Okay, okay, we get it: Morgan Stanley got the coveted left-hand lead position on Facebook’s blockbuster IPO filing. Goldman Sachs is there, too, but in the third-place, always-a-bridesmaid spo,t and is crying big salty tears about the injustice of it all.

It’s hard to feel badly for overpaid investment bankers, and focusing on them is kind of like endlessly discussing the lawyers who processed your mortgage, when the focus should be on the house you’re buying.

Does anyone except a few Richie Rich ZIP Codes in Manhattan care about this one deet of the initial public offering of the social networking giant?

Nope, but there is so little real news ahead of the IPO filing expected today that this is what we are chomping on this morning, as everyone awaits the big doc drop at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sources said it is likely to come this afternoon rather than this morning, though. And, perish the thought, all that dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s could delay it to tomorrow, even (unlikely, but mebbe!).

Sigh.

Tidbit: Facebook was actually founded the first Wednesday in February of 2004 in an undergraduate dorm room at Harvard University, like today but eight years later.

Thus, here’s a boring Facebook history timeline chart to look at:

Okay, that was really dull.

What up? The board met, the spinmeisters are at the ready and, most of all, Silicon Valley is stoked to make some more arrogant badillionaires.

Now, hopefully, we’ll get the real news about Facebook.

Namely, who’s getting the big dough in this much-anticipated Web 2.0 gambit? Co-founder and CEO and Hoodie Commander Mark Zuckerberg fer sure, but who else?

Plus all the juicy financials from Facebook, along with stats in usage, growth and just how much the company sticks it to its gaming serf — oops, partner — Zynga and others for the privilege of being on its all-powerful platform.

Me? I pay nada, like other Facebook users, for being able to show off pictures of my vacations and decline friendships from PR people I like, but still … well, you know.

Here is another Facebook financial chart that will not knock your socks off unless you are an accountant:

I am now so comatose waiting for the show to begin that I briefly began a liveblog of my activities this morning.

It went like this:

4:45 am PT: Done with AOL Q4 earnings, which were meh, but better meh than expected. AOL, if you recall, used to be Facebook and now is, um, not.

Note to Zuckerberg: Be nice to people on your way up, since you’ll meet them again on the way down.

4:46 am PT: I check the SEC site and get zip. Click, click, clickety-click over to find out the latest on Demi Moore and her fake-pot debacle.

Who knew there was synthetic cannabis and it is called K2 or Spice? Not me! According to Wikipedia: “It seems likely that synthetic cannabis can precipitate psychosis and in some cases it is prolonged.”

I decide to blame Ashton Kutcher and then wonder if he is an investor in Facebook via BFF-to-errant-celebrities-who-like-tech Ron Conway, also a Facebook investor.

Note to self: Call Ashton! That dude plays village idiots all the time, but I am not fooled by Mr. Pretty Face.

4:47 am PT: I consider email bombing Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, who is probably not so busy right now, and asking him what he thinks about the Demi Moore crisis and also Facebook’s IPO.

Remember when Yahoo was king of Silicon Valley and Yang posed in that purple VW on the cover of that magazine? Better still, remember when Yahoo was going to buy Facebook for just over $1 billion and then borked it?

Just sayin’, Mark — so, keep it reals!

4:48 am PT: I consider going out for doughnuts — and not because of any real weed need. I just would like me some glazed and sprinkled sugar treats right about now. Then, I could post the pictures of them on my Facebook page.

Sweet.

But you-know-who would file right when I left the house on the munchie run. Click, click, clickety-click over to the SEC site and I come up peanuts.

Time to check in on the Kardashians.

You get the idea — so, Facebook IPO, take me away!

MORE ON THE FACEBOOK IPO:

• Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery
• Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg
• Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO
• Zuckerberg Tells Investors, “We Don’t Build Services to Make Money”
• Mobile Highlighted as Key Risk Factor (and Opportunity) in Facebook Filing
• Stop All That Poking: Facebook Filing Temporarily Crashes SEC Web Site
• Zynga Accounted for 12 Percent of Facebook’s Revenue in 2011
• Facebook Has 845 Million Users
• On Its Eighth Birthday, Facebook Files to Raise $5 Billion in Massive IPO (Get Your S-1 Here!)
• Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest
• Dude, Where’s My Facebook IPO Filing? (Ashton’s on Hold!)
• The Quiet Man: Meet the Less-Known Face of the Facebook IPO, CFO David Ebersman
• Facebook Board Meeting Today for Final IPO Okays
• Facebook (Eye)PO: Tracking the Truth of the Biggest Deal of Web 2.0
• Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO
• Is Facebook IPO on Track for Late May?
• IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering
• Complete Facebook coverage

According to multiple sources, the long-anticipated public offering of Facebook is now likely to come in the third week of May.

That means that the company must file its IPO documents within the next month, given that the review by the Securities and Exchange Commission usually takes about three to four months.

That’s if there are no issues, of course, such as a turbulent market or thornier-than-usual questions from regulators that require amending the filing.

Groupon, for example, filed for its IPO in early June, but did not go public until five months later in November.

The usual caveat on the late-May timing (even though I called 143 people on this one): This IPO planning could all change, in a New York minute, to another month.

In any case, the Facebook IPO is expected to be one of the largest Web offerings ever — with some reports saying the company will be raising $10 billion on a $100 billion valuation. (The valuation and raise, sources tell me, will be much lower.)

That amount is presumably to match its huge consumer growth and revenue explosion. Users now number 800 million — a figure that is likely to hit one billion this year. And revenue, which was reportedly close to $4 billion in 2011, is expected to be higher by another third in 2012.

Facebook will need such oomph if it is to impress investors, although the social networking site’s leadership is still warning that its focus is products over dollars.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, for example, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg hedged the point, even as he sang his same familiar strategic tune of the last few years.

