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Facebook Instant Personalization = instant ire

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from SF gate worth looking at.

“Josh Levy, a longtime advocate of the power of social media, is having a crisis of faith.

Last week, Levy created a site — www.pledgebank.com/leavefacebook — seeking 10,000 people to pledge to quit Facebook with him to protest the social network’s most recent privacy changes.

Only 100 people have pledged so far. For individuals like Levy – who has worked with several social media startups and commented extensively on Web topics – it’s not easy letting go. But someone, he said, has to send a message.

Levy represents a small but growing undercurrent of dissatisfaction over Facebook’s march toward turning the Internet into one giant social network, a plan that relies on its members publicly sharing what they read, think, eat, watch, listen to, like and dislike.

“What Facebook is doing is not acceptable, and its attitude is too cavalier,” Levy said. “I don’t want to go back to the horse and buggy days. But I want modernity to be fair.”

Analysts say the undercurrent is not yet strong enough to impact the Palo Alto social-networking king, which has more than 400 million active members.

In fact, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the site has added 10 million members since April 21, when the company touched off the latest round of privacy concerns at its developer conference in San Francisco.

But anti-Facebook sentiment is surfacing in highly visible places, from the halls of Congress to the blogs and podcasts of influential technology experts like Leo Laporte of Petaluma.

“It seems to me that ultimately their goal is to funnel all Internet traffic through Facebook.com,” said Laporte, who deleted his Facebook profile during a recent podcast and donated money to Diaspora, a project to create a more open and private alternative to Facebook.

Ended his account

Laporte was inspired to put an end to his Facebook account by a recent blog post by Jason Calacanis, chief executive officer of Mahalo, a question-and-answer Web site. He accused Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of trading users’ privacy for profit.

“Facebook is officially ‘out,’ as in uncool, amongst partners, parents and pundits all coming to the realization that Zuckerberg and his company are – simply put – not trustworthy,” Calacanis wrote on his personal Web site.

Facebook convened a staff meeting Thursday to discuss the backlash, although some staff members described it as a routine gathering.

“We have an open culture, and it should come as no surprise that we’re providing a forum for employees to ask questions on a topic that has received a lot of outside interest,” Noyes said.

Since its inception in 2004, Facebook has evolved from a collection of private networks of college friends to an Internet juggernaut with more than 400 million users.

But privacy advocates criticize the company for exposing its customers – via public information posted on their Facebook profiles – to unwanted risks, from identity theft to workplace embarrassment.

Earlier this month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 14 other privacy and consumer organizations filed a complaint against Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing the popular social network of “unfair and deceptive trade practices” and violating users’ expectations of privacy and consumer protection laws.

And last month, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked the FTC to develop guidelines instructing social networks on how private information can be used.

All of this comes in the wake of the company’s launch of a new “open” social platform designed to bring Facebook features, such as its Like button, to other Web sites, and an experimental Instant Personalization feature that gives certain Web sites the ability to access a member’s name, profile picture, sex and network of friends. The company also launched community pages that made topics in a member’s profile more public.

Facebook defends changes

In interviews, Facebook officials have repeatedly said the majority of their members are benefiting from the innovations, which are meant to cater to the evolving sharing habits of the community. Indeed, Web sites that have partnered with Facebook, like CNN, have reported increases in traffic.

But critics say the process of hiding personal information is overly cumbersome. And minor security breaches in Facebook’s chat program have only added to the criticism.

Still, social media analysts say Facebook remains far from reaching the tipping point where it would start to lose members, especially with no comparable alternative for consumers. But the company does have a brewing public relations problem that could get worse if doesn’t act.

“Are people really going to leave Facebook and go back to e-mail as a primary source of sharing online? I don’t think so,” said Augie Ray, a senior analyst for Forrester Research Inc., a technology research firm. “Facebook will not suffer irreparable harm from continuing to offer Instant Personalization, but they will make their job of earning consumer trust more difficult.”

Explain the social benefits

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with San Mateo consulting firm Altimeter Group, said Facebook needs to take steps to better explain the benefits of an open social Web. And that’s compounded by Facebook constantly revising its privacy policy.

