How to value a business: project the future cash flows that the business (the asset) will produce over its lifetime (think carefully about things like declining prices due to new competition, realistic growth rates, etc.) discount these cash flows back to the present at an appropriate rate ask yourself: does it possess an economic castle [...]
A Berkshire Hathaway B share can be worth at most 1/1500th of a Berkshire A share. Because of that, there will always be arbitrage between the two to keep it that way. For example, BRK-A closed on Friday, July 8th, 2011 at $115,050.00, while BRK-B closed at $76.90. Given BRK-B’s closing price, you’d expect BRK-A [...]
Silicon Valley gets a lot of attention when it comes to venture capital. While Seattle isn’t in the headlines a lot, it does have a presence. Here’s a list* of Seattle-based VC firms: Alexander Hutton Technology Alliance of Angels Connecting investors w/ early stage companies ARCH Venture Partners Life sciences, physical sciences, information technology Atlas [...]
I just read an article entitled, “7 life lessons from the very wealthy“. The author writes that in his day job he comes into “contact with very high-net-worth individuals” — people with hundreds of millions of dollars, and in some cases billions of dollars. One of the lesson’s stuck out to me. 3. Memories are [...]
In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable moats. -Warren Buffett
1. What Good Is Wall Street? (newyorker.com) During a period in which American companies have created iPhones, Home Depot, and Lipitor, the best place to work has been in an industry that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.
1. Chanos vs. China (fortune.cnn.com) The scene is a cocktail party high above the Shanghai skyline on a summer night a few months ago. Our host is a Master of the Hedge Fund Universe, one who doesn’t want to be identified in the press. We’ll call him Pete. Pete comes to China at least twice [...]
1. Pretty Good For Government Work (nytimes.com) Dear Uncle Sam, My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been remiss. Let me remind you why I’m writing. Just over two years ago, in September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pillars that supported our mortgage system, [...]
1. You Fix The Budget (nytimes.com) Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.
As you may know, I’ve always been interested in business. The other day, I wrote a post called “Small Giants.” To my surprise, there’s been a book written under the same name. The author, Bo Burlingham, posted a comment on that post informing me of the book, as well as some other things. One of [...]
It amazes me how much business there is in my neighborhood, let alone the U.S. Small business. Big business. And everything in between small and big. If you’re fortunate enough to stay in business that means you have revenue and that you’re making a profit. I’ve always thought that being in business and making a [...]
There’s been a lot of discussion and debate lately about “open” and “closed” platforms with regards to Google and Apple. During Apple’s latest conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings, Steve Jobs said some things in reference to the ongoing debate about this. You can read the transcript of the call here. But I just [...]
1. Patagonia, From The Ground Up (entrepreneur.com) “Patagonia gear isn’t cheap or trendy (deliberately, anyway). Instead, the brand is thriving by maintaining its integrity, says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with NPD Group, a market research firm. ‘They’ve become the Rolls-Royce of their product category,’ he says. ‘When people were stepping back, and the industry [...]
“Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life. The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple. As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an [...]
I have long admired Warren Buffett. Like many, I’m an ardent listener of what he has to say. You can read some of his witty aphorisms here.
It’s being reported today that Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy protection. In hearing this, I came across an interesting Slate piece from 2006 that discusses some of the decisions it made (or opportunities it failed to capitalize on) several years ago that most likely influenced today’s filing. Though, hindsight is always 20-20. Anyway, you can [...]
“The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage. The products or services that have wide, sustainable moats around them are the ones that [...]
1. Inside The Secret World Of Trader Joe’s (money.cnn.com) “Apple’s retail stores aren’t the only place where lines form these days. It’s 7:30 on a July morning, and already a crowd has gathered for the opening of Trader Joe’s newest outpost, in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The waiting shoppers chat about their favorite Trader Joe’s foods, [...]
1. The Graphing Calculator Story (nucalc.com) “Pacific Tech’s Graphing Calculator has a long history. I began the work in 1985 while in school. That became Milo, and later became part of FrameMaker. Over the last twenty years, many people have contributed to it. Graphing Calculator 1.0, which Apple bundled with the original PowerPC computers, originated [...]
