I was telling a friend this week that 2008 was a good year because Web entrepreneurs and employees began to finally get some perspective on expectations, valuations, and common sense (let’s hope this time it sinks in and lasts, because clearly, we did not learn from the 1998-2000 era). But the truth is, I think the writers and journalists that cover these companies are partly to blame, too. continue reading...
Last week, I asked Mark Zuckerberg how he would see MySpace and Facebook coexist under News Corp., with the implication being that Rupert Murdoch dreams of acquiring Facebook and would eventually make it happen.
It was a couple of questions in one : continue reading...
Peter Thiel’s initial claim to fame was as the CEO of Paypal.
Today he runs Clarium Capital Management and the Founders’ Fund. The former is a hedge fund with $2B under management, the latter is a $50M venture capital fund that has raised the ire of uber angel investor Ron Conway, mainly for allowing entrepreneurs to partially cash out when they sell equity to VCs in funding rounds. continue reading...
Less than 48 hours ago, I laughed-out-loud when I read that Bay Partners would be setting up a separate fund to invest in Facebook Application Developments (which incidentally spells fad, but that’s really just a coincidence). Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely bullish on Facebook (Facebook 100M users, a matter of when, not if) and if I were a part of the company I could envision a dozen ways to create an Ad Sense-esque revenue stream… but the fact remains, Facebook Apps is no brass ring for third parties. I’ve written on this here: Facebook OS: Be careful what you ask for.
In fact, by now it’s quite obvious that this is Facebook’s way to not only drum up excitement amongst developers but mainly a way to try to find that diamond in the rough product or application that it can then either develop itself, partner up with or outright acquire in the hopes of it becoming what Ad Sense was to Google: a $10B annual revenue stream within 4 years of launch. continue reading...
TechCrunch and Venture Beat are reporting that Greylock has invested $8M in Revision3, a content producer with eight or so shows. There’s no indication of it, but one would presume David Sze led the funding. Disclaimer: when I’m not writing on this blog, I run WatchMojo.com, one of the largest producers of web video content.
Anyway, I’m not sure quite it takes $8M to do what Revision3 does, or wants to do, but if you’re a VC who’s worked with Digg’s Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose and back their first project, I guess you can’t say no to project #2… and Adelson and Rose can command any pre-money valuation they want given their success in making Digg a force in social news. continue reading...
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