Screw “Microhoo”

I am pretty confident that the Microsoft takeover of Yahoo may not be the option. The one being that Yahoo is a big organization and does not seem to eager to get bought up by its rival Microsoft.  The clash of cultures reminds of the one I read about in the Paypal Wars when X.com and Paypal were joined.

I definitely think that Microsoft is right to spend its war chest on key acquisitions, but Yahoo is a big risk with not enough of a reward proposition. On the other hand, when using AIM pro, I saw what Microsoft needed… AOL! Microsoft buy AOL from Time Warner (or a substantial stake) is a much better move. It would be much cheaper than Yahoo, and present a large range of upsides. There is much less of a culture clash and way less risk involved in such a deal. Furthermore, it could ensure that Google would not intervene, since it can’t do anything with Yahoo.

Microsoft will be able to integrate its business services into many of AOL’s products notably all versions of AIM.The combination of these services will be extremely innovative and strengthen both companies’ current service offerings.

Blackberry Freakout

I Survived the Blackberry outage of January 2008. Fortunately, I was on a plane during the outage, because otherwise who knows what I may have done, maybe even gone to an internet cafe- Starbucks if need be! Even before boarding the flight I could tell something was in the air. People were even more focused on their Blackberry phone, even shaking it up and down to see if it was something with the phone. Then after a few moments, maybe with a pause where they set it down on the table trying to think of more pleasent thoughts and deciding to use more drastic measures, they shut off the phone for a minute if they were even that patient.

My flight was called and I boarded the plane where the birth of a frenzy was paused. When I got off the plane the outage appeared to have disappeared, people looked at their phones with some satisfaction (ah at last I receive email), followed by dissatisfaction (shit, I really have to do this!?), then satisfaction again (but at least I can take care of this reply now).

This was too good to be true, and as people were waiting for their baggage, the outage had a more profound effect as people realized that the network was still bugging and that this intolerable disconnectedness deprived us and I am not sure how much longer we can last…

I am writing to you now from safety in front of my computer, so you know that I have been connected, but there are still some out there in the middle of the Blackberry freakout.

Sarkozy, a Kennedy without the looks

Being in a different country shields one from the every day news in other countries. So, when I opened my msn messenger, which gives me French news, and the MSN pop out news of the day was Carla Bruni and Nicholas Sarkozy travel to Egypt together, I had to make sure that I was reading right. I had not even known that he had divorced his wife, who was already pretty good looking for a guy like Sarkozy. It surprised me that I had not heard about any of these stories, considering the controversy of a divorce in a historically catholic country.

Regardless, Nicholas Sarkozy is more and more of a jetsetter, which was not expected from the guy who was supposed to be the Giuliani. I am still amazed by Sarkozy’s ability to attract Carla Bruni and the his divorce while in presidency. I wonder how his perceived leadership and personality will affect the future. My guess is France will get more concessions and favorable treatment with a superstar/singer/model by his side- just like Kennedy.

Microsoft and Facebook unite

It has finally been announced, Microsoft has won another advertising battle against Google when it purchased 1.5% of Facebook for $240 million in cash. In addition to this, it is now being suggested that Facebook is raising $500 million more from hedge funds, using the same $15 billion valuation. This will give Facebook enough money to pay its increasingly large staff and make acquisitions of its own- maybe even some of the applications it has let outside developers create.

Facebook does not have the revenues to to justify the price tag of $15 billion. It will not continue to grow as fast and has already shown moments of stagnation. It will continue to be successful and is something that will last, but the return on investment expected from the current finance round are not realistic. I believe the hedge fund guys are just waiting for the Facebook IPO to happen; just as soon as Facebook burns through the $750 million. The IPO will be successful, but we are only blowing more air into an already large bubble.

Now that Microsoft has a stake in Facebook, will Google want its share of Myspace? Google could probably get a good price, in comparison to the Facebook valuation, for a stake in Myspace. Closer ties with Myspace and News Corp could ease Google’s expansion to TV and also offer YouTube a chance to redeem itself with the big studios. At the same time there are clearly advantages for News Corp as well as it has been clear that Rupert Murdoch is interested in internet properties, but more importantly could use Google’s leverage and resources in advertising to shape up the Wall Street Journal…

Why didn’t Google buy Myspace and is it too late?

