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Archive for October, 2011

7 stories to read this weekend

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Market research, tagged , , , , , on October 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

By Om Mailk at GigaOM.

Wow! Was that week chock-full of news or what? Frankly, sometimes it was hard to remember what was happening. Nevertheless, here are some good and mind-nourishing pieces for the weekend that you can actually enjoy and learn from.

  • The noise during the past week is the reason why I enjoyed reading this piece by George Dyson – Information is cheap, meaning is expensive. This will blow your mind.
  • How Instagram might be changing photography. I love the service and almost prefer photos on Instagram more than anything else. But should we be worried as Naomi Zeichner argues in The Fader?
  • Plagues of the new millennium are not about diseases of the body alone. They are about the rot of the human brain and body. This is an ironic but excellent list from McSweeney’s.
  • How to measure a company’s most elusive element: culture. Somewhat of a large corporate perspective but full of lessons nonetheless.
  • Voice wars: Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft. This is in light of the Siri explosion.
  • Rise of the machines. Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders is an excellent writer. Too bad her views are buried on the company’s terrible website. In this piece she writes about the domination of high-frequency trading and its impact on the markets.
  • Spacewar. My ex-boss David Churbuck reminded me of this piece about the early days of computer hackers. And it is by Steward Brand and that alone makes it worth reading, not to mention the historical context it gives to our modern tech industry. The passing of our industry’s seniors over the last few days makes this an appropriate piece to share.

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HP won’t sell or spin off PC division

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Intellectual capital, Market research, tagged , , , , , , on October 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from SFGate.

“Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman announced Thursday that the company has decided not to spin or sell off its PC division, another repudiation of a controversial plan proposed in August by her ousted predecessor, Léo Apotheker.

Whitman said an internal review showed it would be more costly to sell or spin off the unit, called the Personal Services Group, than to keep it within the Palo Alto company.

“HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG,” Whitman said in a statement. “It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees. HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

The plan to spin off or sell the division was one of the major factors that led HP’s board of directors to dump Apotheker in September and hire Whitman. The PC unit is HP’s least profitable, but accounts for about one-third of the company’s revenue.

In a news release issued minutes after the close of trading on Wall Street Thursday, HP noted the unit generated $40.7 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2010.

HP said the internal review “revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement. It also detailed the significant extent to which PSG contributes to HP’s solutions portfolio and overall brand value. Finally, it also showed that the cost to recreate these in a stand alone company outweighed any benefits of separation.”

When she took the helm, Whitman said her appointment wasn’t a signal that HP was shifting its strategy away from the course set by Apotheker.

But at an economic conference earlier this month in San Francisco, Whitman was asked whether HP would continue Apotheker’s software expansion strategy following the company’s $10.3 billion purchase of British software maker Autonomy Corp.

“It’s certainly the end of big acquisitions,” Whitman said.

Stock in HP closed at $26.99 per share, up $1.24, on the New York Stock Exchange.”

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Executive Presence: How to Dress for Success -featuring Lauren Rothman, founder of Styleauteur

Posted in FaceBook, Fashion, Styleauteur on October 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Women's Leadership & Mentoring Alliance (WLMA) Washington, DC networking event
Executive Presence:
How to Dress for SuccessPlease join WLMA for cocktails and an insightful presentation on How to Dress for Success with guest speaker Lauren Rothman, a fashion, style, and trend expert and founder of Styleauteur. Lauren is regularly featured in the media, covering a wide range of topics from fashion trends and style strategies to wardrobe management. She is a contributing author to The Huffington Post’s political style column, The Fashion Whip, and was most recently featured in Washingtonian magazine.