1. Keep Calm, Carry On… (alexisohanian.com) “Few people outside of friends & family knew about the following at the time it was going on; bringing it up now, long after I’ve left reddit, feels less self-serving and will hopefully be instructive. This came up briefly in a talk I gave at MIT, but this feels a [...]
1. Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: GitHub (37signals.com) “Q&A with Chris Wanstrath, CEO and Co-Founder of GitHub. This is part of our “Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud” series which profiles companies that have $1MM+ in revenues, didn’t take VC, and are profitable.”
1. Warren Buffett’s Mr. Fix-It (money.cnn.com) “The day after Lehman collapsed in September 2008, David Sokol noticed that the stock of Constellation Energy, a Baltimore utility, was plummeting. He called his boss, Warren Buffett, and said, ‘I see an opportunity here.’ Buffett, who had noticed the same thing, replied after a brief discussion: ‘Let’s go [...]
I just came across an interesting collection of startup resources via Y Combinator. You can check it out here.
I just came across an interesting podcast series about entrepreneurship, entitled “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders”, through Stanford University’s entrepreneurship site. I haven’t listened to any of them yet, but it looks like a good list of speakers. You can find out more about it here.
1. The Pitchman (gladwell.com) “The extraordinary story of the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ begins with Nathan Morris, the son of the shoemaker and cantor Kidders Morris, who came over from the Old Country in the eighteen-eighties, and settled in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Nathan Morris was a pitchman. He worked the boardwalk and the [...]
1. Focus And Differentiation (speakhuman.com) “First dates are weird. Each individual tries to present their best characteristics. In doing so they edit what they say, in order to hit the high points and not overwhelm the other. This is common sense, right? You just don’t share every tiny detail about your life during an introduction, [...]
1. The $600 Billion Challenge (fortune.cnn.com) “Just over a year ago, in May 2009, word leaked to the press that the two richest men in America, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, had organized and presided over a confidential dinner meeting of billionaires in New York City. David Rockefeller was said to have been a host, [...]
1. Warren Buffett’s Philanthropic Pledge (money.cnn.com) “In 2006, I made a commitment to gradually give all of my Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic foundations. I couldn’t be happier with that decision.”
1. The Sure Thing (gladwell.com) “In 1969, Ted Turner wanted to buy a television station. He was thirty years old. He had inherited a billboard business from his father, which was doing well. But he was bored, and television seemed exciting. “He knew absolutely nothing about it,” one of Turner’s many biographers, Christian Williams, writes [...]
1. Organic Startup Ideas (paulgraham.com) “The best way to come up with startup ideas is to ask yourself the question: what do yo wish someone would make for you? There are two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to [...]
Since today is Berkshire Hathaway’s 2010 Annual Shareholder’s Meeting, I thought I’d share some Warren Buffett quotes with you. “Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.” “Stock picking is like gambling: those who win well, seldom bet, but when they do, they [...]
It seems like this whole fiasco is indeed real, and serious. Gizmodo published a post this afternoon that said the California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team raided Jason Chen’s (editor of Gizmodo) residence and seized computers and other devices. So much for my “Apple’s trying to deceive” theory.
I just came across an interesting post that answers the question: What if you had bought Apple stock instead of that iPod? “Currently, Apple’s stock is at an all time high. A share today is worth over 40 times its value seven years ago. So, how much would you have today if you purchased stock [...]
Three reads about Apple. 1. The iPad, The Kindle, And The Future Of Books (newyorker.com) “On the morning of January 27th—an aeon ago, in tech time—Steve Jobs was to appear at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in downtown San Francisco, to unveil Apple’s new device, the iPad. Although speculation about the device had [...]
1. Geek Power: Steven Levy Revisits Tech Titans, Hackers, Idealists (wired.com) “‘It’s funny in a way’, says Bill Gates, relaxing in an armchair in his office. ‘When I was young, I didn’t know any old people. When we did the microprocessor revolution, there was nobody old, nobody. It’s weird how old this industry has become.’ [...]
