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The Next IPO Boom

March 11, 2010 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Here is an article from The Wallstreet Pit.

“Paul Kedrosky made a wish for the new year: “Remember IPOs? Way back when your parents were messing about with technology stocks in the late 1990s, pretty much every company that could went public, mostly via Nasdaq IPOs…. I’m wagering we’re about to enter a similar period in 2010.”

He was hoping for a Walter Sobchak moment:

Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero!
– The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Next Netscape

The dot-com boom was sparked by Netscape’s IPO, just as Apple’s IPO launched the PC Bubble in the early ’80s (complete with companies with goofy names like Kentucky Fried Computers).

Will we have our Netscape Moment this year? It is now looking less likely.

Today’s Netscapes are companies like Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Zynga and (maybe) Yelp – winners in social media. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld gives his top 10 IPO candidates. Yet it seems rather than rush for glory in the public markets, these companies are inclined instead to take in private equity and stay private. Facebook for example took a big slug from a Russian PE firm, and took itself out of the IPO sweepstakes for now.

Instead of the hot new companies, we are seeing a lot of ’90s retreads finally getting their chance to exit, such as the indomitable Force 10, which has more than $200M VC financing in it, and no buyers. Their only exit left is the unsuspecting public! We are also seeing cleantech names, like Tesla, line up to go out – companies which need tons of capital to grow. (Disclosure – I have an indirect VC interest in Tesla.)

Companies with hot growth prospects in a new sector can be a Netscape. Google got out, and at the time a lot of VCs thought it would be the new Netscape. No dice. Filings ratcheted up from 47 by Aug 2003 to 236 by Aug 2004, but few got out. Google was really a second generation search firm, a category hot in the prior IPO period, not the start of a new trend.

Retreads will not make an IPO craze. Cleantech may have the allure and cache to do so, but so many of them are long-term science projects which require huge capital to get going (think – solar farms in the desert). A bunch of solar firms went public in 2006, and a lithium-ion nanotech battery maker, A123, went public on late 2009 (cleantech and nanotech in one company!), but no huge wave of cleantech IPOs has emerged, yet.”

Read the full article here.

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2nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World Published by Middleberg Communications, Inc., Marketwire and the Society for New Communications Research

March 9, 2010 by Steven R. Gerbsman

By Don Middleberg, Founder and Principal of Middleberg Communications, LLC is a member of Gerbsman Partners Board of Intellectual Capital.

Journalists’ Use of Social Media Is Surging, According to 2nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World – Nearly 70% of Journalists Surveyed Are Using Social Networking Sites to Assist Reporting

Use of social media tools by journalists is surging, growing in double-digit percentages in some cases. This is among the key findings of the 2nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World, conducted by the Society for New Communications Research team of Jen McClure, SNCR founder and president, and SNCR Senior Fellow, Don Middleberg. The study was made possible in part by Marketwire.

Major objectives of the study included an examination of:

* The impact of new media and communications tools on the way journalists work
* Online resources and social media that are considered the most valuable tools and how they are being used by journalists
* The frequency of use and preferences for a variety new media and communications tools and technologies
* Attitudes of journalists toward the impact and value of these new tools and trends in journalism

Another goal of the study was to provide insights as to how public relations professionals can understand these changes in order to work more effectively with journalists, and provide more value to the journalistic community.

Three hundred forty one journalists participated in the survey. Top findings include:

* Nearly 70% of journalists surveyed are using social networking sites, a 28% increase since the results of the 2008 Survey of Media in the Wired World were released
* 48% are using Twitter or other microblogging sites and tools, a 25% increase since 2008
* 66% are reading blogs
* 48% are viewing videos online
* 25% are listening to podcasts
* Nearly 80% of journalists surveyed believe that bloggers have become important opinion-shapers in recent years
* 91% of journalists surveyed agree that new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism to some extent

When asked to share their thoughts about how social media is changing the profession of journalism, participating journalists provided a wide range of responses. One respondent answered, “Social media is changing the profession. It has enhanced the dialog between audience and writer and expanded the scope of those who can participate in disseminating news.” Another commented, “It is full of peril and promise.”

