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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	11/27/2005 8:32:05 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Respond to of 57684

Looking back at all the claims made for the internet at the height of the busting of the dotcom bubble frenzy in 2000, what’s striking is not how ludicrous they now appear but how accurate they were – it’s just taken the internet a couple of years longer to transform the way the global economy works than originally predicted. And what fun those "couple of years" have been!!

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	11/29/2005 8:26:28 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

GUERRILLA CAPITALISM: Is Craigslist Killing Off Newspaper Classifieds? fortune.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	11/29/2005 8:42:27 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Intuit’s Zipingo Joins Local Business Review Sites techcrunch.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/1/2005 2:03:14 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Startups Worth 29% More in Q3 ____________________________________________________________ Median valuation for venture-backed firms jumps as VCs clamor for the best deals. redherring.com November 30, 2005 The median valuation of U.S. high-tech startups in the third quarter jumped 29 percent over the same period a year ago, according to a study released Wednesday, suggesting executives are keeping their companies private longer. Startups are worth more now than at any point in the last four years, according to the VentureOne study, with the median valuation hitting $16.8 million in the quarter, up from $13 million in the same period last year. The figures are based on pre-money valuation, or the worth of a company just before it receives its next round of venture financing. This year is shaping up to be a good year for startups to demonstrate their worth. The median valuation for the first nine months is up 27 percent over the same period in 2004. John Gabbert, the study’s author, attributes the rise in valuations to improving median acquisition prices. The median paid to venture-backed companies increased 148 percent to $59.5 million—the highest level since 2000—in the third quarter, up from $24 million during the same period last year. Indeed, strategic acquirers are paying more for venture-backed startups. But acquirers are doing fewer deals. Deal flow dropped 19 percent during the third quarter, the lowest third-quarter level in six years. Staying Private Longer Another reason for rising valuations is that startups are staying private longer in an attempt to gain more revenue and a consistent earnings track record. The median time between when a venture capitalist first finances a company and when the investors see a return on that investment has increased to 5.3 years. That’s nearly double the time it took as recently as 2002 (see VCs Council Patience on IPOs). As a result, private high-tech companies are raising larger, later financing rounds. Companies such as VoIP provider Vonage, which pulled down a fifth round of financing worth $200 million, have raised venture investments larger than most of the year’s initial public offerings. The biggest venture-backed IPO for the third quarter, for example, was China’s Focus Media, which raised $171.7 million. Increased regulatory scrutiny is one factor in the diminished appeal of IPOs. Certifying financial results can be a costly endeavor. Cash-strapped startups are deciding to stay away from the regulatory requirements of public markets until they have predictable cash flow to pay for that expense (see Buyouts Are Better for Startups).

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/1/2005 5:23:16 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Venture Capital and the Long Tail earlystagevc.typepad.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/1/2005 5:41:56 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

There's Excess Capital Everywhere... woodrow.typepad.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/3/2005 10:11:49 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

John Doerr still thinks the Web has a long way to go... siliconbeat.com <<... "I don't think it's a bubble, it's a boom" At the TechNet Innovation Summit in San Jose, Calif., John Doerr, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, talks to ZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber about how he thinks this is a period of "intense innovation" that will empower consumers...>>

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/4/2005 1:39:55 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

117 blogs by industry analysts tekrati.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/4/2005 2:02:17 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Outsourcing Maxims: Part 1 zinnov.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/4/2005 6:44:21 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57684

Venture Capital: Market's heating up, but memories of the bust linger seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/5/2005 8:29:24 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

VCs Survey Post-Bubble Opportunities hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/6/2005 2:45:07 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

9:46AM Google (GOOG) Banc of America Sec reiterates NEUTRAL. Target $360 to $420. Firm's discussions with industry contacts suggesting that the pricing environment remains robust for both sponsored search and branded advertising, as ad buyers continue to believe there is more pricing power before CPMs reach an equilibrium point against traditional media. For GOOG, firm sees modest market share and make improvements in monetization; notes their Neutral rating is based mainly on valuation.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/6/2005 5:17:18 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Intel to invest $1 billion in India to expand research _______________________________________________ Median wage of programmer there is only $11,423 BLOOMBERG NEWS seattlepi.nwsource.com Tuesday, December 6, 2005 Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip maker, said Monday that it will invest more than $1 billion in India over five years to expand research and development, bolster sales and invest in technology-related companies. The company will invest $800 million on research and development, marketing and education programs, Intel said in New Delhi. The Santa Clara, Calif., company will spend an additional $250 million to fund companies that are working on wireless technology, software and hardware design. Chairman Craig Barrett is hiring more people in India to tap into a highly educated work force that can be employed at a fraction of the costs in the United States. About 284,000 engineers graduated in India in 2005. That number is expected to increase 35 percent to 382,000 by 2007, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies, a group representing software companies. About 61,000 engineers graduated in the United States in 2003. "Education is the first, second and third priority for determining the competitiveness of any economy," Barrett said. "I would encourage India to build on its strengths in education and software." The median wage for an experienced software programmer is $11,423 a year in India, according to a survey by Seattle-based PayScale, compared with $83,000 in the United States. Intel said it is in talks with the Indian government for setting up a manufacturing plant in India. "Discussion is in progress, but we haven't taken any decision," Barrett said.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/7/2005 1:13:02 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Software Notebook: Google grows wary of Microsoft seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/7/2005 12:14:33 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Can there be another Google? _____________________________________________________ Published on December 06 2005 by ZDNet News Internet search is reaching an important pivot point, where market leaders are rewarded by Wall Street, laggards are punished, and start-ups try to fill niches left empty by the major players. Though the market has seen a few leaders come and go over the last decade--anyone remember AltaVista?--few would doubt that a distinct top tier has emerged, occupied by Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. Wall Street has certainly noticed, and it's rewarded the two standout companies--Google and Yahoo. As of the end of trading Monday, Google shares were up about 130 percent over the last year to $405.85, while Yahoo shares were up 4 percent to $40.47. Google also is getting the bulk of business. Its search traffic rose nearly 30 percent to 83.3 million unique users in October from the year before. Yahoo search saw a 12 percent rise to 52.3 million unique users, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Indeed, in such an environment, often the only way to get a seat at the table with the big companies is to introduce a disruptive technology or business model--like Salesforce.com did when it started selling low-cost, on-demand CRM software. "Salesforce.com...created out of things that existed a paradigm-busting attack at the CRM market," said Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting. "It really set the industry on its ear." So, barring a disruptive innovation, it looks like the best way to get a toehold in search is to think "niche."

