AllThingsD » investing

Nope! Still No Bubble Here, Says Marc Andreessen.

Peter Kafka — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:44:53 +0000

It will be a man-bites-dog story when a prominent tech investor comes out and declares that we are in fact in a bubble, and that they’ve stopped investing in tech companies.

But for the record: Marc Andreessen, who is now perhaps Silicon Valley’s most prominent investor, does not think we’re in a bubble.

Andreessen has been saying this for some time — like a year ago, at All Things Digital’s D9 conference – and he repeated himself at Wired magazine’s business conference this morning.

The main thrust: This can’t possibly be a bubble, because leading technology firms like Apple are trading at relatively modest multiples. Meanwhile, most of the highly celebrated tech companies that have gone public in the last year, like Demand Media, Groupon and Pandora, have all seen their stock prices get hammered.

“If we’re in a bubble, it’s the weirdest bubble I’ve ever seen, where everybody hates everything,” Andreessen told Wired editor Chris Anderson.

But that’s the public market, Anderson pointed out. What about the private deals, where very young start-ups are frequently being valued at $1 billion or more?

Well, maybe there’s something off there, Andreessen conceded. A “strangeness in the way the market is behaving.” Some of that stems from the way that capital is flowing, because institutional investors are looking for places other than the stock market to park their cash. But that’s only relevant for a “small number” of companies and investors, so that can’t qualify as a bubble, either.

We will listen respectfully to Andreessen, because he has a big brain, and has been intimately involved in a bubble or two himself (that 1996 Time magazine cover featuring him marked the beginning of the Web 1.0 irrational exuberance phase). But for a commonsense, plain-English counterpoint to all of this, see BuzzFeed. (Really!)

Welcome to ATD: The Very Social Mike Isaac

Kara Swisher — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:23:10 +0000

As many readers know, we have been adding to our staff here at AllThingsD, most recently in our new reviews section, with the addition of Lauren Goode earlier this year.

Now Walt Mossberg and I are proud to announce that Mike Isaac is joining our team to cover the social Web and its biggest players, including Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

He comes to ATD most recently from a staff writer position at Wired, where, among many other things, he spent much of his time writing about Google’s mobile and social efforts.

From 2010 to 2012, his coverage at Wired included the decline and fall of Hewlett-Packard’s mobile empire, Google’s surprise acquisition of Motorola Mobility, and Facebook’s steady trudge toward IPO-hood.

Prior to that, he wrote about the business of tech for Forbes magazine and Forbes.com, with a particular emphasis on start-ups and social. His work has also appeared in Paste magazine, Performer magazine, DNR magazine and the Washington Examiner.

Isaac holds a degree in English literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a former Georgetown University journalism fellow.

He takes over the social beat from Liz Gannes, who will be stepping up our coverage of the many businesses of Google, innovation, venture investing and the start-up scene — especially its bigger companies, from Pinterest to Quora to Dropbox. Gannes, as everyone who follows her knows well, has become a key observer of Silicon Valley and its players, and her insights into the tech scene have become one of our most invaluable offerings.

We’re excited for both of them, and look forward to their stellar work on our site.

Amazon Sees No Reason to Slow Its Spending

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:40:15 +0000

Amazon defended its free-spending habits yesterday in a call with analysts, arguing that it continues to see new opportunities and will invest accordingly.

The comments follow a less than stellar fourth-quarter performance in which the gigantic e-commerce provider spent nearly as much money as it brought in the door — even during its busiest quarter of the year.

Profits for the quarter fell 58 percent, while annual earnings were cut nearly in half.

Some analysts were hoping that the end of the year would be a low point for margins and that Amazon would start growing in 2012 as it benefited from the steep investments made the prior year.

But that’s not part of the plan.

“We’re incredibly optimistic about the opportunity that we have, and that’s why we have invested the way we have and why we’re continuing to invest in the business,” said Amazon’s CFO Tom Szkutak in a conference call with analysts.

For clarity, Piper Jaffray analyst Charles Munster asked again: “So, your outlook in terms of investment philosophy hasn’t changed versus last quarter going forward?”

“No, no,” Szkutak said. “We are continuing to look as we always do. We learn every week, month and quarter about customer adoption. We are looking at a lot of positive things across the business in terms of adoption, specifically Kindle growth from a device standpoint and content that’s following that.”

Other categories seeing growth, he said, include clothing, consumables, consumer electronics and Amazon Web Services.

“There’s a lot of interesting opportunities that we continue to invest in. So we are pleased with the performance in Q4 and what it means going forward for us.”

Over the past year, Amazon has invested heavily in infrastructure, including 17 fulfillment centers around the globe. At the end of the year, it had 56,200 employees, up 67 percent year over year, with most of the hiring coming in operations and customer service.

It has also invested heavily in the digital content business, including the Kindle.

It’s widely assumed that Amazon is breaking even or taking a slight loss on the sale of each Kindle Fire. It’s also securing expensive partnerships with content companies across music, video and books, and giving some of that content away as part of the $80 Prime membership, which also includes free two-day shipping.

All of those are bets that Amazon is hoping will reap profits over the long term, as customers continue to consume after they purchase an e-reader or tablet or sign up for Prime.

So far, it’s too early to see how the investment is faring, especially when it comes to new categories.

“It’s very, very early,” Szkutak said, “but so far, we like what we see, so that’s why we are continuing down the path of adding more content and making Prime better. … Because we are investing a lot, we are making sure we understand it very well.”

A lot of details, like Kindle sales numbers, are still being kept under wraps, but he promised Amazon will someday share more about how it is doing.

Unfortunately, the market isn’t as patient. In after-hours trading, the stock was down almost 10 percent at one point. During the session, it ended up down, 8.7 percent, or nearly $17 , to close at $177.50 a share.

Wealthfront Finally Launches, Aimed at Silicon Valley's "Richie Rich" Newbies

Kara Swisher — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:30:11 +0000

Wealthfront, the Silicon Valley start-up with more than $10 million in its own kitty, finally officially launched its long-planned Online Financial Advisor product today, with a focus on attracting techies interested in more easily managing their money.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, which started off as a social investing site called kaChing, shifted over to the new plan just over a year ago. Its aim now is to try to solve the thorny problem of delivering actionable and easy-to-use tools for making investments online, for those who have some money but little time or expertise.

