Archives for December 2006

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Yahoo Switching to Low-fat Peanut Butter?

Posted on December 5, 2006 ·

TechCrunch seems to know that Yahoo is switching to low-fat  peanut-butter this afternoon, in a company-wide webcast.  The trimming is expected to be about 20%, and starts at the top…

Quiz: what’s wrong with my peanut-butter metaphor?

(Answer: peanut oil is one of the good fats, unlike Yahoo, you don’t want to reduce it…)

Update (11/5):  If you read this post before and clicking on the above link took you to a 404 error page – my apologies.  Apparently TechCrunch did the absolute no-no by deleting their original post and replacing it with a new one.

Update (11/5):  TechCrunch has a new summary post here, COO Dan Rosensweig is leaving.

Update (11/6):  I may have been wrong about that low-fat peanut-butter: Good Mornign Silicon Valley thinks Yahoo added some chocolate to the peanut butter. That would be … Nutella?

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Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Business, Humor, Software, Technology ·
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Web Office Embracing MS Office While Microsoft Is NOT

Posted on December 5, 2006 ·

Perfect timing: I’m reading Richard MacManus’s post on Web Office APIs – Embracing and Extending Microsoft Office on the very same day we find out Microsoft isn’t embracing it’s own products.  

I guess Derek is right asking: Time to drop Microsoft Office?.   Especially when you can work on Microsoft files without Microsoft products.

Update (12/6):  Fred Wilson’s New Year Resolution: I am going to remove Microsoft from my life in 2007.

Filed Under: Business, Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS, Software, Technology ·
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Things to Avoid If You’re Planning an Embezzlement Scheme

Posted on December 5, 2006 ·
  • Do not call your company VaporTech. In fact do not call it Vapor-anything.
  • Do not lease a Ferrari and a Mercedes at the same time
  • Do not hire a former prosecutor as a corporate officer.

Full story at the SF Chronicle.

 

Filed Under: Business, Humor, Misc, Startups ·
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SVASE: Alternative Exits for Technology Startups

Posted on December 5, 2006 ·

Startup activity is at an all-time high, venture funding has soared, but something is still missing… the huge exits.  The IPO market simply doesn’t exist.  What are the alternative exit strategies for all that venture capital?

  • Acquisition by Google / Yahoo/ eBay ..etc?
  • IPO on a foreign Stock Exchange?
  • Go public through a reverse merger?  (yuck…)
  •  or…?

These are a few of the questions our excellent panel will discuss at the Alternative Exits For Technology Startups event organized by SVASE this Thursday, December 7 in Palo Alto.

The Panel:

  • Peter Rip, Managing Director, Leapfrog Ventures
  • Robert Simon, Director, Alta Partners
  • Ungad Chadda, Director, Listings, TSX Venture Exchange
  • Curtis Mo, Partner, WilmerHale
  • Neil Weintraut, Partner, Palo Alto Venture Partners

Moderator: Stephane Dupont, Executive Vice President, National Venture Capital Association.

For details, speaker bio’s and registration link please see the SVASE site. 

See you there!Zbutton

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Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups, Technology ·
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Bolton Gone Just as Expected

Posted on December 4, 2006 ·

John Bolton Resigns as U.S. Ambassador to U.N.   I’ve told you he would only last till January 2007 smile_shades

 

Filed Under: Politics ·
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Redesigned Web-sites: the Good and the Bad

Posted on December 4, 2006 ·

Some redesigns are good, others are just plain ugly.smile_omg

(Oh, and this is my shortest blog-post ever.)

 

Filed Under: Blogging ·
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Atlassian Founders Become Australian Entrepreneur of the Year

Posted on December 3, 2006 ·

My first thought was deja vu… I myself reported on Mike and Scott winning the E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award a few months ago. Then it hit me; this is not the *young* category; Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar won the real thing, Ernst & Young’s Australian Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Now, if you first win the *young* category, then a few months later the *adult* one (not *that* way… ) does it mean you grew up quickly and are no longer young?smile_tongue

Joke apart, congrat’s to Mike and Scott, in fact the entire Atlassian team. They’ve built a remarkable company… when I first met them in the spring, they had about 50 employees, now it’s 70+, serving 5,000 customers in 65 countries. Their first hit was Jira, an issue management system, the second product, Confluence became the market leading enterprise wiki. Of course there are a number of ways to measure leadership, one being a feature-by-feature comparison, but at the end of the day, customers vote with their dollars, and Atlassian outsells their competition lumped together (including pre-Google JotSpot, amongst others).

Here’s a short video from the award ceremony.

Successful millionaires or not (Atlassian is self-funded), these guys remain humble and likeable; just read Mike’s post here. Oh, as for the likeable part, they hosted the Enterprise Irregulars, a few analysts and their own competitors to dinner, and did NOT use the opportunity to pitch us smile_shades

All that said, I have to warn anyone thinking of joining them … they are a dangerous bunch. smile_wink


Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, Software, Startups · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
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Paul and Ringo Together Again

Posted on December 3, 2006 ·

 There is no English source yet, jut this Italian language interview in the La Repubblica, but if it says what I think it does, the remaining two Beatles will perform together again.   Here’s a rough Google translation, but frankly, it only proves the point I made several times: machine translation is way too unreliable yet. smile_sad

It provides entertainment value, though.. here are a few gems:

“Of sure I will salt on the theater box with Starr. Perhaps a lot soon”

“On purpose of concerts, it does not believe has arrived the moment launch a beautiful message playing with its ancient partner Ringo Starr, the only one remained of the clamorous adventure?
“Yes, the task, is in agreement, and it she is also Ringo. We have said many times to make it, indeed, was in order to happen in the last one tour of Ringo, the slid year, but it has not been possible because I was engaged elsewhere. But of it we speak often, it would appeal to to us very, and of sure it will happen, perhaps also a lot soon”.”

Oh, well, machine translation still has room for improvement…  but back to The Concert, I know how to make it full (well, sort of).. having (a) Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr play together:

Dhani Harrison did a decent job playing at “The Concert for George”, and both Sean and Julian Lennon are musicians in their own right ….

 

 

 

Filed Under: Misc ·
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