The Internet is going crazy today over Gizmodo’s “This Is Apple’s Next iPhone” post. As the story goes: “guy finds what looks like an iPhone 3GS in a protective case sitting on the floor of a bar in San Jose [which Gizmodo said late Monday was Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German specialty store and beer [...]
A couple of weeks ago, TechCrunch featured a guest post by Ben Horowitz, co-founder of software company Opsware and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen’s blog post introduction), about leadership. “At Andreessen Horowitz, we favor founders running the company. The reasons are many (and will be the topic of a future blog post). As [...]
I just came across an interesting piece from Wired (August 2009), which discusses a phenomenon where entire markets are being transformed by products that give up power and features for accessibility and ease of use. “ In 2001, Jonathan Kaplan and Ariel Braunstein noticed a quirk in the camera market. All the growth was in [...]
Here’s a ranking of the top ten Web properties in 1998, as compared to now (2010). Website ’98 Rank ’10 Rank AOL.COM 1 46 YAHOO.COM 2 3 GEOCITIES.COM 3 1778 MSN.COM 4 13 NETSCAPE.COM 5 3676 EXCITE.COM 6 726 LYCOS.COM 7 1335 MICROSOFT.COM 8 22 BLUEMOUNTAINARTS.COM 9 18,448,258 INFOSEEK SITES 10 663,973 Source: Geek System
A new book is coming out at the end of this month (March 29, 2010) about the infamous investment bank, Lehman Brothers. It’s called The Devil’s Casino, and it’s authored by contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Vicky Ward. And while several books have been written about the rise and fall of investment banks — many [...]
In July 2008, Fortune published a piece about the “most confidential advisor in Silicon Valley” — Bill Campbell. Bill advises Google’s Eric Schmidt, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Kleiner Perkins’s John Doerr, and many other Silicon Valley leaders as well. “At the old pro sports bar in Palo Alto, happy hour is in full swing. Stanford kids [...]
Economically speaking, it’s been a decade that fits the definition of a paradox. On the one hand, it’s a decade everyone will want to forget. On the other hand, it’s one that should never be forgotten.
The New York Times recently wrote an article about how Apple and Google have become rival competitors, after having started as nice friendship some time ago. It references many company executives and others who were a part of, or close to, the pivotal conversations and events that have taken place. “Three years ago, Eric E. [...]
One of the articles (it’s actually a speech) I mentioned yesterday is by Charlie Munger. Warren Buffett gets (deservedly) a lot of credit for Berkshire’s success over the years. But, I’d wager quite a bit that Warren wouldn’t trade his long-time business partner for anyone. Charlie’s speech is a great read. It easily makes it [...]
Michael Lewis has a new book coming out on March 15, 2010, entitled, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine. Synopsis: “A brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff.” You can read an excerpt from it here (it’s lengthy, but worthwhile).
Berkshire Hathaway released its 2009 annual report today. I found the chairman’s (Warren Buffett) letter to be of particular interest this year as he mentions the company has “added at least 65,000 shareholders to the 500,000 or so already…” as a result of the recent acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. In educating the newcomers [...]
Businessweek.com published its ranking yesterday of the top angel investors in tech.
I’m currently re-reading Beating The Street by Peter Lynch, and I must say that it’s still a great read the second (or third?) time through.
One thing in particular has been on my mind for the last several weeks, perhaps even months. It’s actually a question: “What do people pay for (or buy)?”
More Buffett: “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” “For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”
I have too much stuff. I probably have a lot less than most. But to me, it’s still too much. I have a couple of electronic devices. And what comes with an electronic device? A manual.
In college, I earned a finance degree. During my four years there I was lectured and tested on many different types of investments, investment strategies, jargon, etc. To this day, I’m not sure how much of it I really understand. I didn’t agree with a lot of it, but perhaps that’s out of ignorance. Though, [...]
A couple of Warren Buffett quotes: “It’s no fun being a horse when the tractor comes along, or the blacksmith when the car comes along.” “If you don’t make mistakes, you can’t make decisions.”
I just came across an interesting article by The Atlantic from February 1982. It discusses the history of the diamond industry. You can read it here.