“This study indicates that there is now a large and growing percentage of journalists who view social media and the participation by the public in the journalistic process to be a necessary, and in most cases, positive step in the evolution of journalism,” said Jen McClure, founder and president, Society for New Communications Research. “They understand the future of journalism to be a highly participatory, collaborative and dynamic process.”

SNCR Senior Fellow Don Middleberg, CEO of Middleberg Communications, added, “While companies are increasingly paying more attention to social media for revenue generation, employee productivity and enhanced consumer loyalty, many do not yet understand the true scope and depth of these new communications tools for journalistic usage. As a result, some companies are losing share of voice among journalists to their competitors. Social media presents a new opportunity to communicate and develop relationships with a whole new generation of journalists through these new channels of choice.”

“The definitions and roles of journalists and public relations practitioners have changed significantly over the past few years,” commented Paolina Milana, EVP, Marketing/Editorial Operations/Media Relations at Marketwire, corporate sponsor of the study. “Social media is immediate, it is accessible, and it has irrevocably changed the relationship between makers, reporters and consumers of news. The more that all journalistic participants understand each other’s needs, how they use various media channels at their disposal, and how they want to work with PR professionals, the better the entire communication process will be.”

About Middleberg Communications

Middleberg Communications is a full-service, independently owned public relations agency with specialized expertise in the consumer, corporate and financial services, media, and technology markets. The agency focuses on delivering tangible results that help clients grow their businesses. Hallmarks of the firm are smart, creative strategic thinking; targeted media relations; and unbridled enthusiasm for clients’ business goals, all supported by good old-fashioned hard work. For more information, visit http://www.middlebergcommunications.com.

About Gerbsman Partners

Gerbsman Partners focuses on maximizing enterprise value for stakeholders and shareholders in under-performing, under-capitalized and under-valued companies and their Intellectual Property. Since 2001, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 60 Technology, Life Science and Medical Device companies and their Intellectual Property,, through its proprietary “Date Certain M&A Process” and has restructured/terminated over $790 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $2.3 billion of financings, restructurings and M&A transactions.

Gerbsman Partners has offices and strategic alliances in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, San Francisco, Europe and Israel.

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Patents’ growing role in battle of mobile

March 8, 2010 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Here is a article from SFgate.com.

“Apple’s patent lawsuit last week against Taiwanese smart phone manufacturer HTC was just one complaint aimed at a rival trying to outdo the iPhone.

But the case shines a new light on the growing use of technology patents to mark turf and battle competitors in the fast-growing field of mobile.

Experts are unclear on Apple’s ultimate intent in suing HTC, whether it’s to explicitly stamp out what it calls theft by HTC or to sound a warning to the entire smart phone industry – including newfound rival Google – that it could be coming for them next. But analysts and observers agree that intellectual property litigation in this arena is heating up, and consumers could eventually be affected by the growing friction.

“I’m seeing more, larger patent cases in the last couple years,” said Paul Andre, a partner with law firm King & Spaulding. “It does appear that companies that were more hesitant to file lawsuits in the past are filing today.”

For years, patents have been a way of life for technology companies, which amassed them as a defense against competitors. There have been eras of heavy litigation such as during the early personal computer years and occasional clashes of behemoths such as Intel vs. AMD.

But in most cases, corporations have been content to avoid using their patents in draining battles that can stretch for years. Apple, for example, hasn’t filed a major patent suit in many years.

But the rise of smart phones has touched off a new land rush as companies jockey for position. Before Apple sued HTC, Nokia sued Apple in October, prompting a countersuit from Apple. Apple was also sued last year for its multitouch technology by a Taiwanese firm. Kodak sued Apple and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion in January for camera phone patents.

“It’s economics. There’s a ton of money flowing into the mobile space; it’s the new platform,” said Jason Schultz, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley. “Laptops, many think, are a thing of the past. Anytime you have a platform shift, you’re going to have a lot of lawsuits over who owns the platform.”

Schultz said previous cell phone patent suits have focused largely on hardware. But with smart phones evolving with sophisticated operating systems, companies are finding a whole new set of patents to tap.

In Apple’s case against HTC, 14 of the patents deal with user interface and six are concerned with the lower-level operating system.

Protecting their turf

Clement Roberts, a founding law partner at Durie Tangri, said companies seem to be turning to patents to protect their territory and keep competitors on their toes. In the case of Apple, he said the company is probably singling out HTC to eliminate a more vulnerable competitor but also give the industry pause as it tries to follow in Apple’s footsteps.

