by Jason Wilk on January 26, 2009
- eBay CEO John Donahue is rumored to be selling Skype. In a recent interview with Wall St. analysts, he described the world’s most popular VoIP service as a“great stand-alone business”. When asked about how eBay contributes value to Skype, he said “the synergies between Skype and the other parts of our portfolio are minimal. We’re going to continue to run and operate the business. It’s not a distraction currently. And at such time when we have further announcements on that, we’ll let you know.”
- eBay revenue was down 30% this past quarter, despite being the most high-trafficked shopping destination on the internet this holiday seasons. Meanwhile, Skype revenues continued to rise by 26% and membership continues to grow with it. Latest figures showing that Skype has 405 million user accounts worldwide, adding 30 million subscribers every quarter.
- It’s tough to say whether or not eBay will actually unload Skype. As loyal auctioneers become continually frustrated with the company’s client service, fees and scams, eBay will continue to lose market share to niche destinations or Amazon. This means they want to surround themselves with as many rising opportunities in close proximity that they can. Donahue said that Skype is a great standalone business, then again so is StubHub, Kijiji and Craigslist which survive entirely on their own and are all strong eBay investments. Skype just happened to be an investment that eBay saw bright hopes for in the midst of their default operation and it flopped. They imagined everyone from major retailers down to Joe Plumber to have a shop set up on eBay, waiting for customers to enter their store and talk via Skype for customer service. Kind of like a weird reinvention of the 1950’s without brick & mortar. Nonetheless, it didn’t happen, but they are hit a home run anyways by turning Skype profitable. Skype is still groundbreaking, recession-happy and if I had to make my pick, I’d say it will not be sold until eBay is desperate.
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by Jason Wilk on January 12, 2009
- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview to Silicon Alley Insider today that the company is doing very well. According to The Zuck, Facebook beat their 2008 internal revenue expectations and are still hiring. I don’t doubt the company is still hiring, but in terms of profitability, I’m crying foul. Here’s what he said to SAI:
- Facebook’s 2008 revenue performed “really well” against internal expectations, “especially compared to how the economy seems to be going.”
- “I think we were discussing ranges within the company, and I don’t even know if that was accurate, but between direct sales and online ads, Facebook is seeing really strong growth.” Most speculate between $300 and $350 million.
- Facebook, which has about 800 employees last time we checked, will cross the 1,000 employee mark this year. “We’re one of the few companies that are still growing.” says Zuck. Facebook is looking to hire more engineers/technical types and expand its direct sales force internationally and in the U.S.
- Facebook will be opening up more offices in 2009 including the ones they have already announced are opening in France and Ireland (Now Facebook’s HQ).
- The company is pleased with how Facebook Connect is going.
by Jason Wilk on December 22, 2008
- Mozilla Corp, maker of the Firefox Web Browser is becoming displeased with their current relationship with Google.
- John Lilly, Mozilla’s CEO, said in an interview last week, “We have a fine and reasonable relationship, but I’d be lying if I said that things weren’t more complicated than they used to be.” (CW)
- What’s causing this animosity? Google’s own browser, Chrome, which is slowly gaining a share in the booming browser market. The interesting part of the newly competitive relationship is that Mozilla makes the bulk of their revenue from Google, not to mention brings in a nice chunk of change every year for the search giant. 88%, or about $60 million of Mozilla’s 2007 revenues came from Google. Google pays Mozilla for placement as the default search in Firefox as well as powers the search for Firefox’s homepage (they share the ad revenue)
- What will Mozilla do? Well, even with the launch of Chrome, Firefox has seen a 24% increase in users since the beginning of the year. Currently 1 in 5 people are using the browser. Firefox only cooperates with Google so that it can provide its users with the best possible search experience and the most relevant ads. Looking towards the future and further competition from Google, Mozilla said they plan to explore other search revenue partners, starting with international country-specific firms first, such as Ramblr in Russia, Baidu in China, Yahooo in Japan, etc. When asked about searching for revenues outside of the standard web, Lilly said that 2009 will be the year which Firefox makes its strong entrance into the mobile browser market (Fennec is the name of the mobile browser).
- Mozilla will do what it takes to compete with Google. There is no end in near sight to their relationship, but by no means will they retreat. Should Mozilla ditch Google sooner than later?
by Jason Wilk on December 8, 2008
- Yahoo is to begin their long awaited layoffs this Wednesday. The number is expected to be at least 1,500 people, however some analysts are projecting as many as 2,000.
- Areas expected to get the boot: General, human resources, finance and advertising will take the biggest hit. Sales, programming and business development staff are all expected to stick around.
- Sources inside Yahoo say that they will exercise the Calacanis strategy of ‘fire them quick, don’t let the fear linger around the office’. Once the first person is laid off, the rest are expected to come within a few hours of eachother. To assist with the big layoffs, security will be present to help escort any upset staff. Mind you, in this bad economy, many will not want to go easy considering the struggling job market.
- Many will look to Yang as the one to blame for the layoffs. He is the one who originally initiated the layoffs and is still holding the head seat on the day of the firings. He say’s to CNET “I look at these cuts as both a short-term and long-term effort. In the short term, we have consolidation and organizational corrections to make. In the long term, we will look at our whole portfolio and are now asking ourselves in each case if we need to be in this business. We’re asking ourselves–should we sell it or should we shut it down? That is the kind of comprehensive look we are doing across the company.”
- Speculation is that this will be the week that a successor to Yang will take over as CEO. It would have been bad practice to name the new director to do the firings. One of the current executives John Chapple, Maggie Wilderotter or Frank Biondi Jr. are expected to take over temporarily within days after the firings to represent a feeling of ‘change’ around the office and inspire new hope for the future while they continue to search for a good fit.
- Although this will initially look bad for Yahoo on the day of the firings, it represents a new day for Yahoo. The stock will remain stable through the firings and will continue to look for a big day as they near making the final decision on a new CEO. The day Yang is succeeded will be a big day for shareholders. There is still rumors that ex-AOL CEO Jonathan Miller is planning something with Yahoo.
by Jason Wilk on November 30, 2008
- As Mark Cuban pointed out this morning, (an appropriate post considering he is in trouble with them), the SEC system has some broken pieces inside of it and the legendary finger pointer is finally turning its finger back at itself.
- As most would not think, employees and executives of the SEC are actually able to play the stock market. Not that they shouldn’t have a fair chance to invest their money, but doesn’t allowing them to invest in individual bonds or stocks seem just a little bit ‘insider to you?’
- What policy currently governs this? Well, there is a SEC policy in place that outlines do’s ad don’t of trading stock, most of which emphasizes employees not investing in a company they are inpecting. But as Cuban points out, “if you know about actions of one company, even if you don’t trade that company, doesn’t that provide you insight into an entire industry ?” Sounds very unfair.
- It gets worse. In a recent Inspector General’s Report to Congress regarding the SEC, they had determined the current system in place governing the SEC is “insufficient to prevent and detect insider trading on the part of
Commission employees or violations of the Commission’s rules”
- The recent investigation found that the reports employees are required to file when they buy, sell or own securities are not meaningfully reviewed or sufficiently checked for conflicts of interest. So in a nutshell, for the last decade or longer, SEC employees have been bringing down insider traders, while they have been operating under their own non-regulated umbrella for personal investments. Serious joke.
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