From Here and There

I find its site impossible to navigate, but Etsy, a crafts marketplace, has raised $27 Million this week. Here’s the story from VentureBeat. I like the idea of a crafts marketplace, in the same vein that I like all Renaissance ideas. But they need to hire a UI designer asap. Fake Steve Jobs gives a

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Vertical Travel Ad Network CEO Cree Lawson (Part 5)

SM: What are your top target segments? CL: We’ve been called the “long tail of travel websites” but that’s not completely accurate. RandMcNally.com, LonelyPlanet.com, WAYN.com and AreaGuides.net are hardly long tail publishers. These are premium properties with deeply integrated advertising packages that command high CPMs. Generally speaking, we make most of our revenue comes from

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Google’s Mortalization

Those who make a habit of existing in the clouds eventually have to descend. Perhaps, Google is experiencing a slight doze of “mortalization”. Google investors have lost more than 18% of their money over the past month due to concerns about the crumbling US macroeconomic condition. After yesterday’s 4Q07 results which were highly overestimated by

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Microsoft to Rescue the Yahoo Damsel in Distress

Yahoo!’s vulnerable situation was bound to bring out acquisition offers, and Microsoft has been sniffing at the company for a year (see the letter from Ballmer to Yang in the WSJ). I was hoping against hope that Private Equity would step up to the plate, recognizing the leverage opportunity, but it has not happened.

Vertical Travel Ad Network CEO Cree Lawson (Part 4)

SM: How big is the market? How do you calculate TAM? What is your business model? CL: We’ve reviewed a great deal of research on how large the market is for online travel advertising and very specifically banner advertising on travel websites. Forrester says that online travel advertising is an $8-billion-a-year industry in 2007, growing

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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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Forbes Column 08: How To Dig Out Yahoo’s Treasures

More on the same topic. My Forbes column How To Dig Out Yahoo’s Treasures provides commentary on Yahoo’s earnings later today.

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: