Connecting the dots ...
Auren Hoffman got the patent on the business model of suing others who violate patents. Or something like that. But he may be late, since Chris Yeh got the patent on patenting the business model patent business model. Or maybe it’s just too late and I should go to sleep.
See also: Patent Ransom.
Matt Marshall at SiliconBeat is wondering whether Oracle CEO Larry Ellisons 60% ownership (*) in NetSuite, preparing for a $2B IPO represents a conflict of interest.
I don’t think so. Oracle dipped into the On-Demand market before, it did not quite work, so Ellison decided to tackle it differently, through his investments. He is a Warlord battling in different theaters and maintaining two separate, not directly interchangeable armies. This is still true, even though Oracle’s second attempt in the SaaS space will likely be successful, especially after absorbing Siebel.
The issue isn’t so much On-Premise vs. On-Demand anymore, but the market segment they go after: NetSuite is still mostly an SMB player, although more the “M” than the “S” piece. The SMB market requires a totally different Sales and Marketing approach, amongst others, and Oracle with it’s current “legacy” salesforce can’t reach this market profitably. It’s the Business Model, not only the technology, that requires a separate “army”.
For the above reasons I’ve long been advocating that SAP also should invest in it’s own NetSuite-equivalent (or better, and I happen to know who 
) to tackle the SMB market.
Back to the Ellison factor, Jason still contends that “NetSuite could get scooped up by Oracle before it ever sees the light of the public markets.”
* (I think it’s actually less than 60%, but more than 50% – but that’s irrelevant here.)
Update (4/2): Vinnie agrees: “I have always believed if Larry had invested in every one of Oracle’s alums, he would be a far richer man than Bill Gates…. Maybe Larry should similarly invest in Open Source, Third Party
Maintenance, BPO, Search, Web services start-ups. They represent the
growth and the innovation in the market, not the company he founded.”
Sramana Mitra‘s post is also worth reading.
Tags: NetSuite, IPO, NetSuite IPO, investing, software, SaaS, On-Demand, CRM, ERP, Oracle, ORCL, Ellison, Larry Ellison, SAP, SMB, SME, Enterprise Software
(Updated)
I enjoy reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog, the “Art of..” series as well as other posts. I find myself agreeing with him most of the time, including his most recent post, The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy. That said, let’s look at some of his examples:
Update: some more examples from Guy’s post, see our comment exchange below:
These illustrations make it a fascinating piece to read…and that’s exactly my issue with so many management books: the author has the freedom to quote the most interesting stories from the entire world to make their point.
Business reality is not that fascinating, if you are an Executive or business owner, you live within the confines of your own everyday business, you can’t perform the condom– or cattle-trick. You have a more limited set of options, no matter how creative you are. The stories belong in books, or – if yo can afford – motivational, skill-development training sessions, but most of them are hard to map to your business reality. I guess that’s also the difference between celebrity story tellers and management consultants, who have to recharge and boost real businesses every day.
P.S. Guy, I still love reading your blog.
Tags: Art of series, Guy Kawasaki, competition, creativity, coaching, celebrity authors, management consulting, consulting, business training, evangelism
I’ll be attending “The must-attend software event of the year”, Software 2006, organized by the Sand Hill Group.
The 2,500 participants meet industry leaders on April 4-5th in Santa Clara, CA.
I hope to blog from there, although it’s more likely that I only get to do it after the event. I also hope to meet many of my readers. If you’ll be there and would like to meet, drop me a note.
Tags: software2006, Sandhill.com, Sand Hill Group
Does Open Source really kill innovation? – debates Michael at SQLFusion, quoting from the Economist, Harvard, Infoworld and others. It’s worth reading – and considering that they are the company soon launching Open Source Fusion, you can guess what Michael’s answer is.
Full post here.
Tags: Open Source, Innovation, Software, SaaS, Open Source Fusion, SQLFusion
(Updated)
TechCrunch gave a pretty positivie review of Jobby:
“Unlike other web 2.0 job sites like Indeed and Simply Hired (which aggregate job listings from around the web), Jobby takes information directly from job seekers, and then focuses on helping recruiters filter through job qualifications fast via tagging and tag filtering. The results are quite stunning”
A good review by Mike always helps, so all is fine for the beta-service … except … hm… apperently the name has a special meaning in Scottish slang:
“A Scots term for the brownish substance excreted from ones anus when the bowels are full or after a spicy cuisine.
Also the term for something that is disapproved of/ rubbish.” (source: Urban Dicitionary).
Yuck. 
That’s pretty bad. The Jobb(y)ers are lamenting the right course of action:
“So what’s the solution? The way I see it, we have three options.
1. Change our name.
2. Keep our name. Grin and bear it. After all, we showed the site to hundreds of people before anyone actually pointed this out. It’s pretty obscure… Right?
3. Change our logo to a little amorphous brown man in a lively plaid kilt.”
My vote is on #2, keep the name. Although I’d like to see someone come up with #3. 
Update : I guess now it’s fair to say these surfers in Hawaii had a jobby experience 
Update (3/31): Here’s a thorough data-driven analysis into how sh*t (I mean “jobby”) happens. More here, and from Guy Kawasaki.
