Archive for July 16th, 2012
Jul
16
2012
 
Facebook Vows to Speed Web With Tech From … GooglePosted by: wiredtechbiz in Wired Tech BizIn a rare case of agreement between the two internet giants, Facebook has announced that it?s adopting the new protocol Google developed to speed the delivery of webpages across the net.
Jul
16
2012
Google’s Marissa Mayer Will Try to Save Yahoo as CEOPosted by: wiredtechbiz in Wired Tech BizGoogle VP Marissa Mayer will become CEO of Yahoo, leading a company that badly needs a turnaround.
Keeping kids safe is a priority for parents, especially when it comes to sharing information online. Everyone is worried about some creepy stalker setting up a meeting, or getting their information and whisking them away from a playground or a schoolyard. Many parents opt to keep them away from things like smartphones for fear of their making dangerous connections. The problem is that there are times most of us would like our kids to have a ready means of contacting us in a pinch. Kytephone aims to provide a way for parents to give their children phones and keep them safe.
The Game of Life was first created over 40 years ago by Reuben Klamer. Since its creation, the game has undergone some changes to keep up with the times. None of the changes have been quite as drastic as they are in the latest edition, The Game of Life: zAPPed Edition for iPad .
Jul
16
2012
It’s Official: Social Media Users Happier With Google+ Than With FacebookPosted by: wiredtechbiz in Wired Tech BizAs much as Facebook is a part of people’s day-to-day lives, a lot of people don’t actually like using the social network giant. Google+ on the other hand is getting a warm reception in comparison, according to a new ACSI report.
Jul
16
2012
Retail Sales Drop 0.5% in June: U.S. Consumer “Will Get Poorer” Says Howard DavidowitzPosted by: yahootechticker in Yahoo Tech TickerFollow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Retail sales slipped for the third straight month in June, falling 0.5 percent according to the Commerce Department. Retail sales in May fell 0.2 percent. Most analysts were expecting a gain of 0.2 percent in June. The last time retail sales fell for three consecutive quarters was in late [...]
Jul
16
2012
Bernanke Ready to “Throw in the Towel on Inflation”: Jim RickardsPosted by: yahootechticker in Yahoo Tech TickerMonday’s weak retail sales data provides more evidence of the economy’s sluggish state, raising the stakes for Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s Congressional testimony this week. The slowing economy — and what Bernanke plans to do about it — will top the agenda during the chairman’s appearance before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the [...] I’ve been advising startups for a long time now to make sure their fundraising is consistent with the size of their opportunity. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of startups that the opportunity size is usually unclear at the early stages. For the lucky few that have found an obviously large opportunity with a relatively benign competitive environment they should go all out and raise as much money as they can. Wonga springs to mind as an example of such a company at the moment, as does our portfolio company Neul, albeit at an earlier stage. The rest of startups should size their fundraisings to allow their investors to make a decent return at an exit valuation commensurate with the opportunity size which can be credibly defended at the time of investment. (Note, opportunity size shouldn’t be the only driver of round size, Nicholas Lovell wrote more about this as part of our 50 Questions Series: How much money should I raise?, and Why too much money will kill your company ) This advice isn’t always terribly popular. Taking a pragmatic and realistic view of the opportunity size today is sometimes mistaken for a lack of ambition or a lack of belief in the entrepreneur/company vision. This is a particular problem when other VCs are routinely advising companies to shoot for the moon, but it is crystal clear in my mind that for many companies raising a couple of million and preserving the possibility of a profitable $30-50m exit is the right strategy. By all means plan to step up the ambition once the opportunity size is proven, but don’t lose site of the fact that exiting at that level is a great success that only a few entrepreneurs pull off, and will most likely be very lucrative for founders if they haven’t raised too much money. So I was pleased to see this morning that Dave McClure thinks about things in a similar way. In a post titled Niche 2 Win, Baby Dave wrote the following:
I think this is a really important point and one that is not widely understood. Whether it is ‘niche to win’ or matching the ambition with the opportunity the key is that success comes in many guises and it isn’t always appropriate to be shooting for a $1bn outcome.
Jul
16
2012
Wall Street Analysts Give Hedge Funds the Inside Scoop: Scandal or Biz as Usual?Posted by: yahootechticker in Yahoo Tech TickerFollow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Wall Street is giving its detractors yet another reason to complain about the way business is done. The New York Times is reporting that “a handful” of large hedge funds have been getting early access to research analysts, enabling the recipients to factor those views into their trading models [...] Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! The LIBOR scandal that has engulfed London’s financial and political elites is entering its third week and picking up steam on this side of the Atlantic. Among the latest developments: The NY Times reports the Justice Department’s criminal division is “building cases against several financial institutions and their employees.” [...]
Jul
16
2012
Club Caveman Raises the Bar for iPad StorytellingPosted by: wiredtechbiz in Wired Tech BizBy expanding the scope of user interaction and raising game animation to movie quality, Club Caveman hopes to elevate kids? engagement with narrative and push the limits on what an iPad does with storytelling. Ben Sweat of Caffeine-Free talks about his current Kickstarter project.
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