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Posts Tagged ‘Gerbsman Partners’

Huawei eyes cloud buys, but politics keep it away from U.S. startups

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, internet, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Super computing, Technology, tagged , , , , , , , on November 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

“Huawei is planning to boost its cloud computing offerings on the software side through acquisitions, but thanks to the uncertain politics related to the Chinese government, U.S. startups may not be in the running. The Chinese telecom gear maker has had its eye on the data center market for some time, and cloud computing is a hot opportunity in China(sub req’d) where the client-server computing paradigm didn’t have much chance to become entrenched.

Reuters reports that Li Sanqi, chief technology officer of Huawei’s IT hardware product line, said:

“I feel that we will have acquisitions in the cloud and ICT (information and communications technology) arenas. We are searching, but we’ll be careful in the United States for political reasons.”

His caution is well founded, as the United States has taken steps recently to prevent Huawei from selling gear that could be used in public safety equipment, and in February blocked it from acquiring the assets of a networking hardware startup called 3Leaf systems. The government prevented the deal at the recommendation of The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which exists to prevent sensitive technology from being acquired by foreign companies. The U.S. government has long been suspicious of Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government.

Huawei has repeatedly denied or downplayed those ties. However, fears of China’s hacking skills and technological advancements remain a large concern in the United States. For this reason, Huawei says it will look for startup companies in Canada, China and Israel, which means the myriad U.S. cloud software startups will have to find buyers a little closer to home.”

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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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VC funding dips, and seed investments nosedive

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Distressed Intellectual Property, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, IPO news, Market research, National Venture Capital Association, NVCA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

It’s no secret that the larger economy has hit a rough patch in recent months. Although Silicon Valley has — in general – fared better than many other parts of the world, the venture capital industry is not immune to the negative effects of the macro-economic slowdown.

In the third quarter of 2011, venture capital investment activity fell 12 percent in terms of dollars and 14 percent in terms of deals compared to the previous quarter, according to the latest edition of the MoneyTree Report assembled by accounting giant Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).VCs invested $6.9 billion in 876 deals during the July through September timeframe in 2011, the MoneyTree report says, a notable decline from the $7.9 billion invested in 1,015 deals during the second quarter of 2011.


To be fair, the industry is still up compared to last year. For the first three quarters of 2011, VCs invested $21.2 billion, which is 20 percent more than VCs invested in the first three quarters of 2010. And 2010 saw an even bigger drop between the second and third quarters of the year. But VC funding is not exactly predictable according to the time of year — in 2009, for instance, the third quarter of the year was stronger than the second.

The VC industry is not as predictably cyclical as others because it generally takes its cues from a fluctuating variety of places: the worldwide economy, the entrepreneurial environment, the stock market’s appetite for IPOs, and larger companies’ appetite for acquisitions. It’s a complicated mix, but at the moment, it seems venture capitalists may be nervous about the larger environment of financial unrest, and the IPO window that opened earlier this year seems to be closing.

Seed funding takes a hit

Seed funding — which has recently been the hotshot of the industry as more angel and individual investors have become active in funding the startup scene — took a major hit in the third quarter of 2011. Seed stage investments fell a whopping 56 percent in terms of dollars quarter-over-quarter, and 41 percent year-over-year, to $179 million. It’s not just the total amount of seed investment that’s fallen, it’s also the amount of money per deal: The average seed deal in the third quarter was worth $2 million, a 43 percent drop from the average seed deal in the second quarter of 2011, which was $3.3 million.

And late stage deals have started to see major declines as well. Later stage startup investments decreased 20 percent in dollars and 30 percent in deals in the third quarter compared to the second, MoneyTree reported. Middle, or expansion, stage deals were relatively robust: Expansion stage dollars increased two percent quarter-over-quarter and 43 percent year-over-year, with $2.5 billion going into 260 deals.

Software is still strong

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The software space has held up fairly well, receiving the highest level of funding for all industries during the third quarter with $2 billion invested from venture capitalists. That’s a 23-percent increase in dollars from the second quarter, and according to MoneyTree, the highest quarterly investment in the sector in nearly a decade, since the fourth quarter of 2001.

The web industry had a relatively soft quarter, as investments in Internet-specific companies fell 33 percent quarter-over-quarter during the third quarter to $1.6 billion. But it’s not exactly time to cry for Internet startups; the third quarter had a very tough act to follow, because Internet-specific VC deals hit a 10-year high in the second quarter of 2011.

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Power.com – Premium, Category Defining Domain Headlines T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Live Auction

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, tagged , , , , , on October 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Fort Lauderdale, FL and Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada – October 6, 2011. T.R.A.F.F.I.C., the domain industry’s signature domain conference is pleased to announce that Power.com has been added to the roster of domains slated for auction on Tuesday October 18, 2011 at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

“We’re ecstatic to have the exclusive assignment to auction such a prominent domain. It demonstrates the level of trust and commitment that serious domain asset managers have for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. franchise,” said Rick Schwartz, CEO of T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
This exceptional property is one of those unique domains that can define a broad range of products and services. Key industry sectors include power and energy generation and transmission – nuclear, wind, solar, thermal, hydroelectric, batteries, generators, oil and gas among others, but “Power.com is much more versatile,” noted Schwartz.

“Power.com could position a new product or service or re-define an existing product or service such as energy drinks, health foods, vitamins and supplements, sports and fitness, clothing, financial services, venture capital, insurance, online gambling, entertainment – the list is extensive.”
Descriptive, generic domains have historically increased in value. In tough economic times they have even increased in value.  Scott Smith, CEO of RokMe Inc., broker of Power.com commented that “Power.com is among the world’s elite domains, comparable to others that have sold for multi-millions of dollars including Sex.com – $13 million, Fund.com – $9.9 million, Business.com – $7.5 million and Beer.com – $7 million. These prices illustrate the significant value companies and individuals attribute to the web’s most desirable properties. In terms of ego, prestige and branding potential, Power.com is incomparable. ”

Bidders at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auction will either have to attend in person or bid by telephone. In order to bid by telephone bidders need to be pre-qualified before the start of the auction. Telephone bidders will be given call-in instructions 72 hours before the auction begins.
The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference runs from October 14-19, 2011 at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

For More Information:
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. – Rick Schwartz, mr800king@aol.com
RokMe Inc. – Scott Smith, scott@rokme.com, +1 416 543 2843

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