• stocks

    Why founders win

    Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like to talk about their hopes of "changing the world." Yes, of course: Changing the world from one in which they are poor to one in which they are fabulously wealthy. The question in the air is whether the founders of companies do a better job at creating wealth, for themselves and their investors, than professional managers. With Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang's plans to step down as CEO, it would seem like a losing time for founders. But Yang is an exceptional case; he took his hands off the steering wheel when Yahoo had a mere five employees, and never really ran anything until he stepped in as CEO last June. Most founders of successful startups eagerly seize power, and have to be forcibly dislodged from the driver's seat. The best never let go. Just take a long-term look at the stock market, and you'll see why. More »

    Feature

    11:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,008 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed TinaTyndareus: There's something to be said about being in the right place at the right time. No such thing as luck. more »

  • bill me later

    Why isn't Amazon.com talking about its $150 million windfall?

    Amazon.com got a big payday when eBay bought Bill Me Later, the payment service, for $945 million earlier this month. So why isn't it admitting it? In an SEC filing, Amazon.com didn't name Bill Me Later as the source of a $150 million cash payment it will receive in return for an investment. But it's obviously Bill Me Later, which Amazon.com invested in last December. Here's the curiously vague wording of Amazon's disclosure to shareholders, and three possible reasons for it. More »

    9:00 AM on Thu Oct 23 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,402 views, 1 comment

    Latest by SheridanCotys: I heard that the lst round was valued at a 1bbl so Amazon lost $$$ . more »

  • acquisitions

    Rackspace gobbles tiny competition to take on Amazon.com

    Web hosting? So 1990s. Rackspace is now into "cloud computing." The company has acquired Slicehost, a small but popular virtual private server host, and JungleDisk, an online-storage startup. The deals comes as Rackspace is pushing its Mosso service as an alternative to Amazon.com's computing-power rental offerings. The question is now this, will Rackspace bring their world-class downtime to both services?

    1:00 PM on Wed Oct 22 2008
    By Alaska Miller
    556 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Electrosphere: Slicehost is a bit of a web 2.0 darling because of their low BS attitude, both in support and their more »

  • layoffs

    Wikia lays off 10 percent of staff

    Bid goodnight to Jimmy Wales's dream of cashing out on Wikipedia, the world's largest collection of infrequently asked questions. The vehicle for his scheme, a derivative for-profit startup called Wikia, is imploding. A tipster tells us that the 43-person company has laid off 30 percent of its staff. (Update: The company now says it has only laid off 10 percent of its employees.) Wikia lets users build their own anyone-can-edit wiki pages. Unlike Wikipedia, Wikia sometimes runs advertising on the wikis; its most popular sites have to do with videogames. So why the layoffs? More »

    10:00 AM on Mon Oct 20 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    4,926 views, 25 comments

    Most discussed OletheaCadosneep: Didn't Wikia spin up just 2 or so years ago, not 1999....? more »

  • earnings

    Amazon.com sales bogged by Wall Street's black hole

    "Nearly half of consumers are delaying purchases due to uncertainty in the economy, while 42 percent are planning to decrease their usage of credit cards," Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian wrote this morning. Don't make too much of it yet: Lazard's lowered Amazon.com earnings estimates only a sliver, from $1.58 to $1.55 per share for 2008. Annual revenue for 2009, likewise, is lowered only a quarter-billion from $24.75 billion to $24.50 billion. That's 250 million bucks to you and me, but not much to Bezos and company. (Photo by AP/Ted S. Warren)

    1:20 PM on Fri Sep 26 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    348 views, 2 comments

    Most discussed ppraveen: That would be "quarter-billion" more »

  • digital music

    MySpace Music -- like Muxtape, except people who wear deodorant will use it

    MySpace Music, a joint venture between the News Corp. social network and music labels Universal, Sony and Warner,finally launches next week, says Fortune, though it still won't have a CEO. MySpace users will be able to listen to and organize playlists full of songs from all three music labels for free. (EMI is the lone holdout, which means no coldplay.) Playlists will include affiliate links to Amazon.com's MP3 store. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe says ad revenues and song kickbacks are going to save the music industry, replacing lost CD sales. More »

    2:00 PM on Fri Sep 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    521 views, 5 comments

    Latest by socialmediamojo: Funny how the imeem reference got cut off there.... I'm pretty much expecting myspace music to be a clone of imeem more »

  • online advertising

    Amazon.com follows Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to Madison Avenue

    Google's the undisputed king of Silicon Valley — but it's been wooing New York ad agencies nonstop, trying to break into the traditional part of the business, with mixed success. It's almost cute how all of its online rivals are following it. Amazon.com has hired a Microsoft ad sales exec, Lisa Utzschneider, as SVP of national ad sales. What, you thought Amazon sold books, not ads? Exactly the problem Utzschneider's being asked to solve: Amazon has been trying to sell ads for a long time, but they remain a small fraction of the retailer's revenue. A Madison Avenue agency executive tells us her hire is just the latest part in a methodical campaign by Jeff Bezos & Co. to beef up of its New York ad sales staff over the last four months. More »

    9:00 AM on Fri Sep 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    2,667 views, Comment

  • amazon.com

    Gurbaksh Chahal's ego-book "The Dream" available for pre-order now

    Gurbaksh Chahal, the guy who sold ad network Blue Lithium to Yahoo for $300 million and will pretend to be poor on Fox's The Secret Millionaire this fall, has written — more likely, paid somebody to write — a book which you can preorder on Amazon.com right now. This very minute. We're very much interested in a review copy, but a skeptical reporter friend of mine tells me he isn't. How come? More »

    9:40 AM on Thu Sep 11 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    1,689 views, 14 comments

    Most discussed mind_at_large: hater central more »

  • booze

    Amazon.com to let you pretend you understand wine from your own home

    By the end of September, Amazon.com will begin selling wine, the director of Napa Valley Vintners told the Wall Street Journal. Online wine stores are possible now in part because of a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that knocked down New York and Michigan laws prohibiting it. Hooray legislating from the bench! More »

    8:40 AM on Thu Sep 11 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    462 views, 6 comments

    Most discussed bugz321: Legislating from the bench? Wow - right-wing propaganda is even showing up here. For those of you who also failed more »