This question has not been brought up on many occasions. Maybe its because some people do not think Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra and Fox News’ outlook do not seem to match, but one thing is for sure, Google ads work well on MySpace. In fact, Google could have bought Myspace for about the same amount of money it has put in to the site in order to secure its advertising deal… In other words think of the ROI Google could have made by buying Myspace.

If the money would not have been enough, maybe a Google backed Myspace would be stronger to fight back at Facebook, which seems to be growing and slowly overtaking Myspace. Maybe not in the number of members yet, but it is clear that Myspace seems tired and Facebook is wired. But, in the internet world this can all change fast.

Could Google still purchase Myspace? That is a tough one. Is there a right price at which both News Corp and Google would be willing to agree. News Corp purchased MySpace for just under $600 million, but now with every newspaper and magazine talking about Facebook, rumors of a potential IPO and a potential $15 billion valuation; would Rupert Murdoch consider selling? I do not think Google would nor could afford the expensive price tag for either Facebook or Myspace.

Apparently, according to some cnet article and some analysts, Myspace could reach the $15 billion valuation in 3 years. I do not know how that number was come up with, but it seems like there may be just a little tiny bit of a web 2.0 bubble around social networking. Within 3 years, Facebook could be worth $90 billion at this rate or probably more like $5-6 billion once the hype dies down…

The Battle for the 30+ers

When Silicon Valley’s hot shots start to social network so does everyone else. Social networking continues to increase and the news is that the 18 to 25 is no longer the hottest demographic. Instead the 30+ers are the fastest growing segment of the social networking phenomenon. After Linkedin, Gather and many other social networks- new ones, less conventional are starting to appeal to the 30+ such as Myspace and Facebook. It is interesting for Facebook where the initial core population was the class of 2006 and gradually spread to older generations because of the existing bonds between the people and the fact that it was a practical way to get in touch and keep a connection or stregnthen existing connections. Now the “social graph” that Mark Zuckerburg often refers to, or simply the social network being created into something we grow and develop. Our behavior is likely to evolve on these sites as we mature (especially for the early facebook adopters) and our tastes change or we discover new things such as a new youtube video or have traveled abroad. We can share our discoveries and self evolution with our friends.

I joined Facebook early on, when it was a tool to interact with my college friends, but then it evolved into a tool to interact with all my friends, but now it is moving towards a tool or “utility,” according to Mark Z, for interacting with everyone that one knows. The people I know are of different age groups and my dad has already told me that he has received numerous Facebook invites, which means that it might not be that long until I am friends with my father and his friends.

As Facebook makes this progression, I hope that someone will create an application that enables people to recreate family trees. A cheaper alternative to paying someone to trace back your ancestors. There may be other applications that trace various social graphs and play around with what was once referred to as the “6 degrees theory.” Facebook and the internet in general reform societies 6 degrees theory, because people can be connected more easily and avoid certain degrees.

Google teaches leverage… and kills the PC in the process

From search engine to buying YouTube to talks with HTC and Orange over an upcoming Gphone. Google is no longer just a search engine and is leading the way to having a new technology conglomerate in direct competition with Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and just about every other tech or web company.

Google is very smart in leveraging its market advantages and technologies to make pushes into markets that can be tied to its core search service. Google has made its presence known on the internet, but now as the internet becomes more accessible with mobile technologies, Google wants to make sure it preserves its dominant market share, especially on the mobile phone, where it must also limit the growth of the mobile windows operating system.

There are clearly advantages for Google to develop a mobile phone (without focusing too much on the hardware and relying on its potential partners HTC and Orange). It will help Youtube and make the site available for everyone with the phone or how about mobile blogging directly to Blogger or even better taking pictures on vacation and having them instantly available for picture sharing with Picasa. The reasons for launching the phone are evident and can take Google to an even greater success story…

Another potential gphone prototype could be one by samsung below.

Un petit poème français

Il m’arrive de me questionner,

Pourquoi l’homme a-t-il créer une pyramide si triangule ?

