How defensible is Groupon?

October 17, 2010

Perhaps the greatest chart contributed by Gartner Research was the hype cycle. Shortly after the dizzying and ecstatic highs of future possibilities, a whiplash-inducing hangover of pessimism hits the collective psyche. Groupon is going through this emancipation at present. But taking a step back, how defensible is Groupon as a business? The root cause of [...]

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Announcing Startmate

October 15, 2010

I want to give a quick shout out to a program I am involved with called Startmate. Startmate is a mentor-driven seed fund in the ilk of Techstars and Y-Combinator based in Sydney. Since moving back to Australia last year, I’ve been impressed with the group of entrepreneurs I have met and they’re on par [...]

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Internet Brands Concluded

September 30, 2010

Internet Brands, a company that acquires small web properties and tries to improve upon them and a company close to my own heart, was acquired by private equity firm Hellman and Friedman for $640m a week and a half ago. The acquisition came days after the stock plunged on concerns about the underestimation of earn [...]

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Yahoo Progress

September 30, 2010

Twelve years ago, on September 30 1998, Yahoo’s stock price was nearly exactly the same as it is now (it was actually a smidgeon higher). Keep in mind this was before YHOO spiked to an all time high of $108 a year a little bit later (all adjusted for stock splits) among the dot com [...]

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Floyd Odlum

September 29, 2010

As Mark Twain suggested, “history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme”. With that, I’d suggest you all read the 1933 New Yorker profile of Flyod Odlum, whose investment firm Atlas Corporation, rose in the aftermath of the great depression. Odlum was a good friend of Sidney Weinberg, who was an important leader of [...]

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Quote of the Day

September 20, 2010

From an interview with Seth Klarman of Baupost Group (and one of Warren Buffet’s favorite investors): ” I will be buying what other people are selling, what is out of favor, what is loathed and despised, where there is financial distress, litigation—basically, where there is trouble.” Words to live by.

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Good Signs for Google

September 17, 2010

Usually when a talented executive leaves a large technology company, an inevitable story emerges about the brain drain or that the company is losing its luster. Kara Swisher’s Chinese water torture-like coverage of Yahoo departures comes to mind as each day brings another drip drip. So how can Craig Walker, founder of GrandCentral/Google Voice, leaving [...]

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Secondary Suckers

September 17, 2010

Perhaps the greatest suckers market at present is secondary shares in hot Internet startups where information about the operating results and even capital structures of those companies is unknown. It’s a mess waiting to blow up. One large factor in the original Internet bubble was that relatively few shares were issued to the public. With [...]

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Internet Brands

September 13, 2010

Internet Brands is a publicly listed company that acquires smaller web properties and hopes to grow their cash flow. It is one of the most fascinating companies for myself as I am hoping over the next few years to emulate the buying cheap part of their model but then actually improve the small sites once [...]

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Court Rescinds Craigslist Moves to Dilute Ebay Stake

September 9, 2010

Craigslist is one of the most fascinating corporations of the Internet era. It is run with extreme efficiency and at a scale that dwarves the few dozen employees under its employ. The quirkiness of founder Craig Newmark almost harks back to a different ideology. But it’s always the quiet ones you have to worry about. [...]

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