AllThingsD » space

Start-Up Sees New Frontier in Mining: Asteroids in Space

Amir Efrati — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:45:15 +0000

The riddle of the space asteroid start-up may be closer to being solved.

On Tuesday, Planetary Resources Inc., whose mission has been shrouded in secrecy, will outline in Seattle its plan to send an unmanned spacecraft to an asteroid and mine it for valuable metals and water that could be used in further space exploration or returned to earth.

The company, backed by several billionaires, is working to recruit engineering and mission-planning expertise and allow private companies to bid to help it launch the spacecraft, said John S. Lewis, a University of Arizona planetary-science professor who said he is an adviser to Planetary.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Here's Zynga's Filing on $228M HQ Building Deal (For All You Real Estate Types)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:40:12 +0000

Zynga bought its San Francisco HQ building for $228 million, the company said in a regulatory filing, which I have embedded below.

Having enjoyed a party or two in the space at 650 Townsend Street over the years — even before it housed the online gaming company, I vaguely recall an epic Devo concert there during Web 1.0 — I can tell you it is a nice space and that Zynga has fixed it up real pretty.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus — for those who might not know — is a bit of a real estate mogul himself, having housed Zynga and other start-ups in previous buildings he owned.

This one’s all Zynga’s, which sources said will give the fast-growing company — which just went public — an ability to lock in affordable growth space and also host community events.

I vote to bring back Devo ASAP, now that we can trash the place without worrying about the landlord.

ZNGA-20120305-8K-20120302

Viral Video: "Prometheus" (or "Alien" 2012)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:22:14 +0000

This movie is essentially “Alien” redux. From the same director, Ridley Scott, it’s scarier and has better effects than 1979.

But, in space, everyone can apparently still hear you scream.

Enjoy the trailer:

Prometheus – International Teaser Trailer #1… by addictomovie

Viral Video: "Lock-Out" -- Sci-Fi Prison Break in Space

Kara Swisher — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:45:55 +0000

Here’s a trailer for an unusual movie called “Lock-Out,” about a prison revolt in space and, of course, the need to rescue the daughter of the President of the United States.

It’s full of all kinds of special effects, naturally.

Enjoy:

The State of Social Sharing With Fred Wilson, Roger McNamee and More (Video)

Kara Swisher — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:51:22 +0000

Here’s a panel I did last week at the Privacy Identity Innovation conference on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley.

The panel was called “Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy.” And while that sounds a little dry, it was a lively session that included: Jim Adler, Chief Privacy Officer and GM, Data Systems at Intelius; David Glazer, director of engineering for Google+; Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners; and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures.

All have deep experience in the social networking space and insights into its implications, so it’s a good video to watch if you’re interested in where it’s all going.

Enjoy:

Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy from Marc Licciardi on Vimeo.

The LivingSocial Trio Talk Asian Expansion, Groupon and More: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:37:15 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with the head of the daily deals site’s two recent acquisitions in Asia, Daniel Shin of South Korea’s TicketMonster and Paul Srivorakul of Indonesia’s Ensogo Group.

The panel, interviewed onstage by Ina Fried, talked about a range of topics, from its Asian expansion to thoughts about rival Groupon to the future of the social buying space.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Throttle Back Those Hypersonic Dreams

John Murrell — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:48:40 +0000

This morning, DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 was successfully launched over the Pacific on its second test flight. It separated from its booster, went into glide mode at the edge of space, bound for Mach 20, and … nothing. Sadly, much like the first test flight in April 2010, the aircraft stopped sending back data and headed to a watery grave. Hey, if it were easy, it wouldn’t require advanced research.

Viral Video: "Apollo 18” -- In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

Kara Swisher — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:10:30 +0000

For those who love space travel, which is most geeks, this upcoming movie looks like it would put anyone off dreams of landing on the moon.

In fact, using a lot of surveillance camera angles and scary things popping out of the dark, it looks terrifying.

Enjoy:

Exclusive: Flipboard Confirms $50 Million Funding at $200 Million Valuation

Kara Swisher — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:23:12 +0000

Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard.

Today, its co-founder and CEO Mike McCue confirmed the $50 million round at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, in a wide-ranging interview at the start-up’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

“We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” he said. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

The bulk of the new second round of funding–Flipboard had previously raised $10.5 million–came from New York-based Insight Venture Partners.

Insight’s Jerry Murdock said in an interview that he was excited about the idea of “social endorsement” that Flipboard was pioneering.