A lot of companies offer similar tools, of course, including big ones such as Fidelity and Schwab, as well as bigger money-management firms. But Wealthfront’s CEO Andy Rachleff and founder Dan Carroll are promising lower fees and more accurate determination of risk via all kinds of online bells and whistles (see below).

Wealthfront is not charging advisory fees on a customer’s first $25,000 under management, with a fee of 0.25% on assets exceeding that.

Wealthfront is backed by DAG Ventures and well-known investors, including Marc Andreessen and Jeff Jordan.

Here’s a video Wealthfront posted about the service, as well as its official press release:

Wealthfront Unveils Automated Online Financial Advisor Service for Silicon Valley and High-Tech Hubs

Highly Sophisticated Investing Advice Finally Made Available through Simple and Low Cost Web Service

PALO ALTO, Calif., December 1, 2011 – The ability for the savvy tech community to easily access high quality, affordable financial advice is now available with the launch of the Wealthfront Online Financial Advisor. Before Wealthfront, sophisticated investment advice was available only to the wealthy, by expensive financial advisors who often can’t relate to today’s tech-savvy generation who want sound financial advice, made easy and convenient. Wealthfront’s Online Financial Advisor appeals to investors from booming tech communities who favor doing everything online, and are looking for ways to have their new wealth managed for far lower fees.

At the core of Wealthfront’s web service is the industry-standard Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). Until now, the widely adopted investing model has been kept out of consumers’ reach, and was only accessible via expensive financial advisors. Wealthfront automates the application of this intricate investment model, putting the power of MPT directly into the hands of investors online. Moreover, Wealthfront’s pricing structure trumps all traditional financial advisor models. The online service makes it possible to receive a sophisticated, meticulously managed investment plan at a price that is 75% lower than traditional financial advisors. There are no advisory fees on a customer’s first $25,000 under management, and only a fee of 0.25% on assets exceeding $25,000.

“This is exactly what most people in the technology industry need. It’s the kind of advice you’d get if you had Goldman Sachs manage your money and it does away with the hidden fees we in tech despise,” said Piaw Na, a long time, former employee of Google and popular blogger on the topic of investing. “What’s more, the recommendation on the investment mix is provided with a full explanation of what was picked and why, making the whole experience a massive and much needed shift that is especially appealing now.”

Wealthfront’s high quality investing advice is powered by its Precision-Investing Platform™, the breakthrough software behind the service. The Platform uniquely assesses a customer’s true risk tolerance, recommends an optimized portfolio of carefully selected Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) spanning six asset classes, and monitors and periodically rebalances the investment mix to maintain a customer’s desired risk tolerance.

Wealthfront is backed by Silicon Valley luminaries including DAG Ventures and individual investors including Marc Andreessen, Jeff Jordan, former OpenTable CEO and President of PayPal now at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, and partners from Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

“The financial advisor world has long recognized that one day the Internet and software would pose a credible threat to their hold on the sub $5 million category of individual investors,” said Paul Pfleiderer, C.O.G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Wealthfront advisor. “Wealthfront has made accessible what historically had been out of reach or prohibitively costly for a large class of investors. By using a simple, yet powerful engine for accurately assessing risk and return in the MPT context, Wealthfront has established a new standard for quality financial advisement on the web.”

“With the biggest names in venture capital and the brightest minds in software development, we’re ushering in a financial advisor service that’s capable of precisely managing a customer’s investments from $5,000 to tens of millions with a pricing approach unheard of in the financial services industry,” said Andy Rachleff, CEO of Wealthfront. “Wealthfront emerges at a time when many tech companies are enjoying record earnings, initial public offerings, and strong acquisitions. This creates masses of people in tech looking to invest for the first time and who want to manage their finances in the same manner they’ve organized every other aspect of their lives, online.”

“The promise of the Internet is to disrupt incumbent providers, enabling new companies to provide high quality services at substantial savings through the innovative use of software,” said Jeff Jordan, Wealthfront board member, former CEO OpenTable and President of PayPal and now General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Wealthfront embodies this promise, democratizing access to high quality financial advice. I believe this will appeal strongly to a generation that has grown up with the Net and use it to manage all facets of their life.”

For more information on Wealthfront Online Financial Advisor, or to create a free account, visit www.wealthfront.com.

Former Color Co-Founder Peter Pham Heads to Former Myspace CEO's L.A. Tech Studio (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:00:54 +0000

Well-known tech entrepreneur Peter Pham will be joining the Los Angeles-based start-ups lab that was just launched by former Myspace CEO Mike Jones.

Pham, who was recently helming the high-profile and controversial Color photo-sharing start-up in Silicon Valley, will be moving south again to join Jones at the Santa Monica, Calif.-based “technology studio,” called Science.

As Liz Gannes reported last week, the goal — with $10 million in funding and private equity partners at the ready for more — is to “incubate ideas in-house, invest in other people’s start-ups, advise Silicon Valley companies on breaking into Hollywood, and maybe even look into reworking later-stage Internet companies like Yahoo.”

Pham and Jones will aim at three verticals: The intersection of content and commerce, social systems, and mobile and location.

That’s an area that Pham knows well, with stints at both BillShrink and Photobucket (also a former News Corp. property, as was MySpace), as well as active angel investing.

In an interview yesterday, Pham said he hopes to bridge the Silicon Valley-L.A. delta more, since there is an increasing amount of promising tech taking place there, too.

“There is a lot going on in L.A., and a lot of tech talent that still sometimes get less attention up in Silicon Valley,” said Pham. “I hope to be part of bringing the communities a little closer together.”

In addition, he said that the focus of Science would not necessarily be on online entertainment start-ups, as might be expected, given the proximity to Hollywood.

“We really want to shine a light on the innovation taking place in Los Angeles beyond the obvious,” said Pham.

It’s a good idea, given how navel-gazing Northern California geeks can be.

Also in the L.A. start-up scene of late is a new accelerator called Start Engine, which debuted recently with a focus on mentorship on 120 start-ups per year.

You can see Pham featured in this video that Gannes did about Color:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here’s the official press release about Pham joining Science:

Peter Pham press release.FINAL11-21-11

Warren Buffett Now Owns Some Intel Shares, Too

Arik Hesseldahl — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:08:15 +0000

Warren Buffett seems to have gotten over his longtime reticence to invest in technology companies.

First today, he disclosed in an extended interview with CNBC that he had just become IBM’s largest shareholder. Now, according to new filings from his company, Berkshire Hathaway, he’s also just acquired a stake in the chipmaker Intel.