If you were watching the commercials during the third quarter of the Super Bowl yesterday you may have noticed Google’s ad “Parisian Love,” where a user longs for love in Paris. The ad is a part of Google’s “Search Stories” campaign.
On Thursday (Feb. 4), Charlie Rose hosted a discussion about Apple’s iPad. It included Walt Mossberg (The Wall Street Journal), David Carr (The New York Times), and Michael Arrington (TechCrunch).
The other day I wrote this post about the essence of real-world experience as oppose to formal education. Well, I just stumbled across someone who jumped right into the real-world and has had great success. His name is Johnny Earle and he started a t-shirt company in 2001 — Johnny Cupcakes (or JC for short).
Dear Google News, I thank you for incorporating Google Fast Flip into the bottom of Google News. And I would greatly appreciate it if you would include an option (a direct link) to the original source of your articles right from Fast Flip on Google News (instead of reaching Fast Flip first and then having [...]
I just came across a cool demo of Square by Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com). Square, to me, is essentially a mobile payment utility. Demo: Square’s site is here. Kevin Rose’s site is here.
Greg Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard, received a cool email from Gordon Boronow, an assistant professor at Nyack College. In it, Gordon says that he tells his students “that in five years if all they remember about economics is the first chapter [from Greg's book, which I think is this one], then their efforts [...]
Today, PBS released a documentary film called Digital Nation, which explores how the Internet and digital technology are changing the way people communicate, work, and learn. It was broadcast over PBS’ television networks today and it’s also been made available online. I thought it was an interesting film. You can watch it online here. (Note: [...]
I found another interview with Steve Jobs by Rollingstone.com. It’s from December 3, 2003. Here are some of Steve’s comments that I found most interesting: Interviewer: When is Apple going to start signing musicians — in effect, become a record label? “Well, it would be very easy for us to sign up a musician. It [...]
Rollingstone.com recently republished an interview with Steve Jobs from June 16, 1994. It’s an interesting look into what he thought back then. To me, the most interesting thing from the interview was how Steve characterized himself: “I’m a tool builder. That’s how I think of myself. I want to build really good tools that I [...]
I just came across the three-part PBS television special (with Bob Cringely), The Triumph Of The Nerds: The Rise Of Accidental Empires, which premiered in June 1996, via YouTube. I hadn’t seen or heard of it before, so I was eager to start watching it. Though it’s lengthy, I thought it was well worth the [...]
This morning, Apple announced its “latest creation.” It’s called the Apple iPad. You can check it out over at Apple’s site here. You can read Engadget.com’s coverage of the event here. Some Steve Jobs quotes from the event (via Engadget.com): “So all of us use laptops and smartphones. The question has arisen — is there [...]
The Christian Science Monitor reports on the recently released YouTubeCN.com site: Li Senhe launched YouTubecn.com, a fake version of the Google-owned YouTube.com, on Jan. 15, just days after Google announced that it would consider pulling out of the Chinese market if it had to continue censoring its search engine results. You can read The CSM’s [...]
I just came across a short domain name search application. It’s really easy to use and it produces good results. I found and bought a domain name while using it a minute or so ago. It’s called NXdom. From its About page: NXdom is an interactive search engine for available short domain names. Its database [...]
Thomas Friedman, of The New York Times, wrote an op-ed piece yesterday which discusses his desire (post-Massachusetts) to see President Obama make entrepreneurship and innovation his top priority in 2010. You can read the piece here.
Economist.com: The Psychology Of Power — Absolutely Wsj.com: The Quants — Formula For A Meltdown
Stanford.edu: David Heineimeier Hansson: Unlearn Your MBA [Audio -- approx. 1 hour long] Charlierose.com: Charlie Rose With Jeff Zucker, President & CEO of NBC Universal [Video -- discussing the recent late-night television issues; approx. 30 min.]
Wallstreetjournal.com: John Bogle — Restoring Faith In Financial Markets Ft.com: “Airplane Pilot” Protocols In Finance
Cnet.com and many other news outlets are reporting that Apple has announced a Jan. 27 event, by invitation only, to “…see our latest creation.” You can read Cnet’s post on it here.
Steve Jobs on Macworld cover in 1984. See all of the covers here.