“The thing to take away isn’t that we don’t care [about business]. People for years were asking me why aren’t we trying to make more money,” he said. “I would say I’m trying to build a business for the long term and it was clearly the right strategy.”

While admirably I’ll-row-my-way in tone, Zuckerberg needs a public offering heft more than ever, as Facebook’s battles with rivals — most especially Google — escalate.

Just last week, the monocratically-inclined search giant ham-handedly shoved its own social networking service, Google+, into its results, in a move that could severely disadvantage Facebook.

Thus, into the Wall Street breach, to get a giant pile of dough to fight back!

But, unlike Google’s more kookified 2004 IPO, sources said Facebook’s is probably going to hew to a more traditional offering script.

That is likely to include a hefty consortium of irksome investment bankers — think firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on top of the filings, and a spate of smaller ones (Allen & Co.) below, and you have the approximately accurate idea.

And, while shot-caller-in-chief Zuckerberg will be the one key voice in the IPO, the man to watch has been and will be CFO David Ebersman.

The longtime Genentech exec, who came to Facebook in 2009, has been doing all the heavy lifting in preparation for the IPO, said sources, and will continue to do so.

Facebook declined to comment (but I would too, if I were them).

Shares in the company rose some 5 percent Thursday on market chatter that it’s looking for buyers. The latest story making the rounds: RIM has hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic options.

Is there any more truth to this rumor than the ones that preceded it? It’s certainly possible, though, as we’ve said before, RIM’s not a takeover target if no one wants it.

“There are several roadblocks that make an acquisition of RIM unlikely,” Morningstar analyst Michael Holt recently wrote. “We believe RIM should entertain all options at this point, given the serious challenges facing the firm, but there is little evidence to suggest RIM’s board is open to offers at this point in time.”

(Image courtesy of The Joy of Tech)

It’s 2012 and it’s time for a brand news obsession for me besides the mishegas of Yahoo — and the winner is: Facebook’s upcoming IPO.

Thus, I shall endeavor to scoop all deets great and small about the social networking site’s moving on up to a deluxe public company in the Wall Street sky, which is expected in the spring of this year.

From bankers battling for purchase to who’s selling what to the delightful back and forth with regulators to Google’s lobbing the inevitable screaming meanies at its rival during Facebook’s quiet period, this is going to be a good one.

And CEO and Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg — and his hoodie — are back in the brightest of spotlights!

Speaking of the need for PR, one of the unsung but critical parts of any company’s public offering process is the hiring of an outside communications firm to handle the deluge of media, rumors and other breathless attention Facebook is sure to get.

It’s a highly specific job, given the reporters a company will be dealing with — in this case, sharp-elbowed Wall Street reporters — are usually different than the ones the Silicon Valley start-up has mostly dealt with (the geeks!).

And the expected winner of that thankless job is likely to go to the Brunswick Group, which describes itself as an “international corporate communications partnership that helps businesses and other organizations address critical communications challenges.”

In other words: Will be putting out the endless wildfires sure to rage around tech’s hottest IPO since Google.

Brunswick is among a small group of high-powered strategic communications firms that compete for such high-profile IPO jobs, as well as mergers and acquisitions and other corporate battling.

Others include Sard Verbinnen & Co. (it has worked for Groupon board and Alibaba Group); Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (it has toiled for Hewlett-Packard) and Kekst and Company (now cat-wrangling the Yahoo drama).

It’s probably not a surprise that Brunswick won the deal, since it has worked with Facebook in the past, including on its controversial private offering with Goldman Sachs a year ago.

No surprise, everyone declined comment.

Thus, let the Hunger, oops, PR games begin!

But that could be a problem.

The device sells for about the same amount ($199) as it costs to make (about $202).

Amazon’s stock fell as much as 4 percent this morning after Goldman Sachs suggested that the Seattle-based company could miss analysts’ sales estimates for the current period.

The stock has recovered some since early this morning, and is now trading down 1.6 percent, or $2.74, at $171.15.

According to Bloomberg, Goldman analyst Heather Bellini said in a note today that Amazon’s sales may grow 38 percent from a year earlier, to $17.9 billion, which is less than analysts’ average estimate of $18.2 billion.

Bellini based her analysis on a comScore report that found online shopping increased 15 percent this year, compared to last year’s holiday season. Since Amazon is the largest e-commerce provider, she reasons that it would be difficult to outperform the average by a wide margin.

“While the comScore numbers are just one data point which does not capture international sales or breakout individual companies’ sales, taken alone they seem to suggest the potential for downside risk to consensus forecasts,” Bellini wrote.

Ultimately, strong sales of the Kindle Fire could help Amazon hit its sales estimates, since it is counting on the device to serve as a platform for the sale of more content. But in the short term, the Fire could hurt the company’s bottom line, a possibility Bellini did not address in her report.

In addition to comScore’s numbers not capturing international sales, its report also does not capture sales from mobile devices. Amazon said the Kindle Fire was the best-selling product on Amazon’s mobile Web site and across all of its mobile applications.

In all, Amazon said it sold more than one million Kindles a week in December.

Bellini reiterated a “neutral” rating and a price target of $190.

Aneel Bhusri

Allen is said to have advised Workday on its recent funding round, which closed in October. As exclusively reported by AllThingsD at the time, Workday raised $85 million at an implied valuation of $2 billion. The Series F was led by T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Janus and Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment entity of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. Bloomberg also says that Michael Dell’s personal investment vehicle, MSD ventures, was in on that funding round, which grew to $100 million since the closing.

Previous investors include Dave Duffield and Greylock Partners, who are in for $90 million across four rounds; and New Enterprise Associates, which joined a $75 million Series E round in 2009.

Apparently encouraged by the successful IPO of Jive Software earlier this month, and the performance of its shares, which are up nicely since the debut, Workday now appears poised go through with the IPO that CEO Aneel Bhusri (pictured) hinted in October would take place during the second half of 2012.

