Valleywag
silicon valley users guide
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silicon valley users guide
your privacy is an illusion
IBM employee directory mocks your company's lameness
Tech companies like to babble about openness and transparency. But try finding an engineer's phone number. Standard procedure is to hide company telephone and email directories from external eyeballs, lest a recruiter — or, more annoyingly, a reporter — use the phone list to cold-call staffers. One shining exception: IBM, the world's largest IT employer, with nearly 400,000 people on board in at least 90 countries. Why would the company publish its entire directory and risk attack from headhunters and snoops? Because in 2008 IBM doesn't sell servers, it leases brains. Customers don't want to submit a request to a faceless feedback form and hope the right person at the world's biggest, sprawlingest tech company sees it. I'm sure there was a fight over the decision. But they finally faced the truth: We already hunt their employees down on Blogger and LinkedIn.
bad ideas
Why LinkedIn's getting into the insider-trading business
You'd think LinkedIn management, which has made no secret of its plans to take its automated schmoozefest public, would be trying to avoid trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not so. They're aggressively marketing the company's latest moneymaking scheme, LinkedIn Research, to hedge fund managers. The premise: Traders can use LinkedIn to find "experts" with "unique input" on public companies in their portfolio. What LinkedIn marketers delicately phrase as "input," SEC investigators might well call "inside information." And the only thing actionable about the whole affair might be the insider-trading charges that result. More »
clips
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman explains his IPO jitters
"We think we could go public on our numbers," LInkedIn founder Reid Hoffman tells Tech Ticker's Sarah Lacy in a video interview (excerpted below). But the company, which just raised $53 million, won't IPO because it would rather reinvest its profits and because the U.S. public markets are too turbulent right now. Hoffman says LinkedIn will use the money in part to buy "good, small tech teams." In the clip, Hoffman says the race with Facebook toward an IPO isn't much of a race. It's more like, "No, you go first," he explains. Hoffman and his handpicked CEO, Dan Nye, shouldn't grow too cautious. Hoffman himself helped PayPal go public during the last downturn, so he knows a strong company can thrive in a poor market. But more importantly, for a professional's social network like LinkedIn, we can't imagine much better free marketing than the nonstop coverage CNBC would give consumer tech's first major IPO in years. More »
You're doing it wrong
LinkedIn needs to sex up its pitch if they want a Facebook-sized valuation
LinkedIn's $1 billion valuation certainly seems low only when compared to the stratospheric $15 billion Facebook is worth on paper. One reason why is because, frankly, college kids are sexy — as the VCs in the announcement infomercial prove irrefutably, business professional who use LinkedIn are not. So if you're going to announce a new round of venture capital with a video on YouTube, why not make it a music video? The kids love music videos. Hence, Valleywag presents "The Upside" featuring Jeffrey "Sand Hizzy" Glass, David "D-Cup" Sze, David "Dollar Billz" Cowan and Mark "Make Money" Kvamme over beats from EPMD. Recognize.
venture capital
LinkedIn spends some of its new $53 million on a VC infomercial
LinkedIn has announced its new $53 million funding round in a bizarre way: by posting a video on YouTube in which its investors try to cast its $1 billion valuation as low, low, low — instead of breathtakingly high, which is what it is. What would have been vastly more entertaining: If LinkedIn marketer Surya Yalamanchili had taken some of his experience from The Apprentice and captured these VCs, reality-TV style, knifing each other in the back as they angle to get more shares in the company. Instead, we have a bunch of glorified bankers talking about what a great opportunity they've gotten — to buy roughly 5 percent of a startup with an eight-figure wad of cash.
clips
"Daily Show"-style LinkedIn video schools Yahoo on product marketing
In case our "idiot's guide to fixing Yahoo" wasn't clear enough on Yahoo's need for a clearerproduct strategy, here's a clip from LinkedIn that might serve as an example. Sure, it's cheesy, but skip to 2:40 and suddenly you've got customers explaining to viewers what LinkedIn is to them and why its crucial that they use it. When's the last time anyone's said that about Yahoo? Not to mention that LinkedIn's VP of marketing, Patrick Crane, came to the company from Yahoo.
clips
Fox Business asks: Will Facebook buy LinkedIn?
Want to see LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye flinch? Do what Fox Business correspondent Liz Claman did this morning and ask Nye if rival social network startup Facebook has expressed interest in acquiring the company. "It just seems like it would be a perfect for say, a Facebook, to join up, to link up with you guys," Claman advises Nye. Suddenly a happy little conversation on camera turned awkward. Did he flinch because Facebook had expressed interest? Or because, unlike Claman, he knew Facebook wasn't even sniffing around — an admission that would call into question LinkedIn's value right when Nye's gunning to take the company public? That moment, above, and the full interview — replete with Nye's nonanswers about acquisitions and IPOs — below. More »
10 worst workspaces
What's so bad about Mozilla's Toronto workspace? Besides the fluorescent lighting, the colorless white walls and the folding tables, the worst thing about Mozilla's Toronto workspace is how we're sure management would improve it. With corporate graffiti, company logos and too many colors. That was management's trick at Facebook and look where readers ranked it in our poll on tech's ten worst workspaces — as tech's second-worst workspace, just after Mozilla. Check out the full list, below.
More »
Tech's worst workspace: Mozilla
What's so bad about Mozilla's Toronto workspace? Besides the fluorescent lighting, the colorless white walls and the folding tables, the worst thing about Mozilla's Toronto workspace is how we're sure management would improve it. With corporate graffiti, company logos and too many colors. That was management's trick at Facebook and look where readers ranked it in our poll on tech's ten worst workspaces — as tech's second-worst workspace, just after Mozilla. Check out the full list, below.
