In early April when Google stock was trading at the mid-$400s, I started thinking about its market valuation and price per share. Maybe it was a good buying opportunity since coming down from its all-time highs in the $700+ range late last year. In the spirit of the analysis I’ve done in previous articles with… [Read more…]
April 8, 2008
Supporters of America’s H1B visa system argue that firms such as Microsoft and Google (both opposed to the existing system) should simply send these jobs overseas by expanding their current operations in places like China and India. The problem with this argument is that it does not follow economic logic. There are several economic factors… [Read more…]
April 6, 2008
Recently, the H1B visa issue has received significant media coverage. In the Wall Street Journal, Miriam Jordan wrote about this issue on March 31 and Shikha Dalmia wrote an editorial in Saturday’s edition. As Milton Friedman free-marketeer, I share Bill Gates’ viewpoint (detailed in his testimony last year to the US Congress) that the current… [Read more…]
March 30, 2008
Starbucks is favorite company of mine to use in various finance and business strategy lectures, (and to get a jolt before our Sunday strategy meetings at Altos Research). Over the past decade, Starbucks enjoyed a steady rise up, initiated aggressive international expansions plans, and with their recent reappointment of Harold Schultz as CEO, is now… [Read more…]
March 20, 2008
Where’s Waldo? Courtesy of the Bear Stearns 10-K for the year ending November 30, 2007: Some basic math indicates that 33.4% of Bear Stearns’ portfolio was held in Mortgages, mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Add the Derivatives line item and you come to 47.5% of their portfolio is relatively risky assets. So how does this compare… [Read more…]
March 3, 2008
Doing some research about Venture Capital trends, I came across some interesting data provided by PWCMoneyTree.showing convergence in the number of venture capital deals between Early Stage, Expansion, and Later Stage deals, while the Start-up/Seed Stage dropped considerably over the past 12-13 years: Reading nothing more than the data presented in these graphs, I’m hypothesizing… [Read more…]
February 26, 2008
Mike Simonsen, our fearless leader at Altos Research, wrote an article for FoundRead this weekend entitled “My Case Against Venture Capital.”Interesting how he and I wrote our articles independently this weekend, but advocated similar positions – heeding caution with respect to venture capital’s role in funding your start-up endeavor. Maybe its the “Altos Research Cultural… [Read more…]
February 24, 2008
It’s interesting when talking to start-up CEOs and entrepreneurs how often they are enamored with landing venture capital, as if receiving the funding itself is their main business objective. Venture capital is the beginning of any start-up’s journey- a vehicle to speed product development, expand market reach, and grow the firm more rapidly than what… [Read more…]
February 22, 2008
While doing some reading tonight, I came across a couple of very informative articles regarding angel capital and seed stage start-up financing. Jim Roberts provides his Top 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs Seeking Venture Capital – a nice list of practical examples that focuses on developing relationships and taking the long view when considering angel funding.… [Read more…]
February 17, 2008
I get the social part of it. I just found a friend of mine from high school, spent 10 minutes with my wife perusing pictures to put on my profile, and even reviewed 20 results for “Sambucci” including two in London, one in Glasgow, and one in Ecuador. I don’t get the 100x revenues to… [Read more…]
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April 20, 2008
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