Lauren will share her perspectives on style and image, incorporating the top trends for Fall and how to dress at work without losing your own sense of style. RSVP Lauren

Registration »

$25 advance ticket price/$30 at the door

Sponsors »

Dicksteinshapiro

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 Date »
Thursday, November 17, 2011Time »
6:00 – 6:45 pm: Cocktails
6:45 – 8:00 pm: Presentation

Location »
Dickstein Shapiro, LLP
1825 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 420.2200
(Nearest metro: Farragut West)

 
For more information about WLMA, visit our website at www.wlmaconnect.org.WLMA is a 501(c)(3), not for profit invitational mentoring alliance of professional women learning, exchanging and advancing at every stage of their lives and careers.

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10/24 – Update to the Bidding Process – Procedures for the sale of certain assets of Alure Medical, Inc. – wire transfer information

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Gerbsman Partners, Inetellectual Property, Intellectual capital, Investments, Life Science, Medical Device, Venture Capital, Venturebeat, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati on October 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Update to the Bidding Process – Procedures for the sale of certain assets of Alure Medical, Inc. -wire transfer information

Further to Gerbsman Partners e-mail of October 15, 2011 and October 2, 2011 regarding the sale of certain assets of Alure Medical, Inc., I attach the draft legal documents and wire transfer information that we will be requesting of bidders for certain assets of Alure Medical, Inc.  All parties bidding on the assets are encouraged, to the greatest extent possible, to conform the terms of their bids to the terms and form of the attached agreement.  Any and all of the assets of Alure Medical, Inc. will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis.  I would also encourage all interested parties to have their counsel speak with James Huie Esq., counsel to Alure Medical, Inc.

For additional information please contact James Huie, Esq., of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati counsel to Alure Medical, Inc.  He can be reached at 650 565 3981  and/or at    jhuie@wsgr.com

Following an initial round of due diligence, interested parties will be invited to participate with a sealed bid, for the acquisition of the Alure Medical Assets. Sealed bids must be submitted so that the bid is actually received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at Alure Medical’s office, located at 3637 Westwind Boulevard, Suite B, Santa Rosa, California 95403.  Please also email – steve@gerbsmanpartners.com – with any bid.

Interested parties who wish to participate in the Bidding Process must also wire transfer a $ 200,000 refundable deposit to Wilson, Sonsini’s trust account- see attached.

For your convenience, I have restated the description of the Updated Bidding Process.

The key dates and terms include:

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers
Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (attached hereto as Appendix A) to have access to key members of management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (“Due Diligence Access”), and the Alure Video. Each interested party, as a consequence of the Due Diligence Access granted to it, shall be deemed to acknowledge and represent (i) that it is bound by the bidding procedures described herein; (ii) that it has had an opportunity to inspect and examine the Alure Medical Assets and to review all pertinent documents and information with respect thereto; (iii) that it is not relying upon any written or oral statements, representations, or warranties of Gerbsman Partners, or their respective staff, agents, or attorneys; and (iv) all such documents and reports have been provided solely for the convenience of the interested party, and Gerbsman Partners (and their respective staff, agents, or attorneys) do not make any representations as to the accuracy orcompleteness of the same.

Following an initial round of due diligence, interested parties will be invited to participate with a sealed bid, for the acquisition of the Alure Medical Assets. Each sealed bid must be submitted so that it is received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 2:00pm Pacific Daylight Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at Alure Medical’s office, located at 3637 Westwind Boulevard, Suite B, Santa Rosa, California 95403. Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.

Bids should identify those assets being tendered for in a specific and identifiable way. In particular, please identify separately certain equipment or other fixed assets.

Any person or other entity making a bid must be prepared to provide independent confirmation that they possess the financial resources to complete the purchase.  All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit in the amount of$200,000 (payable to Alure Medical, Inc.).  The deposit should be wired to Alure Medical’s attorneys Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.  The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days of the Bid Deadline. The deposit will be held in trust by Alure Medical’s counsel.  Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposit returned to them within 3 business days of notification that they are an unsuccessful bidder.

Alure Medical reserves the right to, in its sole discretion, accept or reject any bid, or withdraw any or all assets from sale.  Interested parties should understand that it is expected that the highest and best bid submitted will be chosen as the winning bidder and bidders may not have the opportunity to improve their bids after submission.