“It seems like they didn’t think things through,” Owyang said. “They keep on doing it and pushing customers along whether they like it or not. They’re going too fast, and consumers aren’t educated about what’s private and what’s public.””

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Android operating system gaining

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is a report from SF Gate.

“The Android operating system moved into second place in sales for the first quarter, outpacing the iPhone OS for the first time while still falling short of the BlackBerry platform, according to the NPD Group.

According to NPD, Google’s Android took a 28 percent share of the U.S. smart phone market during the first quarter, behind Research In Motion’s 36 percent and ahead of iPhone OS at 21 percent.

The numbers are derived from monthly consumer surveys but don’t include corporate smart phone sales. What it suggests is that Android’s momentum is picking up, helped along by aggressive sales by carrier partners such as Verizon, which offers some smart phones for free with the purchase of another smart phone.

The fact that all the carriers offer Android phones also means that sales should always be pretty robust compared with the iPhone OS, which is still an exclusive on AT&T in the United States.”

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Many possible triggers for wider euro debt crisis

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , on May 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an update on the Euro crisis from Reuters.

“Europe may be months, conceivably weeks away from an expanded debt crisis that cuts more countries off from access to the markets and forces fresh emergency action by rich governments or the European Central Bank.

The many potential triggers for an expanded crisis include a failed bond auction, any signs that Athens or donor nations were backing away from a 110 billion euro ($141 billion) bailout of Greece, and a freezing up of Europe’s interbank money market.

For now, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, widely seen as the next possible “dominos” after Greece, remain in significantly better shape. The interbank market is far from grinding to a halt as it did after Lehman Brothers collapsed in late 2008.

But the spread of investor jitters in the past 24 hours, affecting markets as distant as yen swaps in Tokyo, suggests market conditions could deteriorate as rapidly as they did during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009.

“In my view there is a 10-20 percent chance that at least one more country will need rescuing as it finds itself shut out of the markets,” said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at Italy’s UniCredit bank.

“If it happens, it is most likely to happen in the coming six months.”

Lena Komileva, head of G7 market economics at money broker Tullett Prebon, said the crisis over Greece’s solvency had morphed into a capital markets crisis, and the markets had begun to feed on their own momentum.

“Another credit event similar to Greece can happen within weeks,” she said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top economic policy makers in the euro zone appeared to recognize this in their warnings about the risk of an expanded crisis on Wednesday.

“It’s absolutely essential to contain the bushfire in Greece so that it will not become a forest fire and a threat to financial stability for the European Union and its economy as a whole,” said European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.

TRIGGERS

Greece became unable to finance its debt at affordable rates when its 10-year government bond yield soared near 10 percent in April. The euro zone’s other weak countries have not reached that stage; Portugal’s yield was below 6 percent on Wednesday.

Portugal sold 500 million euros in six-month Treasury bills on Wednesday at a yield of 2.955 percent, which was about four times the rate at the last such sale on March 3 but was well below maximum levels in the secondary market. This was seen as a moderately positive sign by analysts.

Spain is expected to succeed in selling 2-3 billion euros of government bonds on Thursday, although at a much higher yield than in its last auction, analysts said.

Nevertheless, every debt sale by weak euro zone states in coming months is likely to be viewed as a potential flashpoint for an expanded crisis. Portugal plans to offer more T-bills on May 19 and Spain plans another bond sale on May 20.”

Read the full article here.

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Kin One and Two reach out to Generation Upload

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, FaceBook, internet, Market research, Social Networks, Technology, Wireless, Wireless 2.0, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an interesting newsbit from SFgate.com

“Microsoft’s cell phone rebound begins today with the release of two new phones aimed at social networking fiends.

Kin One and Kin Two are Microsoft’s play for the generation of messaging users who are forever connected to friends through platforms like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, what some call Generation Upload.

The two phones are now available online at www.verizonwireless.com and will be available for purchase in Verizon Wireless stores May 13. The Kin One will sell for $49.99 with a $100 rebate and 2-year contract while the Kin Two will sell for $99.99 with the same requirements.

