Back in April, I outlined Yahoo’s “goodwill” account to highlight how they were overpaying for acquisitions – other technology companies developing products that should have been developed in-house at Yahoo!. Today, I say this link on Twitter which provides a list of companies whose “Goodwill” accounts exceed their current market capitalization. Most of the companies… [Read more…]
November 20, 2008
Just in case you missed it, here’s an interesting piece from Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker (a book about Wall Street back in the 1980′s that you should read if you haven’t). His new article – “The End of Wall Street’s Boom”- is a new perspective on the current financial market situation. It’s about… [Read more…]
July 14, 2008
A friend of mine that works at a hedge fund called me on Friday. He wanted my opinion on the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae situation. My immediate reaction was – “Good news – the free market works.” Over the weekend, I thought about it some more, and here’s what I think now - “Good news –… [Read more…]
June 25, 2008
Things aren’t looking terribly rosy at Yahoo! nowadays. It’s never a good sign when webpages like this start sprouting up….. http://yahoorezinr.com/ (Mike – thanks for the link….)
May 27, 2008
Jessi Hempel’s article in the most recent edition of Fortune Magazine – “Finding Cracks in Facebook” – intends to uncover some new foundational flows with Facebook. The article itself doesn’t necessarily reveal any new revelations about Facebook, but further asserts some of the ongoing concerns that those in the technology arena have long had about… [Read more…]
May 13, 2008
Attending local Silicon Valley events always seems to provide great fodder for articles and conceptual gymnastics – I attended an SVASE event last week – “Startup Founders – New Kids on the Block” – where Eric Marcoullier, Founder & CEO of Gnip, served as one of the panelist. Eric developed MyBlogLog (I’m a member) which… [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…]
April 4, 2008
Recent word is that Microsoft has no plans to raise its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! Inc. $44.6 billion got me wondering how this matched up to Yahoo’s value based on its balance sheet. I found one item to be particularly interesting – “goodwill” – which seems to be indicative of Yahoo! Inc.’s problems, and… [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 23, 2008
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the “Ideas” page on the Sequoia Capital website is an outstanding resource. It’s rare (very rare) that a start-up can submit a business plan without any prior contacts and meetings with a venture capital firm and receive financing. But, this page is an outstanding primer of the themes and ideas… [Read more…]
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January 28, 2009
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