Image Source: NMA News YouTube
Check out an animated version of the AOL-Huffington post acquisition as done by NMA News: continue reading...
It looks like facebook is truly connecting people, but those people are already married… continue reading...
“I have thought about what I will do and the conclusion I have come to is that I will get bored quite quickly with day time television. I need to do something that continues to be challenging and interesting. I don’t have any great ambition to go out and make money. But I am still a) fascinated in starting up businesses and b) starting it in a way and running in a way that I want to do it.”
Bebo co-founder Michael Birch, to Techcrunch. continue reading...
YouTube is not making meaningful revenue for Google, according to SAI.
MySpace, Facebook and their ilk are trying many things, but none of them are working when it comes to scaling revenues, according to USAToday. continue reading...
“Hire slow and fire fast” - those are not my words, they are the words of Seth Goldstein, CEO of Social Media, but they do strike a chord.
Last week we did an office pool to guess the score of a hockey game and I was taken aback by the fact that we were now 11 people on staff. Eleven employees is not a lot, mind you, but that’s more than we had at my old company. I don’t even know how we got to 11, mind you, but we’ve worked with well over 100 people in numerous capacities as freelancers and interns. The advantage there has been that I’ve been able to gauge people’s mojo without risking bringing on people that did not fit it or did not have their heart into it. It surely has been an indirect benefit of bootstrapping. Some times when companies get a massive injection of cash, they rush the hiring process and end up with bad apples that quickly become cancerous. continue reading...
Paid Content refers to a NYT article on CBS which calls for the company that Bill Paley built to make digital acquisitions, which begs the question: should they go for a big purchase or make small moves?
Of course, answering that question alone without addressing the backdrop to that question yields an incomplete picture. continue reading...
In the wake of Bebo’s sale to Time Warner AOL for $850M, musician Billy Bragg asks: where’s the money, Birches?, referring to would-be, accrued royalties that he and other artists should have been paid from the site off its 40M users (basically, like radio).
Nick Carr says Bragg is right. The hippie love crowd says Bragg is wrong. continue reading...
Kara Swisher - who is pretty much at the epicenter of any and all rumors (not a knock) - publishes some interesting financials on the Bebo sale to AOL:
According to the several sources who were privy to Bebo’s financials, for example, Bebo’s revenues for 2006 were only $7 million with $3 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). In 2007, the results are still small, with $20 million in revenues and $5 million in EBITDA. continue reading...
Most media companies will look for micro deals in 2008 to complete their product lines, but today, Time Warner went against the grain by taking out its checkbook and acquiring European-centric social networking powerhouse Bebo for $850M.
Make no mistake about it, this is a sizable deal; after all, MySpace sold for $580M just three short years ago. continue reading...
Bebo today joined the many large distribution destinations who lack any original compelling content and called out on content owners - mainly video content owners - to share the goods in exchange for branding and revenue.
Indeed, it’s all about perspective. The intro sentence is my version of the facts, a content owner. continue reading...
