11/16/2008

TIVO ADDS DOMINO’S PIZZA TO ITS MENU

Domino’s is Pioneering a Whole New Way of Ordering…Via TV

ALVISO, CA & ANN ARBOR, MI — November 17, 2008 — TV has never tasted this good. That’s because TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE: DPZ), the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, have teamed up to give broadband connected TiVo subscribers the ability to order pizza for delivery or pick-up, and track delivery timing, right from their TV sets using the TiVo® service. It’s a service that cooks up the perfect pizza purchasing recipe.

“Our commitment to customer satisfaction is what has helped us become the leader in the global pizza delivery market,” said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision and print marketing at Domino’s Pizza, Inc. “We are confident that teaming with TiVo on this novel, easy, and convenient way to order pizza right from the TV will be very well received by our customers. This is the first step in the future of customer interactions with the brands they seek to engage with and buy from. This is the first time in history that the ‘on-demand’ generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set. You’ll see a television ad for Domino’s and you’ll click ‘I want it’ through your remote. In about 30 minutes, your pizza will show up at your door.”

Karen Bressner, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales, TiVo Inc said, “Joining forces with Domino’s Pizza creates an effective marketing and commerce tool for Domino’s while enhancing and further distinguishing TiVo as the ultimate way to watch TV with a closed-loop advertising experience. This exciting new partnership offers yet another advertising solution as commercial avoidance continues to increase. With just a few clicks of the remote, TiVo users can pause their program, order a pizza, and then sit back, relax, and return to their favorite show without missing a single second. Now, TiVo delivers the absolute best television viewing experience…and a pizza.”

TiVo subscribers can seamlessly access their Domino's Pizza order from various advertising entry points on the TiVo user interface including Gold Star Sponsorship, Program Placement, Interactive Tags in live TV spots, and through Music, Photos, Products, & More by clicking on “Order Your Dominos Pizza Now.” TiVo is serving up a piping hot new service that’s truly made to order and gives a whole new meaning to the term “TV dinner.”

TiVo subscribers can set-up a user name and password on Dominos.com so that each time they use their TiVo remote to place an order, they can log-in with a simple account number. Alternatively, TiVo subscribers can enter their delivery address, build their pizza order right from the television set by selecting type of crust, toppings, and sauces, and get the pizza delivered by their local Domino’s Pizza.

Bressner added: “Our commitment to revolutionizing interactive advertising and commerce on the television is a direct result of the innovative solutions and features we provide. TiVo’s growing list of interactive features also includes the ability to find and purchase products on Amazon.com related to a customer’s favorite TV show or the convenience of being able to search for a movie that’s playing nearby and purchase tickets through Fandango – all by using the TiVo remote.”

Starting today, this new service is free of charge to all broadband connected TiVo subscribers and supports both delivery and pick-up orders. Viewers pay in cash when the pizza is delivered.

"Tony cares about his company and his employees more than anyone else around," says an entrepreneur who knows Hsieh. His employees, even the former ones, seem to be returning the favor on Twitter. But if he loved his employees so much, why didn't he resist the pressure from Sequoia to make the cuts?

We hear Sequoia is insisting that all of its portfolio companies cut payrolls by around 10 percent, regardless of the particulars of their businesses. Zappos seems to be doing well in its e-commerce niche — well enough, at least, to afford a generous severance. Hsieh's company offers free returns if the shoes its customers buy don't fit. Why didn't he just mark Sequoia's orders "return to sender"?

Are you profitable?
Byrne: Yes, that's real GAAP profit, not Amazon-bullshit-accounting profit.

In fact, it was neither. Overstock.com was then a private company, but it later revealed, when it filed for an IPO, that it had lost $13.8 million in 2001. With the latest financial restatements, it's been revealed that the company has never made an annual profit since its inception. And yet Byrne would rather blame a conspiracy of rogue traders for his company's woes.

Note 10 — Subsequent Event
In October 2008, a third party announced the acquisition of a company in which we held an equity-method investment. Subject to the closing of the acquisition, which is expected to occur in Q4 2008, we will receive approximately $150 million in cash for our equity ownership.

• Jealousy. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos wished his company, not eBay, had bought Bill Me Later, and didn't want to give his rival credit.
• Remorse. Did Amazon.com actually profit from its Bill Me Later investment? We may learn more next quarter, but note that Amazon only disclosed how much cash it received, not how much money it made.
• Shame. Bill Me Later charges a 19.99 percent interest rate, which is higher than many credit cards. Sure, that's lucrative — but does Amazon want to be associated with a website personal-finance experts say you shouldn't touch "with a 10-foot gift-wrapped pole"?

