Four Promising Tech Stocks
Author: Jason Alyesh10 Aug
Kevin Cronin, chief investment officer for Putnam Investments, finds upside in four tech stocks in an economy he believes is currently suffering from inflation and deteriorating economic growth. “The tech sector and the utility sector have been two of the more defensive sectors over the course of the last year and we do find some attractive names there,” Cronin told Erin Burnett and Mark Haines on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.
The four stocks Cronin believes have promise are Microsoft [MSFT], Adobe [ADBE], Apple [AAPL], and EMC Corp. [EMC]. EMC Corp., based out of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, specializes in information infrastructure technology and solutions. “We debate whether Apple is a consumer company or a tech company, but we like Apple as well,” Cronin said. Cronin recognized that the current deterioration of economic growth is not only an American issue, but a global issue as well.
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[UPDATE] Missingmoney.com Reunites Lost Funds with Owners
Author: Kathleen Clark14 Jul
Editor’s UPDATE: Today’s hottest trends on Google in about a website that we covered earlier this year. So I thought it would be an good opportunity for you to revisit our post.
A free national database, MissingMoney.com, is helping Americans reclaim missing money quickly and easily.
Ever wondered if you have any unclaimed money, such as utility deposits or cash left in a bank account? Chances are you might. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), there is an excess of unclaimed property funds totaling $32.8 billion. Furthermore, one in eight Americans has some missing money to claim.
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New Media
Author: Atelier25 Jun
Atelier’s blog provides daily news, analysis and opinions for its clients and for leading experts in the technology and information industries, as well as for its readers.
From trends in financing and in consumer behaviors, to collaborative tools enterprises utilize on the Internet, Atelier’s writers trace the many fluctuations occurring online. Strengthened by local teams in Europe (www.atelier.fr) and in Asia (asie.atelier.fr), they have a profound understanding of the impacts Web technologies and Internet usage have across countries. This lends Atelier’s delivery of brief and in-depth articles authority.
Since 1978, Atelier has analyzed innovations in technology. By the early 1990s, it also began reporting the news on such updates. Thus, its insights and multi-pronged coverage put it at the forefront of technological change while making an impact on both the tech- and media world. Readers mainly located in the United States and in Western Europe, bearing an interest or investment in technology mainly, refer to Atelier’s blog to on a regular basis.
Reading Atelier’s Newsletter helps you stay ahead in and of the emerging technology marketplace.
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Inquiries for the web site, such as interviews, tips, press releases, advertising opportunities, etc. should be addressed to editor@atelier-us.com.
Purchasing Plazes: Nokia’s Hopes to be…Everywhere
Author: Deborah Stokol23 Jun
The ’smartphone’ arms race has just gotten a bit colder. Nokia upped the ante Monday, or at the very least began the catch-up process, by purchasing Plazes, CNBC reported.
Much like its more established predecessors Twitter and Jaiku, Plazes is a social networking start-up service. But where Twitter and Jaiku provide venues for “micro-blogging,” or character-limited forums by which to inform all friends and contacts also using the service of present activities or thoughts, Plazes focuses, as its name would indicate, on place.
It grants subscribers access to “location -aware services,” explained CNBC’s article, so users can better prepare for their social activities.
So buying the service, should make Nokia’s phones more competitive in the Internet-equipped cell phone arena cluttered with BlackBerries, the original iPhone and the upcoming iPhone G3, among others.
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Online Education Growing through Tutoring Services
Author: Danny Scuderi19 Jun
The business of online education is getting bigger, and although there are many online colleges from which one can earn a degree, several startups are using the Internet as a free online tutoring center.
LearnHub, eduFire, and Grockit all offer online education for free or extremely inexpensive through user interaction that combines traditional learning with social networking enabled through Web 2.0.
LearnHub combines the dry, straightforward classroom approach with the liveliness of social networking in order to entice more users as well as more education.
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Growth Resources Shows the Right Ingredients to be Successful CEO
Author: Atelier18 Jun
Growth Resources,Inc. offers insight into the skills and tools needed to become and remain CEO of VC-backed companies through seminars and videos.Web 2.0 is birthing many start-ups with many qualified management leading the way, but getting VC investments does not necessarily mean success. GrowthResources hopes to instill the right qualities in the business hierarchy to make sure these companies not only stay afloat, but that they also have the tools to grow.