“We back great entrepreneurs and Flipboard is that and also in an obviously unique position to solve a problem of media consumption in the digital age,” he said. “The sky is the limit. Or more precisely it is the best environment to consume curated real-time content for Twitter and Facebook, because of the user experience and social endorsement integration with the content.”

Insight is also an investor in Twitter.

Also stepping up in the new Flipboard round is Comcast’s venture arm, as well as previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angels, such as Twitter co-founder and product guru Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder and Asana dude Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

“From a Comcast perspective, we’re intrigued with Mike and what he’s doing with content aggregation,” said Amy Banse, Comcast Interactive Capital’s new head. “We think we can learn from him and he from us.”

Co-founded by longtime entrepreneur McCue (Netscape, Tellme) and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

The elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from media RSS feeds and sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In its current offering, there are pull-quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on a social networking or microblogging site.

McCue said the new giant pile of cash will be used to increase its 32-person staff to about 50, international expansion, small acquisitions and more product development on more platforms.

The next in the arena will be the iPhone version of Flipboard, said McCue, followed by one for the Google Android mobile operating system eventually.

Left unsaid, of course, was the need for funding to fight the likelihood of increased competition in the hot space for delivering both professional and social content to consumers on a wide range of devices.

Rivals are varied, such as Silicon Valley’s most adorable news reader start-up Pulse and also Zite, a news reader which was recently sued for copyright infringement by a group of major publishers.

There are bigger potential players, such as Google, which is trying to find various ways to move into the social space.

In fact, said several sources, Google and others have made acquisition approaches to Flipboard, which has instead opted for raising more funding and staying independent for now.

McCue declined to talk about that, but did note that he is not surprised by publisher interest, especially of the worried and wary kind, in the arena.

“Anyone not respectful of others’ content is going to get in that kind of trouble,” he said, noting Flipboard has struck deals with 17 big publishers so far, including this morning’s announcement about a partnership with Oprah Winfrey’s and Discovery’s OWN cable network. “There is not one half to this equation.”

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

McCue said advertising will be the key to Flipboard’s business plan in the future, although it’s not clear if the company will ever sell advertising itself.

Rather, it will partner with publishers seeking better distribution in the explosive tablet and smartphone market, where Flipboard has been gaining traction quickly.

But until that is sorted out, there is now $50 million more in the Flipboard kitty to figure it all out.

“With this funding, we can grow at the right pace and have a lot of flexibility to get the product right,” said McCue. “And, that’s the most important thing.”

Exclusive: Yahoo Nabs Microsoft Exec Brett Wayn to Help Local Efforts

Kara Swisher — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:26:46 +0000

After it struck its online advertising and search partnership with Yahoo, Microsoft tapped longtime Internet exec Brett Wayn (pictured here) to work with Greg Nelson during the integration.

Well, Wayn must have liked what he saw at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, since he is bouncing there from his job at the Redmond, Wash. software giant to help run local efforts at Yahoo.

[UPDATING local roles at Yahoo.]

Wayn will be working for Chief Product Officer Blake Irving and will be responsible for product management of Yahoo’s local “horizontal.”

He will work closely with whoever Yahoo finds as a replacement for Matt Idema, a longtime Yahoo exec who shuttled over to Facebook as a director of business operations, working on the local arena.

Luke Beatty, who heads up Yahoo’s Americas region community and local businesses, including Flickr, Groups, Answers and hundreds of local sites, is doing Idema’s job for now within Americas head Ross Levinsohn’s unit.

Local is a hugely hot space right now, with a spate of Web focus from giants like Google and Facebook to powerful start-ups such as Foursquare and Groupon.

Wayn has more recently been working on international for Microsoft’s MSN portal. The Australian native has also worked at AOL and, interestingly, has an actual medical degree.

In other words: Paging Dr. Local, stat!

Viral Video: Steven Spielberg's Latest Alien Invasion

Kara Swisher — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:36:46 +0000

This new television series from TNT about aliens invading Earth, titled “Falling Skies,” is exec-produced by Steven Spielberg. It premieres in June.

As you might recall, the Hollywood legend knows a thing or two about space creatures, including making the hit movies “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

But these new aliens, as it turns out, aren’t quite so benevolent or cuddly:

Chris Shipley Opens a "Community Center" for Silicon Valley Geeks

Kara Swisher — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:00:52 +0000

Last night in Redwood City, Chris Shipley–who used to run the famed Demo conference–had a ribbon-cutting for Studio G, a new office for her Guidewire Group aimed at the start-up community.