Alure Medical will require the successful bidder to close within a 7 day period. Any or all of the assets of Alure Medical will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis, with no representation or warranties whatsoever.

All sales, transfer, and recording taxes, stamp taxes, or similar taxes, if any, relating to the sale of the Alure Medical Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to Alure Medical at the closing of each transaction.

For additional information, please see below and/or contact:

Steven R. Gerbsman
(415) 456-0628
steve@gerbsmanpartners.com

Kenneth Hardesty
(408) 591-7528
ken@gerbsmanpartners.com

James Skelton
(949) 466-7303
Jim@gerbsmanpartnes.com

James Huie, Esq.
(650) 565-3981
Jhuie@wsgr.com

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How the web has powered work for 20 years

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, Intellectual capital, internet, LinkedIn, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

“2011 has been a year of milestone birthdays in tech. September saw Google become a teenager, email hit the big 40 in June, and even Twitter turned five back in March. Perhaps the most significant tech birthday this year, though, was the World Wide Web itself turning 20.

In 1991 British scientist Tim Berners-Lee posted a brief summary of the World Wide Web (or W3) project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, writing:

“The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the Web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome.”

It’s safe to say that Berners-Lee’s invitation to potential collaborators went fairly well. That initial web page has expanded to more than 19 billion pages (at the last count) and there are millions and millions of workers across the globe who rely on the World Wide Web to go about their daily lives. In those 20 years, the changes to the workplace that have taken place thanks to the Internet are nothing short of remarkable. Email is as good a place as any to start.

You’ve got mail

Try to explain the workplace B.E. (before email) to someone under 30, and you could be describing life in the 19th century for all the relevance it has to their working day. Back then, we lived in a world in which quaint technologies such as the fax machine prevailed. With the fax machine, it was not unusual to wait days for a reply.

Later, when Web-based email began to grow in popularity, it transformed communication in the workplace. You could now receive a response to a question within minutes, especially once broadband connections became more commonplace. You could send information and documents to colleagues around the world at the click of a button.

Email overload

But technology was now developing at a pace that seemed astonishing even to those who worked in the industry, and email, after a honeymoon period, hit problems. “Too intrusive,” said some. “Too much of it,” said others. “Not quick enough,” moaned the rest.

When consumer-based instant-messaging technologies infiltrated the workplace – AIM launched in 1997 and Yahoo! Messenger (then Pager) in 1998 – users were suddenly able to communicate with co-workers in real-time. Years later, these tools would often be integrated into a platform that also included voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), shared whiteboards, video conferencing and file transfer features.

It was around this time that social networks also began to establish a presence. Some of these are undoubtedly more consumer-focused, but there can also be no denying that Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have had a massive impact on working life, too. The ability to communicate and share content with your extended network (and beyond) has transformed many of our traditional working practices. As well as enabling businesses to engage in two-way conversations with their customers, these social networks are now a central part of the recruitment process. Last year, I wrote a piece on how Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can enable you to find a team of peers without breaking the bank of recruitment agencies. You can tap into your workforce’s network and find like-minded, talented people to become part of your company.

Getting ready to collaborate

The net result of all the technological developments outlined above has been to change the very fabric of how we work. We now live in a collaboration economy. To share and communicate information, ideas and innovation has never been easier, or come more naturally to the workforce. The emergence of the Web has given rise to a global working village, with location and time zone utterly irrelevant. You can work as closely with someone in another country as you would with someone sitting opposite; work from home or on the move, and even send files from your mobile handset to someone on the other side of the world.

This has all been made possible by the World Wide Web. From Skype to smartphones and social networking to SaaS, it’s all underpinned by the internet and the changes to the workplace of 20 years ago are just extraordinary. With a global mobile worker population set to hit 1.19 billion by 2013, one can only wonder what the Internet will bring us next. Bring on the next 20 years!”

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