6 posts and columns on mission

Analysts Dub HP TouchPad a Legitimate Contender for Second Place

in News on February 10, 2011 at 1:51 pm PT

It might lack a firm launch date and hard pricing details, and its application and content ecosystem might need further work, but Hewlett-Packard’s forthcoming TouchPad looks like it’s got a real shot at becoming the frontrunner in the massing horde of tablet hopefuls trailing Apple’s iPad. Certainly the hardware and OS seem formidable enough to at least differentiate the device in an increasingly crowded market.

Longtime Facebook Biz Dev Leader Ali Rosenthal to Depart

in Social on January 12, 2011 at 9:00 pm PT

Alison “Ali” Rosenthal, a veteran of the Facebook business development team, will leave the company at the end of this week, she told NetworkEffect.

Liveblogging the Geo-Location Announcement: Oh, the Facebook "Places" You'll Go

in News on August 18, 2010 at 4:28 pm PT

BoomTown motored on down the lovely Highway 280 in Silicon Valley to Facebook to hear execs talk about a new geo-location feature the powerful social networking site is rolling out. The new name of the service, which will be deeply integrated into its current update system, as I reported earlier, will be “Places.” There will be no games, no mayors and no special discounts either in Facebook Places–just plain and simple checking in and, presumably, taking names.

How Andreessen Horowitz Evaluates CEOs

in News on May 30, 2010 at 1:22 pm PT

No position in a company is more important than the CEO, and as a result, no job gets more scrutiny. Sadly, little of this analysis benefits CEOs, as most of the discussions happen behind their backs. This post is a step in the opposite direction. By describing how Andreessen Horowitz evaluates CEOs, I am at the same time describing what I think the job of the CEO is.

Clearwire Raises $1.5 Billion–None of It from Google

in News on November 10, 2009 at 10:10 am PT

How quickly Sprint has gone from cutting jobs to cutting checks. Not 24 hours after announcing plans to sack between 2,000 and 25,000 employees, the company said it has agreed to invest another $1.18 billion in WiMax provider Clearwire. That’s a big check to be writing, but then, Sprint is Clearwire’s majority shareholder and the carrier’s plans for differentiated 4G services rely heavily on the outfit’s success.
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