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In-depth analysis and expert insight into the daily deal collective buying juggernaut.Imagine a portfolio that consisted of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, and SecondMarket. That would be a spectacular portfolio, even if it included some later rounds. And it’s a portfolio you’d get if you invested solely in companies that cash out their founders. AirBNB just joined that group.
But in the process, they faced a barage of…
Meanwhile, at Google
Congress is trying to figure out whether or not Google is a monopoly. This is some kind of high water mark. They’re pushing Google+ harder than any product since search, and it isn’t working.
The basic argument is that Google has the power to make or break businesses, and they tend to…
Netflix Splits DVDs and Streaming
Netflix has split its DVD business from its streaming business, perhaps in anticipation of spinning off one or the other. In the announcement, Netflix’s CEO specifically calls out AOL, which is facing exactly what he wants to avoid: half of the business belongs in some kind of asset-stripping private equity…
Google Brand Affinity Update
Score one more point for Google’s love of brands: they’re now citing recent searches in new search results. In other words, if you search for “airline tickets” and see a big-brand result, and then do a narrow search for “things to do in portland,” the sites that showed up in your…
Google+ Now in Gmail
Yesterday, Google added Google+ hangouts to Youtube. Now Gmail is showing recent Google+ activity. This is a clever way to convince people to update their own Google+ profiles regularly. (Or to convince them to do a one-time “I don’t use this account” update.)
Inside Google’s Search Updates
Google has posted a
Statistical Errors and Lifetime Value
Custora, a churn analysis and lifetime value calculation company, notes the results of not segmenting customers by churn rate. This is usually a bigger hypothetical than real problem, since different user categories aren’t usually quite so differentiated. But the hypothetical does illustrate the risks of simplistic user retention analysis.
…
HP’s Immaterial Move
HP is spinning off their hardware business and shutting down their WebOS products. It’s hard to interpret this in a way that matters to anyone not directly involved: for the web, Apple is still the macro situation. Everything else, including HP, is comparatively commoditized.
TechCrunch says that Apple beat them, but that’s…
Google’s Intrinsically Boring Patent Deal
Google is buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn. There are three parts of this deal: the assets Google will immediately liquidate (low-margin phones, cash), the assets they’ll reluctantly liquidate (the set-top box business), and the assets they only bought in order to avoid being sued (the patents).
It’s unfortunate that Google’s…
Demand Media’s Bizarre Price Fluctuations
After-hours on Tuesday, Demand Media’s stock spiked up 17% before settling slightly down for the day. On Wednesday morning the shares hit $10.75, but closed at $8.45, again down slightly for the day. This, after a very positive quarter. One reason is the combination of their lock-up expiring and the…
In the next year or two, we’ll likely see the following companies go public with an initial market value over $10bn:
Facebook Groupon LivingSocial DropBox Zynga
Many of these are companies that, in a world without Sarbanes-Oxley, could already be public. That would probably be good for investors; if average people could have gotten Facebook…
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