Update (5/24): Jobby no longer… they got acquired by Jobber. Hope the deal was not … “jobby” (in Scottish). Congrat’s to the team. 
Update (7/16/07): Read/WriteWeb has a run-down of the 10 worst app names.
Tags: Jobby, job-search, indeed, simply hired, techcrunch, slang, urban dictionary, domains, domain names
That’s really funny … details at Zack’s blog
Other acquisition-related news or rumors:
Tags: Facebook, MySQL, IBM, EMC, Oracle, Miscrosoft, Google, Acquisition, Humor
Those were the famous words Ed Sullivan used to launch the Beatles (already hot in the UK) in the US. Here they are, back again: Apple vs. Apple.
“IT IS the ultimate battle of the generations over an image of a half-eaten piece of fruit.” claims the UK’s The Times. The New York Times also reports. Apple Corps, the business arm of the former Beatles and their heirs took Apple Computer to court for the third time.
It is the second, 1991 settlement that bound Apple Computer to steer clear of the music business, for which the Beatles’ company retains the famous trademark. Of course my third point above is a joke, I could not possibly predict the outcome of this lawsuit, but it’s no laughing matter, the least it will do, without considering the outcome is to divide the music fans into two camps. Hardcore Beatles fans might just take their business elsewhere. And if Apple (Steve’s Apple, not Sir Paul’s) has to pay up again … well .. this is the real thing folks, not the bogus rumors about Jobs dumping his stock.
Update (3/27): “ The best part? The case will be heard by (no joke): Mr. Justice Mann.” (via MacUser)
Related posts:
Tags: Apple, itunes, ipod, Beatles, Lawsuit, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Steve Jobs, music
Ironically the same day the San Francisco Chronicle celebrates Apple’s 30th anniversary and devotes an article to “The man behind the Mac” Steve Jobs, The Register’ came out with this headline: “Jobs dumps Apple stock”.
Of course a juicy story like this hits Memeorandum , and here’s the first reaction from Forever Geek: “The question is why? Is Steve seeing something we’re not? Will the Intel-based Macintoshes be flukes? Is Apple’s future as a company bleak? I mean when the chief executive of a company seemingly on the rise sells a huge chunk of company shares, that doesn’t forebode anything good.”
It takes a real analyst, Michael Parekh to actually look up the facts rather than just shooting from the hip: “He (Jobs) did not sell any of his stake in the company. In order to meet his tax obligations on the 10M restricted shares, which vested this month, Jobs elected to net-share settle — essentially allowing Apple to withhold and pay to authorities the portion of the 10M shares that would meet his tax payment requirements”
Read the details on Michael’s blog, but here’s the conclusion: “Therefore, the net-share settlement will have the effect of a share repurchase by the company — essentially Apple reinvesting in itself, which will reduce the number of outstanding Apple shares on the market.”
So Jobs was paying his taxes in a manner that’s actually benefitial to Apple. Now, let’s place all this in the context of the ongoing “Responsible Media vs. Rogue Bloggers” debate: Ironically, it’s the professional media (can The Register be called that?) that did not bother to do any fact-checking (after all that may have ruined a juicy story), and it took a blogger to come out with the truth.
Some readers may also remember the Register vs. Scoble spat last year, when Andrew Orlowski ended up fabricating an email that Scoble never wrote and presented it as real. Apparently, this is a trick of sensationalist media: report first, true or not, never bother to follow up and publish the correction.
Isn’t it time we all dump not Apple, but the Register?
Update (3/26): Since I’ve shown an early Steve Jobs photo, here’s another early pic.. back then BillG was also a “popular hero”
. It’s worth clicking on to get to the large image: the computer in the top right is … a Mac! (hat tip: Nick Starr)
Related posts:
Tags: Apple, Jobs, Steve Jobs, Apple Stock, Media, Blogs, Blogging, The Register, Orlowski, Scoble, Gates, Bill Gates, BillG, Mac, Macintosh
Wal-Mart is trying to be Costco. It is targeting upscale shoppers in a new, experimental store in Plano, Texas with an expanded selection of high-end electronics, more fine jewelry, hundreds of types of wine ranging up to $500 a bottle, and even a sushi bar.
Wal-Mart says it won’t duplicate this format anywhere else. But if plasma TVs, microbrewery beer and fancy balsamic vinegar sell in Plano, those items could be added to stores in other affluent communities. (full article here).
No wonder Wal-Mart is desparate: since the beginning of 2005 it’s stock dropped 6%, while Costco climbed 16.2%. “Costco’s stock is starting to get pricey, but I think it definitely deserves a premium over Wal-Mart since it’s one of the few retailers out there that competes head-on with them and, quite frankly, beats the pants off them,” says Morningstar analyst Anthony Chukumba. “They’re incredible merchants. Their customer service is pretty much the best out there in all of retail. They treat their employees better. They pay them more. Their benefits are better, and the company still has room to grow both at home and abroad.” (via “Wake Up Walmart”)
Tags: retail, wholesale, wharehouse, shopping club, wal-mart, costco
Publisher / Editor of CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars.
I do most of my business blogging there, with occasional asides here. More...
Recent Comments