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Week In Review: Will Yahoo Buy AOL, Or Will Someone Else Buy Yahoo? [Silicon Alley Insider]
There's a Mexican standoff of buyout rumors surrounding several underperforming tech companies. The latest: AOL (TWX) is up for sale, and the most likely buyer appears to be Yahoo (YHOO). But with the Congress investigating possible antitrust implications of the Yahoo-Google deal and a collapse in investor faith that Yang and Decker can lead the company, Yahoo may be not have its feet under it. Meanwhile Microsoft (MSFT), sensing a possible threat in a combined AOL-Yahoo, might make a play of its own for AOL. But maybe AOL will play the predator rather than the prey. One report says Microsoft was in discussions with Time Warner (or maybe News Corp.) to team up for a fresh bid for Yahoo.
Confused yet? So are we.
But Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft aren't the only companies struggling for a strategy. eBay (EBAY) got hit with a lawsuit in European court, and the auction site badly needs to win on appeal. We're hopeful but not overly optimistic that the CNET acquisition can help revive operations at flagging CBS (CBS). And while we wouldn't touch a newspaper stock with a ten-foot pole, the New York Times seems to have a vision for nytimes.com that's well ahead of its peers.
But hey, think optimistic! If Twitter just might be worth a billion dollars someday, anything is possible.
Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions? [A VC]
read moreVenture Capital and TechnologyFredSat, 05 Jul 2008 05:08:52 -0500
This is something I've been pondering a bit lately. Certainly there are some notable successes with browser extensions:
- StumbleUpon - one of the most popular Firefox extensions was sold to eBay last year for a price in the neighborhood of $50mm - Clipmarks - another popular Firefox extension was sold to Forbes last year for an undisclosed amount, rumored to be in the high single digits or low teens - Delicious - thought not only a browser extension, much of the activity on Delicious comes through the Firefox extension. Delicious was sold to Yahoo! for $30mm, but I continue to believe that there was a viable sustainable business opportunity with Delicious, we just didn't get the opportunity to go for it.
Here's the 100 most popular Firefox extensions. I currently use three of them; downloadthemall, delicious, and foxytunes. I have, at one time or another, tried about one quarter of the top 100. All three of the companies mentioned above that have been sold have extensions in the top 100. But its interesting to note that none of them are top 10 or even top 20. Stumbleupon is about the 20th most popular extension, Delicious is about the 30th, and Clipmarks is about the 50th.
Many of the most popular extensions are blockers (ads, script, flash) or download helpers (audio, video, etc). It's hard to see how one builds a business around blocking or downloading, but I am sure there are people working hard to figure that out. AdBlockPlus gets almost 300k downloads per week and has been downloaded over 21mm times. That translates into a lot of active users. There surely is some sort of business opportunity there.
In general, browser extensions are pretty geeky. Just spend some time on that top 100 list and you'll see stuff like ftp tools, greasemonkey, and debugers. That's not mainstream stuff.
We have one company that started out as a browser extension, Adaptive Blue. Their Blue Organizer extension is the 102nd most popular extension and has been downloaded almost 1.4mm times and gets about 16k downloads per week. But even so, while we were evaluating Adaptive Blue as an investment opportunity we encouraged Alex Iskold and his team to broaden the base of the business and the SmartLinks service is partly a result of those conversations.
We felt then, and I continue to feel, that a browser extension can be a useful way to get your technology into the market, particularly to the power user segment of the market, but it should not be the only way you get your technology into the market.
Here's a screenshot of all the extensions I am currently using:
Leaving off the talkback, tamper data, and dom inspector add-ons, I currently use 11 extensions. Of these, seven are offered by companies that have other services (Adaptive Blue, Delicious, FoxyTunes, Google, Mahalo, Skydeck, deluux, and FoxyTunes again). Three are offered by developers who only offer their technology via a browser extension (downloadthemall, screengrab, and zemanta).
I don't know if I am representative, but that little exercise shows that many useful browser extensions are offered by companies as a supplement or compliment to their existing web-based service. Mahalo is a good example of that. I could go to Mahalo and do searches, but instead I've installed Mahalo Follow which just inserts some Mahalo results into my Google searches. That's smart on their part and a good utility for me.
So back to the original question I posed at the beginning of this post. Can you build a business on browser extensions? Although a few companies have gotten into the market via extensions and gotten sold for good money, I think the answer is largely no. A browser extension is a smart way to enter the market, particularly if you want to reach power users early on, but you need to figure out how to build a broader service offering with your technology in order to reach a mainstream audience if you really want to build something big and sustainable.
This is something I've been pondering a bit lately. Certainly there are some notable successes with browser extensions: - StumbleUpon - one of the most popular Firefox extensions was sold to eBay last year for a price in the neighborhood...
For cycling fans, it's that time again. Time to make sure your cable package includes Comcast's Versus network -- nee OLN -- for the Tour de France. Or, just sign up and cancel in two weeks when the tour is over.
With good reason: Versus' coverage of the Tour de France is good enough to draw even casual fans of the sport. (Question: is there a better play-by-play man in any sport than Paul Sherwen?)
Versus just signed a 5-year, $27.5 million deal to retain the Tour through 2013 -- drug problems and lack of known stars notwithstanding -- because even without Lance it's been a great subscriber draw for them. Because Versus spent its early years broadcasting the Tour fighting for subscribers, the network had a strong reason to at least try to keep video off the Web. Otherwise, why subscribe at all?
But! It appears Versus has had a partial change of heart and is at least saying on its Web site it will carry parts of the first two stages live on the Web, prior to the beginning of each day's TV broadcast. You can catch Stage 1 live from 6:30-8:30 a.m. today, and Stage 2 from 7:00-8:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Now that Versus is distributed in 73 million U.S. homes (out of 90-odd million cable households), the network is on basic tiers in most areas, meaning it's less dependent on Tour fans making an affirmative decision to subscribe. Putting at least part of the Tour on the Web is, then, a low-risk promotional strategy. (And if you care what happens at the end of the stage, you'll need to watch the rest on TV, anyway.)
We'll see how long Versus sticks with it. Like Euro 2008 and March Madness, much of the 14-day Tour takes place during work hours (US coverage starts at 8:30 a.m ET), which means heavy online demand from fans at work who have robust broadband but no access to TVs. (Another good reason to offer the whole Tour on the Web, even if for a fee.) Where to find the Tour on the Web after Versus cuts off? We have some ideas:
It's a week early, but a handful of people are already in line at the 5th Ave. NYC Apple Store for the new iPhone 3G, which goes on sale next Friday, July 11.
Right now, about ten people have started a line outside of Apple's flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York. Word is that the family at the head of the queue are attempting to break some kind of record which involves their baby -- which kind of sounds a little intense if you ask us.
The security guards will allow everyone to stay and indicated that as of yet there are no plans to put out barricades. Apple employees are just starting to come out of the store to talk with the people and one employee actually posed for a photo with the first in line.
Public market skittishness again impacted exit activity, with NO venture-backed IPOs in the second
quarter. There were 56 M&A deals for venture-backed
companies, down from 89 in the second quarter of 2007. Average M&A pricing did rise to $171 million, up from $110 million.
Taking a longer view, there were only 385 venture-backed IPOs from 2001-2007, compared to 1353 from 1991-1997.
There's a Mexican standoff of buyout rumors surrounding several underperforming tech companies. The latest: 
For cycling fans, it's that time again. Time to make sure your cable package includes Comcast's Versus network -- nee OLN -- for the 
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