The 13-F filing, which hit the SEC Web site just a few minutes ago, shows that Berkshire has acquired 9.3 million shares in Intel, worth about $200 million. It’s not a sizable stake, amounting to about one-fifth of one percent of the 5.1 billion shares that Intel has outstanding.

At that figure, Buffett’s firm would have paid an average price per share of $21.34. With Intel shares currently trading at $24.63 a share, the stake is now worth about $230 million.

While his IBM stake, which amounts to about 5.5 percent of the shares outstanding, appears to eclipse that of State Street, the investment house, Buffett’s position in Intel doesn’t even come close to that of the company’s institutional investors. State Street is again the biggest Intel shareholder of record, holding about 4 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, followed by Vanguard and Blackrock. But Buffett has more skin in the game than does Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who as of the end of October had 397,000 shares worth an estimated $9.8 million.

I talked about Buffett’s investment in IBM today on The Wall Street Journal’s daily afternoon tech show, Digits. It’s below.

[ See post to watch video ]

Exclusive: Twitter's VP Engineering Mike Abbott Departs

Kara Swisher — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:49:32 +0000

According to sources close to the situation, Twitter VP of Engineering Mike Abbott has left the company.

He is apparently interested in doing more investing.

[UPDATE: Twitter confirmed the departure in a statement, noting that Abbott was joining Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. Benchmark’s Peter Fenton is on the Twitter board.

“We can confirm that Mike Abbott is no longer with Twitter. Mike will be available to assist the company in his new role as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital. We thank Mike for his leadership in growing an outstanding team of engineers from 100 to 400 that have successfully taken on the unique challenge of making Twitter reliable and stable. While Mike led the engineering team, Twitter grew from handling 55 million tweets a day to 230 million. Twitter is focused on aggressively moving forward to fulfill the profound opportunities that are in front of us.”

Said Fenton:

“What Mike Abbott accomplished at Twitter is nothing short of heroic, when Benchmark introduced him to the company we felt he had the courage and entrepreneurial drive to build a strong engineering foundation. Today we applaud him for that extraordinary accomplishment. As we continue to work closely with the team at Twitter, we’re delighted to welcome Mike to Benchmark as an entrepreneur in residence. Mike will not only continue to lend his considerable talents to supporting the team at Twitter, but as a true entrepreneur at heart, will undoubtedly be an incredible asset to our entrepreneurs and our portfolio overall.”]

The move feels sudden, but sources said it has been brewing for a while and happened several days ago.

Abbott was a high-profile hire for Twitter a little over a year ago from Palm, where he served as head of its software and services, in charge of its webOS platform.

He was brought in to bring a level of discipline and reliability to the Twitter communications platform and service, which was plagued by persistent outages that made the Fail Whale infamous.

In large part, Abbott has done that, as Twitter has grown significantly. It now has 230 million tweets per day, he said in a recent interview.

Twitter does not have a replacement as yet, sources said.

Final AsiaD Speakers: Apple's Phil Schiller and Former VP Al Gore

Kara Swisher — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:15:32 +0000

And then there was Schiller and Gore.

That would be Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller and former Vice President Al Gore, who round out the stellar list of speakers at our upcoming AsiaD conference.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21 in Hong Kong, the lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of Silicon Valley start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Asia head Rose Tsou; LivingSocial’s Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with founders of two of its Asian units, Daniel Shin and Paul Srivorakul; Samsung mobile head Dr. Won-Pyo Hong; HTC CEO Peter Chou, who replaces Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Schiller, who reports to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (and before that, Steve Jobs) is a member of the executive team of the tech icon, where he has worked for 17 years. He is responsible for a swath of Apple’s outward-facing businesses, including product marketing, developer relations and business marketing.

Today, in fact, he was onstage at Apple’s iPhone event, outlining some of its new product offerings. In addition, Apple just opened its first retail store in Hong Kong.

Gore, who had a memorable interview at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006, needs little introduction. The former VP and Nobel Peace Prize winner is now chairman of Current TV and also continues as a prominent environmental activist.

Gore is on the board of Apple, while also being a senior adviser to Google, which is a neat trick. At the same time, he is a partner in the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on sustainable investing.

And, as most people know, he knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Walt Mossberg and I could not think of two better people to add to the lineup we have for AsiaD, which has very few seats left.

See you in China in two weeks!

More AsiaD Speakers: Sony, Google+, Microsoft, Hollywood, Huawei and Hot SV Start-Ups!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:33 +0000

After our grand tour of Asia last week — with stops in Korea and Japan — it seems like a perfect time to update the speaker list for our upcoming AsiaD conference in Hong Kong in October.

As Walt Mossberg and I said, we are trying to mix both U.S.-based speakers with a pan-Asian selection of speakers from across the region, and the new additions are just that.

For the international confab — this one will be held Oct. 19-21 — we’ve already announced a great lineup, including Alibaba’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; and Asus Chairman Jonny Shih.

Now, to add to that terrific lineup:

Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai is widely considered the second in command at the consumer electronics giant Sony, in charge of its key computer entertainment division, as well as now serving as executive deputy president of the whole company. In that role, the dynamic exec is at the nexus of the Japanese company’s efforts around tablets, smartphones, gaming and more. As Sony struggles to reassert its dominance over the arena, Hirai will be a key player in that effort.

Bradley Horowitz — as head of product management for Google+, the search giant’s aggressive effort to break Facebook’s hammerlock on social networking — has a perfect perspective to talk about the fast-growing area and where it is going globally. With locally-based social companies springing up all over Asia, can Google establish one the whole world will use? It’s an important question and Horowitz’s job No. 1.

At Microsoft, Andy Lees is leading one of the software giant’s most important initiatives, as president of its Windows Phone division. His come-from-behind job includes mobile software and hardware, as well as its key partnership with Nokia. With Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android far in the lead, Lees will need to win in markets globally, especially in Asia.

Peter Chernin is one of Hollywood’s top players and execs. The former top News Corp. exec is now a movie producer — his first effort, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” is a big hit. But he’s also been increasingly active in media investing in Asia of late, and has a lot to say about the global nature of entertainment in the digital age.

John Roese heads the North American R&D team for Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant making everything from heavy-duty gear for networks to mobile phones and tablets. The former CTO of Nortel, he’s heading up global development of Huawei’s cloud services for both businesses and consumers. Roese will also talk about the phenomenon of a Chinese-owned company emerging on the world technology stage.