More »
10 worst workspaces
After reviewing our post "The 10 worst workspaces in tech," commenter AdmNaismith described Facebook's office, pictured above, as "foggy, dank, dim, and utterly depressing." Commenter mothra1 hated Yahoo's New York offices more: "They suck! Lifeless and impersonal. Kinda like the douchebags who still actually work there." Meanwhile, Adobe apologist BlairHapjo told us we "clearly didn't get past Adobe's lobby," and the rest of the office features "Aeron chairs, real offices (with doors!), big picture windows." For us, the worst offices we found on Office Snapshots and elsewhere were the the ones that try too hard to seem Internet-hip, like Jajah and Google. Now it's time to settle the disputes. Below, vote for your least favorite and help us rank tech's 10 most dismal places to work:
More »
Rank tech's 10 worst workspaces
After reviewing our post "The 10 worst workspaces in tech," commenter AdmNaismith described Facebook's office, pictured above, as "foggy, dank, dim, and utterly depressing." Commenter mothra1 hated Yahoo's New York offices more: "They suck! Lifeless and impersonal. Kinda like the douchebags who still actually work there." Meanwhile, Adobe apologist BlairHapjo told us we "clearly didn't get past Adobe's lobby," and the rest of the office features "Aeron chairs, real offices (with doors!), big picture windows." For us, the worst offices we found on Office Snapshots and elsewhere were the the ones that try too hard to seem Internet-hip, like Jajah and Google. Now it's time to settle the disputes. Below, vote for your least favorite and help us rank tech's 10 most dismal places to work:
More »
cubicle culture
We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Now, we've gone back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. We'll start with Yahoo's New York digs.
More »
The 10 worst workspaces in tech
We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Now, we've gone back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. We'll start with Yahoo's New York digs.
More »
sarah lacy
So far inside Silicon Valley, she's forgotten there's an outside
In person, Sarah Lacy's fierce dishiness is charming. On the screen, her insider know-it-all schtick becomes harsh and grating. Take Lacy's latest post on LinkedIn seeking a $1 billion valuation. The 30-word version: "I've I I I am not giving people the news as I write in my book, I hear from insiders. Imagine that! perhaps I can get to that later today." She has learned exactly nothing from an earlier post on Twitter, whose funding news she failed to break, yet also declared non-newsworthy. More »
rumormonger
Report: LinkedIn seeks funding to set value at $1 billion
LinkedIn has hired investment bank Allen & Co. to help it raise a round of funding that would set the company's value at $1 billion. Last fall, LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye said the company would sell itself outright only for a "a lot more" than $1 billion. In January, he told a reporter "an IPO is by far and away the most likely outcome." But that was January. While the public markets are rough, private equity remains flush, making it a safer bet for raising money. We hear LinkedIn takes a tidy profit, selling advertisers on its 41-year-old, six-figure-making average user and earning $45 CPMs on ads in the process.
LinkedIn board raising more cash
At careerist social network LinkedIn, a marathon board meeting has sparked speculation about a new financing round. LinkedIn, often mentioned as an IPO candidate, has raised $27.5 million to date. [VentureBeat]
At careerist social network LinkedIn, a marathon board meeting has sparked speculation about a new financing round. LinkedIn, often mentioned as an IPO candidate, has raised $27.5 million to date. [VentureBeat]
online advertising
LinkedIn's CPM rates lower than reported $75, but still impressive
Seems comments made by Kevin Eyres, managing director of European operations for LinkedIn, were optimistic in pegging ad rates at a $75 CPM. To a degree. A customer who's bought advertising on LinkedIn wrote in to let us know that last fall they negotiated a campaign to run ads against the social network's "premium content" for a $12 CPM, $3 less than the listed $15 rate. The company is now charging $45 for that same inventory, they report. A quick look at the rate card shows that the $45 price point is for vertical banner ads targetted to IT and small business professionals. Custom targeting goes as high as $76.50 per thousand impressions. Good thing to know that you can bargain down those rates 20 percent. And it's still an order of magnitude more than any other social network has been able to charge. While Facebook charges less than a dollar for slutty come-ons, LinkedIn keeps it strictly SFW. After the jump, what the company refuses to allow in ads on the site. More »
LinkedIn earning $50-$75 CPMs?
Kevin Eyres, LinkedIn's European managing director, reported that LinkedIn commands $50-$75 per thousand impressions on its advertising, in discussing plans for the social network's expansion into the U.K .and the continent. That figure, if Eyres is not being overoptimistic, puts LinkedIn in the same range that high-end business publications like Forbes and the Wall Street Journal command for their websites, and orders of magnitude higher than the rates seen on consumer social networks like Facebook and MySpace. [The Industry Standard]
Kevin Eyres, LinkedIn's European managing director, reported that LinkedIn commands $50-$75 per thousand impressions on its advertising, in discussing plans for the social network's expansion into the U.K .and the continent. That figure, if Eyres is not being overoptimistic, puts LinkedIn in the same range that high-end business publications like Forbes and the Wall Street Journal command for their websites, and orders of magnitude higher than the rates seen on consumer social networks like Facebook and MySpace. [The Industry Standard]
perks
LinkedIn a posh haven from the recession economy storm
Nobody seems to have told LinkedIn that we're in a recession, at least according to the kind of perks they're offering to woo new hires who need no actual programming experience, just a "quantitative background." Does fantasy league baseball count? It must be hard to find new talent for the social networking company with even Google's chef leaving for Facebook. Maybe they should put up listings on the Yahoo campus. Full text of the job description and perks after the jump. More »
surya yalamanchili
