Filed under: Internet, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)

Today was a perfect storm for Twitter, the microblogging application led by Evan Williams (who created Pyra Labs and Blogger, selling it to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in 2003 as blogging went bigtime). The company was all over business technology media, making an appearance at the Wall Street Journal with a rather ingenue “User’s Guide to Twitter” and in the New York Times with an explanation of why Twitter turned down a merger with Facebook.

Katherine Boehret likes Twitter but takes it to task for many of the things Twitter clients like Twhirl do wonderfully; notify you of @ replies (when someone Tweets you directly using an @ sign before your name, i.e. @sarahgilbert), for instance, and complains of the tinyurl conversion issue which most Twitter old hands work around by using their own url shortening services (many of my friends built their own). She doesn’t even approach the question that’s on everyone’s minds: How will Twitter make money?

Claire Cain Miller does approach the question, but doesn’t have much of an answer. Her analysis of why Twitter turned down Facebook is brief — it wasn’t the right time, Twitter has “too much to do” yet — and needs to learn how to make money. The one hazy concept we all agree on is that Twitter might charge businesses to talk to customers with its service; providing proactive alerts to companies when Twitterers complain about their service, giving them the opportunity to respond (and perhaps charging for consulting on how to best make use of the interaction) might be worth a lot. A few businesses now are very good at that; when I complained about my Comcast internet connectivity on Twitter, for instance, I quickly was pinged by a Comcast technician offering to help.

One particularly brilliant user of Twitter for business purposes is Rael Dornfest (who is a friend of mine, so I suppose I’m biased);

Continue reading A Twitter business plan: On the near horizon?

A Twitter business plan: On the near horizon? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Small business

For many small business owners, the main focus is on survival — not growing the business. And, with the freezing of the credit markets and the slowing economy, the sentiment is certainly warranted. Hey, even companies like Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) are cutting back.

So, what are some key survival skills? Let’s take a look:

Get Paid: It’s never fun to call customers who are behind on their invoices and ask for them to pay up. But it’s a necessary skill if you want to survive the recession.

Thus, you need to be proactive (for more help on this, you can check out a recent column I’ve done on this topic).

Continue reading Entrepreneur’s Journal: Survival tips for your business

Entrepreneur’s Journal: Survival tips for your business originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Conventions and conferences, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT)

A battle royal is shaping up in the world of cloud computing between long-standing dominant software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its biggest threat of the past few years, internet runaway Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

BusinessWeek is reporting that Microsoft plans to build 20 new data centers over the next few years to serve corporations large and small which would prefer to store their data in a secure environment and be able to access it over the internet. Google started along the same path several years ago with the same goal.

The data centers are likely to cost as much as a billion dollars each. Companies opting to use this type of service will be delegating the acquisition, maintenance, and security required to store large amounts of data while preserving capital for core business activities.

One novel approach in Microsoft’s newest facility is to fill the 700,000 square-foot floor with prepackaged shipping containers instead of acres of racks containing servers. Each of the containers can hold 2,500 servers, and the floor can hold up to 224 containers. That’s a potential maximum of 560,000 servers.

Continue reading Microsoft & Google: Battle in the clouds

Microsoft & Google: Battle in the clouds originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Money and Finance Today, Entrepreneurs, Bargain stocks

Here’s a shocker (although not really to those paying attention), if you would have invested in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.B) three years ago instead of the wonder company Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) you would be 30% ahead right now.

‘My pal Warren’ never ceases to amaze and for all the excitement that Google has brought to the investment world, the stock market in particular, and the internet — scaring the likes of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), it has not done all that much.

For those that took a ride on the Google band wagon at the beginning you are now poorer than you would have been taking a more traditional investing approach and you did it all the while taking more risk. More risk and less reward is a bad thing.

Continue reading Berkshire beats Google all the way!

Berkshire beats Google all the way! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Sears Holdings (SHLD), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Las Vegas Sands (LVS)

As we begin the trek to grandmother’s house, it’s worth reflecting on what we have to be thankful for. The answer? When it comes to money, most of us have a lot less than we did a year ago. But for those of you who have your health and your families to comfort you, it will cost much less to buy the gasoline to visit than it would have in July. And as you’re driving to visit those families — consider how much less you lost in the last year than the world’s 10 biggest losers.

According to the web site, The Business Sheet, those unfortunate people suffered a mind-boggling $176 billion in lost stock market value in the last 12 months. It turns out that 52% of the losses were suffered by three executives based in India. Here they are:

• Anil Ambani - $32.5 billion. Ambani heads Reliance Communications that invested $500 million in Dreamworks earlier this year.
• Lakshmi Mittal - $30.5 billion. Mittal heads ArcelorMittal which has suffered from a decline in the price of steel.
• Mukesh Ambani -$28.2 billion is Anil’s brother and controls Reliance Industries, a petrochemical manufacturer.

These are some other folks that make The Business Sheet’s list:

• Sheldon Adelson -$30 billion. I did consulting work for Adelson about 22 years ago and he is quite a character. His Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) casino is suffering from the economic slowdown and he’s had some trouble with debt.
• Warren Buffett -$13.6 billion. As I posted, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) has had some problems this year.