Even in the midst of an economic downturn, there is no denying that it has been a golden time for Silicon Valley start-ups, which have enjoyed unprecedented growth and funding in the Web 2.0 era. But as they seek to expand beyond the U.S., a critical move for them all, we’ve assembled a panel of entrepreneurs to discuss it, including:

Brian Chesky is the CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, the popular online vacation rental site that recently got a huge dose of funding and an equally large amount of controversy. How Airbnb can take the company to the next level, including across the world, while dealing with the kinds of challenges the small management team has to face, will be an interesting topic for discussion.

After stints as president of Asia Pacific and Latin America operations at Google and co-founder of the online personal finance company Yodlee, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is trying her hand at a small start-up again. She’ll talk about how the recently funded Joyus, a new premium video commerce site trying to pioneer a new way to shop online, plans to expand globally.

Finally, longtime tech exec David Goldberg is now running one of tech’s most successful start-ups at SurveyMonkey, the dominant online survey company. With stints as founder of music site Launch Media, which was bought by Yahoo, and as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Benchmark Capital, he is the perfect person to explain what it’s like being an entrepreneur today in Silicon Valley.

We have even more speakers for AsiaD we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks, so get ready for what’s next.

Foursquare Gets $50M to "Make the World Easier to Use"

Liz Gannes — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:51:26 +0000

Foursquare has raised $50 million, mostly from its existing investors, the company announced today.

The round was expected, and comes in a week when Foursquare hit a significant milestone of 10 million registered users.

It was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Union Square Ventures as well as new investor Spark Capital (the picture here is from Spark Capital partner Bijan Sabet’s blog).

TechCrunch reports the valuation as $600 million.

Foursquare is often maligned for not being a serious company, so for the occasion of the funding founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Seldurai wrote on their blog a sort of long-form mission statement about their future:

Foursquare is not just about the check-in, or recommendations, or points, or badges. It’s about making the world easier to use. It’s about discovering new places, connecting with friends, and forging new relationships with the places you visit. It’s finding new ways to layer technology on the real world. All of our employees believe strongly in this vision, and we’re incredibly lucky to have investors and a board that feel the same way.

Foursquare had raised a $20 million round about a year ago and angel funding in the fall of 2009.

Exclusive: Myspace in Advanced Deal Talks With Investor Group, Including Activision's Kotick

Kara Swisher — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:35:22 +0000

And then there was one?

According to sources close to the situation, News Corp. is down to one possible investing group in its quest to make lemonade out of the lemon that its Myspace social entertainment hub has become.

In the lastest of many scenarios considered, several sources said its owner, News Corp., will continue to own about 20 percent of Myspace. The main bidder is a dark horse bidding group, which includes Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick as one of the potential investors.

The deal, cautioned sources, is not final and could easily fall apart.

Interestingly, if such a deal is struck, he would apparently be involved as an individual and not for the giant gaming company, and would play no management role in the company.

Kotick would presumably need permission from Activision for such a high-profile investment, even if he played a smaller role.

Kotick’s possible involvement has not been mentioned in previous reports.

Sources said the other possible bidders — including music video service Vevo, a group including Myspace founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe, an internal effort by current CEO Mike Jones, several private equity firms and even myYearbook — mentioned in past reports have not worked out for various reasons.

Vevo had seemed the likeliest winner, but its bid appears to have foundered for now, due to the complex nature of its music label ownership.

It is not clear what the price will be for Myspace, which was once the leading social networking site before the world dis-Liked it for Facebook.

One thing is certain: It is nowhere near the $100 million that News Corp. reportedly sought.

The site — even after an overhaul to focus on entertainment — has recently been losing money and traffic, although it is still a large destination on the Web.

News Corp. declined comment, as did Kotick.

Marc Andreessen Says There's No Bubble. But He's Happy if You Think There Is.

Peter Kafka — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:03:25 +0000

Marc Andreessen doesn’t buy the bubble talk. Which is fortunate, since he’s in the business of investing in the kind of companies that tend to generate some of the bubble talk.

But even if you think Andreessen’s just talking his book, it’s certainly worth listening to him talk. Here’s the case he laid out at D9 Wednesday night:

It can’t be a bubble, because everyone thinks it’s a bubble. “A key characteristic of a bubble is that no one thinks its a bubble,” he says, noting that in 1999, people were euphoric. “If everybody’s upset, it’s a good sign…I hope there are lots of bubble stories.”

It can’t be a bubble because the stock market isn’t acting like it’s a bubble. Here Andreessen rattles off a list of price-to-earnings ratios for big successful tech companies: Apple is trading at a p/e of 12, Microsoft at 7, Cisco at 6, etc. Investors are disdainful of technology, he says, because “the public market is tremendously scarred by what happened 10 years ago.”

OK, but what about LinkedIn? It has a stratospheric p/e, after all.

Andreessen, who happens to be a LinkedIn angel investor, has a series of answers for this one: It just went public. It has a thin float. Equity in the public market is starved for growth, and has nowhere else to go. It’s a genuinely exciting company. And even if you wanted to short it, you couldn’t because you can’t find shares to borrow, etc.

And even if LNKD is tremendously overvalued, he says, that would mean that “for the first time in equity history, we have a bubble that’s affecting one stock.”

So what about the secondary markets? By some standards, companies like Facebook, Zynga, etc., are trading at very high multiples, right?

Hard to say, he says, because it’s hard to figure out what’s really going on in the secondary markets (where Andreessen himself has been a buyer).

There’s very little supply, and actually not even that much demand–because most institutions can’t invest in these kind of companies. Recall that just a few weeks ago, the secondary markets valued LinkedIn at much, much lower valuations, Andreessen notes.

The nice thing is, we’ll get to test this one out sooner than later, as a raft of big private companies head toward IPOs of their own. Some of them Andreessen happens to know well. Like Groupon, which Kara Swisher says will go public soon.

“No comment,” Andreessen says, then tries an Andrew Mason death stare. It’s not nearly as effective.

Note: Andreessen speaks very, very quickly, which means you’ll want to hear him for yourself in the video below. There’s also a less frenzied version of this argument, via his business partner Ben Horowitz.

[ See post to watch video ]

Liveblogging Microsoft 3Q Earnings: Office-Tastic and Kinect-Able (But PC-Frown)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:48:13 +0000

You’d think there would be a party in Redmond, Wash., today, as software giant Microsoft soundly beat Wall Street expectations in its third-quarter earnings released earlier today.