According to Guidewire: “Studio G is destined to become the high-energy hub of a global network of entrepreneurs and their mentors and partners working together to build the next great wave of high-value technology companies.”

At the opening party for Studio G, Shipley described the business accelerator as a drop-in and co-working space, a community center with a program series for early-stage companies.

There are lots of these kinds of places in Silicon Valley, but All Things Digital wishes Shipley well at this one.

Here’s a short video tour of the place and an interview with Shipley there:

[ See post to watch video ]

Internet Access in Hotel Rooms

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 02:00:15 +0000

I have a 3GS iPhone. Is there a way to connect it to the Internet cable found in hotel and motel rooms?

Not that I know of. But you can do this indirectly by creating your own Wi-Fi network from the wired connection in the room. There are two ways to do this.

One possibility is to carry a small portable router. These are small devices that plug into the wired connection and propagate a Wi-Fi signal in the hotel room that the iPhone (or other devices, like laptops and tablets) can use. A second option is to plug a laptop into the physical connection and use it as a Wi-Fi base station by setting up what’s called an “ad hoc” or computer-to-computer Wi-Fi connection. Steps for doing this, which can be a bit techie, differ depending on whether you use a PC or Mac.

I have been struggling with a hard drive space shortage for at least a year. I have deleted duplicate emails. I have deleted videos and word files and put them on a stand alone hard drive. Do you have any other suggestions?

If you don’t want to, or can’t, replace your laptop, and don’t want to be tethered to your external hard disk, you might look into buying a new, larger, internal hard disk.

Many stores and consultants can sell and install larger hard disks, and even transfer the data from your old one.

I have thousands of photos on my computer and external hard drives. I’m in the process of trying to organize them on one hard drive and noticed that there are many duplicates between the different devices. Is there one program that you recommend that reliably detects and allows the removal of duplicate files?

You might try using Google’s Picasa to sweep the drives, locate the photos, and display them.

The program has a feature that can avoid importing duplicates. Once imported, if there are still duplicates, Picasa offers methods to hide or actually delete them from your disk. Information on this is at http://bit.ly/8YKTzy.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Second-Edition iPad–Worth the Wait?

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:36:42 +0000

I am considering buying an iPad, but am wondering if I should wait for the second edition which is rumored to be coming soon. What do you advise?

I regard the current, original iPad as an excellent product, and can’t say you’d go wrong with it. But while Apple is famously secretive, I’d be surprised if there isn’t a new model announced in the next few months that will have added or improved features. There’s wide speculation, for instance, it will gain a camera or two. The company has a long history of improving its products, and, in the case of the iPad, must keep making it better to deal with a host of coming tablet rivals. So, if you can wait a few months, I’d do so.

I see that many of the newer wireless routers with attractive features do not support printer sharing. Does that mean you cannot connect a printer via Ethernet cable to the router and be able to access that printer through the wireless network? Why do so many of the newer routers not support printer sharing?

In the context you seem to be using it, the term “printer sharing” referred to plugging in an otherwise non-networkable printer via USB to a router, which would then make the printer usable over the network. I presume that this feature has declined in popularity as more home printers now have wired or wireless networking built in, and the latest Windows and Mac operating systems make it much easier to share even a printer without its own network features through the computer’s connection to the network. If the printer has wired networking built in, you should be able to plug it into one of the Ethernet jacks on most wireless routers and make it usable on your wireless network.

I have an almost two-year-old MacBook Pro. The hard drive is nearly full, and I wondered if you knew of any tricks to free up some space. I’m particularly interested in cost-effective fixes.

One useful free utility for freeing up space on a Mac is called Monolingual, and is available at http://bit.ly/dqTCSC. This little utility allows you to remove all the obscure files on a Mac that allow the computer to operate in languages you can’t read or don’t use. For instance, if you only speak and read English, you can erase the files that enable the computer to run in, say, Albanian and Portuguese. Its maker says this can free up hundreds of megabytes of space. I have tried it and it works. Of course, whether you have a Windows PC or a Mac, you can free up space in many other ways, such as by deleting files and programs you don’t use, archiving or deleting old email, and removing temporary browser files.

Email mossberg@wsj.com.