And there’s no question that Workday is in a hot space. SAP’s $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors last month, plus Salesforce.com’s deal for Rypple last week, attest to the urgency with which larger companies want to be in the HR software business.

Think about it: Every company — of any size — needs to keep track of its people, their salaries, performance-review information and so on. And why bother with software that runs on the local machines, when the cloud is so much more efficient?

Bhusri was a senior executive and co-chairman of PeopleSoft’s board, and was on hand for that company’s hostile takeover by Oracle. After losing that battle, he and co-founder Dave Duffield concluded that the next battlefield for enterprise software would be in the cloud.

Workday’s average customer has between 10,000 and 15,000 employees. Among its 250-odd customers, the biggest is Flextronics, the huge electronics manufacturing company, which has 200,000 employees. Others include Time Warner, Thomson Reuters, Chiquita Brands and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Salesforce.com. Workday has some two million employees in its system.

And while there’s no S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to peruse yet, the IPO watch on Workday officially begins now.

Whatever you want to call him or her — a silver bullet, the cure or, as I like to say, the last unicorn — Yahoo’s ever-seeking and never-deciding board has now renewed its focus on finding a new CEO.

Also on the docket: Working on a deal to sell back at least some of its stake in its twin Asian assets — Yahoo Japan and the Alibaba Group — back to the companies. A partial sale of stock back could placate the often tense situation among the partners.

What is clear is that the two bids from private equity firms are now in an undetermined circling pattern — due to a variety of concerns around shareholder unrest (Occupy Yahoo looms for 2012).

Therefore, the idea of bringing in said fantasy leader to perhaps finally be the one to revive the long-troubled company has returned to the forefront of action, according to numerous sources both inside and outside the company.

The concept in short, said people familiar with the situation: Hire some compelling and entrepreneurial CEO to get the company moving again from a product point of view, do a massive organizational overhaul and help settle Yahoo’s thorny Asian issues.

While a number of names have been rumored in reports — such as Google business lead Nikesh Arora, who is actually not likely to leave his top post at the search giant — sources said the board has been targeting a number of candidates, including Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.

Others on Yahoo’s wish list include Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson and online advertising entrepreneur Brian McAndrews, who sold aQuantive to Microsoft. There are several others also being considered.

Sources said Kilar has met with Yahoo board members about the offer, but his hiring would be a long shot.

It’s an interesting — if complex — gambit to bring in Kilar, who has had his own wrangles with the multi-owner structure of the premium video service over the years.

Kilar’s status at Hulu has been in question ever since it was put on the block, then removed and then — well — who knows.

Hulu’s owners — News Corp., Disney and Providence Equity Partners, along with Comcast (which is a now a passive investor) — did not like the offers it got from various bidders, including Yahoo.

While the media giants have made noises about wanting to keep a stake in distribution, their commitment to that remains unclear.

The situation has put Kilar — who already had tense relations with the service’s shareholders — in limbo until a valuation is determined next year. Without going into the complex details, Kilar has a large equity stake that could be liquid in April, related to certain rights held by Providence.

It is well known that Kilar has been concerned the team that built Hulu gets some sort of payout for their work. In fact, many years ago, Hulu was seen as a possible IPO candidate.

What’s not in question is Kilar’s talent at creating a cohesive team and a compelling product — especially with an advertising and media focus — and the need at Yahoo for a vibrant leader to encourage innovation and discourage its rapidly increasing attrition issues.

The search for a new Yahoo CEO — which is being led by director Patti Hart, and is being conducted by Heidrick & Struggles — had been mostly sidelined until recently, as the board solicited bids for a partial investment from PE firms.

Two emerged, from Silver Lake and TPG Capital, which had wanted to pay from $16.50 to $18 a share for a stake of just under 20 percent in what is called a PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) arrangement.

But the low price, and worries about lawsuits and even a proxy fight related to such a deal, have slowed down the momentum significantly, said sources.

Instead, Yahoo has told bidders it will get back to them in the coming weeks about the direction it will take. Thus, the focus on lining up CEO candidates and plans related to reviving Yahoo.

Some of those possible execs have put their hand up, while others — like Kilar — are being solicited. In addition, some still think that Yahoo board member David Kenny remains an internal option, especially if the board of Yahoo gets a refresh, despite his recent announcement that he has no intention of seeking the job.

In general, this shift should not come has a surprise for the hurry-up-and-wait board of Yahoo, which has struggled over the years to make good choices for the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

That drift has resulted in a downturn in its prospects, even as other companies have surged.

Those troubles were brought into sharp focus in a recent report by new Goldman Sachs Internet analyst Heath Terry, who strafed Yahoo in his “sell” recommendation.

Among the gems by an analyst whose investment bank is currently an advisor to Yahoo on its strategic options:

Yahoo simply faces too many competitive and structural headwinds to believe any kind of meaningful turnaround is possible. While there is significant asset value on the balance sheet and in the company’s large, though increasingly less engaged user base, we continue to believe, as we have since before the first Microsoft offer, that the segment of management driving the company is intent on trying to revive Yahoo as a company, regardless of the cost to shareholders.

And, noting the need for a new CEO:

We would become more positive if we felt there was a likely event in the near term that might unlock the value of the balance sheet assets at Yahoo. While we believe the aggregate value of those assets is above the value reflected in YHOO, in order to be more positive on the stock we would need some proof that management is willing and able to take the steps necessary to unlock that value either through a sale or distribution to shareholders. Meanwhile, the declining profitability of the core display advertising business is masked by a search business that continues to lose share and relies on artificial support from Microsoft. We would become more positive on the core Yahoo business if the company is able to find a new CEO capable of focusing the business on its core advertising and communications opportunities, rationalizing costs, and driving growth. This would require user growth and especially engagement improvements in both online and mobile, improving monetization of advertising inventory, and stabilizing its search business.

In other words: Wanted, one unicorn to work magic against increasingly troublesome dragons. Ability to sparkle a plus.