I’ve been playing with the Kin One for half a day and it feels like a fresh approach to messaging phones that should complement, along with its bigger brother, Microsoft’s upcoming Windows phone 7 smart phones.

First some basics: The Kin One sports a 2.6-inch screen, a 5 megapixel camera, a portrait slide-out keyboard, a Tegra APX 2600 processor (like in the Zune HD) with GPS, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer and 4GB of storage. The Kin Two has a 3.4-inch screen, a horizontal slide-out keyboard, an 8 megapixel camera, the ability to run 720p video, 8GB of storage along with the same processor, Wi-Fi, GPS and accelerometer of its smaller sibling.

The home screen called Kin Loop is a stream of tiles representing updates from your friends and RSS feeds. Swipe to the right and you can jump to tiles of up to 51 of your favorite friends. To the left of the home screen is your list of apps.

Where things get interesting is the Kin Spot, a circle on the bottom of the screen that remains in almost every screen. When you come across an update, a web page, a picture or video you want to share or upload, you just do a long-press on it and then drag it to the Spot. Then you decide who you want to send it to. From your favorites list or contacts page, you can drag anyone into the Spot and then decide how they’ll receive it. You can e-mail it to them or text message them. Or you can broadcast out your update to your social networks.

Apps like Tweetdeck on the iPhone let you do some of this stuff but using the Spot is fun and it works across your entire phone.

Another innovative thing about the Kin devices is that almost everything you do is backed up to the Kin Studio, which can be accessed from any browser. You can see all your communications you’ve had over the past month, week or day and you can see all your pictures and videos (up to a minute long) you’ve captured. You can also arrange the layout of your Kin device from the Studio.

The Kin devices also have full HTML browser running a version of Internet Explorer with multi-touch for zooming. The media player is built off of Microsoft’s Zune media player, with all of its elegant swooshing menus. The phone has a dedicated search button for searches on your phone, general Bing searches and Bing searches near you. The e-mail client can handle the usual Google, Yahoo, Hotmail as well as Exchange support.”

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Date Certain M&A of CardioMind, Inc.- its Assets and Intellectual Property

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SALE OF CardioMind, INC.

Gerbsman Partners has been retained by CardioMind, Inc. to solicit interest for the acquisition of all, or substantially all, the assets of CardioMind Inc.

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE:

The information in this memorandum does not constitute in whole or in part an offer or a contract.

The information contained in this memorandum relating to CardioMind‘s Assets has been supplied by CardioMind. It has not been independently investigated or verified by Gerbsman Partners or its agents.

Potential purchasers should not rely on any information contained in this memorandum or provided by CardioMind, or Gerbsman Partners (or their respective staff, agents, and attorneys) in connection herewith, whether transmitted orally or in writing as a statement, opinion, or representation of fact. Interested parties should satisfy themselves through independent investigations as they or their legal and financial advisors see fit.

CardioMind, Gerbsman Partners, and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys, (i) disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the truth, accuracy, and completeness of any information provided in connection herewith and (ii) do not accept liability for the information, including that contained in this memorandum, whether that liability arises by reasons of CardioMind‘ or Gerbsman Partners” negligence or otherwise.

It is expected that any sale of the CardioMind Assets will be made on an “as-is,” “where-is,” and “with all faults” basis, without any warranties, representations, or guarantees, either express or implied, of any kind, nature, or type whatsoever from, or on behalf of CardioMind or Gerbsman Partners. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, CardioMind and Gerbsman Partners and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys, hereby expressly disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the condition of the CardioMind Assets and any portions thereof, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of habitability, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.

This memorandum contains confidential information and is not to be supplied to any person without Gerbsman Partners’ prior consent. This memorandum and the information contained herein are subject to the non-disclosure agreement attached hereto as Exhibit A.

CardioMind, Inc.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, CardioMind, Inc. is a development stage company focused on a unique stent delivery platform that has applications in treating coronary, neuro and peripheral artery disease.

CardioMind believes its assets are attractive for a number of reasons:

1. CardioMind’s Sparrow bare metal stent systems are CE Marked and represent:
– the first stent “in a guidewire” system ever approved for sale.
– the lowest profile (.014 Inch maximum diameter) stent system ever approved for sale.
– the stent with the thinnest struts ever approved for sale.
– the first approved stent system specifically designed to treat vessels below 2.75 mm.

2. CardioMind has data on its Sparrow drug eluting stent out to 8 months that shows binary restenosis rates of 6.7% in vessels whose mean diameter is 2.27 mm with a mean in-lesion late loss of .23 mm. This data was collected from world respected cardiology centers in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America in a multicenter controlled randomized trial and analyzed by key ivus and angiographic core laboratories. Data sets and data bases available during due diligence process.

3. CardioMind has extensive data from bench, preclinical, and clinical studies that was used to get the CE Mark on the bare metal stent and is in process of using existing data to get the CE mark for its drug eluting stent.

4. CardioMind has existing bare metal inventory that can be used for clinical evaluation and sale preference testing in Europe.

Intellectual Property Summary

At present, CardioMind has 2 issued US patents, 14 pending patent applications of which 2 have been allowed, and 14 pending international patent applications of which 1 has been allowed. These patents and patent applications are in the area of implant and/or stent delivery technology and stent construction technology and describe among other things:

* A low-profile implant/stent delivery device having an implant/stent releasably secured to a delivery guide member.

* Stent delivery systems comprising an elongate stent carrying member that serves as a guidewire for a balloon catheter that can be used, for example, for vessel predilation or postdilation of an emplaced stent. And methods of passing a balloon catheter over an elongate stent carrying member, which serves as a guidewire.

* Prosthesis twist-down delivery systems including a prosthesis mounted on an elongate member in a twisted reduced diameter configuration and stent configurations suitable for twisting.

* Implant/stent holding and release approaches to releasably hold an implant/stent to a delivery guide including mechanical and electrolytic mechanisms.

* Power delivery technology for releasing electrolytically erodable stent holding mechanisms.

CardioMind has allowed claims involving methods for treating a vessel including passing a balloon catheter over an elongate stent carrying member, which serves as a guidewire for the balloon catheter. CardioMind also has allowed claims involving a system comprising prosthesis structure being in a twisted reduced diameter configuration and releasably mounted on an elongate member. These allowed claims also include other language as will be apparent from reviewing the claims. Other aspects of the technology also are being pursued.

Sparrow is a differentiated stent and delivery technology

* The stent “in a guidewire” technology is unique to CARDIOMIND and may offer significant clinical benefits.

* The Sparrow’s low profile and guidewire integration allows for significantly improved delivery and access to distal lesions, lesions in tortuous anatomy, small vessels, lesions distal to previously placed stents, and access through stent struts to treat bifurcations.

* The Sparrow allows direct access to the lesion with the Sparrow being used as the lead guidewire. The Sparrow guidewire can then be used to rail a rapid exchange catheter over its shaft and stent. Alternatively, the Sparrow with its stent attached can fit through any standard .014 inch catheter lumen (infusion or balloon).

Large and well established stent market

* Existing $5 billion worldwide coronary stent market.

* Existing reimbursement.

* Physician base known for rapid adoption of new technologies that provide improved safety/efficacy and/or greater efficiency.

* Neurovascular Stent: The Sparrow can be used in neurovascular anatomy to treat ischemic stroke, atherosclerotic disease, or bridge aneurysms prior to coiling. Existing stents with much stiffer, bulkier delivery systems are priced at $6000 for bare metal stents. There are over 700,000 ischemic strokes in the US annually. Access is a key issue in treatment of distal, tortuous neurovascular disease.

* Peripheral Stent: The Sparrow can access distal parts of the peripheral vascular system to treat unmet clinical needs in erectile dysfunction and distal disease in the leg. The Sparrow system is extremely flexible and trackable and may be able deliver a self-expanding stent to distal, tortuous anatomy better than current systems. These markets represent markets over $500MM.