Q&A: VC Alex Ferrara Dishes on the Business of Shopping and Selling Online

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:00:44 +0000

With big-ticket e-commerce acquisitions, like Amazon’s $500 million purchase of Diapers.com and Soap.com, and now the failed attempt by Google to purchase Groupon, we decided to chat with Alex Ferrara, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, to get a sense of the current state of the market.

Bessemer has an impressive list of e-commerce bets: It was an investor in Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com and Soap.com, as well as in Yelp. And personally Ferrara is involved in other deals, such as Yodle, which helps local businesses market online, and OMGPOP, a social gaming company. Yesterday, it announced an investment in Shopify, which provides tools to help businesses sell products online quickly.

eMoney: So, you’re background is actually in computer programming? Does that help you evaluate deals?

Ferrara: I was a software engineer for many years, using Java and Microsoft languages, and I had the pleasure of authoring an O’Reilly book on Web services [O’Reilly & Associates’ "Programming .NET Web Services"]. I don’t know if it helps me, but it causes me to gravitate toward good technology and product teams.

Your most recent investment is Shopify?

Yes, we just closed last week. I just loved the team and was impressed by the product and the tech DNA that these guys had. It provides a commerce platform that can quickly serve small as well as larger businesses. They have about 10,000 to 11,000 customers as of today–and they’ve watched a lot of small businesses grow into larger enterprises.

My view of this whole small- and medium-sized business space is that they have a lot of the same pain points as large enterprises….Shopify delivers 80 percent of the functionality of larger, more expensive and cumbersome e-commerce software packages at a fraction of the cost. It offers a range of very sophisticated features around inventory management, marketing capabilities, as well as shipping and fulfillment–all of the capabilities you would get in an expensive package. They are democratizing the whole expensive enterprise software functionality.

E-commerce is a mature business that’s been around for a long time. Is there more innovation that’s happening in the space?

I think the market that Shopify is going after is less about taking share from existing players, and more about the next generation of businesses that are getting started today. A lot of those are mainstream local retailers.

Let’s say a trillion-plus has been spent in local retail, and it’s starting to move online, so that’s a big business. It won’t fully move online, but the local retailers need something besides their Main Street shop. Plus, the retailers want to tie in their physical locations, and use phones to manage their store, and take advantage of [Shopify's] technology to manage their business, whether its physical or online.

An Apple store was the first retail experience I had where I could swipe my credit card anywhere in the store–there was no waiting in line at the register.

Why can’t all retail experiences be like that? Shopify is going to do that, by moving everything to the cloud, whether you are going to a physical store, to the Web or on a mobile device. It should be one and the same.

What do you think of the local e-commerce market, especially given Google’s reported $6 billion offer for Groupon?

From what I’ve seen from afar, Groupon seems like a big business. If the rumors are true, it’s interesting to see Google having an interest. I look at them mostly as a self-serve ad company, which is mostly about technology and automation. Groupon has built a big local salesforce–it’s the inverse of Google’s approach.

I think it says a lot about how Google must be thinking about growth opportunities. To get to the local market, you do need the local salesforce. Self-serve works for a portion, but at the end of the day you need a sales channel.

So, you do think Google needs a local salesforce?

I’m guessing, but it strikes me as something that could be very compelling when [Groupon is] combined with [Google's] machinery. You could leverage each other’s data to do better at targeting for serving ads.

What about all the Groupon copycats?

Time will tell. It’s one of the questions I’ve thought about a fair amount. I don’t know. We have not invested, and clearly there’s a lot of smart people who think there are alternatives and a big enough opportunity to support competitors. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s big enough. There’s a number of players doing quite well. It’s a good time to be No. 2 to 4.

The big question is, how valuable will it be for the end-business over time. There’s not a lot of historical information on that.

What’s the role of mobile in e-commerce going forward?

For a lot of the local businesses, [mobile] fits so perfectly, and it’s got to be a huge part of any local product offering. A lot of the local merchants are mobile, as well. They don’t have large staffs to rely on and are wearing lots of hats. They want to provide service to their customers on the go–the iPhone and Android really enable that. That’s why Shopify made an iPhone version that helps the merchants to do that.

On the consumer side, they’ve also seen an increase in willingness to make purchases on mobile. It’s expected to grow exponentially, and we have some pretty good data on Shopify. Purchases on mobile are starting to grow quickly.

What about virtual goods? You are an investor in OMGPOP, a social gaming company.

They monetize and generate a good portion of revenues from virtual goods….One of our former investments is Playdom and they did a fantastic job. [Yes, they did. In July, the Walt Disney Company acquired Playdom for $763 million.]