Goldman Sachs expects Amazon to sell six million Fires by the end of the year. And it figures the Kindle creator will sell between 15.5 million and 20.5 million during the tablet’s first full year of availability.

Surprising? Goldman says it shouldn’t be. Such rapid adoption proves the Fire has found another sweet spot in the tablet market.

“With the ability to consume all forms of media, at a price of $199, Amazon’s Kindle Fire has provided a legitimate tablet device to a crowd that is more price conscious versus the significantly more expensive iPad or couldn’t justify the spend as they already owned a laptop and a smartphone,” analyst Heather Bellini writes. “Further, the price point, in our belief, is below the threshold to be thought of as a major purchase and is suitable for gifts.”

One last point worth noting: If Amazon does manage to sell six million Fires before the end of the year, it will surpass the iPad’s domestic sales in its first December quarter in 2010.

The anecdote appears in a new profile of Dropbox in the latest issue of Forbes, which also disclosed that the service is on track to hit $240 million in sales this year, even though the vast majority of its users pay nothing to use it.

But the meat of the story comes further in: Dropbox just closed a massive $250 million Series B round of funding, at an implied valuation of $4 billion, from Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners. Early investors Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Hadi and Ali Partovi also participated in the round, bringing Dropbox’s total funding to date to $257.2 million. Houston’s stake, Forbes says, amounts to 15 percent of the equity, which would be worth about $600 million.

Houston may yet live to regret turning Jobs down. The Apple CEO proposed another meeting that never happened, then managed to single out Dropbox for disparagement as part of his iCloud keynote in June. That got the attention of Houston, who quickly fired off a memo to his team that included a list of once-hot companies that later crashed: MySpace, Netscape, Palm and Yahoo. Apple — which once viewed Dropbox as the sort of “strategic asset” for which it keeps its $70 billion war chest stuffed — is now the competition.

In a research note to clients today, Goldman said that while most tech companies should report results in line with their forecasts, the forward guidance they give will be less than optimistic. “While we expect most of the September quarter companies to be able to meet expectations for the quarter, we also expect an increasingly cautious tone from all of the companies, and we continue to see risk to 2012 consensus estimates for nearly all of the names in our space.”

To that end, Goldman revised its PC unit sales forecast downward. Following the latest PC market data from the research firm IDC, Goldman says the demand environment for PCs is “even more difficult than we had previously envisioned.”

Slower spending, the end of a PC refresh cycle and cannibalization by the tablet market — which we all know is really just an iPad market — has prompted Goldman to slash its PC unit sales growth forecast to 2.1 percent for 2011; 4.3 percent in 2012; and 6.9 percent in 2013. The iPad 3, already said to be in production and expected early next year, won’t give the PC makers any help.

One key problem PC makers face is pricing: In order to avoid being stuck with unsold inventory, manufacturers, resellers and retailers will be forced to slash their prices to the bone and then some, which will hurt their already-thin profit margins. This is why Goldman rates Dell — now the No. 3 PC maker, behind Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo — a “sell” right now. Goldman expects the average selling price on PCs to drop nearly 3 percent in 2011, and more than 9 percent in 2012.

The exception to its tech pessimism? Apple, naturally. Reporting its results on Oct. 18, Apple isn’t suffering from the economic headwinds. Goldman expects Apple to sell 13 million iPads in the quarter, which would represent growth of 211 percent year over year.

Goldman expects Apple to report earnings of $7.30 per share on $28.7 billion in sales, but admits that could be conservative, because who knows how good today’s launch of the iPhone 4S will turn out? As Goldman puts it: “Indeed, if iPhone units are flat sequentially, this would support earnings per share of approximately $8.00 for the quarter.”

Is this investment-banker-hype week and nobody told me?

It certainly seems so from all the almost ridonkulous rumors about everyone and their mother being “imminently poised” to make a bid for Yahoo.

In fact, the process is only beginning to chug along with the Yahoo board, aided by Allen & Company and now Goldman Sachs.

At this point, it is lots of folks rubbernecking, books being prepared and all the other stuff bankers do to look like they are busy, busy, busy.

Among the most serious players: Silver Lake and a shifting group; and a consortium that includes former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin and Providence Equity Partners.

And, just slightly, News Corp. (which owns this Web site) is considering dipping a very small toe in as part of a larger group.

That has been copiously reported here and elsewhere a badillion times already.

But — and I have been clear on this, as have others — no one is near anything of substance, which has not stopped this really lame game of Clue being pumped up by bankers who should know better.

Yesterday, it was Silver Lake, DST Global and the Alibaba Group in the billiard room with foreign money. Nope, nope, nope. Silver Lake and DST are indeed looking hard and Alibaba is a player here, but there is no grand troika going at this moment.

In fact, Alibaba’s Jack Ma — after declaring he was “very interested” in buying Yahoo — has since backed off.

And today, it’s a thinly sourced and carefully worded report of Microsoft in the basement, interested in bidding with a pile of their own dough.

How can I put this delicately? How about: No.

According to my sources, throughout this entire process Microsoft execs have taken pains to make it clear that they are not going to be among the bidders in any significant manner.

In addition, the company has also been communicating with bidders that — while Microsoft is interested in a stable Yahoo, given their search and advertising partnership — it would not throw in with anyone in the process yet.

And, finally, if a winner eventually emerges, it might — and this is only might — consider making a token investment to help get the deal completed.

Certainly, Microsoft has been and is willing to talk to anyone interested, said sources, given their Yahoo business relationship. But this does not make it a bid of any shape or size. They are not even “considering” it, unless that means watching from a distance.

I suppose in some incredible shift Microsoft could change its mind, but most credible sources I spoke to said that is not happening now.

In fact, after its bruising and failed takeover attempt of Yahoo several years ago, said multiple sources, Microsoft now has the deal it wants with Yahoo.

“Why buy the cow when you can get the search and advertising deal for free,” joked one person close to the situation.

