Will Magma Die on the Vine?

Magma Design Automation, Inc. (LAVA) provides electronic design automation software products and related services, and is our fourth and final company in the EDA review. In February 2007 I reviewed Magma and noted they were a potential acquisition target given their legal problems in a losing patent fight with Synopsys. I pondered on the possibility of Synopsys taking over Magma and how that might restructure the industry. >>>

Buenos Aires Trip: Cupolas on Avenida de Mayo

Avenida de Mayo is one of the most beautiful streets in Buenos Aires, and one that has a large concentration of buildings with facades and Cupolas that are really beautiful.

Some of these, today, house offices, and some apartments.

I have the memory of a beautiful evening in one of these cupola apartments in 1999, when I cooked a large Indian dinner for a group of friends, and we were entertained by a Venezuelan folk musician who played the harp.

It was Jeff Anderson’s birthday party. >>>

MMOGs: The Parallel Universe

By Gabe Zichermann, Guest Author

In 2006, nearly 16 million people subscribed to paid MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games), spending nearly $700 million to play in parallel universes ranging from the absurd to the quotidian. Tens of millions more are casual MMOG players in worlds that don’t require subscriptions, and still more play one of hundreds of Asian-based MMOGs. Even if you’re not an active player in Nexon’s Maple Story or Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, you’ve undoubtedly been touched by the phenomenon — as a parent, friend, widow or even a recovering player.

But what is it about MMOGs that attract so many players and what opportunities are left in an industry that has attracted so much attention? MMOGs, it seems, tap into a combination of factors that appeal tremendously to gamers of all ages, genders and income levels, even though the average player is a middle class white male between 18-30. Those factors include the challenges, sociability and anonymity built into most MMOGs, providing a social outlet that has both structure and opportunity for growth/change.
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Incubator Funds in India: Sales and Business Development?

The idea is good. The product has been spec’ed under strong product marketing discipline. The talented engineering team has delivered Version 1.0.

Now it’s time to sell.

So, how do you sell from India, without burning through ridiculous amounts of capital, without spinning in place? >>>

Speeding Up the Internet: Algorithms Guru and Akamai Founder Tom Leighton (Part 10)

SM: What kinds of problems have you identified as big open problems you are going to tackle in the labs?

TL: We are always working on making the service faster, scalable and more reliable. We have a team of folks that are looking for the 1 in 10,000 to the 1 in 100,000 “nasty thing” that prevents content from getting delivered on the Internet. We are constantly testing the sites we carry, and sure enough, with the Internet, something won’t get delivered correctly, something will be delivered slowly. We are always investigating that to make the service better and better and better. Today we have about a factor of 5-10 fewer errors than our competitors. We are always trying to make that margin bigger.

We are also trying to make the service faster and that means more deployments at ISPs, better technology. For example, if you bought the web application accelerator service from us a year ago, today you would find it is faster. You did not have to do anything for that, or pay us any more, that is just what we do. >>>

Mitch Berman’s Zillion TV

Guest Author Mitch Berman’s ZillionTV is financed. If you want to know what the stealth mode ZillionTV is doing, reading Mitch’s posts below may give you a clue. But hopefully, it won’t tell all.

* Interview with Mitch Berman
* IPTV: Next-Gen Television?
* IPTV, Next-Gen Television: The Operators
* IPTV, Next-Gen Television: The Box
* IPTV, Next-Gen Television: Internet TV

It’s About Place (Part 8)

by Cal McElroy, Guest Author

When I started this discussion on PlaceSmart Search and PlaceID back in May, there was a list of topics and issues I wanted to cover, but no clear vision on how to finish the series. As a start, here is a quick recap of the discussion:

• Paid local search, while a potential monster business opportunity, has yet to really take off. Why?
• Premise 1: Rich content and great search experience come first, then traffic, and finally monetization.
• Premise 2: Businesses want (and will pay) to be found and advertisers always find the audience.
• A tiny fraction of the worlds information is currently indexed for location-based retrieval (even Google admits this).
• Maps and GeoTags, while cool, don’t solve the underlying content indexing, integration and retrieval issues.

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Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 12)

SM: Do you wish Raychem was around as an independent company today? PC: Yes, yes I do.

SM: Why did you make the choices you did regarding Raychem? PC: I made the decision to retire at 66 because I believe the CEO has to be young and vigorous. When I retired I decided the best thing for me would be to get away from the company and let the new younger people take it and run with it. I even resigned and retired as the chairman. I was not on the Board when the company was sold.

SM: Do you ever get approached by the private equity people to take it back? PC: Yes, but it wasn’t feasible.
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