We are bullish on digital media and gaming. We are seeing more and more game mechanics being applied to other business models. For instance, companies in financial services or online education are having their products include game mechanics to drive behavior and make the product experience more intuitive.

Still opportunities for start-ups, with giants like Amazon around? What would be your advice?

There’s a tremendous opportunity internationally. I think it would be challenging to go head to head with Amazon in certain categories. You can’t differentiate on price, and you can’t differentiate on customer service because they are impressive. This isn’t my area of expertise, but as a firm, we see that there’s a space for international e-commerce companies. They understand the local market and the nuances of the local market, and can be in an area that has been overlooked. If they can get scale, they have a chance.

Or niche opportunities, like Diapers?:

That’s a team that did a fantastic job. They provided a great level of customer service. Whenever I told people we were investors, strangers or friends would say, “I love it.”

LivingSocial Gets $175 Million Amazon Investment (Like BoomTown Said)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:59:09 +0000

Amazon will invest $175 million in LivingSocial, the No. 2 player in the fast-growing social buying space.

(The press release is below.)

BoomTown reported yesterday that the massive investment was in the works.

The online retail giant’s big bet on the Washington, D.C.-based start-up comes in the wake of ongoing acquisition talks between Google and Groupon, the category leader in the local deals business.

While it appears to be a reaction to those discussions, sources said Amazon and LivingSocial have been talking for some time about a variety of deals between them.

Sources said the Amazon investment put a very hefty valuation of over one billion dollars on LivingSocial.

Interest in LivingSocial has heightened of late, given the $6 billion in cash, stock and earnouts that BoomTown has reported Google is considering ponying up to purchase Chicago-based Groupon, and grab ahold of its 12 million users across the globe and $500 million in annual revenue.

But LivingSocial–which has been thriving even in Groupon’s flashier shadow–has 10 million subscribers worldwide in more than 120 markets and five countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.

And, as LivingSocial noted when it announced its acquisition of Australia’s Jump On It recently, it is currently booking an average of more than $1 million a day and is projected to book well more than $500 million in revenue in 2011.

And that is what has attracted Amazon, which has almost no profile in this lucrative local space, despite some attempts at its own solution. It bought a small and quirky daily deals site, Woot, for $110 million in June.

But sources said that, rather than sell, LivingSocial management wanted to keep the company independent, and thinks a sale of Groupon will give it a huge opportunity for growth.

Why? Well, even though Groupoogle or Goopon are fun to say, the inevitable regulatory review could drag on, resulting in a slowing down of innovation in the bigger Google culture and the distinct possibility of newly rich Groupon execs flying the coop (in private planes).

More investment money should help LivingSocial move ahead faster. Sources also said there is likely to be deep integration between its and Amazon’s services.

LivingSocial announced in April that it had raised $14 million in a Series C round, after grabbing $25 million in a Series B venture funding only a month before. And it has raised $10 million on top of that since 2008.

Sources estimated at the time that the valuation for LivingSocial was several hundred million dollars.

The newest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; earlier investors include U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and former AOL head Steve Case.

Lightspeed also invested $8 million more on top of Amazon’s funding.

Here is the official press release:

LivingSocial Announces $175 Million Investment by Amazon.com

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/–LivingSocial (www.livingsocial.com) has secured a $175 million investment from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). LivingSocial has also secured an additional $8 million investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners. LivingSocial will use this investment to maintain a steady drumbeat of worldwide launches and overall business growth while continuing to serve more than 10 million subscribers across the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia in more than 120 locations. Because of LivingSocial’s rapid expansion, the company is currently booking revenues of more than $1 million a day on average and is projected to book well over $500 million in revenue in 2011.

“To be the biggest player in the local commerce space there is no one better to work with than Amazon,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial. “As the social shopping space continues to heat up, LivingSocial is committed to staying focused on providing the high level of quality that consumers and merchants have come to expect when working with us.”

As the online source to find amazing experiences at an unbeatable value, LivingSocial lets anyone experience the hottest restaurants, shops, activities and services in their area. The company has dedicated area experts on the ground in every location working directly with business owners, and constantly researching the best in local adventures to bring a savings of 50% to 70% for consumers.

Recently, LivingSocial expanded its business by acquiring adventure company Urban Escapes, and launching three new verticals including LivingSocial Family Edition, Campus Deals and LivingSocial Escapes, a travel site that offers unbeatable savings on curated adventures. In addition, the company continues a regular flow of launches–on average one per day–and has expanded its reach in Australia with a controlling stake in Jump On It, making it live in five countries.

Amazon Poised to Make a Major Strategic Investment in LivingSocial to Counter Groupoogle (or Goopon?) Threat

Kara Swisher — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:15:57 +0000

With the red-hot acquisition dance between Google and Groupon sucking up all the attention, it’s easy once again to ignore the No. 2 player in the fast-growing social buying space–LivingSocial.

But not everyone is–according to sources close to the situation, the Washington, D.C.-based company that also focuses on local deals is in advanced talks for a major strategic investment–as high as $150 million–by online retail giant Amazon, at a very hefty valuation of over one billion dollars.

Sources said there will also be a deep operating partnership between the pair, as part of the deal.

Sources said the investment negotiations with Amazon is not complete yet, of course, and could fall apart.

But interest in LivingSocial has heightened of late, given the $6 billion in cash, stock and earnouts that BoomTown has reported that Google is considering ponying up to purchase the category leader, Chicago-based Groupon, and grab ahold of its 12 million users across the globe and $500 million in annual revenue.

And, as the start-up noted when LivingSocial announced its acquisition of Jump On It recently, it is currently booking an average of more than $1 million a day and is projected to book well more than $500 million in revenue in 2011.

That is what is apparently attracting Amazon, which has almost no profile in this lucrative local space, despite some attempts at its own solution. It bought a small and quirky daily deals site Woot, for $110 million in June.

But, rather than sell, sources said LivingSocial management wants to keep the company independent, and thinks a sale of Groupon will give it a huge opportunity for growth.

More investment money should help.

LivingSocial announced in April that it had raised $14 million in a Series C round, after grabbing $25 million in a Series B venture financing only a month before. And it raised $10 million on top of that since 2008.

Sources estimated at the time that the valuation for LivingSocial was several hundred million dollars.

The newest round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners; Earlier investors U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and former AOL head Steve Case.

A report of the Amazon interest in LivingSocial was first posted several weeks ago in a in VentureBeat, a day before BoomTown first broke the news of the Groupon and Google discussions.

Both Amazon and LivingSocial declined to comment.

But here is an October video interview I did with LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy on a recent visit to Silicon Valley.

The entrepreneur has worked at AOL, as well as at Case’s Revolution Health in Washington, before moving on to the local deals start-up.

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]

Socializing Vacation Rentals: The AirBnB Guys Speak!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:38:26 +0000

A few weeks ago, BoomTown sat down in a hipster coffee place in a hipster section of San Francisco to talk to the hipster trio of founders of AirBnB.

Which, if you think about it, is a very hipster name for what is essentially the ability to rent out your apartment, home or wack-a-doo space (such as a shoe-shaped hotel or Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs estate).

AirBnB is an alternative to other fast-growing similar sites such as VRBO–Vacation Rentals By Owner, only with more style and niche cool.

But the former Y Combinator start-up is not without its more traditional aspects, such as a recent $7.2 million Series A funding from Greylock Partners.

Also on board, its initial Silicon Valley venture investor, Sequoia Capital, which forked over $600,000 in seed financing last year.

That came after AirBnB’s first foray for travelers to find inexpensive lodging–often no more than just a room for events, such as the U.S. Presidential conventions–turned into a wider and more pricey range of offerings, with 700,000 nights booked so far in 166 countries and 8,000 cities.

AirBnB also includes–of course–reputation and social networking elements–as well as a very slick mobile app with unusually lovely photos–and also easy booking logistics.

And, because it is also very hip to do so these days, there is a Groupon-like daily deal too. But of course there is!

It’s actually all very well done, an interesting way to find cool places to stay beyond the usual.

Here are its founders–Joe Gebbia, Nate Blecharczyk, and Brian Chesky–talking about it all in a video interview, as well as a slideshow of its Top 40 collection of its more unusual properties to rent, such as a plane stuck in a tree in Costa Rica:

[ See post to watch video ]

Who Might Be Twitter's New Investors? The Usual Suspects, Of Course!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:12:34 +0000

Last week, MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka reported on a new funding effort by Twitter.

Sources said the San Francisco microblogging phenom, which has seen huge growth of late, is considering a round of upward of $200 million.

That would more than double the $160 million Twitter has garnered so far.