Microsoft said it had revenue of $16.43 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, which was up 13 percent from a year ago. Net income was $5.23 billion, or 61 cents per share, a rise of 31 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

The surge was led by sales of Office, Kinect and Xbox and a stronger economy.

But there are shadows, too, as results were dragged down by weaker revenues for its flagship Windows unit.

The report comes as Microsoft’s stock continues to lag, declining 14 percent for the year.

Buzz kill!

BoomTown livedblogged the call for Wall Street analysts:

2:30 pm PT: Peter Klein, Microsoft’s CFO, who sounds super peppy, outlined the strong quarter, especially for its Office products.

He also mentioned some glitches, such as Microsoft’s still-struggling efforts to increase revenue per search (RPS) in its longtime search and online advertising partnership with Yahoo and the slower growth of the PC sector upon which the software giant’s Windows relies.

PC should stand for “possibly crappy,” but good-boy Klein did not say so.

Investor relations dude Bill Koefoed also read through the news, sounding at times like a sports announcer on a cable television network.

“Quuuuaaadrupled…,” he intoned about one part of Microsoft’s business.

This all went on for a while, since Microsoft has a lot of divisions. Servers & Tools. Online Services. Entertainment and Devices. Fashion & Cute Tops.

Okay, not that one, but a girl can dream.

It was all fun and games until Koefoed got to the Yahoo problem, which Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had used as a cudgel in her earnings report recently.

Yes, it is a bummer. But soon it was back to the happy land of Xbox!

Klein said he was pleased with the results in a jaunty manner, which made me desperately wish Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer led the call.

Because he’s always one obnoxious query away from a volcanic popping off.

Which is why I love those Yahoo calls and Bartz.

Buzz kill!

2:54 pm PT: That was fast–the call was quickly into questions.

The first is about COGS–cost of goods sold–and how it impacts gross margins.

Klein said the expenses were volume driven. I’d explain, but then I would fall asleep.

The next question was about stock buybacks.

That might get the stock up. Yeah, said Klein, they’ll keep doing that–not that it has helped much on the share price front.

More and more questions, about the PC market, the issues at Yahoo (let’s get that RPS up!), the Windows Phone 7 business.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit bored and started reading a riveting Business Insider interview with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington on his myriad conflicts of interest related to his tech investing while also blogging as a news guy.

Whatever you think about him, that dude is good copy.

Wait, back to growth rates for Office!

It’s going great, said Klein (hey, maybe Arrington will invest!).

The call wraps up on news of an upcoming investor conference, being held near Disney World.

Oooh, party time!

Alan Patricof's Greycroft Shuffles Staff

Peter Kafka — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:00:38 +0000

Greycroft, the early-stage fund run by legendary investor Alan Patricof, is overhauling its org chart. The firm has added Paul Bricault and Kirill Sheynkman as venture partners, and Alan Gould as an executive in residence. Meanwhile, former general partner Drew Lipsher has left to head up corporate development at Clear Channel Media. Last year, after much effort, Greycroft raised a second, $130 million fund.

Like the Blog? Buy the E-Book! Chris Dixon For Sale, Via Kindle

Peter Kafka — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:31:32 +0000

Here’s a clever idea from Chris Dixon: The investor and entrepreneur has turned his well-read blog into an e-book. Dixon, who runs Hunch and helps steer Founder Collective‘s bets when he’s not blogging, has taken a couple years’ worth of posts and compiled them into “Startups;” Dixon’s proceeds from the $2.99 mini-book will go to non-profit hackNY.

Why Is Facebook Investor Accel Investing In Hollywood? Because It's a Facebook Investor

Peter Kafka — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:30:32 +0000

Why is a big Facebook investor putting money into a Hollywood movie studio? Because Facebook is going to be very important for Hollywood movie studios.

That’s the takeaway from Accel Partners’ $40 million bet (via secondary shares) on Legendary Pictures, the producers behind hits like “The Hangover” and “The Dark Knight”.

You can already rent “The Dark Knight” on Facebook, via a Warner Bros. test program. But Accel’s Jim Breyer figures the social network will move beyond tests and become an important distribution platform for the movie business–and all content businesses–in the future.

And since Breyer is a Facebook board member (Accel is Facebook’s second-largest shareholder, after Mark Zuckerberg) content-makers ought to pay close attention to what he’s thinking and doing.

Peter Kafka: We’re not used to seeing VCs pour money into Hollywood studios, because they don’t seem like places where you can get huge returns. What is Accel thinking?

Jim Breyer: We believe there are a number of extraordinary opportunities that sit at the intersection of content and social networking platforms like Facebook. And there will be multichannel distribution capabilities for video content beyond classic theatrical and television release.

We try to take a 3-5 year view, and we feel more deeply than ever that proprietary content and creativity that can be delivered across multiple channels is an extremely attractive investment area.

As someone who makes content, that’s nice to hear. Because it seems like most tech investors are interested in putting money into content platforms and distribution plays, not content-makers.

I think in selected cases there’s extraordinary value in investing in content. It is a really unique time for deeply creative content developers to build very signifcant businesses that scale extremely quickly.

This is also one of the reasons behind our opening an office New York, in January. My vision is that a reasonable amount of our New York investments will have a very significant content flavor.

I can already rent and watch one Legendary movie on Facebook. Accel is a Facebook investor, and you’re on Facebook’s board. Where do you think the company is headed when it comes to video?

My hope is that Facebook continues to build out a platform that enables not only traditional video to be distributed, in an extremely meaningful way, but that enables new content and experiences to be deployed creatively, successfuly, and on a global basis.

But does that mean Facebook will become a distributor? Or a retailer? Or a hub where you can consume video?

I think there are number of different models. But at the heart of what Facebook is trying to do is enable outstanding content and application developers to develop breakthrough video and media applications.

So it’s going to fundamentally be a platform where outside companies can set up shop.

That would be my view, as a board member.

What other content plays interest you? What about music? If you wanted to, you could buy a piece of Warner Music Group right now.

We are looking at a wide range of content-driven companies. We are looking at libraries of entertainment, new opportunities in areas such as sports, news, publishing, as well as social games and other applications that fit very well with the social nature of today’s emerging platforms.

So if I own a big catalog of, say, songs, that could be something you’d look at.

That would be correct.

Web Start-Ups Get Upper Hand Over Investors

Pui-Wing Tam and Amir Efrati — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:00:56 +0000

As venture capitalists scramble to get a piece of Silicon Valley’s new Web boom, entrepreneurs like Aaron Levie are finding they have the upper hand.