Yahoo and Google Agreed on a Non-Exclusive Search Deal
Author: Atelier12 Jun
As we expected today, Yahoo! and Google agreed on a non-exclusive search deal. See Yahoo’s full press release below.
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Yahoo! to Strengthen Competitive Position in Online Advertising Through Non-Exclusive Agreement With Google
Agreement Advances Yahoo!’s Open Strategy; Enhances Ability to
Compete in Converging Search and Display Marketplace
Compete in Converging Search and Display Marketplace
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Google Inc. that will enhance its ability to compete in the converging search and display marketplace, advancing the company’s open strategy. The agreement enables Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo!’s search results and on some of its web properties in the United States and Canada. The agreement is non-exclusive, giving Yahoo! the ability to display paid search results from Google, other third parties, and Yahoo!’s own Panama marketplace.
Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will select the search term queries for which - and the pages on which - Yahoo! may offer Google paid search results. Yahoo! will define its users’ experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers. The agreement applies to paid search and content match and does not apply to algorithmic search. The agreement also applies to current partners in Yahoo’s publisher network.
Yahoo! CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang said, "We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry. Our strategies are specifically designed to capitalize on this convergence — and this agreement helps us move them forward in a significant way. It also represents an important next step in our open strategy, building on the progress we have already made in advancing a more open marketplace."
"This agreement provides a source of funds to both deliver financial value to stockholders from search monetization and to invest in our broader strategy to transform display advertising and advance our starting point objectives with users," said Yahoo! President Sue Decker. "It enhances competition by promoting our ability to compete in the marketplace where we are especially well positioned: in the convergence of search and display."
Agreement Provides Attractive Economics and Enhances Search Monetization
Yahoo! believes that this agreement will enable the Company to better monetize Yahoo!’s search inventory in the United States and Canada. At current monetization rates, this is an approximately $800 million annual revenue opportunity. In the first 12 months following implementation, Yahoo! expects the agreement to generate an estimated $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow.
The agreement will enhance Yahoo!’s ability to achieve its goal to grow operating cash flow significantly, while at the same time providing flexibility to continue to invest in ongoing initiatives such as algorithmic search innovation and search and display advertising platforms. It gives Yahoo! complete flexibility to continue to use its Panama paid search results.
Significant Benefits Will Flow to Users, Advertisers, Publishers and Employees
Users will also benefit from Yahoo!’s ability to invest incremental operating cash flow in ongoing improvements to its search services, building upon recent major innovations such as Search Assist and SearchMonkey. Advertisers will continue to benefit from multiple marketplace alternatives including Panama, Google and others. Publishers will benefit from a winning combination of distribution, monetization and services to help them grow their businesses. The financial benefits will enable Yahoo! to broaden the scope of its investments and initiatives, enhancing Yahoo!’s ability to offer attractive career opportunities to its employees.
Terms of the Agreement
The agreement will enable Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google’s AdSense(TM) for Search and AdSense(TM) for Content services next to Yahoo!’s internally generated paid search and algorithmic search results. Yahoo may also run Google-supplied ads on non-search Yahoo web properties, as well as on current members of its partner network. The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a four-year initial term and two, three-year renewals at Yahoo!’s option. It applies to Yahoo!’s operations in the U.S. and Canada only. Advertisers will continue to pay Yahoo! directly for clicks served by Yahoo! from Yahoo!’s Panama and Content Match marketplaces. Advertisers will pay Google directly for each click on Google paid search results appearing on Yahoo! owned and operated network or certain affiliate sites. Google will share a percentage of such revenue with Yahoo!.
In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.
The agreement allows either party to terminate the agreement in the event of a change in control of either party. The agreement also requires Yahoo! to pay a termination fee if the agreement is terminated as a result of a change in control that occurs within 24 months. The termination fee is $250 million, subject to reduction by 50 percent of revenues earned by Google under the agreement.
Although Google and Yahoo! are not required to receive regulatory approval of the deal before implementing it, the companies have voluntarily agreed to delay implementation for up to three and a half months while the U.S. Department of Justice reviews the arrangement.
Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company are acting as financial advisors to Yahoo!. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Yahoo!, and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as counsel to the outside directors of Yahoo!.