“The company did not announce a redesigned iPhone, which many were calling an iPhone 5 and which may disappoint some investors,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a research note to clients. “That said, we believe the iPhone 4S will meet or exceed unit expectations, as it represents the first iPhone launch at two major US carriers (Verizon and Sprint) along with KDDI in Japan.”

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz also bemoaned the lack of the so-called iPhone 5.

“We had expected the company to announce two new devices, an iPhone 5 and a 4-plus,” he said in a note to clients. “We are disappointed that Apple did not introduce a thinner form factor, but we see the feature set improvements in the iPhone 4S and the broader pricing strategy as positives.”

Moskowitz was particularly impressed with Siri, Apple’s new virtual assistant, and views it as an advantage that will raise the 4S above the pack of rivals that perpetually pursue it. “Once investors dig into Siri, we think its addition will overshadow the lack of full iPhone form factor change,” he said.

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope took a similar view, arguing that the big news of the day was really the software that was on display. “Siri represents a more significant platform enhancement than we anticipated,” he said in a research note. “We believe this, coupled with iCloud and iOS 5, suggests today’s event represented a critical positive inflection point for the iOS platform overall.”

UBS analyst Maynard Um echoed Shope and went him one better, suggesting that the addition of Siri to the iPhone is one of those watershed innovations that will again change the way we interact with our mobile devices. “While some may be disappointed by largely unchanged design, Apple used its owned ecosystem to embed the Siri personal assistant throughout its OS to change the way we interact with phones. We believe Siri, iCloud & other iOS 5 features will continue to drive the next wave of demand.”

And in all likelihood they will. Sure, Apple did not meet some of the market’s hardware expectations. But what the market sometimes forgets is that it is software that truly differentiates Apple from its rivals.

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Yahoo is preparing to hire investment bankers and other strategic advisory firms, said sources close to the Silicon Valley Internet giant, as it seeks to figure out what to do next at the company.

The board of Yahoo, which ousted its CEO Carol Bartz today in a unanimous decision, is exploring a range of possible strategies to turn around its moribund growth, including possible acquisitions, shedding units, bringing in new investment partners and even taking the company private or selling it.

A sale is the least likely of options, said sources close to the situation, but — given today’s news — Yahoo might attract a lot of attention from investors seeking to take advantage of the company’s powerful but troubled assets.

“It is all on the table,” said one source close to the company.

Independent board member David Kenny, president of Akamai, is heading the strategic options committee in charge of managing the process, sources said.

No adviser has been selected yet, but sources said Yahoo is likely to hire Allen & Co., which advises many tech and media firms. It is currently advising AOL, for example.

Other candidates would likely be the typical panoply of choices, including big investment banks like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and smaller boutique firms such as Qatalyst Group and Code Advisors.

Sources said whoever is hired will be charged first with doing an extensive review of the company that is more intensive than has been done before.

“There is a potential for enormous growth that the company has not been capitalizing on and should,” said another source. “The board needs to get this company on a trajectory for growth.”

Indeed, it does, as it has not under the leadership of Bartz. Revenue growth has stalled and product innovation has lagged.

The company will also be conducting a search for a CEO, which will be difficult because any new top exec will want to be part of such a companywide review.

Yahoo’s choice of an executive search firm has also not been determined, but is likely to be one of the big companies that specialize in the arena.

One thing is certain, said multiple sources: Yahoo will continue to focus itself as what it has previously called a “premier digital media company.”

What that means now, of course, will be determined in the months ahead.

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Jive has more or less been telegraphing its IPO intentions since it hired Tony Zingale as its CEO last year. Zingale is the former head of Mercury Interactive who engineered its $4.5 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard in 2006. Then in March it bulked up its board with a slate of directors who all have public company experience, among them Dave Dewalt, the former president of McAfee, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. Heck, Jive has even been acting like a public company, making the occasional acquisition — two in the last several months.

The way Bloomberg tells it, Jive is being valued at $1 billion and would offer a stake worth 10 to 20 percent in the company in the IPO. And research firm Gartner pegs its annual revenue at $70 million. It’s the leader in the social enterprise software field, which is all about making the workplace more collaborative by making office applications more social, a la Facebook, Twitter and the like. (In fact, one of Jive’s newest directors is Jonathan Heiliger, VP of technical operations at Facebook.)

There’s been a lot of action in this space of late, beginning with Salesforce.com’s launch of Chatter at the start of the year with a pair of TV ads during the Super Bowl. Other players have either been growing like crazy and raising boatloads of cash (example: Yammer) or have been acquired (example: Socialcast.)

(I caught up with Zingale for a quick chat at the D9 conference in June. See the video below.)

This deal would amount to another big win for Morgan, which has led the IPOs of LinkedIn and Pandora, among others. An IPO would probably bring a nice payout to Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, which have plunked down $57 million in venture capital funding.

I called Jive to see if anyone there would comment and got zilch, but what do you expect from a company that’s going IPO? Not that I blame them. With investment bank lawyers skulking around every corner, everyone gets too nervous to so much as confirm the time of day. It made me think of the old Bee Gees hit “Jive Talkin’,” which I’ve shared with you — and hereby dedicate to the employees of Jive Software as they go through this process. No one at Jive is talking. Get it?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110817/jive-software-said-to-hire-ipo-bankers-but-no-one-there-is-talking/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110714/groupon-retracts-wildly-profitable-statement-in-latest-sec-filing/ http://allthingsd.com/20110714/groupon-retracts-wildly-profitable-statement-in-latest-sec-filing/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:58:30 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=98396 Groupon has updated its IPO filing to add in several new pieces of information, the most glaring of which is the retraction of statements one of its founders made to the press.

The updates come after the Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed the documents and made comments, according to sources.

The latest document will likely be looked at under a magnifying lens, given that the daily deals company faced a series of negative reports following the news on June 2 that it intended to raise roughly $750 million in an initial public offering.

