A few years ago, we published a list of companies who ruled the Internet each year, from 1994-2007. Then, we forgot to update it for 2008-2010. On this week’s HipMojo show, we run down the list and picked a company for 2008, 2009, and 2010… and then open it up for you to suggest companies for 2011. Vote for the company of the Year below in the Comments, feel free to vote for the company you work for, but explain WHY, what was the one thing or many things that made the company stand out from the noise? continue reading...
John Battelle is looking for an executive to run Federated Media. A few years ago, he wrote:
I’ve learned what I am good at - starting things, getting them to a certain size. I don’t do so well at running ongoing businesses where the expectation is that lots and lots of money should be made. I find that a bit uninteresting (though others of course find it fascinating), and should the company get to that stage, it’s best to let the professional managers take over, whether that means selling … or bringing in someone who lives to manage media properties. I want to be upfront about that with everyone I might work with, so there you have it. continue reading...
They say the best time to start a company is in a downturn, it might very well be true. But I think that if you are going to start a company, start one that does not require any/much outside capital. What ever happened to “through thick and thin”? I thought the purpose of selling a minority piece of the company was not having to kowtow to investors?
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...
2007 marked a euphoric climate for valuations and fundings in the digital space.
- Facebook kicked off the festivities with a $240M investment on a $15B valuation [our coverage]. continue reading...
Yesterday, BubbleGeneration’s Umair Haque set off a storm by suggesting that tech blog networks are peaking. I agree that the signal-to-noise ratio in the technology blog network space has gone down considerably. While many of these blogs are hiring from traditional media, established publications are firing back with their own blogs and blog networks. CNET for one has been very aggressive, even appointing blogger Dan Farber to become editor in chief at News.com (of course, Farber is so much more than a mere blogger).
In fact, in the past year, many of these technology blogs have gone from being a one-site, one-man operation to a multi-site property hiring large operational and editorial teams. In a few instances, companies have even raised considerable funding. The quest to build an audience and generate ad revenues has pitted many of these sites in a competitive and cooperative dynamic that might indeed suggest that most of these sites have peaked. continue reading...
Pardon the over-simplifying in the first paragraph, bear with me… you will see why.
Assets, liabilities and shareholder equity. Any financial transaction boils down to that: Leverage assets to obtain resources (which usually creates a liability of some kind) in order to create value. continue reading...
