Today in the Bay Area

[mrwicked]

wow.

yahoo's ability to buy then destroy a company is just unparalleled.

 

they spend a billion dollars on a site full of porn gifs...

to then immediately hide porn from all searches, making them basically blacked out and invisible.

what a joke.

this is what happened when all your engineers leave, and you keep hiring MBAs who just want to buy and have no idea how to innovate.

 

Yahoo drops the hammer on Tumblr porn

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/07/19/yahoo-drops-the-hammer-on-tumblr-porn.html

[Brandon]

Which is weird because a top story the other day, ironically on Yahoo, was about how Yahoo has jumped up since Marissa Mayer's appointment.

I could be wrong as I didn't read the article. The headline alluded to their stock prices going up.

[mrwicked]

yeah the stock has done great since she's taken over.

but the company itself is not actually doing much of anything.

they are just getting PR with buying up these tiny little startups and giving out free ipads and lunch and jawbone UPs to employees.

but innovation there is relatively dead afaik.

[Brandon]

Makes sense. Part of the reason I remember the headline was thinking, "What the hell are they doing?"

[mrwicked]

ha yep exactly.

other than hadoop they haven't done a whole lot of nothing disruptive technology wise lately.

they try and recruit us pretty hard every few months.

lol. pass.

[mrwicked]

ahh yiss. stock earnings season. 

 

AAPL - small earnings beat, so about as expected, nothing exciting happened for them this quarter. 31m iphones, crazy. Everything coming out holiday quarter and next year.

But up over $20 in after hours.

 

Apple stock jumps $20 — this could be Apple’s turn-around quarter

http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/23/apple-stock-jumps-20-this-could-be-apples-turn-around-quarter/

 

VMW - gives a good old fashioned earnings beat, up 12% in after hours.

 

VMware beats estimates, stock jumps

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vmware-beats-estimates-stock-jumps-2013-07-23

[nate]

My company is switching as many employees as possible to a VMWare virtual desktop combined with some sort of Citrix java dashboard.

 

We deal with highly sensitive data so it makes a lot more sense to have everything hosted securely on servers than on laptops and PCs.

[mrwicked]

My company is switching as many employees as possible to a VMWare virtual desktop combined with some sort of Citrix java dashboard.

 

We deal with highly sensitive data so it makes a lot more sense to have everything hosted securely on servers than on laptops and PCs.

 

smart move, vmw is the bomb.

virtualization is the present, and future.

[nate]

I actually prefer Virtual Box.  More customization options for the OS install and hardware virtualization.

[Lhalo]

I prefer real box. It just feels better.

[mrwicked]

I actually prefer Virtual Box.  More customization options for the OS install and hardware virtualization.

 

 

for single user hypervisors are pretty much commoditized now.

vmware, kvm, xen, virtual box, doesn't matter too much.

but VMW dominates when it comes to management at enterprise and cloud scale.

[nate]

Yeah, they have the enterprise market.

 

I actually knew one of the software engineers at VMW back in 99-00.  He moved from Brisbane to work there when they were just a start up.  He really hated America and wanted to move back to AUS but couldn't pass up the cash.  Also his wife was a smoking hot Argentinean woman that taught premed classes at Stanford.  He also had a badass house in Palo Alto.  Who would want to leave Palo Alto for Brisbane?????  Cool dude, haven't heard from him in a couple years though.

 

For the longest time their business sustained on all the anti virus companies.  They would setup VMs and riddle them with viruses to develop/test their AV software.

[nate]

Someone has been installing fake "Speed enforced by drones" signs on Bay Area highways.  Lol...

[mrwicked]

not a big surprise, but twitter getting set to go public.

i think one of twitter, box or dropbox goes IPO and then a huge wave follows.

this year is already on pace to be the best year for IPOs since before the recession.

yay.

 

Twitter prepping for IPO, hiring multiple people for ‘when we are ready to go public'

http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/30/twitter-prepping-for-ipo-by-hiring-multiple-people-for-when-we-are-ready-to-go-public/

[mrwicked]

Yahoo's 10-Q came out yesterday, details on the tumblr buyout of $990m (75% of which was purely based on its "cool" factor, ie goodwill).

 

Tumblr had only $16m in the bank when it was bought, a ton of debt ($116m) and zero revenue or business model.

Founder got about $250m cash, plus golden handcuffs of another $81m if he stays around for 4 more years.

 

Smart move to cash out.

 

http://allthingsd.com/20130808/tumblr-had-16-6-million-left-when-yahoo-bought-it/

[katie]

10-Q.

You're welcome.

[mrwicked]

uber takes another $250m in funding, now valued at over $3.5 billion.

18 months ago they were valued at $330 million.

 

i love uber, we all love uber here and use it all the time.

but that's pretty crazy.

 

Uber Filing in Delaware Shows TPG Investment at $3.5 Billion Valuation; Google Ventures Also In

http://allthingsd.com/20130822/uber-filing-in-delaware-shows-tpg-investment-at-3-5-billion-valuation-google-ventures-also-in/

[mrwicked]

totally expected but now its official: twitter files s-1 to go public.

here comes the fun.

my prediction is: assuming it goes well (and not a v2.0 of the FB clusterf*ck), this unleashes a new wave of IPOs this year and next.

 

some insight: they are using the new "secret" filing which you can no do via the wacky JOBS law.

but.. you can only do that if you have less than $1b in revenue.

so a $20b valuation, which i've heard they're aiming for, would be rediculously high.

 

also - here comes the twitter advertisements.

just like you're seeing plastered all over FB.

being public means one thing: you have to grow and make $$ and appease shareholders.

 

Twitter Is Going Public, Files S-1 With SEC

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/12/twitter-is-going-public-files-s-1-with-sec/

Edited September 12, 2013 by mrwicked

[mrwicked]

More renderings for the new SF transbay transit center.

nothing beats a $2b bus depot.

 

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Looks cool, I like the atrium feel of it. All steel, glass and abundance of natural light. Looks better than the SFO terminal expansion they did a few years back.

 

3D Architectural renderings are unbelievable nowadays.

[mrwicked]

yep, its gorgeous.

other than the almost 1,100 foot main tower - there are 23 other developments happening  (listed in the link below).

crazy.

agreed on the renderings - amazing what they can do these days.

 

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2013/09/san_franciscos_future_transit_center_and_skyline_fully.html

[mrwicked]

more twitter info.

they plan to raise $1b from the offering.

taken $1.1b in venture funding.

they brought in $263m in first half of this year. 

since they began they have lost $418m.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/03/twitter-files-for-1-billion-ipo-will-list-as-twtr/

[Lhalo]

yep, its gorgeous.

other than the almost 1,100 foot main tower - there are 23 other developments happening  (listed in the link below).

crazy.

agreed on the renderings - amazing what they can do these days.

 

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2013/09/san_franciscos_future_transit_center_and_skyline_fully.html

Looks like the building of the Transbay Tower is underway.

http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2013/10/11/highrise_checkin_transbay_tower_permitted_and_more.php

[mrwicked]

sweet!

sucks for that area though, its non-stop construction down there lately with all the new developments.

 

how about that penthouse for sale?

only $4.25m because it's in a sh*t part of town. but killer space with a kick ass solarium w/ 20 foot ceilings.

the $4,200 a month HOA is a kind of a pain though.

 

 

 

http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2013/10/15/the_hamiltons_penthouse_hacks_off_another_huge_chunk.php

[Brandon]

Thanks HOA for not allowing me to repaint my garage teal, but props on watering the common area planters.