profit from direct-to-consumer Internet TV channels and networks. The Maven Internet TV Platform is used by companies that include CanWest, CBS Sports, CBC, and CNET among others.
You have to give it to Yahoo in this respect, they aren’t going to roll over and play dead for Google and Microsoft. Yahoo might have had a rough stretch recently, but the writing has been on the wall for online video for some time and this acquisition seems like a good move in that vein.
Read [Forbes]
RelatedNASA beams the Beatles into space; Aliens generally confused
NASA plans on beaming The Beatles Across the Universe into space making it the first song to be used in such a way. The transmission of the song will mark the 40th anniversary of the song’s recording. It will be aimed at the North Star, Polaris, 431 light years away from Earth, and it will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. This will also mark 50 years of NASA, 45 years of the Deep Space Network and 50 years since the founding of Explorer 1, the first US satellite.
“Amazing! Well done, Nasa! Send my love to the aliens.” was Sir Paul McCartney’s reaction to the news.
Fans can participate in the event by playing the song around the world at midnight GMT on Monday night - the same time it will be transmitted by NASA. Still no word yet on when we might see the mysterious “Yellow Submarine” branded iPod. Perhaps the little green men can help Steve Jobs with that.
Read [VNUnet]
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