The day after its IPO filing, Eric P. Lefkofsky, co-founder and executive chairman of the board, told Bloomberg in an interview that Groupon will be “wildly profitable,” referencing worries about losses unveiled in its financial statements and his past record of start-ups.

In today’s filing, Groupon backpedaled, explaining that, “You should not rely on a reported statement in a June 2011 news report by our co-founder and Executive Chairman in making your investment decision.”

It goes on to say that Lefkofsky did not agree to be interviewed and that Groupon representatives had requested that the statement not be published. “The reported statement does not accurately or completely reflect Mr. Lefkofsky’s views and should not be considered by prospective investors in isolation or at all.”

Along the same lines, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s letter to potential shareholders, which could be construed as overly positive, was moved from one of the first pages to page 32.

Besides that, the major update to the document includes a full list of the company’s underwriters. The newest addition is J.P. Morgan, which will be joining Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs as the lead investment banks.

Another 11 investment banks are also joining the process in supporting roles. The full list: Allen & Co., B of A, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Deutsche Bank Securities, William Blair & Co., Loop Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Citadel Securities and the Williams Capital Group.

Also new to the filing was a breakdown of the company’s international business, which is actually larger in terms of revenues than in the U.S.

Revenue from its international and domestic operations was $346.8 million and $297.9 million, respectively, in the first quarter 2011. In addition, it said that its gross profit margins (which is the amount Groupon retains after paying a percentage to the merchant) are higher internationally.

It said that overall gross margins were 41.9 percent at the end of the first quarter, dropping from 45.2 percent in the year-ago period. The decrease was primarily due to an increase in national deals in North America, which resulted in lower margins for the purpose of acquiring new subscribers and establishing its brand.

[Photo: Asa Mathat | Clip art iStockphoto/Jules Kitano]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110714/groupon-retracts-wildly-profitable-statement-in-latest-sec-filing/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110714/is-facebook-worth-100-billion/ http://allthingsd.com/20110714/is-facebook-worth-100-billion/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:00:40 +0000 Shayndi Raice http://allthingsd.com/?p=98023 Facebook Inc. has become Exhibit A for the skyrocketing valuations of closely held Web companies.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network was valued at $15 billion in October 2007 when Microsoft Corp. invested in the company. By this January, Facebook commanded a $50 billion price tag when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led a $1.5 billion funding round in the company.

Today, transactions of Facebook stock on private marketplaces value it at about $84 billion. Some people believe that if Facebook goes public next year, it will trade at a $100 billion valuation, more than the market capitalizations of Hewlett-Packard Co. (currently at $74 billion) and Amazon.com Inc. (at $97 billion). A Facebook spokesman declined to comment on valuation.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110714/is-facebook-worth-100-billion/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110628/zynga-preparing-to-file-ipo/ http://allthingsd.com/20110628/zynga-preparing-to-file-ipo/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:39:05 +0000 Anupreeta Das and Gina Chon http://allthingsd.com/?p=92325 Online social gaming company Zynga is preparing to file for an initial public offering as early as Wednesday and hopes to raise up to $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The maker of the popular FarmVille and CityVille games has picked Morgan Stanley to lead the offering, they said. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is also a lead underwriter, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Barclays Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will play a role in the IPO, the people said.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110628/zynga-preparing-to-file-ipo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110524/exclusive-zynga-about-to-file-for-ipo/ http://allthingsd.com/20110524/exclusive-zynga-about-to-file-for-ipo/#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 22:32:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=77680

Zynga is poised to file for its initial public offering, according to sources close to the situation.

The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as this week, or next week at the latest.

The move is not entirely unexpected, given how well the recent IPOs of several Internet companies have done recently, including business networking site LinkedIn last week and Russian search giant Yandex today.

Their strong performances show the huge investor appetite for fast-growing and high-profile Web 2.0 firms. Wall Street is also prepping for eventual public offerings from social buying site Groupon and, the big fish, Facebook.

Zynga’s valuation in its last round of funding was $10 billion, but it is likely to price itself higher in an offering.

After all, LinkedIn now has a market valuation of $9 billion, double its pre-IPO price.

Whatever the price, a Zynga IPO is a major coup, especially given how quickly it has morphed into one of the most important forces in online gaming, largely via distribution on the Facebook platform.

The company claims that it has 250 million people actively playing its games every month. Its largest game currently is CityVille, which attracts 90 million monthly users, reports AppData. Its original Poker game still manages to attract 35 million monthly users.

Its early titles, such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, first vaulted the San Francisco-based company into consumer prominence, and it has recently struck a number of high-profile branding deals with Lady Gaga and the makers of the upcoming animated movie “Kung Fu Panda 2,” among others.

That’s also meant a solid business. Zynga reportedly generated about $400 million in profit last year on about $850 million in revenue, although sources said the filing will reveal much more robust numbers.

The company has also grown its work force quickly. Last year, Zynga hired more than 800 people and today has more than 1,500 full-time employees in 13 offices, spanning six countries.

Recently, at the opening of its new Seattle office, its founder and CEO Mark Pincus–who has tried to hit the start-up jackpot many times before–said he had Amazon-sized ambitions for Zynga, referring to that city’s online retail giant.

Depending on how the offering goes, he might want to think bigger.

Sources said Goldman Sachs will be among the lead bankers in the Zynga offering.

Zynga declined to comment on its IPO plans.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110524/exclusive-zynga-about-to-file-for-ipo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110516/google-to-sell-its-first-bond/ http://allthingsd.com/20110516/google-to-sell-its-first-bond/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 17:29:08 +0000 Kellie Geressy-Nilsen http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=41129 Google Inc. has launched its first-ever bond offering, seizing on near-record-low rates and insatiable appetite for corporate debt.