John Cassidy (pictured below), of The New Yorker, interviewed six Chicago Booth School of Business economists, and a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago — Richard Posner — who’s also a Senior Lecturer at Chicago Law School and has taken an interest in economics, in October 2009. [...]
Economist.com: Small business takes a hit Economist.com: Banks and Small Businesses — For want of a loan Economist.com: Asset markets: The danger of the bounce Harpers.org: The Church Of Warren Buffett (via Scribd)
David’s talk from Startup School ’08: Share and annotate your videos with Omnisio!
The Superinvestors Of Graham-And-Doddsville was a talk that Warren Buffett gave in 1984 at Columbia University. From tilsonfunds.com: This article is an edited transcript of a talk given at Columbia University in 1984 commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Security Analysis, written by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd. This specialized volume first introduced the ideas [...]
Warren Buffett warned of the dangers of derivatives back in 2003. To read what he said back then click here.
“Google’s Eric Schmidt On The Economy” here. “In Detroit, Entrepreneurs See Opportunity In Hard Times” here.
Yesterday, Google announced that it is incorporating its article-reading service, Fast Flip, into the bottom of Google News. You can read the official announcement here and go to Google News to try it for yourself here.
You can read Netflix’s official press release here.
Read John Gruber (of Daringfireball.net) on “The Apple Tablet” here.
If you’re interested in finding out more about startup incubators/accelerators, you should check out TechStars “The Founders” documentary series. The series covers teams from TechStars’ summer 2009 batch in Boulder, Colorado. There are fourteen episodes. Scroll down to the bottom to find the first one. You can start watching it here.
David Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital, gave a speech entitled, “The Curse of The Triple A” in May of this year. You can read it here (pdf).
Is the Apple Tablet coming to market in 2010? Only a small group of people really know the answer to that. And even if it is, an even smaller group knows the whole story — what it’s really like. Nonetheless, the wire is heating up its discussion about such a device. Here are some links [...]
In late 2007, Google’s stock reached a high of $740, but it subsequently dropped to about $300 by early 2009. Since about 85% of employees held options that were out-of-the-money, Google decided in March that it would allow nearly all of its employees to swap their stock options for new ones. You can the New [...]
I just came across an interesting piece on high-frequency trading from Technologyreview.com (published by MIT). You can read it here.
Thedailybeast.com’s Charlie Gasparino wrote an article last night arguing that “the person who really turned around the economy wasn’t Ben Bernanke.” Charlie’s piece is a response to Time magazine’s anointment of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as its “Person of the Year.” From the article: “As he [Volcker] recently told The Wall Street Journal’s Alan [...]
Pcmag.com is reporting that McDonald’s is going to be offering free Wi-Fi in its U.S. restaurants (11,000) and some of its Canada restaurants in January of 2010. Some notes about it: It used to cost $2.95 for two hours. Wi-Fi is provided by AT&T It’s had Wi-Fi for five years.
Today, Comcast announced the release of its “On Demand Online” service, Fancast XFINITY TV. According to the press release, it’s “available nationally in beta at no additional cost to customers.” From the release: “[Fancast] gives customers an “anytime anywhere” entertainment experience – at home and on-the-go – and expands the video content customers can watch [...]
Yesterday, Plurk had an issue with the release of MSN China’s microblogging service, Juku. (Juku was developed by a Chinese vendor.) In short, that the developers of Juku had directly copied Plurk code. Well, today, Microsoft released a statement acknowledging that some of the code was in fact copied: “The vendor has now acknowledged that [...]
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington published a post today entitled, “The End Of Hand Crafted Content,” about the subsequent rise of “fast food content.” He says: “It’s [fast food content is] the rise of cheap, disposable content on a mass scale, force fed to us by the portals and search engines.” You can read the post here.
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday entitled “In Year of Investing Dangerously, Buffett Looked ‘Into the Abyss.’” It highlights Buffett’s past year (it actually starts with a March 15, 2008 call) — deals he was contacted about, offered, and subsequently passed on, among other things. A quote from the article: “I don’t think Buffett gets [...]
Just came across a visualization of the Browser Wars. It’s pretty cool looking and can be found here. Bonus: What does it look like? (Hint: related to browsers.)
