Deal Radar 2008: Facebook Woes Coming?

Facebook is the most popular social networking site providing an interactive space that helps members communicate with “friends”. The site features like ‘Wall’ and ‘Poke’ have created a vernacular amongst the youth population. It was started in February 2004, by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. “Are we Facebook friends?” has now become a social phenomenon! Angel

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Deal Radar 2008: Tagged In Exit Freeze Danger Zone?

Tagged, launched in 2004, is a rapidly growing social network for teens aged 13 – 19. It is quickly becoming the number one teen site. The site’s early innovations include the use of slides and YouTube as a part of its graphical interface. In February 2006, Tagged raised $7 million in its first venture capital

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Time For Private Equity At Yahoo

Predictably, Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) posted a 23% drop in its 4Q07 profit and forecasted 2008 revenues that were below the Street’s expectation. The stock was down over 10% in after-hours trading. The market cap has eroded to the tune of $25 Billion in the last two years. So how do we play the stock going

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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: Zappos Wants to be Amazon When it Grows Up

You have heard me talk about the verticalization of the web. Here’s a good example of a brand built on that premise. Zappos.com is the #1 online footwear retailer. Apart from retailing around 1,100 well known brands of shoes, boots, sandals, and athletic footwear, it also retails accessories including socks, wallets, belts, designer handbags, and

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Will Netflix Survive iTunes Movies?

Amidst weak economic conditions, Netflix reported a solid 4Q07 beating the street’s expectations. Revenues in 4Q07 was $302.4 million, up 9% y-o-y. Gross Profit margin was 33.8% compared to 38.9% a year ago. Net profit increased to $15.8 million, up 6% driven mainly by a 9% q-o-q decline in Subscriber Acquisition Cost (SAC) to $34.60,

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Trend Radar 2008: Turnarounds

2008 seems like a year in which several major companies are positioned for turnarounds. Whether or not they would be successful is another matter, but there is enough discontinuity in each of their markets, that turnarounds could happen. Here are some to watch:

Forbes Column 08: eBay’s Bounce-Back Opportunity

Meg Whitman is finally leaving eBay. My Forbes column, eBay’s Bounce-Back Opportunity, discusses what the successor needs to pay attention to, whether it is John Donahoe or otherwise. We have also discussed eBay’s strategy at length in Web 3.0 and eBay and eBay vs Amazon. Today, the determining factor in the eBay vs Amazon debate

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