CardioMind Company Profile

CardioMind was founded in 2003 and raised approximately $53 million through private placements of its convertible preferred stock involving leading venture capital firms including Latterell Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, InterWest Partners, De Novo Ventures, SV Life Sciences, and Onset Ventures.

CardioMind is a developer of the innovative “stent in a guidewire” Sparrow system using both drug eluting and bare metal stent systems for the treatment of coronary artery disease, neurovascular disease and peripheral vasculature disease. The CardioMind® Sparrow Stent is the only stent system designed specifically to treat small vessel disease and offers delivery on a guidewire that has a profile 70% smaller than any commercial competitor.

CardioMind’s stent systems are the only stent systems designed to enable physicians to access lesions with combination wire/stent that acts as a lead wire. CardioMind’s stent systems are designed to treat small vessels and distal, hard to reach anatomy in coronary, neuro and peripheral vasculature.

Impact of Technology on the Market

CardioMind believes that its “stent in a guidewire” technology offers advantages over currently marketed stents.

* The “stent in a guidewire” technology is unique to CARDIOMIND and may offer significant clinical benefits

* The Sparrow’s low profile and guidewire integration allows for significantly improved delivery and access to distal lesions, lesions in tortuous anatomy, small vessels, lesions distal to previously placed stents, and access through stent struts to treat bifurcations.

* The Sparrow allows direct access to the lesion with the Sparrow used as the lead guidewire. The Sparrow guidewire can then be used to rail a rapid exchange catheter over its shaft and the stent. Alternatively the Sparrow and its stent can fit through any standard .014 inch catheter lumen (infusion or balloon).

CardioMind Assets

CardioMind has developed a portfolio of assets critical to the development and manufacture of stent “in a guidewire” systems. These assets fall into a variety of categories, including:

* Patents, Patent Applications and Trademarks

* CE Mark for Sparrow bare metal stent systems

* Custom built equipment for manufacturing stent systems

* Technology and intellectual property related to stent “in a guide wire” systems

* Key know-how and expertise in manufacturing smallest profile stent system approved for sale

* Technology and intellectual property related to drug coating the Sparrow system utilizing a biodegradable polymer

* Patient Data from 2 clinical trials involving 170 patients

The assets of CardioMind will be sold in whole or in part (collectively, the “CardioMind Assets”). The sale of these assets is being conducted with the cooperation of CardioMind. CardioMind and its employees will be available to assist purchasers with due diligence and a prompt, efficient transition to new ownership. Notwithstanding the foregoing, CardioMind should not be contacted directly without the prior consent of Gerbsman Partners.

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers

Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a nondisclosure agreement (attached hereto as Exhibit A) to have access to key members of the management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (the “Due Diligence Access”). 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 an opportunity to inspect and examine the CARDIOMIND 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 CARDIOMIND, Inc., 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 neither CARDIOMIND nor Gerbsman Partners (or their respective, staff, agents, or attorneys) makes any representations as to the accuracy or completeness 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 CardioMind Assets. Sealed bids must be submitted so that the bid is actually received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Thursday, June 3 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at CardioMind’ office, located at 257 Humbolt Court Sunnyvale, CA 94089. Please also email Steve@GerbsmanPartners.com with any bid.

Bids should identify those assets being tendered for in a specific and identifiable way. The attached CardioMind fixed asset list may not be complete and Bidders interested in the CardioMind Assets must submit a separate bid for such assets. Be specific as to the assets desired. CardioMind cash and accounts receivable are not being offered for bid as par of the CardioMind 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 where applicable. All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit check in the amount of $200,000 (payable to CardioMind, Inc.). The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days after the Bid Deadline. Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposit returned to them. CARDIOMIND reserves the right to, in its sole discretion, accept or reject any bid, or withdraw any or all assets from sale.

CARDIOMIND will require the successful bidder to close within 7 business days. Any or all of the assets of CardioMind 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 CardioMind Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to CardioMind at the closing of each transaction.

For additional information, please see below:

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.

Gerbsman Partners
Phone: +1.415.456.0628, Fax: +1.415.459.2278
Email: Steve@GerbsmanPartners.com

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