Just came across an interesting piece by someone who started a business selling TV wall mounts online. You can read it here.
Today, Facebook announced that it’s released “new tools to give you even greater control over the information you share.” If you’re an active Web surfer, you’ve probably already read a lot about this. But I’d like to add some more. Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadwWriteWeb.com authored a post today, “The Day Has Come: Facebbook Pushes People [...]
According to a study by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., the low-cost movie rental kiosks may cost the entertainment industry $1 billion. This is primarily due to four factors: DVD sales cannibalization Customers demanding lowing prices from existing rental companies The perceived value of movies will be harmed Redbox’s sale of discs into the [...]
According to Fusion Garage’s Chandra Rathakrishnan, the CrunchPad has been renamed “JooJoo” and will be released on December 11 at midnight PST for $499.
An interesting piece by the Washington Post about former Treasury Department official Neel Kashkari. You can read it here.
Just came across an interview with Jeff Bezos by the New York Times. It mainly focuses on the Kindle and digital literature. You can read it here.
Today, AppJet announced that it’s being acquired by Google. AppJet is the maker of online collaboration tool, EtherPad. The official announcement from AppJet and the Google PR Team says, “The EtherPad team will continue its work on real-time collaboration by joining the Google Wave team.” Update: EtherPad announces that its service is back online until [...]
Yesterday, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, authored a piece for the Wall Street Journal about how Google can help the newspapers. You can read it here.
I just came across a demo from Time, Inc and The Wonderfactory. It shows what Sports Illustrated (SI) could look like on a Tablet device. Is the Tablet for real? I have no idea, but I hope it is. Anyway, I’ll just get out of the way and let you see it for yourself. You [...]
I just searched Google for a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article titled, “UPDATE: News Corp’s Murdoch: Journalism’s Future is Promising” The search yielded this result (URL): http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091201-709558.html I clicked on it and it brought me to this (screenshot): At first, I didn’t think this was even an article. But if you look closely, it is. [...]
Tyler Perry, American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and author, is a great story. He might be best known for his first movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2004), and television show Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (2006). But if you don’t know him yet, you’re likely to very soon. And not through Hollywood. Through [...]
Yesterday, Economist.com published a piece titled “Media: A World Of Hits.” With much more choice for media consumers, the blockbuster was supposed to have been hurt. According to the article, it’s doing just fine. You can read the article here.
This morning, Google announced new search ad formats. It’s known for its text ads within search results, but that’s only one way of consuming information. In some cases, videos and pictures are more effective. In the announcement, Google also talks about providing “richer types of information.” It provides an example, “If you’re looking to buy [...]
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook Inc. has established a Class B stock, which carries ten times the voting power of Class A stock. All existing shareholders’ shares are being converted into the new Class B stock. You can read the article, here.
Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing, gave his first signifcant interview on the App Store approval process today. Schiller’s comments from the businessweek.com article: “We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust,” he says. “You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for [...]
At first, I wanted to stay away from the report that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. are discussing an exclusive search partnership with Microsoft (i.e. Bing). After all, it’s just announcing that they’re discussing. I discuss a lot of things with a lot of different people, while I actually end up doing only a few [...]
Google just announced that it’s acquiring Display Ad Company, Teracent. You can read Google’s official announcement, here.
Zero Hedge, started by Dan Ivandjiiski (aka “Tyler Durden”), is a finance blog. I’m not a regular reader of the blog (yet?), but it seems like many in the finance industry are. It has experienced an incredible rise in popularity since its (recent) inception on January 9, 2009. According to compete.com, it boasts 161,401 unique [...]
Bloomberg is reporting that Facebook shares are selling for $21 on SecondMarket, up from $14.77 in July. According to its site, SecondMarket is “The Secondary Market for Illiquid Assets.” Possible reasons why share prices have spiked: September 15th — Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announces that its site now serves 300 million people across the [...]
Warren Buffett recently appeared on the Charlie Rose Show. Their talk focuses on Berkshire Hathaway’s recent acquisition of Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway, the U.S. economy, China’s economy, the global economy, and even Warren’s thoughts on why he doesn’t own several houses or a bunch of cars. To see the video you’ll have to navigate [...]