The world’s largest Internet search company said the $3 billion offering will include three-, five- and 10-year portions. It is expected to be sold later today via joint bookrunners Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The deal, which will be split evenly across three pieces of $1 billion each, was launched with a risk premium of 0.33 percentage point above Treasurys on the three-year piece; 0.43 percentage point on the five-year piece; and 0.58 percentage point on the 10-year piece. All three pieces were launched narrower than preliminary pricing guidance had suggested, indicating good demand from investors.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110516/google-to-sell-its-first-bond/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110511/galleon-founder-convicted-on-all-counts-in-insider-trading-trial/ http://allthingsd.com/20110511/galleon-founder-convicted-on-all-counts-in-insider-trading-trial/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 15:32:12 +0000 Michael Rothfeld and Chad Bray http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=40907 A federal jury convicted Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam on all 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy, providing the U.S. with a significant win in a push to prosecute insider trading on Wall Street and in corporate America.

The verdict by the 12-member jury, following 11 days of deliberation, capped a blockbuster trial that started in early March featuring 45 recorded calls showing how the hedge-fund executive trafficked in insider tips provided to him by a web of contacts at the top tier of American business.

The widely watched trial exposed the behind-the-scenes dealings of a once-prestigious hedge fund that gained access to highly sensitive information about, among other things, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the height of the financial crisis. The government put at $63.8 million the amount in illegal profits and avoided losses Galleon realized through the scheme.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110511/galleon-founder-convicted-on-all-counts-in-insider-trading-trial/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110508/gilt-groupe-raises-138-million-from-softbank-and-others-for-growth-acquisitions/ http://allthingsd.com/20110508/gilt-groupe-raises-138-million-from-softbank-and-others-for-growth-acquisitions/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 06:00:34 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=5220 Gilt Groupe, the New York-based flash-sales site that offers discounts on apparel, travel, home decor and other categories, has raised a whopping $138 million in capital.

Participants in the fifth round include the Japanese-based telecom conglomerate Softbank Group as well as Gilt’s previous investors, General Atlantic and Matrix Partners. Other new investors include: Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, Pinnacle Ventures, TriplePoint Capital and Eastward Capital.

Softbank’s involvement is two-fold.

Not only will it be contributing $62.5 million of the round, which will all be going toward Gilt’s U.S. operations, it will also invest a smaller undisclosed amount into Gilt Groupe Japan. The two companies will each own 50 percent of the joint venture.

In all, Gilt has raised $240 million. The fifth round values the company at roughly $1 billion before the round is taken into account. The round was first reported in a regulatory filing last week.

Gilt’s CEO Kevin Ryan, who is known for being one of the first 20 employees at DoubleClick, launched the members-only site in November 2007. In roughly four years, the company has created a name for itself as the online destination for discounts on brand-name luxury items. Targeting affluent young professionals, the site lures consumers in with beautiful photography and creates a sense of urgency because the deals are gone once the inventory sells out.

In addition to selling men’s and women’s apparel, it has branched out into new markets, such as children and home decor. It has expanded into travel and local deals through its Jetsetter and Gilt City brands respectively. [Read our Q&A with Ryan here.]

The funding will go toward launching new verticals and making acquisitions to get into new markets. In the next couple of months, Gilt has committed to launching a gourmet food site and a full-priced men’s online retail apparel site, but others are also on their way.

Ryan said the round ended up being bigger than they expected and they could have easily raised up to $200 million. But there’s a delicate balancing act between raising enough and diluting the company too far.

“It will be great not to have to do this for a long time,” he said, adding that this will be the last time the company raises a private round.

The next step will be an initial public offering. ”At some point, but we have no specific plans. It’s not happening any time soon,” he said.

Softbank, which operates wireless and broadband networks in Japan and has investments in hundreds of companies–including Yahoo! Japan–will contribute other services and intangible property to help expand what Gilt has already started in Japan.

“It’s not that it wasn’t going well. We are the flash-sales leader in Japan, but when we started talking to them, it was clear that they would add value,” Ryan said. “We don’t need a partner, but we were convinced that they would add value and be a great partner. We are a leader, but we want to be a lot bigger and it’s sometimes hard to be as successful in Japan without a partner. I think that will help.”

To be sure, the round will be helpful in establishing Gilt from among the copycats flooding the market.

The company previously said its revenues would total up to $500 million for the fiscal year ending June 2011. Ryan would not provide an update on that figure, but said the overall company, which has 670 employees and 100 job openings, is not yet profitable.

Its business model is not too dissimilar to well-funded Groupon or LivingSocial. Other direct competitors, such as Rue La La and HauteLook, have recently been acquired by eBay and Nordstrom respectively. And in the past couple of weeks, one of its closest competitors, ideeli, raised $40 million in capital. E-commerce giant Amazon just began another direct competitor called MyHabit. Additionally, Vente Privée, the big French flash-sales site, which already has billions in revenues, is reportedly launching in the U.S. in the coming months with an announcement slated for this week.

Here’s the full press release:

Gilt Groupe, Inc. Announces $138 Million in New Funding
Accelerates Business in Japan with Establishment of Joint Venture with SOFTBANK

NEW YORK, NY, May 9, 2011 – Gilt Groupe, Inc., an innovative online shopping destination, today announced it has raised $138 million from new and current investors. The new financing will be used for various growth initiatives, including acquisitions, new business categories Gilt plans to launch, as well as the acceleration of growth in existing categories and geographies.

Participants in the financing round include SOFTBANK Group; Gilt Groupe’s previous investors, General Atlantic and Matrix Partners; as well as a syndicate of new investors including Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, Pinnacle Ventures, TriplePoint Capital and Eastward Capital.

SOFTBANK Group, a Japanese telecommunications, internet and media conglomerate, has invested $62.5 million into Gilt Groupe. In addition to that investment, SOFTBANK Group has made additional contributions into Gilt Groupe Japan, of cash, services, and intangible property to establish a joint venture between the two companies, representing a 50% stake for SOFTBANK Group in that business. The other partners invested a total of $75.5 million into Gilt Groupe in the US.