Mr. Levie, 26 years old, founded online storage provider Box.net in 2005. While his 140-person Palo Alto, Calif., company has money in the bank, Mr. Levie saw the Web investing environment heat up recently, driven by interest in fast-growing start-ups such as Facebook Inc. and Zynga Inc.

So Mr. Levie decided to tap that interest and raise new capital. In less than three weeks last month, he closed a hefty $48 million round of financing from venture-capital firms including Meritech Capital Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. In the process, Mr. Levie said he turned down several other venture firms that wanted a piece of the deal.

“There was no capital limit and we could’ve raised more,” said Mr. Levie, whose start-up counts about five million users at 60,000 companies.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Q: Why No Twitter Board Seat for Kleiner's John Doerr? A: His Google Board Seat (Plus, Is the Star VC Looking at Spotify and Groupon Next?)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:14:41 +0000

Yesterday, star venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins forked over $150 million in funding to Twitter.

At at $3.7 billion valuation, that got him a big chunk of the San Francisco microblogging site.

But what it didn’t get him was a seat on the board of Twitter, which many figured he would be given for after handing over so much moolah.

According to sources familiar with the situation, that’s due to Doerr’s being a director on another board: Google.

Several sources who BoomTown spoke to, after breaking news of the massive funding, said that his being on the board of the search giant was seen as too much of a conflict of interest.

A conflict because Google has plans to wade deeply into the social space. And also, of course, because it is the No. 1 potential acquirer of Twitter, as the Silicon Valley company seeks to gather more tools to fight its latest rival, Facebook.

Doerr has very deep ties at Google, having been on its board since mid-1999.

He got that seat, along with Sequoia Capital’s Mike Moritz, after he ponied up a critical $25 million equity round for Google in June of that year.

Interestingly, no other Kleiner partner was named to a Twitter board seat either.

But, some speculate, it might make sense for Mary Meeker–who just joined Kleiner to head up digital investing efforts, after a long-time stint as a Wall Street analyst for Morgan Stanley–to eventually become a Twitter director.

Meeker has, of course, deep IPO and M&A experience.

And, frankly, after adding Flipboard’s Mike McCue and former DoubleClick exec David Rosenblatt yesterday and former Netscape exec Peter Currie recently to its all-boy board band, a woman director might be a good idea to consider.

Other directors at Twitter include Benchmark Capital’s Peter Fenton, Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson, Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital, Co-founders Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo.

I reached out to Doerr for a comment, but he has not yet replied; Twitter declined to comment.

Even more interesting to consider is what Kleiner will invest in next after this mega-funding, given how aggressively many sources said Doerr had pushed to lead the Twitter round.

And, in fact, sources said that Kleiner is looking closely at new funding rounds for both the Spotify music streaming service and Groupon, the social buying start-up that recently decided to turn down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google and an earlier $3 billion one from Yahoo.

Groupon is now seeking more funds to remain independent and hold onto its lead in the fast-growing local discounting market, sources said.

(Bloomberg also reported on Groupon’s new fundraising efforts, although it was written about after it turned down the Google offer.)

And Spotify, which is hugely popular outside the U.S., is trying to enter this market, but needs more funding to expand and perhaps strike better deals with music labels.

Both are the just the kind of companies Doerr has targeted in what looks like a serious effort to compete with other firms–especially Andreessen Horowitz and Russia’s DST Global.

They have garnered the heat Kleiner used to have, largely by backing more of the top entrepreneurs recently.

Doerr has already put money into social gaming phenom Zynga and also started an sFund for social-focused investments.

Add Twitter to the pile and you can see where this is headed: Except for the board seat, John Doerr will no longer be denied.

Okay, Okay, It's a Bubble! "The Office" Says So.

Peter Kafka — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:22:19 +0000

There’s the public “are we in a bubble” debate, and there’s the private one, where investors tell you what they really think. You should ask some!

But in the meantime, here’s a disturbing indicator: Now network TV sitcoms are parodying the notion of investing in revenue-free Internet start-ups. That’s a market top, no?

NBC really went to town on this one, by the way: There’s an entire mini-site dedicated to WUPHF.com, and it’s really well-done (it also makes more explicit reference to Facebook and “The Social Network” than the allusion in the clip above). Make sure to check out the investor section, which includes this awesome chart (PDF).

The fine print is pretty great, too. I’ve pulled it out here so you can read it:

Presto Chango: KaChing Becomes Wealthfront

Kara Swisher — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Today, the execs at kaChing, a social investing site, are ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq–actually, it is more of a button-pushing–to herald in a complete shift for the Palo Alto, Calif., start-up.

That includes a new name for the year-old company–it is now officially called Wealthfront–which signals a focus on linking professional money managers to customers and a move away from the “American Idol” investor talent discovery approach that kaChing had been founded on.

Now, Wealthfront is trying to solve the thorny problem of delivering good investment advice and actionable tools online.

Using a “methodology of the Ivy League endowments, to identify which money managers will outperform”–sounds fancy!–Wealthfront has vetted 25 investor options to be offered on its platform for anyone with a minimum of $10,000 to sink into equities (no bonds for now).

It’s certainly an interesting, if risky, move, for kaChing/Wealthfront, which has garnered $10.5 million in funding from a range of big Silicon Valley names, such as Marc Andreessen and OpenTable CEO Jeff Jordan.

Thus, here is a video interview I did yesterday with CEO Andy Rachleff and founder Dan Carroll explaining it all:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here is the official press release on the switcheroo:

KACHING BECOMES WEALTHFRONT, APPEAL OF PERFORMANCE ATTRACTS MORE THAN $100M TO INVESTING SITE IN FIRST YEAR

Wealthfront Introduces Manager Recommendations, Makes it Even Easier for
33 Million American Households to Invest Well

Palo Alto, Calif., October 20, 2010–One-year after launching its investing platform, the company known as kaChing formally announced today that it has changed its name to Wealthfront and unveiled a host of new product features as the company continues to deliver on its promise to make it easy to invest well. An SEC Registered Investment Advisor, Wealthfront also announced more than 25 registered money managers have qualified and joined Wealthfront, and that it has attracted more than $100 million in assets to its investing platform.

Average American investors, made up of 33 million American households with a net worth of between $100,000 and $1.5 million, have collectively invested $7 trillion in the stock market. Yet the average American with a net worth of less than $1.5 million has long been conditioned to believe it is impossible to outperform the market. A recent study, commissioned by Wealthfront and conducted by telephone by Harris Interactive confirmed this attitude, finding that only 6% of all U.S. adults, and only 3% of those with a financial advisor, “strongly agree” that financial advisors know how to consistently outperform the market. This finding is unsurprising since access to quality money managers has been traditionally limited to wealthy individuals with a net worth of at least $1.5 million who can afford the high minimum investment requirements.

“People have been conditioned to believe outstanding performance is impossible, but we think it IS possible,” said Andy Rachleff, CEO of Wealthfront. “Everyone deserves a better way to invest, and with our ability to vet, select and recommend outstanding money managers for investors, we believe Wealthfront can meet this need.”

Wealthfront Managers Outperformed the Market in Last Twelve Months

Wealthfront has built its business on the fundamental belief that it is not only possible to consistently outperform the market, but that it is also possible, using the methodology of the Ivy League endowments, to identify which money managers will outperform.

Since launching as an SEC registered investment advisor one year ago, Wealthfront has applied its rigorous vetting process, for which an average of only one in ten managers qualify, to add 25 top professional money managers to its investing platform and make them accessible to anyone with a minimum of $10,000 to invest. Together over the past year, Wealthfront’s managers have collectively outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 6% net of fees.

Today’s announcement, that Wealthfront has attracted more than $100 million in assets to its platform, further demonstrates the company’s appeal to both average investors looking for a better way to invest and to top professional money managers looking to scale their business through cost-effective distribution.

“With Wealthfront, we can easily and cost-effectively access a new segment of investors by taking on accounts well below our historic minimums,” said Colin Higgins, president of The Golub Group, an investment management firm with more than $600 million under management. “There’s no reason average investors with a net worth of less than $1 million shouldn’t have more options to invest their money. Now with Wealthfront–they do.”

Recommendations Make Finding the Best Money Managers for You Easy

According to the Harris Interactive survey, about one in two U.S. adults believe they know how to evaluate financial advisors. Responding to the need to make it easier for the average investor to invest well, Wealthfront also unveiled today its new recommendation engine to match investors with the most appropriate money managers for them. Taking an algorithmic approach, Wealthfront first vets managers to qualify for its platform. Investors then answer a few short questions about their investing goals, and Wealthfront recommends the best money managers to suit their goals.

After Some Flashy Investing, Is Andreessen Horowitz's Next Move a Big New Fund?

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:25:21 +0000

Since it launched almost exactly a year ago with a $300 million fund, the venture firm of Andreessen Horowitz has cut a rather high-profile path through the Silicon Valley investing community.

And it’s clear the firm has been aiming to make a big splash in the sector–from its involvement in the fractious fight over the spin-off of Skype to its funding of a series of high-profile start-ups (Zynga, Asana, Kno and Rockmelt) to its most recent aggressive moves to finally win the top spot in investing in hot social location site Foursquare.

Now, according to sources and after spending about half its kitty, Andreessen Horowitz is poised to begin another round of fundraising to further bolster its clout.

While it is unclear how much the VC firm will raise, sources expect it to be much more than its first fund.

In its last go-round, the firm had a quick completion of the fund raising, in the midst of a national econalypse. So many assume the next try will be a lot easier, especially given its knack for grabbing hot deals.

A spokeswoman for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment on future fundraising plans.

The firm is going to need the money as it expands its partners and ambitions to change the venture landscape, as iconic entrepreneur Marc Andreessen noted when he founded the firm with his longtime business partner Ben Horowitz in July of 2009.

Andreessen said then that he was essentially professionalizing the active angel investing that he and Horowitz had been doing.

Over the last several years, either together or apart, the pair have invested in a large variety of innovative start-ups, such as Twitter, Aliph, Digg, LinkedIn and many more.

Andreessen is on the board of Facebook and an adviser to Twitter too.

In an interview with me last year, Andreessen said that unlike many VC firms, Andreessen Horowitz will invest in companies at any stage of life–from early stage to late–and of any size and in any kind of digital sector and will focus on companies led by tech-savvy founders.

He also expressed a disdain for the way the venture business was run.

“For the first time in my life, I am crossing over into the dark side,” said Andreessen at the time, in a joke about VCs being like Darth Vader.

At the time, he also noted that money talked. “It’s important to have more capital,” he said. “Sometimes having a huge checkbook is a great thing.”

Well, we’ll see if Andreessen Horowitz can make that checkbook even larger.

Until then, here is a tally of investments that Andreessen Horowitz has made so far, sourced from the firm, split up into categories and size of investment round the firm participated in with other investors. The firm declined to provide the exact amount of their participation in each investment.

It should be noted that Andreessen’s and Horowitz’s previous individual investments in some of these companies are not identified here:

Board

Kno: tablet device for students; $7.5 million
Nicira: cloud infrastructure software; $13 million
Okta: cloud app management; $750,000
Proferi: analytic applications; $2 million
Rockmelt; desktop browser for Facebook; unknown funding
Skype: Web telephony; $50 million

Passive

Apptio: IT cost transparency solutions; $14 million
Asana: enterprise collaboration; $9 million
Boku: mobile online payments; unknown funding
Digg: social media and content; unknown funding
Foursquare: social location; $20 million
Fusion I/O: enterprise I/O solutions; $45 million
Tiny Speck: social gaming; $5 million
Zynga: social gaming; $180 million

Seed

Burbn; social location; $500,000
Canvas Networks: image boards; $625,000
Factual: structured data; $1 million
GoodData: cloud-based collaborative analytics; $2.5 million
Quantifind; enterprise; unknown funding
RethinkDB: database storage; $1.2 million
Mixed Media Labs: photo sharing; $370,000
SnapLogic: open-source enterprise data integration; $2.3 million
TopProspect: social recruiting; unknown funding
Vikkii: user-generated subtitling; unknown funding
Ze Frank Games: online gaming; unknown funding

And here are video interviews BoomTown has done with both Andreessen and Horowitz in the last year on their investing theories:

Andreessen and Horowitz Complete Raising Dough for $300-Million Venture Fund–Let the Seed Investing Begin!

Kara Swisher — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:14:55 +0000

Even in the midst of a tough investing environment, Silicon Valley legend and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen (pictured here) and his longtime investing partner, Ben Horowitz, have completed the raising of a new venture fund, according to numerous sources close to the situation, and it is oversubscribed.

Sources said the fund–which was nicknamed “Project A” but is actually called Andreessen Horowitz–will be $300 million. It is $50 million over the $250 million he and Horowitz had planned.