Continue reading The world’s 10 biggest losers

The world’s 10 biggest losers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Forecasts, Other issues, Rants and raves, Google (GOOG), Indices, Market matters, Technical Analysis, S and P 500, Stocks to Buy, Recession

If you are a stock trader you might have made money using Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) as an instrument of the trade. If you were someone jumping on the band wagon at the wrong time, say GOOG at $750 — I feel your pain.

But if you are a traditionalist and bought the stock early and simply held on, the interesting thing is you would not have done any better than if you had bought a Standard and Poors 500 index fund.

The chart below illustrates that buying either Google or the S&P three years ago would have resulted in nearly the same loss. Although their paths cross a dozen times, they end in the same place.

Continue reading Amazing but true: Google vs S&P 500

Amazing but true: Google vs S&P 500 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG)

Increasingly, Google, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube is becoming more like TV. For example, the typical size of its videos is now increasing to 960 pixels (or an aspect ratio of 16:9, which compares to 4:3). According to the YouTube blog: “This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience.”

As should be expected, there are some concerns. That is, what will happen to those videos that were meant for smaller screens? Well, YouTube will keep the same size but there will be black space around the video (which may be somewhat distracting).

But such things are natural as technology marches on. Apparently, more and more users are uploading wider screen videos to YouTube.

According to an interview with Chase Norlin, who operates Pixsy:

“It makes perfect sense for YouTube to expand into wide format and HD online video delivery for two reasons: the decreasing cost of HD camcorders for consumers to create and distribute higher quality ’semi-pro’ video content, and, the increased interest among professional content owners to distribute their movies and TV shows in the highest quality format to end users online.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

YouTube goes wide originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: After the bell, Google (GOOG), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Starbucks (SBUX), Market matters, Lennar Corp’A’ (LEN)

Stocks staged a comeback late in the day after swinging up this morning and then down in the afternoon. What is odd is that it was another one of those days where if you were not watching the actual index readings tick by tick, you might not know if the market was up or down because of a lack of enthusiasm. Confidence did come in a tad higher than expected. Here are today’s unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA: 8,479.86 (+0.43%)
NASDAQ: 1,464.73 (-0.50%)
S&P 500 857.41 (+0.66%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was down on word that it was closing most of its headquarter offices for four days around the Christmas and New Years periods as part of its cost containment. The interpretation is that there is no magic growth when there shouldn’t be any reason to expect it anyway. Shares were down almost 6% at $15.47 right before the close.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) rose sharply on word that it is cutting many contract worker positions, but said it is not laying off full-time workers. Oddly enough, the search giant used to be measured by its headcount growth for a means of forward growth, so this rally is a bit odd even in a cost containment world. Shares were up 10% at $284.95 right before the close.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Markets little changed after choppy session; CSCO, HPQ, SBUX all down, GOOG, LEN up

Closing Bell: Markets little changed after choppy session; CSCO, HPQ, SBUX all down, GOOG, LEN up originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT)

Last night, I was at the Bloblive event in Philly where people go on stage and talk about their cool business ideas. Interestingly enough, the event organizers used Facebook to invite people. And, at the event, there was a live Twitter feed, where users could make comments.

It was cool stuff, which shows the effective use of integrating social media.

Well, speaking of integrating things, it looks like Facebook has had some serious discussions to buy Twitter. Iin light of the slowing economy, I’m sure that these discussions are popping up among many social media companies.

The proposed price tag? A cool $500 million.

However, it was not for cash; instead, it was for Facebook stock. With the fall in equities, it’s a good bet that the stock is worth much less than its previous valuation of $15 billion. Twitter wasn’t impressed.

Indeed, Twitter still has lots of momentum and appears to be the next dot-com darling. With its growing user base, there should be opportunities to monetize things, which could help bolster the valuation.

If Twitter really wants to sell out, its best alternative is probably to go to an established player that has a solid stock value and cash in the bank such as a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

Twitter doesn’t want to be a buyout friend of Facebook originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Starbucks (SBUX), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Money and Finance Today, D.R.Horton (DHI), Nissan Motors (NSANY)

Ford, Volvo Top List osf Safest U.S. Vehicles
The most new cars and trucks ever earned spots on the insurance industry’s annual list of the safest vehicles. For the 2009 model year, Ford and Volvo have 16 vehicles on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s list of the safest cars, followed by Honda Motor with 13 vehicles. Seventy-two cars, trucks and SUVs received the top safety pick designation for the 2009 model year, more than double the number of vehicles in 2008.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-11-24-ford-volvo-car-safety_N.htm

GM: Death of the American Dream
General Motors was the Great American Company. But by clinging to the attributes that made it an icon, GM drove itself to ruin.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/21/magazines/fortune/taylor_generalmotors.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008112506

Continue reading Safest cars in U.S., best/worst celebrity endorsements & 7 ways to haggle down retail prices - Today in Money 11/25

Safest cars in U.S., best/worst celebrity endorsements & 7 ways to haggle down retail prices - Today in Money 11/25 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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