Mi-flottante sur une mer agite dévorant les plus infortunés,

La pyramide ne cesse d’agrandir, mais, sa base affame, ne peut plus supporter,

Le poids grandissant de la pyramide, et disparaît sans être remercie pour son sacrifice impose.

Il m’arrive de me questionner,

Pourquoi l’homme est-il enferme dans une pyramide qui flottait ?

Un plateau serait plus raisonnable, car les gens pourraient mieux circulées,

Tous se tenir la main lorsque la terre tremble, pensées aux intérêts des autres, et les aider a existé.

Il m’arrive de me questionner,

Si l’homme veut se différencier de l’animal, doit il renoncer a sa volonté de dominer ?

Cependant la domination est intégrée dans notre nature, l’homme désir tout pouvoir dont il peut abusé.

La plus noble qualité de l’homme ; c’est savoir faire preuve de sincérité et considération entière des deux volonté et résister a la tentation de dominer injustement.

Il m’arrive de me questionner,

Pourquoi certains hommes ont étaient capables de profité au détriment de nombreux et qu’arrive t’il aux affecté ?

Certains ont déjà protesté, menacé, ou même attaqué, mais il existe celui qui a accepté.

Peut être même, cette personne ne sait pas qu’elle a accepté, ou est bien doté, et le sait, mais la majorité est trop engouffré pour protester.

Il m’arrive de me questionner,

Avec tous les « progrès » des temps modernes, serait-ce possible pour un homme de bonté de se faufiler ?

Je ne peux qu’espéré que les gens comprendront cette vérité et qu’ils sauront nager.

 

 (I wrote this just after finishing The Confessions of an Economic Hitman  by John Perkins)

Bulgarian Vacation

“Why!? Why Bulgaria?” That’s typically what I would hear from people when I would impulsively include in to our conversations that I was planning on traveling to Bulgaria for 2 weeks during my summer vacation. Most of the time I, depending on who I was speaking with, I would probably reply: “for the trip*!” (*trip is a word taken from the English to the French and then back to the English with a meaning that is difficult to express in English, quite ironically, but that alludes to a positive experience, kind of like the way the word is used in reference to the use of hard drugs, but with a broader and sometimes healthier interpretation) I like to be unconventional, take the road less traveled by, so that’s why Bulgaria.

It turns out that the road less traveled is a very blurry image, we do not have all the traces of footsteps to show us the path and must make our own path, which is part of the charm of the road less traveled by. Let me tell you right now, Bulgaria is a very traveled country and is probably not what you would expect unless you have seen it for yourself or know the region. Before my arrival in Sofia and visiting the few other parts I had the opportunity to visit, I pictured the country in a particular way—(sigh) with a primitive eye, but I failed to see the effects of privatization, meaning youngsters with the brand new Ferrari or more Audi S8s that one can find in all of Audi’s NY dealerships. But, there is the Bulgaria I imagined, the one with the charming little village and beautiful scenic views. Yes those little villages still exist, but they are becoming fewer and fewer as property developments are left unrestricted or unfairly regulated at many times. Why would a country allow its most beautiful coasts and beaches to be overpopulated by the most poorly designed hotels and their tragic engineering jobs leaving some of these hotels a sinking spot in the local quick sand. However, we can sense that change is coming with their entrance into the EU.

Through my 2 week stay in Bulgaria I got to discover a new country with my friend Marc. We stayed on the Black Sea at what we realized upon arrival was a luxurious beach resort called Sunny Beach that had become overpopulated with hotels and rich youngsters…. AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN. Unfortunately, they were not for me… I forgot my Ferrari back home was the excuse. The she devils loved the smell of money, I guess I stank a bit those days. But despite the failures, Marc and I still managed to have one of the craziest times of our lives, enjoying both sunrises and sunsets in the same day. It was great, but the partying could not last, there had to be more to Bulgaria then rich people, beautiful women and beaches. SO we headed down to a village on the beach for 2 days of Bulgarian village Lozenetz on the beach.

After all the sun and sand it was time to discover Sofia and the some of the countryside, so we hopped on the 6 hour bus ride back to Sofia where we had our friend Ludmilla host us and show us around. We were able to discover more about the Bulgarian culture and climb the gorgeous mountain side and see the mountain lakes. So there for a brief brief brief highlight of my Bulgarian vacation.