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (26458)	12/7/2005 1:33:14 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

TROVIX, INTELLIGENT SEARCH TECHNOLOGY START-UP, ANNOUNCES $5.25 MILLION INITIAL FUNDING ROUND Trovix Targets $70 Billion Recruiting and Staffing Industry with venture backing from USVP, 3i and Stanford University MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. -- December 7, 2005 -- Trovix, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent search technology, today announced a $5.25 million round of Series A financing from USVP, 3i and Stanford. These funds will be used to support expanding sales, marketing and engineering efforts. Trovix was founded with the goal of solving one of the most challenging technical problems in computerized search: how to evaluate unstructured documents and make decisions on information the same way a person would. Trovix's first product, Trovix Recruit, is the first ever Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that uses search technology sophisticated enough to consistently identify the best candidates out of thousands of resumes. The search technology in Trovix Recruit is based on ten years of research initiated at MIT. "Search technology continues to open up exciting new market opportunities, especially in domain-specific areas such as recruiting new employees," said Paul Matteucci, Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). "Trovix has perfected new search techniques that allow their product to evaluate candidate resumes as proficiently as a seasoned hiring manager would." "Trovix has developed intelligent search technology that can target a range of large market opportunities, including recruitment," said Kevin Scott, Partner at 3i. "We're most excited to see the early adoption of Trovix's first product by global companies such as as Juniper Networks, Linksys and Palm. That is compelling market validation of value delivered." Resumes are among the most difficult document types to search because of their irregular formatting, abundance of acronyms, similar words with different meanings, and related concepts such as "business development manager" and "strategic alliance manager." Trovix is able to match these intelligently against relevant job postings. Trovix's intelligent search technology stands apart from existing solutions because it is: * Contextual -- Rather than basing results on the presence of key words, Trovix understands the concepts behind words in a document based on how they're used. For example, it differentiates "Oracle" as a skill from "Oracle" as an employer based on where it appears on a resume. * Conceptual -- It leverages a massive, proprietary knowledgebase to understand relationships between search terms and concepts. For example, the use of JBuilder is indicative of object oriented programming experience as well as experience using software development tools . * Relative -- Trovix uses proprietary algorithms to compare all potential search results to each other, and provide relative scores based on degree of match. * Adaptive -- Trovix learns from user feedback about implicit preferences that person may have, and personalizes search results based on that feedback. "What's exciting about our technology is that you can take 50,000 resumes and with a single click, identify the most qualified candidate for an open position with highly personalized results," said Jeff Benrey, CEO and Founder of Trovix, Inc. "Our intelligent search technology provides human-like search results. It finds candidates with relevant skills and it understands the key attributes such as relevant work history, depth of experience, tenure in the right jobs, and weighs those in the same manner as an experienced recruiter." Trovix was founded by Earl Rennison and Jeff Benrey. Rennison, Trovix's Chairman and CTO, was previously Chairman and CTO of Perspecta, a software company that developed advanced search and visual users interface technology for organizing large information repositories and acquired by Excite@Home. Benrey, the company's CEO is a veteran of Silicon Graphics and Apple. About USVP U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) invests in a broad range of early-stage information technology companies, including those involved in wireless, IT infrastructure, semiconductors, and enterprise and technical software. Representative USVP public companies are: Sun Microsystems, SanDisk, AMCC, Verity, Check Point Software Technologies, MMC Networks, 3Dfx, Leadis, Nuance Communications, Centillium, Crescendo Communications (Cisco), Elantec (Intersil), StrataCom (Cisco), Xylan, Blue Coat Systems and Concur. For more information, visit usvp.com . About 3i 3i is a world leader in private equity and venture capital. 3i focuses on Buyouts, Growth Capital and Venture Capital and invests across Europe, in the United States and in Asia Pacific. 3i's competitive advantage comes from its international network and the strength and breadth of their relationships in business. Since its inception, 3i has invested over $32 billion worldwide and has a total staff of 750 employees operating in 14 countries. In the U.S., 3i invests in both early and late stage technology companies in the software, communications, semiconductor and healthcare sectors. For more information, visit 3i.com. About Trovix, Inc. Trovix, Inc. is a leading provider of intelligent search technology. Its first product, Trovix Recruit, combines intelligent, personalized search technology with a full-featured applicant tracking system to help companies recruit the best talent available, reduce their cost-per-hire, streamline their workflow, and facilitate their resource allocation. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Trovix is backed by USVP, 3i and Stanford University. Trovix customers include successful and growing ventures such as Juniper Networks, Palm, Linksys, VMware, Rambus and Tellme. For more information, visit trovix.com.