Google is the one whose X-rated product directory turned up even when the searcher turned on "moderate filtering." On the other hand, say "spit happens" to most any man in the 18-to-34 year old demographic, and you'll either get a jovial fist bump or a politely restrained grimace. The phrase hardly connotes innocence. And the algorithm tries to give the people what they want. Maybe Google knows something you don't?

Facebook creates a certain fixed number of each type of gift. When the number remaining for any particular gift drops below 100,000, Facebook displays the number left. (The most common size runs are 100,000 and 1,000,000 but they range as high as 10,000,000 and as low as 15,000.). For those items where less than 100,000 remain, we can track how many gifts had been sold in the preceding week by subtracting the number remaining from the number remaining the previous week.

We're Sorry DVD Shipments Are Delayed

Dear [Netflix customer],

Our shipping system is unexpectedly down. We received a DVD back from you and should have shipped you a DVD, but we likely have not. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible, and we will keep you posted on the status of your DVD shipments.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. If your DVD shipment is delayed, we will be issuing a credit to your account in the next few days. You don't need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-888-638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

(Photo by Seth Anderson)

If that's the case, Zuck needs to hurry up and buy in. Venture capital for Facebook-application startups is drying up. One way Facebook could make its hangers-on flush again would be with a payments system which allows users to buy and sell things — two activities we've heard many experts consider crucial to any economy.

In the video, Omidyar talks about how retailers shouldn't be rewarded "by virtue of their stature outside the online community." And yet isn't that exactly what eBay has done for Buy.com? Donahoe is set to address eBay sellers in a keynote Friday morning at its annual eBay Live conference. How will he explain the Buy.com deal? It will surely take the very best corporate doublespeak — the sort that only a former management consultant can come up with.

It cites a case pending in New York that would close the loophole, and garner the state $50 million in possible revenue. Instead, Pennsylvania is giving the book-business behemoth — or its customers, rather — a $1,750,000 tax break. And here I wondered how Carnegie Mellon was able to convince Bezos to fly to Pittsburgh for a commencement address.

Whether you want to meet at your local coffee shop, a public park, or your favorite watering hole is up to you. We hope you enjoy meeting your fellow Kindlers.

Implying that buying and selling online porn should be taxed to offset the "harms" of porn, as Calderon says in his bill AB2914 thrusts Republicans into a nasty position when it comes to their constituents. How can cultural conservatives promise to not raise taxes and appease their smut-hating bases — especially when those same voters would never admit they don't want to eat a hefty tax for their monthly membership fee for NakedSword.com, too? (Photo: Madison Young, San Francisco-based porn star, writhes somewhere in-state for JulieSimone.com)

• Jeffrey Dahmer drove Whitman out of the "murderabilia' business: " I had gotten emails from customers not only about Dahmer's refrigerator but autopsy photos - the whole category of items around murders — so-called 'murderabilia.' And we heard from victim's families. The team talked about it and decided we don't want to go there."
• Bored eBay users emailed Whitman because they were lonely: " I can get anywhere from 50 to thousands of emails a day. And because we are the locus of their economic life and also in some ways their social life, there is lots of commentary on almost anything that we do."
• Whitman may have camped out with the technology team during the 1999 outage, but she all but admits she did so as a media stunt: "There was nothing I could do other than be a cheerleader and a coach to the technology team.... We had CNN parked outside the building wanting an update on the status every 60 minutes.... Every hour I had to go out, looking more tired each time.So it was in some ways just leadership by being there."
• Whitman is now spending her time cleaning out her house. She started with the garage.

(Photograph by Art Streiber)

Like Google, which also claimed to see no dark clouds on the business horizon, Amazon.com made a good, long-term bet. The ongoing shift to e-commerce obscures any short-term business-cycle bumps.

Also, Amazon.com's customers tend to be wealthy, and in America's bifurcated economy, the well-to-do are feeling the pinch less than the poor. (Wal-Mart shoppers choose between gas and groceries; Amazon.com shoppers choose between Starbucks and steak.)

There are other reasons, such as the winner-take-all nature of the Web. Google may have created a theoretical level playing field for online stores. Who needs to go to a one-stop shop when you can just search for what you want to buy? But the reality is that search is a tedious way to buy things online, and going to one store is convenient. That one store, for most people, is Amazon.com, and no one else has come along with a site worth changing that habit for.

The thing that's helping Amazon.com the most, I think, is simply the adoption of broadband. Fast Web connections make it quicker to buy something online than to drive to a store. And the longer someone has been an Internet user, the more likely they are to shop online. For the Facebook generation, it's second nature. Until broadband hits saturation in the U.S. and other markets, Amazon.com will have a powerful growth engine behind it. Bezos may like to talk about all the innovative things Amazon is doing, but the truth is, he can now afford to coast.