“If you just cause everyone in the industry to become aware of eight to 10 patents and everyone has to design around them, you lengthen the product (development) time frame for everyone else,” Roberts said. “That can have an enormous indirect benefit to Apple and you can earn back the cost of the litigation tenfold.”

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Microsoft’s Ballmer: “For the cloud, we’re all in”

March 5, 2010 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Here is an interresting article from SFgate.com.

“Microsoft is betting the cloud will deliver it and its customers the most opportunities for innovation and development. And according to CEO Steve Ballmer, five key reasons are driving the company’s confidence in — and technology strategy for — cloud computing in the coming years.

Microsoft’s 2010 task: Make the cloud clear

“For the cloud, we’re all in,” said Ballmer during an address and live Webcast at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering in Seattle. “Literally, I will tell you we are betting our company on it.”

In addition to Microsoft’s Azure platform, Ballmer said the cloud and its potential is behind Microsoft’s technology strategy and that the company, while perhaps behind in some areas such as phones, is with the market leaders when it comes to cloud computing.

“The cloud fuels Microsoft and Microsoft fuels the cloud,” Ballmer said. “We have 40,000 people employed building software around the globe, about 70% of the folks that work for us are doing something designed exclusively for the cloud or designed to serve one of the five points I spoke about today. A year from now, it would be 90%. How we are thinking about delivering it really builds from this cloud base.”

During the hour-long address, Ballmer detailed the five key dimensions of the cloud driving Microsoft, the first being that “the cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities.” That means it provides people the opportunity to create and share content “instantaneously,” but also requires a responsibility around privacy and confidentiality. “It is a dimension of the cloud that needs all of our best work in my opinion,” Ballmer said.

The second key dimension is around learning, what the cloud learns about the world and about users, bringing data together to enable better decisions.

But the cloud, like many disruptive technologies, is not a static entity, he suggested. “The cloud needs to learn about you and needs to keep learning and figure out about the world that has been described virtually,” Ballmer said. “The cloud itself needs to learn, it has to represent the real world and keep getting smarter and better to help me learn.”

The next dimension Ballmer detailed involves how the cloud “enhances your social and professional interactions” and enables people to connect on multi-faceted levels.

“The ability to really connect people and help people connect is just beginning to be tapped,” Ballmer said.

Using an example of Xbox Live tapping into British television service Sky, Simon Atwell, senior program manager at Microsoft’s XBox division, showed how users could virtually watch TV together, interact via prompts and connect socially using the gaming platform, without actually having to be playing games the entire time. While the demonstration suffered from “4,700 miles of geographic latency,” Atwell was able to display the experience in part.”

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Top IPO Contenders in 2010

March 4, 2010 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Here is an Article worth reading from Ajax World Magazine.

“As we start this year, hope is mounting on a vibrant IPO market, better than last couple of years. This article lists 20 companies that are hot candidates for IPO. The list has some well-known names like Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, Yelp, LiveOps, and Tesla Motors. The less known names are – Associated Content, Brightcove, Chegg, Demand Media Etsy, Exact Target, Gilt Group, Glam Media, Rearden Commerce, Workday, and Zynga.

Workday is the new company founded by Peoplesoft founder David Duffield. It’s a SaaS-based HR and ERP company. Zynga is a hot company in the virtual gaming space on the Internet. It’s famous game Farmville is raking in good revenue from Facebook users. I hear the game is quite addictive.

Twitter is rumored to be valued at billion plus dollars, that with very little revenue. It has the publish-subscribe model where conversations-by-subject can be tracked. That should be a bonanza for marketers,  seeking specific target audiences.

Most of the companies in the list are addressing “content” either the discovery or the publishing of. We don’t see the old-fashioned enterprise applications anywhere, a reflection of the changing times. Workday is in that category, but purely cloud-based offering just like SalesForce.com few years back.

Companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype brag huge number of eyeballs (users), bringing back memories of the dot.com days. Jeff Bezos in the height of the boom had said, “I spell profit as prophet”.

Let us get back to some crazy wealth-creation via IPOs. It’s about time.”

Read the original post here.

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