Today in the Bay Area

[nate]

Groupon ousted their CEO

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/struggling-groupon-says-it-ousted-ceo-andrew-mason

[mrwicked]

well over due. 

the best part is they reported terrible earnings the other day, losing even more money than people anticipated, and he pulled a bahgdad bob routine saying how they are in perfect position actually.

24 hours later he's ousted.

 

not like it matters, dude already cashed out a long time ago by doing a $1b round that didnt go into the business, it went to the founders and investors.

they only went public because they had no money to keep the lights on.

but employees had to wait standard 3 months post IPO to sell, ie when the stock had already tanked.

still can't believe they turned down $6b from google.

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Glad to see this thread exists in the new world.

[mrwicked]

interesting.

more hedge funds and private-equity money flooding into silicon valley.

typically a VC does the early rounds, and hedge funds invest in public companies only.

now everyone is throwing money around while VCs are a little skittish after the groupon/zynga/facebook disasters.

fun times in tha hood indeed.

 

New Money Ventures to Silicon Valley

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324034804578346500201330208.html

[mrwicked]

Two IPOs today: Tableau and Marketo.

Both doing amazing so far, up about 60% each. I have friends at both, they're happy campers.

 

This yeah is on pace to be the best year for public offerings since 2007 (pre-recession).

 

Enterprise services are white hot. Total 180 from last couple years which were consumer focused and mostly duds (the flops of FB, Zynga, Groupon, etc).

 

Lots more to come this year. Box, Dropbox, Twitter, Atlassian, etc.

 

IPOs are fun.

[Brandon]

This thread got me to take a gander at the portfolio. Really happy to see Mervyns having a great second quarter and up 13%.

[mrwicked]

yahoo trying to buy tumblr for $1.1b cash.

good for them (especially if its true they only have a few months of cash left).

plus all cash is the way to go.

 

http://allthingsd.com/20130517/yahoo-board-to-meet-sunday-to-consider-1-1-billion-all-cash-deal-to-acquire-tumblr/

 

now there are reports that tumblr is saying the price is too low.

slippery slope man.

zero revenue, running out of money, no barrier to entry, take the obscene cash now before the next hipster site shows up.

dont do what groupon did (turned down $6b from the goog).

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/tumblr-is-not-impressed/

[nate]

I am waiting for someone to go after imgur.  They have to have a ton of value right now.

[mrwicked]

jolla released their phone today.

pretty badass. bunch of nokia dudes that had been working on meego OS (now called sailfish).

the color of the phone casing can change with the OS, kinda neat.

they cats know how to make slick interface.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/20/finnish-meego-startup-jolla-reveals-first-phone-hardware-with-customisable-shells-e399-price-tag-coming-at-years-end/

[mrwicked]

yahoo trying to buy tumblr for $1.1b cash.

good for them (especially if its true they only have a few months of cash left).

plus all cash is the way to go.

 

http://allthingsd.com/20130517/yahoo-board-to-meet-sunday-to-consider-1-1-billion-all-cash-deal-to-acquire-tumblr/

 

now there are reports that tumblr is saying the price is too low.

slippery slope man.

zero revenue, running out of money, no barrier to entry, take the obscene cash now before the next hipster site shows up.

dont do what groupon did (turned down $6b from the goog).

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/tumblr-is-not-impressed/

 

this is now official.

people are abandoning tumblr now heading for wordpress.

not sure what yahoo thinks they can get from this, something like 10-20% of tumblr traffic is porn gifs.

and ps, here come the ads.

 

http://allthingsd.com/20130520/yes-yahoo-is-going-to-run-more-ads-on-tumblr-says-marissa-mayer/

[Brandon]

I laughed over the weekend as a stock headline had this and actually wrote almost verbatim what you did. the article was even how Yahoo is trying to corner the hipster market (their exact words).

[nate]

San Francisco won the bid for Super Bowl 50 in 2016.

[gotbeer]

San Francisco won the bid for Super Bowl 50 in 2016.

 

They building a new stadium?  

[mrwicked]

They building a new stadium?  

 

SB '16!! ill be there.

 

best stadium in the league man, its insane.

http://newsantaclarastadium.com/

[nate]

The seats are guaranteed to have a relaxed fit

[gotbeer]

SB '16!! ill be there.

 

best stadium in the league man, its insane.

http://newsantaclarastadium.com/

 

 

Oh nice.  First I heard of them building one up there.  Yeah, it does look nice.

[nate]

Tesla paid off all of their government loans.

 

http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays-department-energy-loan-nine-years-early

[mrwicked]

gif files actually pronounced "jiff."

mind. blown.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/creator-gif-files-insists-its-jif-internet-turmoil-6C10020905

[Tank]

gif files actually pronounced "jiff."

mind. blown.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/creator-gif-files-insists-its-jif-internet-turmoil-6C10020905

Well that's just dandy! Now I have to change all my plans for the weekend.

[Lhalo]

Yahoo has thrown it's hat into the bidding ring for Hulu.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/24/us-hulu-yahoo-idUSBRE94N0TR20130524

[mrwicked]

well that didn't take very long.

yahoo already changing tumblr, adding ads, and pissing off the users.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/30/tumblr-brings-more-ads-to-users-dashboards-rearranges-buttons-teens-freak-out/

 

yay an animated gif.. of a dennys?

 

[Lhalo]

Who the hell is going to reblog an ad?

[Lhalo]

CNET founder files for bankruptcy.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/cnet-founder-minor-files-for-bankruptcy-after-selling-art.html

[Lhalo]

Zynga laying off over 500 people.

 

http://www.zdnet.com/report-zynga-cutting-nearly-one-fifth-of-global-workforce-7000016273/

[mrwicked]

^ zynga has been on life support for a while.

that company has been run into the ground.