Yahoo! will host a conference call to discuss the agreement with Google at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the call live, please dial 877-391-6847 (reservation number 70308474#). A live audiocast of the conference call can be accessed through the Company’s Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/index.cfm. In addition, an archive of the audiocast can be accessed through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available following the conference call by calling 888-286-8010 (reservation number 84138579).
About Yahoo! Inc.
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This release refers to operating cash flow (operating income before depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense, or OCF), which is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most comparable GAAP measure is income from operations. With respect to the OCF numbers provided in this release, the estimate of income from operations is the same as the estimated OCF, as the Company does not expect to incur any additional depreciation and amortization or stock-based compensation expense related to this agreement.
Forward Looking Statements
This release (including without limitation the statements and information in the quotations from management in this press release) contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo!’s projected financial performance as well as Yahoo!’s strategic and operational plans. Actual results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the expected benefits of the services agreement with Google may not be realized, including as a result of actions taken by United States or foreign regulatory authorities and the response or acceptance of the agreement by publishers, advertisers, users and employees; the implementation and results of Yahoo!’s ongoing strategic initiatives; Yahoo!’s ability to compete with new or existing competitors; reduction in spending by, or loss of, marketing services customers; the demand by customers for Yahoo!’s premium services; acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo!’s international operations; failure to manage growth and diversification; adverse results in litigation, including intellectual property infringement claims; Yahoo!’s ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; dependence on key personnel; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content and distribution; general economic conditions and changes in economic conditions; and potential continuing uncertainty arising in connection with the withdrawal of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal to acquire Yahoo!, and the announced intention by a stockholder to seek control of our Board of Directors, the possibility that Microsoft or another person may in the future make another proposal, or take other actions which may create uncertainty for our employees, publishers, advertisers and other business partners, and the possibility of significant costs of defense, indemnification and liability resulting from stockholder litigation relating to the Microsoft proposal. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!’s business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Yahoo!’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as amended, and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and available at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. All information in this release is as of June 12, 2008, unless otherwise noted, and Yahoo! does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update or otherwise revise the information contained in this release.
Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.
Yahoo! Inc.
Tracy Schmaler, 202-631-9463 (Media)
Marta Nichols, 408-349-3527 (Investors)
or
The Abernathy MacGregor Group for Yahoo! Inc.
Adam Miller / Winnie Lerner, 212-371-5999 (Media)
Copyright Business Wire 2008
News Provided by COMTEX
———-
Mathieu Ramage
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Zannel Brings Pictures and Video to Mobile Messaging
Author: Atelier3 Jun
San Francisco-based startup Zannel aims to unite the emerging mobile platform market with the multimedia offerings of social networking sites.Reviewed by many as the “multimedia Twitter,” Zannel enables users to send text, picture, and video messages from their phone. These updates can be viewed from Internet-enabled phones and online.
As the “first Instant Media Messaging service,” according to the company’s press release, Zannel is enhancing traditional mobile messaging with notable partnerships across different mediums.
Among the reported 1,500 content-provider partnerships are Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Activision, and Konami Corp.
The range of content providers enables Zannel to offer a large-scale multimedia messaging service that appeals to an equally large audience.
Zannel also launched an open API for developers to use the company’s Instant Media Messaging “platform to create media-rich mobile applications, widgets and mashups,” the press release stated.
“Our team has been working together on mobile media technology for years, and we are excited to share our capabilities with the broader developer community and help everyday users get more out of their camera phones – to capture an image once and have it be viewable everywhere.” said Braxton Woodham, CTO, Zannel.
Zannel’s mobile messaging can be immediately uploaded to most social networking and blogging sites, including Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Flickr. Consequently, Zannel sees such networking sites as complimentary to its service rather than a direct competitor.
Zannel just completed a $10 million series B round of investments, bringing its total to $16 million in both A and B rounds, with prominent investors Alloy Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, and Palomar Ventures among the leading contributors.
By Danny Scuderi
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Chris Larsen of Prosper on the social impact of peer-to-peer lending
Author: Atelier2 Jun
As more and more Americans are struggling to obtain loans from financial institutions, P2P lending, also know as “social finance”, appears to be a viable alternative to the credit crunch that affects the U.S. economy. Chris Larsen, the CEO of Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace with 700,000 registered users, talks about the value of using Prosper’s online auction platform (Prosper is the only lending marketplace in the U.S. where it’s entirely up to consumers to set the interest rates) and the democratization of finance.You wrote on Prosper’s blog that Web 2.0 markets have the potential to end the elites’ destructive “money then merit” model and predicted that the wisdom of the crowds will prevail. Is Prosper about democratization?