One author has candidly answered that question. To prove it, she’s posted her royalty statement. The book is called Twilight Fall. The author is Lynn Viehl. Here’s one quote from the article: “Speaking of comparisons, the publisher’s portion of sales on this book has grossed them around $453,839.68. I don’t have any hard figures on [...]
I just came across an interesting interview with Jeff Bezos. It can be found, here.
I just came across this group of videos on the Web. Some notable ones include: Loopt, AdMob, Twitter, Dropbox, and Mint. See the list and watch here.
First things first, I believe in execution. But you have to execute something. And it starts with an idea. I think when people are brainstorming “business ideas”, they’re really trying to find a great market first, but many probably don’t realize this. Often times, I’ll hear people say they’ve thought of the next best thing [...]
There’s a special on CNBC tonight at 9pm ET/6pm PT (which is right now) where Warren Buffett and Bill Gates will take part in a town-hall meeting at Columbia Business School. Topics include: economy, the future of capitalism, the American dream, and corporate social responsibility. *Update* In case you missed it and want to see [...]
This past week, Fortune featured the “CEO of the Decade” in its magazine and on its website. Who did it select as the CEO of the Decade? Steve Jobs of Apple. You can read the original article, here. You can read other parts of the feature, such as: “Rarely seen Steve Jobs — Where it [...]
I just came across an interesting interview by the Fool.com with Alice Schroder, author of the book The Snowball. The interview centers around the subject of her book, Warren Buffett. You can read it, here.
Over the last couple days, there’s been some discussion about Internet marketing over the Web. Specifically, lead generation spam within social gaming networks. Two days ago, technology blog Techcrunch, stirred up the Web with this post. And then yesterday, Dennis Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal, a privately held advertising agency in Denver, Colorado authored a guest [...]
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was recently interviewed at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009, which is essentially a tech conference for CIO’s and IT directors. While there, he spoke about what he thinks the Web will look like in 5 years. Two comments that he made really stood out to me: 1. “We can index real-time [...]
Buzz Bissinger argues that Michael Lewis’ famous book “Moneyball,” which scrutinizes MLB’s Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s unique way of finding and exploiting market inefficiencies, and buying this value at a discount, is wrong. Bissinger points out that the four teams in this year’s AL and NL championship series’ had a combined payroll of [...]
Someone has re-posted the contents of Marc Andreessen’s blog (He deleted most of it awhile back.) One of my favorite posts is Pmarca’s Guide to Startups, part 4: The Only Thing That Matters. You can find Marc’s recovered/re-posted blog (no guarantees it stays up and this link works in the future) here. You can find [...]
A little while ago, I was talking to someone about investing. We’ll call him Bob. Bob told me he had been given a small (relatively speaking) sum of money. If I remember correctly, it was about $20,000. Bob is getting married soon (Summer of 2010) and this money was given to him (and to his [...]
I just came across an article, (it’s a bit dated — 2005), which highlights a speech given by Mr. Greenberg at Wharton. Almost immediately, his investment strategy reminded me of Warren Buffett’s of Berkshire Hathaway. In fact, I came across Greenberg’s name as I was reading his introduction to Part V of Security Analysis, by [...]
In Warren Buffett’s 1999 article for Fortune Magazine, “Mr. Buffett on the Stock Market…,” with Carol Loomis, Warren discusses the term investing very early on in the piece: “Let’s start by defining ‘investing.’ The definition is simple but often forgotten: Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future–more money [...]
Art of The Long View: Media Company of 2020 (video), which is a discussion between professor Jonathan Taplin, Peter Chernin (former President and COO of News Corp.), and Gordon Crawford (managing director of The Capital Group), is an excellent video. The description of the video on YouTube says: “This conversation will attempt to understand the [...]
These three words (among others, such as, desire and determination) are often debated in terms of their relevance to success. Here are some readings that I found particularly interesting (I plan on adding to the list periodically) on the subject of “success”: -Fortune article: Why Talent is Overrated -Boston.com article: The Truth About Grit -Marc [...]