Venture Capital bloggers have a uniquely targeted audience of entrepreneurs interested in what they have to say. These Venture Capitalists write about technology, entrepreneurship, investing, the computer industry, and their random exploits.
en-usFeedBurner Networks http://www.feedburner.comSat, 19 Apr 2008 05:07:22 -0500442092http://www.feedburner.comThis is the spliced feed for "Venture Capital". Add this to your news reader to receive updates about the network.
Comments Are The Blog Spinal Cord [A VC]
read moreVenture Capital and TechnologyFredSat, 19 Apr 2008 05:07:22 -0500
Great discussion yesterday about wordpress vs facebook. As always the post was just the kickoff of a wonderful discussion that is 75 comments long at this time. The big debate was whether blogging was truly social behavior and whether a blog platform could "know" anything about it's readers.
On that there is no question in my mind. This morning I was working through all 75 comments and was floored by this one from PH Bradley. I've been marvelling at PH's words in this blog's comments for a while now. But enough is enough. Who is this guy? I need to know him, read him, follow him. Thankfully, all that one has to do when faced with that moment is hover over a person's face in disqus and their profiles (note the plural) will be revealed. Like this:
I clicked on all of them, Phillipe is now a friend on facebook, a contact on linkedin, I follow him on twitter, and his feed is in my reader.
That's the kind of adult social networking I was talking about in my post yesterday. Or as Phil said in the comment I linked to, comments are the blog's spinal cord. Indeed.
Great discussion yesterday about wordpress vs facebook. As always the post was just the kickoff of a wonderful discussion that is 75 comments long at this time. The big debate was whether blogging was truly social behavior and whether a...
hey, you put a Spinal Tap reference in something, I’ll blog it.
After staring at me, and I think wondering if he could shoot me, the screener gave an answer right our of Spinal Tap: “But it says 4 ounces.” (But it goes to 11!)
hey, you put a Spinal Tap reference in something, I’ll blog it.
After staring at me, and I think wondering if he could shoot me, the screener gave an answer right our of Spinal Tap: “But it says 4 ounces.” (But it goes to 11!)[From Megan McArdle (April 18, 2008) - Interesting point about [...]
Small consolation to the Xbox 360 owners who ended up with defective "red ring of death" game consoles last year. At least it didn't burn down your house.
That's what happened to a console owner in Little Rock, Arkansas, this week, when a power cord on their machine supposedly overheated and torched their home.
This isn't the first time an Xbox power cord has caused Microsoft (MSFT) trouble. The good folks at Little Rock station THV tell us that Microsoft has been sued at least twice for fires related to the power cords, and notes that Microsoft recalled 14 million power cords in 2005. But that was for the first generation Xbox.
Microsoft estimates that the power cords pose an issue for 1 in 10,000 units of the newish game machine. Which means that 26 people who bought their Xbox 360s last month should be very careful.
Google Outsources Its Android Programming (GOOG) [Silicon Alley Insider]
Last Saturday, Yahoo leaked news that Yahoo (YHOO) would be meeting with Microsoft (MSFT) and AOL (TWX) this week. We assume these meetings happened as planned. Given that we haven't heard anything about what happened in the meetings, however, we assume that the answer is "not much."
Specifically, we assume that Yahoo and Microsoft had another meeting in which the discussion went something like this:
YAHOO: Hi, Steve, thanks for coming down again. Are you going to raise your offer?
MICROSOFT: No, Jerry, I'm not going to bid against myself.
YAHOO: Okay, great, then we're going to spend the afternoon kite-surfing.
The next big event in the Yahoo-Microsoft negotiation, of course, is next Tuesday, when Yahoo reports earnings. As we've said, we think Yahoo's leisurely approach to the Microsoft negotiations under the threat of a lowered bid almost guarantees that Yahoo's quarter was, if not strong, at least very solid.
Assuming this is the case, the question will be, "What happens next?" Or, specifically, since Yahoo has already rejected the offer, what will Steve Ballmer do?
We think the advantage shifts to Yahoo. We think you'll probably hear about a more definitive Yahoo-Google partnership next week and that this will raise the pressure on Microsoft to raise its bid. We think Microsoft might use Yahoo's strong quarter as an excuse to not lower its bid (or, if the quarter was really strong, even raise it). After all, one reason Microsoft threatened to cut the bid was its theory that Yahoo's business has meaningfully deteriorated since February 1. If it hasn't, this reason presumably no longer exists.
[The real reason Microsoft threatened to cut the bid, of course, was to scare Yahoo into negotiating. Yahoo called this bluff. Then it rolled out the Google search test, which was a brilliant move. If Yahoo can follow up the Google play by posting some strong Q1 numbers, we think the advantage really will shift to Yahoo.]
And the AOL meeting? Yes, we suppose it's possible that we'll get a big Yahoo-AOL announcement next week. We don't think it's likely, but it's certainly possible.
Our source, too, has heard that AOL's ad revenue will be down 25%-30% this quarter, which would be a shocking disappointment. The source may just be hearing the same rumors CNBC's David Faber is hearing, so don't take this to the bank. Also note the source's qualification about "stripping out all the padding." Even if the core sales are 25%-30% below plan, in other words, the headline number AOL reports could look much better.
Small consolation to the Xbox 360 owners who ended up with defective "
Google may still be 
Last Saturday, Yahoo leaked news that Yahoo (YHOO) would be 
Assuming this is the case, the question will be, "What happens next?" Or, specifically, since Yahoo has already rejected the offer, what will Steve Ballmer do?
In the midst of 