And who are the moneybags who might be the ones to keep Twitter CEO Dick Costolo in diamonds and furs–and away, for now, from the enticing clutches of a socially awkward and, thus, acquisition-minded Google?

Actually, those at the top of the list will be familiar to those following big funding rounds in the social space: Russia’s DST Global, Silicon Valley venture powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz–which is raising its own giant new fund–and a spate of more recently interested private equity players.

DST seems the likeliest investor, given it likes to play big in the space and has handed over gobs of money to social networking giant Facebook, social gaming upstart Zynga and social deals start-up Groupon.

DST Global is also pretty hands-off as an investor, such as not demanding board seats for its dough.

Alexander Tamas of DST Global, which is an affiliated international investment unit of Digital Sky Technologies (which recently filed to go public itself), said in an email to BoomTown that he “can’t comment on any deal rumors.”

But here’s an excerpt from an interview he did with me in July:

“As to its future investments, Tamas said the company will likely fund start-ups that ‘check the boxes,’ including exponential growth and social virality.”

That would be…drum roll, please…Twitter.

A Twitter spokesman told Kafka last week that the company did not need the cashola (there is apparently plenty of the old stuff left in the kitty) and no decisions had been made about additional financings.

Nonetheless, many sources close to the situation said Twitter was deep into the consideration of potential investors.

Of course it is, as it needs to expands its staff and infrastructure and more aggressively seek ways to monetize its growing audience via advertising.

In Twitter’s last funding of $100 million, it did so at a billion-dollar valuation.

It’s not clear what a new valuation would be, but if completed it would obviously be a lot more.

And, if Twitter takes this path, it could stave off the persistent speculation that Google would make an offer Twitter could not refuse, in an attempt by the search giant to jumpstart its own lackluster social efforts and assuage its deep insecurities about Facebook.

In addition, more money would also give Twitter breathing room to figure out its business model, before pressure starts to perhaps also reward investors and employees via a public offering.

H-P Releases Its $800 Slate, the Latest iPad Rival

Nathan Becker — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 17:58:41 +0000

Hewlett-Packard Co. released a touchscreen tablet computer Friday that runs Windows, becoming the latest computer maker to jump into the fray following Apple Inc.’s debut of the iPad earlier this year.

H-P’s Slate 500 tablet can be bought on the company’s website for $799—above the price of most iPads, which range in price from $499 to $829, depending on storage space and wireless connectivity.

The Slate 500, which has an 8.9-inch screen, will run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system, and is targeted at business customers. IPads have a 9.7-inch screen.

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Video: BoomTown Gets a Taste of Umi and Chomps into Cisco Execs Too!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:16:20 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown dragged my weary bag of bones to downtown San Francisco for the unboxing of a new consumer telepresence product from Cisco called Umi.

The networking giant is making yet another big foray into the competitive space for, well, space in the living room with the device, which will cost $599 with a $24.99 monthly fee.

The Cisco (CSCO) brand name Umi is a variation on “you-me.”

The Umi unit works with your existing high-definition television and high-speed broadband. It’s in three parts: A camera, a remote control and a set-top box. It will work with Google (GOOG) Voice Chat–but not Skype and Apple (AAPL) iChat yet.

Here’s a video I did–using Cisco’s Flip video camera, natch!–to capture the proceedings at the launch event and demo, as well as to interview Umi head honcho Gina Clark about the effort, competition and more:

[ See post to watch video ]

Tonight the Lights Go Down on Netscape's Silicon Valley HQ

Kara Swisher — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:04:30 +0000

With a flick of the switch today at 5 pm PT, a critical chapter in Silicon Valley will finally go dark.

That’s when AOL (AOL) officially moves out of the legendary HQ buildings of Netscape Communications in Mountain View, Calif.–along Ellis Street and East Middlefield Road–to new, snappier digs it is subleasing from Google (GOOG) in Palo Alto on Page Mill Road.

AOL will occupy one floor in the new space, while the first floor will be dedicated to start-ups and entrepreneurs.

AOL bought Netscape in late 1998 for $4.2 billion and located its office where the iconic but doomed browser company had made Internet history.

It was the spectacular August 9, 1995, IPO of Netscape that heralded in the dot-com boom for the Web, showering down wealth and fame on its employees, such as co-founder Marc Andreessen.

BoomTown came out to visit Netscape then, right in the middle of those glory days, and I will always recall its vibrant campus as a hubbub of activity and games that were the template for all other digital companies to follow.

