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Invesco and Wilbur Ross Group to Purchase $1 Billion in Distressed Assets

April 27, 2009 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Here is a short piece by way of Smarttrend.

“Invesco (NYSE:IVZ) and billionaire Wilbur Ross are leading a group of investors committing to purchase $1 billion in troubled bank assets through the government’s Public-Private Investment Program. In addition to Invesco and WL Ross (Ross’ investment fund), partners will include the LeFrak Organization, Assured Guaranty Ltd (NYSE:AGO), American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc, Muriel Siebert & Co, Williams Capital Group and Jackson Securities. On Monday Invesco CEO Martin Flanagan said, “The Public-Private Investment Program will help stimulate the mortgage market and provide individual and institutional investors globally with compelling investment opportunities in the legacy securities and legacy loan programs.”

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Apple Hits 1 Billion App Store Downloads

April 24, 2009 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Since its inception in July last year, Appstore has become a steady and viable business model for Apple. With over 1 Billion downloads, its fair to say that the rest of the mobile industry needs to take a very close look at the model.

As a result, Apple can now show some very significant numbers towards the mobile content market.

“There are over 37 million devices running Apple’s mobile operating system: over 21 million iPhones and over 15 million iPod touches (with 35,000+ apps available in the store) according to the company. Besides driving the success of the App Store, these devices also helped Apple control 50 percent of the mobile ad market and drive the most mobile OS Internet traffic in the U.S., according to the latest market reports.”

In relation to mobile advertising, the PC World story continues;

“AdMob’s research shows that the iPhone and iPod touch serve around 50 percent of the mobile ad requests in the U.S., followed by Research In Motion with 22 percent and Windows Mobile with 11 percent. Worldwide, Apple’s handsets go neck-to-neck with Nokia‘s when it comes to traffic generated by smartphones. AdMob’s data shows that Apple’s devices drive the most traffic world wide, counting in at 38 percent.”

Mashable, which mainly covers Web 2.0 news, made an interesting comparrison.

“The milestones comes just over three months after the company surpassed 500 million downloads, and about nine months since launching.

While it’s certainly an enormous milestone, how does it compare to some other massive numbers that various Web companies have reached recently? Here’s a look at a few huge stats:

While impressive in its own, and somewhat unrelated to eachother – web.20 have proven to produce some gigantic numbers that are serving as benchmarks for success.

Comprehensive blog coverage can be found here:  IntoMobile, MediaMemo, TechCrunch, SciTechBlog

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, FaceBook, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

As founders step down, MySpace face big challenges

April 23, 2009 by Steven R. Gerbsman

Widely covered, this story may actually indicate something big – Social Networking sites are in for some changes. The big buy out may be the goal for many, but is likely to provide stagnation or decline.  While Facebook has grp1-ap606_myspac_ns_20090423002610own rapidly the last few years, MySpace have stagnated.

Here are some good tidbits from Wall Street Journals coverage.

“People familiar with the situation said News Corp., was completing a deal to name former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as chief executive to succeed Mr. DeWolfe. He would report to Jon Miller, the former AOL chief executive who was recruited to join News Corp. this month in a newly created position of chief digital officer. Charged with all News Corp.’s stand-alone digital properties, he was particularly given the mission of shoring up MySpace.”

“More broadly, MySpace, like other social-networking sites, still must overcome doubts about the medium’s viability. Advertisers, for one, remain leery. “Advertising doesn’t fit so neatly into a conversation that people are having among themselves,” says Tom Bedecarre, chief executive of independent digital-ad firm AKQA. “The interruptive model of advertising hasn’t been successful.””

“Three top MySpace executives, including Amit Kapur, former chief operating officer, left the company in March to work on a start-up. MySpace has yet to name successors for those positions. Mr. Miller began discussing the job with potential candidates including Mr. Van Natta, but hadn’t finalized anything when the news of the talks leaked, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Van Natta helped expand Facebook but stepped into a less prominent role as chief revenue officer as the site grew, ultimately leaving the company in February 2008. At MySpace, he could serve as a bridge between Silicon Valley and MySpace, which has struggled to match Facebook’s technology prowess. Hearing of the talks, Mr. DeWolfe offered to resign, these people said.”

Its most often not a pretty site when things hit the fan. As far as MySpace goes, one may only wonder if the corporate culture of News Corp. will be able to uphold the indie status that draw traffic in the first place.

Read the full WSJ Online article here.

Comprehensive coverage can be found at these sites: Stephen Laughlin, Tech Blorge , SoCal Tech ,

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, FaceBook, Social Networks, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Yahoo is struggeling on its own – Microsoft merger may inevitable

April 22, 2009 by Steven R. Gerbsman

With a worse than bad report coming out of its first quarter, Yahoo is struggeling to find ways to stand on its own.  In the wake of Oracle/ Sun merge, next large Silicon Valley merge may come very soon. Microsoft who was once considered a no-no in the Valley may look like a saviour!

Here are some coverage tidbits from PCWorld.

“Yahoo had revenue of US$1.58 billion, down 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008 but higher than the $1.20 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.”

“Meanwhile, net income fell 78 percent to $118 million, or $0.08 per share, compared to $537 million, or $0.37 per share, in the first quarter of 2008, the company said Tuesday. On a pro forma basis, which excludes certain one-time items, Yahoo had net income of $206 million, or $0.15 per share, down 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2008 but exceeding by seven cents per share analysts’ expectation.”

With these bleak numbers, cutbacks will only solve parts of the fundamental problems.

“This time around, Yahoo will let go 5 percent of its staff worldwide. Yahoo ended 2008 with 13,600 employees, so this would mean that about 680 people will be laid off. Yahoo handed out pink slips to about 2,600 employees in two rounds of layoffs last year.”

One may wonder if this is the preparation for a merge with MSFT.

Other coverage on this story can be found at;  Yogi,  MassMedia Now ,  Erik Bowman , 24/7 Wall Street

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VC deal down in the 1st quarter of 2009

April 21, 2009 by Steven R. Gerbsman

To no ones surprise, the VC community pulled in its spending spree and held back in the wake of the financial crisis. The recent report release by NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) this last weekend. A funny detail in the mix is that they release the data on saturday afternoon, after all media stopped their coverage for the weekend!

“Venture capitalists invested just $3.0 billion in 549 deals in the first quarter of 2009, according to the MoneyTree™ Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. Quarterly investment activity was down 47 percent in dollars and 37 percent in deals from the fourth quarter of 2008 when $5.7 billion was invested in 866 deals. The quarter, which saw double digit declines in every major industry sector, marks the lowest venture investment level since 1997”

Overall, its not good news. In specific areas, the analysis continues;

“The Software sector received the highest level of funding with $614 million going into 138 rounds, a drop of 42 percent in dollars and 34 percent in deals compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.”

“The Life Sciences sector (Biotechnology and Medical Devices combined) experienced a 40 percent decline in terms of dollars and a 31 percent drop in deals with $989 million going into 133 rounds. Investment in Biotechnology fell 46 percent to $577 million in the quarter, while Medical Device investments fell 27 percent to $412 million. Investments in Life Sciences companies represented 33 percent of all investment dollars and 24 percent of all deals in the first quarter, which is in line with historical norms.”

For the whole pressrelease, click here. For additional coverage on this story see; ABF Journal, The Batts report.

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Economy, Investments, Moneytree, MoneyTree report, National Venture Capital Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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