Murdoch’s Next: Monster?

I covered Monster (MNST) previously last July touching on how the company was expanding both vertically in the domestic front and on the international front. My main point then was whether Monster could expand enough internationally to get out of its sole reliance on the U.S. market and place hedge footprints in relevant geographies. Q3

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Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 5)

Conclusion We have had a look at eBay’s business and verticals and discussed them from a Web 3.0 perspective over the last few days. eBay has been experiencing a slow down in its growth rate. Skype is struggling and the Company is working on better monetizing Skype. PayPal on the other hand has been doing

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Yahoo Must Acquire Shutterfly

I have covered Shutterfly (Nasdaq: SFLY) a few times here already. I have had my eye on the company for a while, and have pegged it as an acquisition target for Yahoo, especially. Last week, amidst market doldrums, I managed to pick up a chunk of SFLY at a good price, and have already seen

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Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 4)

Acquisition Strategy eBay acquired online ticket marketplace, StubHub for $307 million in May 2007. It also acquired social bookmarking discovery service, StumbleUpon, for $75 million. These are mostly acquisitions by eBay to strengthen its verticals and community features. Going forward we could see eBay making many more acquisitions to strengthen its key verticals, but also

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Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 3)

Vertical Strategy & Web 3.0 Framework discussion eBay being an auction site operates in various verticals. Some of the key verticals in which eBay operates are Auto, Real Estate, Apparel, Jewelry, Art, Books, CDs, Consumer Electronics, Photography, etc. eBay has some very good community and e-commerce features, but also lacks some rather vital ones. It’s

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Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy eBay is the most popular auction site in the world. It also operates the hugely popular online payment software PayPal and VoIP tool Skype. We will take a look at the Company’s various businesses below. Marketplace eBay.com is still #1 in auctions, after years of competition trying to chip away at its game.

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Nokia’s 28% Sales Growth Underscores Strong Execution

In this post, I will look at recent developments in Nokia and Motorola. Earlier posts were featured in the iPhone series are available here and here. For the record, I own Nokia in my portfolio, as part of my convergence device bet along with RIMM, which I just bought as well.

Web 3.0 & eBay (Part 1)

Introduction Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. provides consumers with Internet platforms for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including the eBay e-commerce marketplace, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com, and others. Today, eBay has three operating segments: Marketplaces, Payments and Communications. The

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