“We are very excited about each of the partners we’ve chosen and the opportunities this financing creates as we continue to expand into additional categories as well as make strategic acquisitions to complement existing business lines,” said Kevin Ryan, Founder and CEO, Gilt Groupe, Inc.

In the next several months Gilt will launch a gourmet food site as well as a full-price men’s online retail store as the Company continues to expand beyond its original business of off-price apparel and accessories through the flash sales model. In November 2007, Gilt Groupe launched as an invitation-only site for coveted women’s apparel and accessories. Today, Gilt Groupe has added business lines in home (Gilt Home); children (Gilt Children); men’s apparel and gear (Gilt MAN); vacation travel (Jetsetter); local services and experiences (Gilt City), and has founded the leading flash-sale site in Japan (Gilt Groupe Japan).

“I am very excited to see further expansion of Gilt’s offerings to Japanese customers,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SOFTBANK Group. “With our Internet technology and Gilt’s innovative service, we look forward to working together to bring the Japanese market to a new stage of online shopping.”

”In just a short amount of time Gilt has successfully brought the flash sale model to Japan as well as introduced local city experiences through the launch of Gilt City Japan,” said Peter Glusker, CEO, Gilt Groupe Japan. “This newly formed joint venture with SOFTBANK will allow us to expand our offerings in Japan at a faster rate as well as benefit from SOFTBANK’s unique set of assets and expertise in Japan.”

To date Gilt has secured over $270 million in total financing since establishing operations in November 2007.

About Gilt Groupe, Inc.

Gilt Groupe, www.gilt.com, is an innovative online shopping destination offering its million members special access to the most inspiring merchandise and experiences every day, many at insider prices. Gilt continually searches the world for the most coveted brands, including fashion for women, men and children, home décor, hotels and travel experiences on every continent, and unique activities in a growing list of cities and destinations. We believe that every day is an opportunity to inspire and be inspired.

Gilt Groupe Japan, www.gilt.jp, was launched in March 2009, and has established itself as the leading flash-sales site in Japan with over 600,000 members.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110508/gilt-groupe-raises-138-million-from-softbank-and-others-for-growth-acquisitions/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110425/tablets-will-generate-17-percent-of-wireless-data-demand-by-2020/ http://allthingsd.com/20110425/tablets-will-generate-17-percent-of-wireless-data-demand-by-2020/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:32:12 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=61032 According to Cisco’s Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, the iPad and tablets like it generate 5 times more data traffic than the average smartphone. In 2010, for example, mobile data traffic per tablet was about 405MB per month, compared to 79MB per month per smartphone (see chart below). Not much of a surprise, really, considering tablets excel at media and information consumption.

What is surprising, though, is the rate at which that data traffic is growing.

With connected tablets growing in popularity, network usage is ramping up–and fast. Goldman Sachs figures it’s increasing by 30 percent per year and by 2020 will account for 17 percent of all mobile wireless data demand.

“We expect global tablet sales to grow over 300 percent through 2012,” Goldman’s analysts explain. “Our forecast implies a 42 percent CAGR (2010-2020) in network activated tablet subscribers (tablets that actually subscribe to a wireless data plan) with monthly data usage assumed to grow at the rate of 30 percent per year from 1.5GB/month to over 20GB/month in 2020. We estimate this burgeoning demand would generate around 72 percent adjusted growth in tablet-centric wireless network demand during the same period. As a result, we forecast tablets to account for around 17 percent of wireless data traffic by 2020.”

That might seem incredible at first with smartphone data consumption spiking the way it has been. But remember that mobile data and video are well on their way to being considered as much a necessity as voice service. And with continued advances in tablet processing power and battery life, data and video usage is only going to increase.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110425/tablets-will-generate-17-percent-of-wireless-data-demand-by-2020/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110420/goldmans-calculation-tablets-equal-ipads-for-years/ http://allthingsd.com/20110420/goldmans-calculation-tablets-equal-ipads-for-years/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:15:39 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=60724 Acer Chairman J.T. Wang once predicted that Apple’s share of the tablet market would plummet as new rivals emerged, tumbling from nearly 100 percent to 20-30 percent.

Not going to happen any time soon, says Goldman Sachs (unless Gianfranco Lanci somehow gets a job at Apple).

Apple will own the tablet market for at least the next two years–perhaps longer if no true rivals emerge from the sad cavalcade of iPad contenders we’ve seen to date. Worst case scenario, the research house expects Apple to hold at least 54 percent of the tablet market in 2011 and 2012. And if non-iPad tablets sell below expectations, the company could claim as much as 74 percent market share in 2011 and 71 percent market share in 2012.

Notably, Goldman believes the latter scenario to be more likely at this point. And the implications of that are pretty interesting, to say the least. Stuck in the mid-single digits in PC market share for years, Apple is poised to ride the success of the iPad to some big gains this year and next. It may even hit double digits.

“If we include tablets in our PC unit forecast, then our estimates suggest Apple’s combined iPad and Mac market share would reach 12 percent in 2011,” says Goldman. “This represents an incremental $8.7 billion in iPad gross profits for Apple, or more than the $6.0 billion in profits we expect the company to generate from the Mac business. Based on the current market share breakdown in the PC market, this could presumably make Apple one of the largest vendors in the combined PC and tablet market.”

That’s a profound reshuffling of the industry. And while it’s been suggested that it’s temporary, Goldman theorizes that it could become permanent if the tablet’s cannibalization of the traditional PC market continues. Says Goldman, “There has been ample evidence that the iPad began to immediately cannibalize Wintel notebook and netbook units upon its launch. Indeed, PC unit growth has been sub-seasonal since the iPad’s debut and annual unit growth has deteriorated substantially. The most recent IDC data suggests that this continued into the first quarter of 2011, with PC units declining 3.2 percent year-over-year and 13 percent sequentially.”

Apple reports earnings after market close this afternoon.

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