Several major institutional investors–from universities, for example–have invested large chunks of up to $20 million or more, while a spate of Silicon Valley luminaries has put in amounts of $1 million or less.

The quick completion of the fund raising, in the midst of a national econalypse, is a good sign perhaps for the forward-leaning culture of tech, which has seen some pullback by VCs over the last six months.

Andreessen, who co-founded Netscape–the iconic browser company that was key to introducing the modern Internet to consumers–and a lot of other start-ups, announced on the “Charlie Rose” television show in February that he was creating the new fund.

“For the first time in my life, I am crossing over into the dark side,” said Andreessen at the time (see the video below).

Although he gave few specific details about the fund in that interview, Andreessen essentially said he was simply putting a structure around his own active angel investing, which has included start-ups like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn and many more.

Andreessen, who is on the board of Facebook and an adviser to Twitter, has turned into one the the digital sector’s most influential mandarins for innovative start-ups.

His new effort will focus on early-stage investments, he said in the interview with Rose, noting that “our claim to fame is, we’ve actually, you know, by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, we’ve done it, we’ve been on that side of the table for a long time; we know what it’s like.”

Andreessen said then that he and Horowitz had made 36 investments over the last three years of up to $200,000, but that his new firm will make up to $1 million bets on companies they decide to invest in.

Plus, he said then he would be patient: “Like with our new fund, if we fund a company today, we’re thinking about a return in seven to 10 years, so we can go through three or four or even five years of economic downturn, as long as, at some point, we come out the other end.”

Here is the video of Andreessen on the Rose show (he starts to talk about the new fund in the interview at around 18:33 minutes, again at 46:55 minutes and at the very end):

Tech Investing: Rules to Live By (Part 1)

Eric Savitz — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:03:34 +0000

Carl Johnson, an underappreciated observer of the tech investing world and a long time analyst on the semiconductor equipment business, who can be found online at Infrastructure Wednesday afternoon, sent along an annotated version of a list of the Top 10 Tech Investing Rules, as set down in Institutional Investor magazine by J.P. Morgan chip analyst Christopher Danely.

Carl did two things to make Danely’s valuable list even better. One, he provided his own commentary on Danely’s thoughts. And two, he decided that what investors really need is a Baskin-Robbins length list of 31 rules. In Part 1 of this post, I offer up Danely’s list along with Carl’s commentary. And in Part 2, I tack on Carl’s additional rules. The result is a lot to read, but some extremely useful insights.

Read the rest of this post

Marc Andreessen Crosses Over to the "Dark Side" With New Venture Fund (Here's the Video)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:16:56 +0000

Last night, well-known Internet entrepreneur Marc Andreessen appeared on the “Charlie Rose” television interview show, talking about the digital sector and unveiling the news that he is creating a new venture fund.

I had heard rumblings about Andreessen’s funding efforts earlier this week, with sources I talked to nicknaming it “Project A.”

Actually, Andreessen said the new firm is called Andreessen Horowitz (zzzz), because he is doing it with longtime investing partner Ben Horowitz.

“For the first time in my life, I am crossing over into the dark side,” said Andreessen.

Although he gave few specific details about the fund, Andreessen essentially said he was simply putting a structure around his own active angel investing, which has included start-ups like Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn and many more.

His new effort will focus on early-stage investments, he said, noting that “our claim to fame is, we’ve actually, you know, by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, we’ve done it, we’ve been on that side of the table for a long time; we know what it’s like.”

Adding that he and Horowitz had made 36 investments over the last three years of up to $200,000, Andreessen said his new firm will make up to $1 million bets on start-ups.

Of course, for most of the interview, Rose zeroed in on hot topics like Facebook, the social-networking site on whose board Andreessen serves.

The voluble tech star did his job, talking about how Facebook could turn on the spigot and make all sorts of money anytime it wants and about the recent controversy around its Terms of Service kerfuffle.

He also talked about the Andreessen-backed Ning social network service, the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, Twitter, why the New York Times irks him, Google (GOOG), the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle e-book reader and gaming.

Ironically, the Netscape co-founder and his Xbox from Microsoft (MSFT)–eek–“have a very close personal relationship.”

But Andreessen also told Rose a little bit about the new fund he is raising money for, for example, while discussing the economic meltdown.

Talking about the fact that innovation will survive, Andreessen said: “Like with our new fund, if we fund a company today, we’re thinking about a return in seven to 10 years, so we can go through three or four or even five years of economic downturn, as long as, at some point, we come out the other end.”

Here is the video of Andreessen on the show (he starts to talk about the new fund in the interview at around 18:33 minutes, again at 46:55 minutes and at the very end):

MicroHoo: The Warren Buffett Rainbow Connection

Kara Swisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:24:45 +0000

No news is bad news!

At least for those following the Microsoft-Yahoo takeover battle, since silence is maybe not so golden in this case.

Right now, even though Microsoft (MSFT) set a Saturday deadline for starting its proxy battle against Yahoo (YHOO), the waiting game continues as Yahoo hopes Microsoft will flinch and vice versa.

So, can a fun-packed weekend with the folksy Warren Buffett save the day?

In an unusual bit of timing, both Yahoo President Sue Decker and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will both be in Omaha starting Friday for the famous annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), which Buffett runs with his longtime partner Charlie Munger.

Decker came onto the board in 2007, while Gates–a close friend of Buffett’s–joined in 2004.

(Gates and Buffett pictured here together; Decker’s head shot here too.)

How awkward is that, since Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer might be slapping Decker’s boss, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, all around Wall Street next week?

At least, the pair are sure to have fun in Nebraska.

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting is a beloved ritual for its shareholders, who flock to worship Buffett every year at the Qwest Center in Omaha.

The festivities will begin on Friday evening, include a “Baja Beach Bash” on Saturday and finish up with dinner at Gorat’s Steakhouse on Sunday evening.

And perhaps Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha, might be just the kind of power broker who can finally bring sensibility to the situation.

Celebrated as the world’s most successful investor, Buffett’s plain-talking advice about the stock market is widely quoted.

My personal favorite is “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

But maybe this one is more apt, when talking about Yahoo and its value to Microsoft: “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

The question for Gates and company–Is Yahoo wonderful or is it fair?

And until Buffett can work his magic, here’s another unlikely pair–Debbie Harry and Kermit the Frog–singing about making nice in the classic, “Rainbow Connection.”