Trend Radar 2008: Edutainment

Jeff Katz told me about the Tag when I interviewed him in the Fall, but I promised not to write about it. Well, now the announcement is out. Tag is the new reading product from Leapfrog, replacing the LeapPad franchise that took the company to heights in 2003.

Deal Radar 2008: eHarmony Replacing Yenta

eHarmony is an online dating/matchmaking site that uses its patented Compatibility Matching System™ to match singles. In November 2004, eHarmony raised $110 million in a Series B round of financing from Sequoia Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures and Tuputele Ventures. It had earlier raised $3 million in Series A from Sarofim Fayez and Co.

Deal Radar 2008: Takkle Tackling Socially

Takkle is a social network for high school sports, where students, athletes, coaches, and fans share their passion. Takkle has a strategic alliance with Sports Illustrated. Takkle allows students to create their profiles and upload their stats, photos and videos for college recruiters. In November 2007 Takkle raised $7 million in venture funding led by

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Move in Challenging times

With the falling real estate market, the Move Inc. stock price has been hammered down in the last one year and is currently trading at $1.78 with a total market capitalization of just over $300 million. The 52-week range for the stock is $1.75 – $6.69.

Good Mobility and Convergence Blogs

Here are some we track: Network Administrator: Selena Frye at Networking Administrator has contributors discussing topics such as video conferencing, VoIP, mobile technology, and Unified Communications. Engadget: Engadget is one of most popular gadget blogs.

Deal Radar 2008: hi5 Going Strong

Last week we took a look at Xanga and today we will take a look at hi5, another popular social networking site. hi5 has an Alexa traffic rank of 8. hi5 is more popular globally than it is in the US. It is the number one site in Peru, Dominic Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Portugal,

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Viacom – Discovering its Mojo

We did a lengthy review of Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA-B) vertical strategy in the Fall. Meanwhile, revenues were up 24% in 3Q07 to $3.27 billion. Adjusted net earnings grew 20% to $437 million and diluted EPS were $0.65, a 27% increase over 3Q06. The solid performance was due to the DreamWorks-Paramount blockbuster Transformers. Earlier this month,

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Trend Radar 2008: Verticalization Everywhere

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know, I am a huge believer in verticalization of the web. In fact, my entire Web 3.0 thesis is based on this idea. In 2007, we saw the beginnings of verticalization. In 2008, I expect this trend to become rampant in all aspects of the

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