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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/23/2007 5:24:22 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
When Ed Zander ran Sun as President the market cap really started to fall...after he left the company and spent a few years in the buyout business a headhunter brought him in to "turn around" Motorola -- yet, it doesn't seem to be happening...This is from a Chicago technology newsletter:

The Scoop section:

____________

Massive layoffs of 7,500 officially and 10,000 unofficially imminent at Motorola, by Ron May

I have a quick and short but an important report. The morale at Motorola right now, my sources say, is dismal, as everyone awaits a big announcement of massive lay-offs. The official number is going to be 7,500, I am hearing from the inside, but the real number may be as high as 10,000 or more. We will then be talking about a staff of under 60,000 employees. They are already down below 65,000.

Motorola will have to make this announcement in the next few days because of European rules that they give a 30 day before the end of the quarter notice. So, the announcement should be coming out in the next few days.

The cuts will probably be in all areas, I am hearing and there is not much left to cut. They are already at the bone, I was told.

This knowledge is widespread inside the firm, but it has not been reported in the general media yet, which is why I am in a hurry to get this out.

The only way they can pull this off, my sources are telling me, is to sell off or spin off one of the operating groups. An across the board cut may not work, some people are thinking. Motorola may have to sell off a division.

One thing is certain: the cuts will be draconian.

Motorola is under great pressure from the analysts to cut staff.

Some people have told me that this is a "death rattle." You don't drive a firm to global success this way.

Also, the market reaction to the new RAZR2 is lukewarm at best. It has been introduced in Europe already and Motorola is already over-promoting it as the next big win. Sales have been mediocre and RAZR2 will be available in the United States starting in July.

The company is paralyzed while people wait to see if their number is up. Everyone is just sitting and waiting, I was told. This is comparable to when Motorola missed the boat on cell phones going to digital from analogue.

CEO Ed Zander does not come across well here because he has been completely consumed by the cell phone business and Wall Street is also consumed by it. Set top boxes, networks and the wired home plus next generation technology is where Motorola should be placing its efforts, my sources are saying.

Even an unsophisticated observer like Ron May can see that. When I attended the IFOPE conference a month ago, Dan Gamota spoke and the stuff he was talking about there was cutting edge, but that is by no means the preponderance of Motorola's business. His group has about 20 people and the larger research lab Dan works in under Dr. Iwona Turlik has about 100.

Motorola is trying to become a consumer products company and that push has been unsuccessful. Their global leadership used to be based on their technology leadership.

As one person put it to me, "this is the price they are paying for their quixotic pursuit of brand new billion dollar markets that nobody else sees as opposed to launching new businesses in emerging markets and growing them to scale over time."



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/23/2007 6:03:11 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
Google buys Feedburner for $100 Million

venturebeat.com



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/23/2007 6:36:59 PM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 57684
 
Why Would Feedburner Be Worth $100M To Google? 10 Reasons.

thealarmclock.com



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/24/2007 11:50:27 AM
From: Bill Harmond  Respond to of 57684
 
I think Greenspan chooses language to make headlines. There are other ways to say he thinks the Chinese market is ahead of itself.



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/25/2007 11:36:36 AM
From: Bill Harmond  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 57684
 
09:12 AAPL Apple tgt raised to $125 from $115 at Prudential (110.69 ) -Update-

Prudential raises their tgt on AAPL to $125 from $115 following meetings with mgmt. The firm says mgmt appeared confident on a number of fronts including 1) its prospects for Mac share growth over time, 2) the potential for iPhone success, and 3) the viability of the iPod platform despite the impending launch of iPhone. The firm says their checks suggest 1) continued momentum for Mac sales, 2) a timely launch of iPhone, and 3) series of new iPod launches beginning as early as June, extending through September.



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/25/2007 2:47:06 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
The Final Days of Google: It is going to be an inside job.

pbs.org



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/25/2007 5:09:25 PM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
A survey by law firm Fenwick and West found a 75% increase in valuations in the first quarter of this year for tech startups in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. The firm said that the increase was the largest since the survey started in 2002, and was driven specifically by a dozen financings that can primarily be characterized as Web 2.0 startups...

fenwick.com



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/26/2007 12:47:37 AM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
Google Investing in Company Started by Co-Founder’s Wife
_____________________________________________________________

By MIGUEL HELFT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MAY 23, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO — In Silicon Valley’s version of “The Bachelor,” Anne Wojcicki not only landed one of America’s richest men, Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, but she also got her husband’s company to finance her start-up.

Google said Tuesday that it invested $3.9 million this month in 23andMe, the biotech company co-founded last year by Ms. Wojcicki, a former health care industry analyst.

Google’s investment was disclosed in a regulatory filing, which also officially confirmed that Mr. Brin, 33, and Ms. Wojcicki are married. The company had declined to comment on the couple’s relationship.

The company declined to disclose any details of the wedding, but various reports placed it in the Bahamas this month. Mr. Brin, Google’s president for technology, is said to be worth about $14 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In a bit of classic Silicon Valley lore, the couple met after Ms. Wojcicki’s sister rented her garage to Mr. Brin and his partner, Larry Page, 34, to serve as office space for their search-engine venture. Mr. Page, Google’s president for products, also is worth about $14 billion, according to Forbes.

The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission also stated that Mr. Brin had provided $2.6 million in interim debt financing to 23andMe and that his loan was being repaid as part of the financing of 23andMe.

“Our audit committee requested that we disclose this in order to be completely transparent with our investors about the facts underlying this investment,” said Jon Murchinson, a Google spokesman.

Mr. Murchinson said the search giant, which has invested in other start-ups, made the investment in 23andMe because it furthered Google’s goal of organizing the world’s information. “They are developing new ways for people to make sense of their genetic information,” Mr. Murchinson said.

According to 23andMe’s Web site, by encouraging individuals to learn about their own genetic information, the company will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public.

A press release on the site quotes Ms. Wojcicki as saying, “Our goal is to allow individuals to gain deeper insights into their ancestry, genealogy and inherited traits and, ultimately, the option to work together to advance the overall understanding of the human genome.” Reached by telephone, Ms. Wojcicki declined to comment further.

Both Google and 23andMe are based in Mountain View, Calif.

Other investors in 23andMe’s Series A financing include venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, as well as biotech giant Genentech. Genentech’s chief executive, Arthur D. Levinson, is also a Google director.

The total amount of the Series A financing was not disclosed.



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/26/2007 10:00:32 AM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 57684
 
Not your older brother's Facebook
______________________________________________________________

SOCIAL-NETWORKING SITE OPENS PLATFORM IN BID FOR TRAFFIC
By Nicole C. Wong
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched: 05/25/2007

As social-networking Web sites fight to attract more users, Facebook fired a forceful shot Thursday by launching 85 applications built by Amazon.com, Microsoft and dozens of other companies that make it easier for its users to shop, play and do business based on their friends' recommendations.

At an afternoon launch party in San Francisco dubbed Facebook F8, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the popular social network wants to become a sophisticated platform by opening itself up to third-party developers. That's an attractive and potentially lucrative opportunity for companies around the world that are interested in tapping the 24 million Facebook users who like to keep tabs on their classmates', friends' and colleagues' activities and interests.

Amazon.com's "Book Review" application, for example, will allow people to write and post book reviews on their Facebook profile pages. People in their network whose curiosity is piqued by a particular book review can then click on the "Buy at Amazon" button, which will take them directly to Amazon.com to complete their purchase.

Another application now available lets Facebook users lend money to or borrow from other people in their networks.

These new tools could help the 3-year-old Palo Alto start-up distinguish itself from the competition, which executives say ranges from the MySpace social-networking site to television and any other activity that consumes time.

Josh Bernoff, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said these efforts are important as MySpace adds video capabilities to make it more like YouTube, and YouTube adds community features to make it similar to MySpace.

"The difference between small social networks and big ones that have staying power is the ability for people to customize them," Bernoff said. "That's why this is an important announcement. The only limit on their growth now is the creativity of the people who build on it."

Facebook said it will not take a cut of the revenue its third-party partners generate from advertisements or transactions. For now, Facebook is focusing on adding users and increasing their activity on the site.

"We really want to make the platform as attractive as possible for developers," Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta said. "Sometimes revenue-sharing requirements can really restrict that."

Facebook, which was started as a network for college students, has emerged as an extremely attractive site for people who have long graduated from college or not yet entered in college.

"We recently passed eBay in traffic, and we're working on passing Google now, too," founder Zuckerberg said as hundreds in the audience cheered and clapped. According to comScore's U.S. data for April, Google had 16.5 billion page views, Facebook had 15 billion and eBay had 9.9 billion.

But analysts caution that Facebook's popularity could be pummeled if developers' creativity goes awry.

Bernoff said he and several other analysts are nervous about Facebook's third-party platform because "it's possible for malicious software to take advantage of it. The people running Facebook are going to have to be extra vigilant about applications that are illegal or have the potential to damage the users."

Facebook executives said the privacy measures already built into the system should be sufficient to solve potential problems with malicious code.

"That might be right," Bernoff said, "but the ingenuity of hackers is pretty much unlimited."



To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (32717)5/28/2007 1:59:54 AM
From: stockman_scott  Respond to of 57684
 
MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

techcrunch.com