What the Internet is doing in many parts of the economy is bringing a massive decentralization of power. We have seen it in news and entertainment and it’s now coming to finance. With Prosper we are giving everybody the equal opportunity to get a loan and, for the first time, any American with 50 dollars or more can participate directly in the consumer credit market. We think that people are going to make better and richer decisions than institutions because they are going to consider not only the return but also the social impact of their investment.
Prosper’s marketplace is open not only to individuals but also to institutional lenders. Doesn’t it go against the philosophy of social lending which is supposed to empower individuals rather than institutions?
That’s a great question. It doesn’t violate the principles of social lending as long as you don’t give any price breaks to the institutions. Take eBay, for example, where small and big businesses all trade. That’s the way the world should work! Institutions bring benefits to the individuals because they bring more liquidity as well as a rational view on pricing which can be constructive.
Prosper seems to attract less subprime borrowers and more people with good credit scores. Is that a direct consequence of the credit crunch? How has Prosper evolved over the past two years?
When we first started two years ago there were a couple of things going on: I think people, when they first heard about peer-to-peer lending, assumed that it was a place where borrowers go when they can’t get a loan anywhere else. Now they understand that [p2p lending sites] are the place to go to get access to credit with lower interest rates because there are more people competing for loans so we see a dramatic shift in the credit quality of folks registered on our site. A year ago 25 percent of our loans were “subprime” as opposed to about 5 percent today which is reflective of the P2P market becoming more mainstream. The credit crunch has helped us a lot because many credit-worthy people that used to be able to get a loan anywhere are having a harder time getting good rates.
What’s the biggest challenge for Prosper looking at the longer term?
Well I think there is a broad challenge of any sort of open market place or social network and that’s really balancing transparency over privacy. Lenders want as much information as possible and of course generally borrowers want to reveal as little as possible. We have to be the neutral party that finds the right balance between the two. We also have to be vigilant in the balance between freedom and safety. In our view we want people to have enough freedom to pick their own interest rate but at the same time we have to make sure to catch the fraud and prevent identity theft. Finally we want to continue to grow but grow in a way that provides good returns and good value to both sides. You don’t want a situation where the market is too favorable to borrowers or lenders. Both sides have to win.
Are you planning any international expansion in the near future?
We have launched a joint venture in Japan. We worked with SBI, a Japanese bank. That’s our first market outside the U.S. Overtime we hope to add additional markets.
by Anne Sengès, for Atelier
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Mint and Cake Financial Improve Personal Finance with Social Networking
Author: Atelier14 May
Web-based personal-finance startup companies integrate social features allowing customers to anonymously compare spending habits and investments and improve personal finance decisions.
The personal finance domain is changing thanks to the addition of social networking features. The basic idea being adopted by both Mint and Cake Financial is to incorporate transparency into the financial industry and provide customers an alternative to brokerage firms that manage investments.
Mint, for one, is a site that allows its customers to compare their spending habits and, on Wednesday, May 7, introduced a spending tracker that promises to deliver comparisons in the upcoming weeks.
Mint, located in Mountain View, targets the twentysomethings, or recent college graduates, who simply want to track their money without sifting through too much information. "Our view is that young people want in and out of finances in about five minutes or less," said Mint CEO and founder Aaron Patzer. “That’s why Mint’s site aggregates information automatically, sorting it into categories so that people can easily review their spending habits.”
One thing that’s important," Patzer said, "is that this opens Mint up from being a great tool for tracking expenses, to opening it up to people with more-complicated financial situations, where tracking investments is crucial."
San Francisco-based Cake Financial, meanwhile, asserts itself as the Facebook of investing and presently enables customers to create social networks of people who share investment pursuits, track others’ progress, and compare the details of their investment decisions. "You want to know how you’re doing compared to other people, and how they got there," CEO Steven Carpenter said. "You want to know if you own a bunch of stocks that other people are selling."
Nonetheless, the common aim for both Mint and Cake is to leverage the aggregate data collected on their sites to create well-informed customers that are empowered to make smart financial decisions on their own and, ultimately, to go beyond the old personal financial advisor and client dialogue.
By Kathleen Clark
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