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To: stockman_scott who wrote (702)	7/12/2011 4:46:33 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1685

Streaming is the future, not physical media. Netflix Adjusts Pricing, Renting Those Plastic Discs Just Got More Expensive By Matt Burns TechCrunch Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 Netflix is officially on an all-out assault on the DVD — or so says their just-released pricing strategy. The new prices yell loud and clear that streaming is the future and you’re going to pay (literally) if you don’t hop on the bandwagon. Maybe this is why Reed Hastings stated back in May that DVD shipments might go down for the first time ever. Gone are the plans that include streaming and DVD. Customers previously had the option of selecting the streaming plan for $7.99 and then paying an additional $2 to be able to rent one DVD at a time. Now the plans are separate with the streaming plan costing $7.99 and the DVD plan at $7.99; selecting both options for $16 results in a 60% price increase. Current subscribers will be able to ride the lower price until September 1st, but the plan just went live for new customers. Ouch. On the Netflix blog, the price increase was attributed to position DVD rental as a proper business rather than just a $2 add-on to the streaming service. Netflix even created a “separate and distinct management team” to head up the DVD business and is now led by Andy Rendich, a 11 year veteran of Netflix and Chief Service and Operations Officer. It’s just too bad the pricing and Netflix sign-up process states something different. Renting a DVD is now just a $7.99 add-on business. While Netflix might state DVD rental is separate, it’s not treating it as such. New customers are simply asked if they want to add the $7.99 a month service when signing up; the streaming service is selected by default. Previously, I know at least in my house, the DVD option was a nice backup just in case the particular title wasn’t available for streaming; it really felt like a $2 add-on. This happened a few times over the last year since Netflix’s streaming catalog is around 20k titles where they have 100k available on DVD. Erick caught up with Netflix’s chief back in May. “Streaming is the core of our business and it is growing rapidly.” he said “Streaming is much bigger than DVD for us in terms of hours of viewing, growth, and focus. We are seeing massive consumer adoption of streaming.” This departure from DVD rental seems to state that as well. Streaming is the future, not physical media. techcrunch.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (702)	7/12/2011 8:36:08 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1685

A jaw dropper, if true: Dropbox Raising Massive Round at a $5B-Plus Valuation By Sarah Lacy TechCrunch Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 We’ve heard from multiple sources that Dropbox is finally moving on raising its next venture round and it’s a whopper. They’ve had preliminary conversations with several investors, several solid offers they’ve passed on earlier this year and are meeting with investment banks to handle the offering now. Allen & Co. is said to be in the mix, but we’ve also heard nothing has been finalized. The real news are the numbers we’re hearing from multiple sources close to the company. Dropbox is looking to raise between $200 million and $300 million according to these sources. In terms of valuation, the company has already had multiple offers at a valuation north of $2 billion range, and recently more informal discussions in the $8 billion-valuation range. Our sources expect the valuation to end up in the $5 billion to $10 billion range. That’s quite a step up from its previous funding rounds which have totalled a tiny $7.2 million. There will no doubt be a secondary component to the round, but our sources say it’ll be less than 50% of the total amount raised. We’ll update as soon as we know more. techcrunch.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (702)	7/13/2011 5:34:11 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1685

Evernote: evernote.com The venture capital backed Evernote is an online archive. It describes its mission as: Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find. And we’ve done just that. From creating text and ink notes, to snapshots of whiteboards and wine labels, to clips of webpages, Evernote users can capture anything from their real and digital lives and find it all anytime. Evernote Takes $50 million To Become The Anti-Zynga Michael Arrington TechCrunch Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Evernote’s new rumored venture round. It was a big one, said one source, putting them in the billion dollar valuation club. Today they’ll officially announce that deal – $50 million in new funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Morgenthaler Ventures. And while they didn’t quite get that billion dollar valuation people were whispering about, the company is still doing quite nicely, thank you. As part of the round, Roelof Boetha at Sequoia will join the board of directors. He was previously a board observer. The new round is partially secondary, meaning founders will be taking some money off the table. The majority of the round, though, is a primary venture raise. They’ll use it to fuel growth, including upcoming acquisitions. Since the company is already quite profitable (they haven’t spent any of their previous $20 million round), they now have quite a warchest. The company continues to grow like a well loved weed. In June they had 10 million users. Now it’s 11 million. 75% of users access the service using more than one platform – a desktop and a mobile phone, for example. 50% use more than two. And new, fun, applications like Peek continue to drive new user awareness of all that Evernote has to offer. Which is a lot. Snip a picture, save a web page, type a text note. Heavy users come and organize that content later, adding tags and other metadata to keep things tended properly. And that’s exactly what the company wants to see. Zynga is a place that encourages people to spend a 5 minute break playing one of their fun new games. Evernote says a lot of people want to spend that 5 mins doing something productive, like tending to your growing Evernote personal library. “You can really feel like you’ve accomplished something,” says CEO Phil Libin. Interesting sidenote, Morgenthaler loves Evernote so much that they not only invested in the company again, but they also sent over partner Ken Gullicksen to head Evernote’s corporate development efforts. Most venture funds get a little snippy when a company poaches a partner. But Morgenthaler just doubled down on their investment instead. Nice Sarah Lacy sat down with Libin yesterday to talk about the round, and how Evernote’s doing in general. That fascinating conversation is below. And the meaning of that thing he’s holding in his hand in the picture above becomes clear. I love that his goal is to create “a 100 year company.” evernote.com