No longer–AOL’s new location, said the company’s man-in-Silicon-Valley Brad Garlinghouse, is better for the future as it seeks to reinvent itself.

Netscape, as most know, is no longer used by AOL as a brand or supported technology.

“Fundamental to change at AOL is a cultural change,” Garlinghouse said in an interview yesterday. “For good or bad, those buildings are full of ghosts and we need a new space to start a new chapter.”

Plus the new space is closer to the train and a lively street life (you can see a rendering here).

“AOL is trying to reestablish its tech presence as we grow,” said Garlinghouse of the more than 200 employees in the area. “This is part of that.”

AOL’s new HQ is the former headquarters of Agilent Technologies (A), and Garlinghouse said Symantec (SYMC) will take over the old Netscape space.

The beat, as they say, goes on.

Xilinx Say New Chips Adept at Surviving Space Radiation

Don Clark — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:00:40 +0000

With all the chatter lately about cellphone reception it’s easy to forget that some companies have much tougher technical challenges–particularly those that make hardware that is sent into space. Xilinx thinks it can help.

The Silicon Valley company, which specializes in programmable chips, on Monday announced what it believes is a major leap in making such components impervious to the radiation that strikes spacecraft after they leave the earth’s atmosphere. Harmful streams of high-energy particles can play havoc with semiconductors, causing damage such as interrupting the switching functions of individual transistors on chips.

Radiation is an enormous problem, says Scott Anderson, founder and owner of SEAKR Engineering, a company in Centennial, Colo. that designs specialized computers and other hardware used in satellites and other space-oriented applications. “If you don’t design for it properly, it can take down your whole system,” he says.

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Looking for Microsoft's Ad Exchange? Wait Until (Early) Next Year.

Peter Kafka — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:01:08 +0000

Microsoft bought ad exchange company AdECN more than two years ago. And unless you’ve been paying very close attention to advertising technology, that’s the last you ever heard of it.

This should finally change next year. People familiar with Microsoft’s (MSFT) plans say the company intends to open the exchange, which will allow online ad buyers and sellers to match up in real time, in January. That will put it several months behind Google (GOOG), which turned on its real-time ad exchange in September.

But on the plus side, AdECN will offer lots of intriguing inventory from the get-go: It will sell space on Microsoft’s giant MSN network, as well as inventory on sites the company reps, like Facebook, Digg and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox Sports.

Here’s Microsoft’s formal statement about AdECN’s the timeline:

AdECN and Microsoft remain fully committed to the AdECN Exchange and exchange business. AdECN has been running a Pilot of its Federated, real-time bidding technology within Microsoft for the past several months and will be rolling that product out to a select group of participants in the coming months.

Real-time ad exchanges are a big deal for people trying to automate advertising buying and selling. They differ from older ad exchanges, like Yahoo’s (YHOO) Right Media, in that they’re supposed to let buyers and sellers negotiate a price within milliseconds on specific pieces of inventory.

But it’s not clear that buyers and sellers will embrace real-time exchanges. In order to use them, for instance, they’ll have to build, buy or rent technology that allows them to make and process orders at lightning speed.

AdECN manager Jeff Green left Microsoft earlier this month without explaining what he intended to do next. Jed Nahum, Microsoft’s director of network strategy and planning, is running the unit in the interim.

(Disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

[Image credit: rednuht]

The Sass of Kahn: Remembering Ricardo Montalban

Kara Swisher — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:22:02 +0000

BoomTown’s favorite space villain, as well as an alum of two of the “Planet of the Apes” sci-fi movies, Ricardo Montalban, died earlier this week in Los Angeles. He was 88 years old.

While he was also a movie star and helmed the always bizarre 1970s television show, “Fantasy Island,” those who love some serious scenery-chewing will never forget Montalban’s turn as the insane Khan Noonien Singh in the second “Star Trek” movie, “The Wrath of Khan.”

The fabulous movie was based on a famous episode of the “Star Trek” television series, “Space Seed,” about a race of super-men lost in space and found by the crew of the Enterprise.

While Montalban’s over-the-top performance is extreme in both cases, it is pure sci-fi genius too.

So, here is a great Internet video mashup of from “Khan,” with the terrific “From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee…” line, as well as a preview of “Space Seed.”

(And, I could not resist throwing Montalban’s classic commercial for the Chrysler Cordoba and his wonderfully languid way of saying “soft Corinthian leather.”)

The Wrath of Khan:

Space Seed:

Chrysler Cordoba: