To display the most relevant entries to you in priority,
vote for the stories you are interested in
(  )
and reject those that you are not interested in
(  )
GigaOM  -
15 hours and 19 minutes ago
In these perilous economic times, the layoff memos often follow a familiar refrain: “We
have cut costs by 20 percent. That gives us an additional year’s runway. Or two.” But
while yes, companies can cut costs and prolong their survival, when it comes to startups, just
because they can doesn’t mean they should.
I’m speaking here of venture-backed startups, which represent a small minority of
companies. The sole purpose of most companies is to create a steady income stream for their
owners and operators — in other words, survival. Venture-backed startups, on the other
hand, are created with the sole purpose of a successful exit.
Why growth is crucial
Whether that exit comes in the form of an acquisition or an IPO, in the meantime, the lifeblood
of any startup is growth, be it in terms of customers, usage, revenues or profits. Under most
economic conditions, an IPO is impossible without revenue and profit growth, and we are unlikely
to see that change any time soon. From an acquisition point of view, stagnant companies are
valued at low multiples of revenue, say 1x-2x. And while popular meme suggests that flat is the
new growth — given the downturn in the economy, the argument goes, even keeping revenues
flat is sufficient — this argument does not apply to startups.
By definition, startups are supposed to be attacking nascent market opportunities and unsaturated
markets, and as such should be able to grow even during a downturn. If a startup cannot find
growth in this environment, it’s a clear message that the market opportunity might be
better served by an established company. Of course, growth in profits or revenues are far better
than just growth in usage, but even growth in usage is better than stagnation on all three
fronts. There is at least the possibility that a company with strong usage growth might one day
be attractive to an acquirer with a good monetization engine.
It’s no fun to work at a startup that isn’t growing. Stagnation leads to low morale,
with people sitting around waiting for the axe to fall. Rather than let the company become a
zombie, management would be doing their investors and employees a favor by pulling the plug and
returning the remaining capital to investors.
Why VCs often don’t put companies out of their misery
Founders and executives have a lot of emotional capital invested in their companies, so when it
comes to making the ultimate decision, their reluctance is understandable. What’s
surprising is how often VCs let companies turn into zombies. The reason for this is a subtle
misalignment of interests between VCs and their investors. As long as a startup still appears to
be, on some level, alive, VCs can carry the company on their books at the valuation set by the
last round of financing. Once they pull the plug, the fund will receive pennies on the dollar, a
loss that has to be recorded on the books and doesn’t look good when the firm goes to raise
their next fund. Every VC portfolio, therefore, has its fair share of zombies.
Another contributing factor is excessive preference overhangs. Investors receive preferred stock
with the right to get back their invested capital ahead of common shareholders in an exit; in
some cases they have the right to receive a multiple of their invested capital ahead of common
shareholders. The total amount that investors need to receive before common shareholders can
participate in an exit is called the “preference overhang.”
If a company has raised so much capital that any realistic acquisition will be below the
overhang, then common shareholders stand to receive nothing from the sale — and company
management has no incentive to look for such an exit. In such cases, it’s important for the
VCs and management to agree to restructure the preference overhangs to make such exits attractive
to management. Otherwise the company is destined to become a zombie.
Every startup founder and employee has to consider three possible outcomes: success, failure and
zombiehood. Success is much better than failure, but quick failure beats wasting years of your
life on a zombie. If you are a company founder, and you are considering layoffs to extend the
runway (perhaps on the advice of your venture investor), you should look in the mirror and ask
yourself whether you are cutting away your growth opportunity and just choosing a lingering death
over a quick one.
Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix and Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures.
Disclosure: He is also an investor in Giga Omni Media, parent company of
GigaOM.
       |
GigaOM -
15 hours and 19 minutes ago
In these perilous economic times, the layoff memos often follow a familiar refrain: “We
have cut costs by 20 percent. That gives us an additional year’s runway. Or two.” But
while yes, companies can cut costs and prolong their survival, when it comes to startups, just
because they can doesn’t mean they should.
I’m speaking here of venture-backed startups, which represent a small minority of
companies. The sole purpose of most companies is to create a steady income stream for their
owners and operators — in other words, survival. Venture-backed startups, on the other
hand, are created with the sole purpose of a successful exit.
Why growth is crucial
Whether that exit comes in the form of an acquisition or an IPO, in the meantime, the lifeblood
of any startup is growth, be it in terms of customers, usage, revenues or profits. Under most
economic conditions, an IPO is impossible without revenue and profit growth, and we are unlikely
to see that change any time soon. From an acquisition point of view, stagnant companies are
valued at low multiples of revenue, say 1x-2x. And while popular meme suggests that flat is the
new growth — given the downturn in the economy, the argument goes, even keeping revenues
flat is sufficient — this argument does not apply to startups.
By definition, startups are supposed to be attacking nascent market opportunities and unsaturated
markets, and as such should be able to grow even during a downturn. If a startup cannot find
growth in this environment, it’s a clear message that the market opportunity might be
better served by an established company. Of course, growth in profits or revenues are far better
than just growth in usage, but even growth in usage is better than stagnation on all three
fronts. There is at least the possibility that a company with strong usage growth might one day
be attractive to an acquirer with a good monetization engine.
It’s no fun to work at a startup that isn’t growing. Stagnation leads to low morale,
with people sitting around waiting for the axe to fall. Rather than let the company become a
zombie, management would be doing their investors and employees a favor by pulling the plug and
returning the remaining capital to investors.
Why VCs often don’t put companies out of their misery
Founders and executives have a lot of emotional capital invested in their companies, so when it
comes to making the ultimate decision, their reluctance is understandable. What’s
surprising is how often VCs let companies turn into zombies. The reason for this is a subtle
misalignment of interests between VCs and their investors. As long as a startup still appears to
be, on some level, alive, VCs can carry the company on their books at the valuation set by the
last round of financing. Once they pull the plug, the fund will receive pennies on the dollar, a
loss that has to be recorded on the books and doesn’t look good when the firm goes to raise
their next fund. Every VC portfolio, therefore, has its fair share of zombies.
Another contributing factor is excessive preference overhangs. Investors receive preferred stock
with the right to get back their invested capital ahead of common shareholders in an exit; in
some cases they have the right to receive a multiple of their invested capital ahead of common
shareholders. The total amount that investors need to receive before common shareholders can
participate in an exit is called the “preference overhang.”
If a company has raised so much capital that any realistic acquisition will be below the
overhang, then common shareholders stand to receive nothing from the sale — and company
management has no incentive to look for such an exit. In such cases, it’s important for the
VCs and management to agree to restructure the preference overhangs to make such exits attractive
to management. Otherwise the company is destined to become a zombie.
Every startup founder and employee has to consider three possible outcomes: success, failure and
zombiehood. Success is much better than failure, but quick failure beats wasting years of your
life on a zombie. If you are a company founder, and you are considering layoffs to extend the
runway (perhaps on the advice of your venture investor), you should look in the mirror and ask
yourself whether you are cutting away your growth opportunity and just choosing a lingering death
over a quick one.
Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix and Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures.
Disclosure: He is also an investor in Giga Omni Media, parent company of
GigaOM.
|
Guardian Unlimited -
16 hours and 9 minutes ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/72887?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+30%2C000+jobs+at+risk+as+Woolworths+teeters+on+the+brinkch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Woolworths+%28Business%29%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CRedundancy%2CPolitics%2CUK+newsc5=Personal+Finance%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Julia+Finchc7=2008_11_22c8=1122275c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Woolworthsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FWoolworths"
width="1" height="1" //divpMore than 30,000 retail jobs were at risk last night as Woolworths
fought to avoid collapse and the fashion discount chain MK One crashed into administration for the
second time in a year./ppWoolworths' future was hanging in the balance after its bankers objected
to a management rescue plan to sell the loss-making 800-store chain to Hilco, which specialises in
restructuring distressed companies./ppThe 99-year old retailer, which is a mainstay of town and
city centres across the country, is now in last-ditch talks with its lenders in an attempt to avoid
bankruptcy. But a source close to the negotiations said the talks had reached "an impasse" and "are
not looking good"./ppSome 25,000 staff work in Woolworths stores and another 5,000 for two other
businesses in the Woolworths group: EUK and 2entertain. The group also has 10,000 pensioners and
pension fund members./ppEUK distributes DVDs, CDs and books to major supermarkets including Asda,
Sainsbury's and Morrisons and if the distributor is forced into administration alongside the
Woolworths stores it could threaten the supermarkets' supplies in the vital Christmas shopping
weeks./pp2entertain is a joint venture with the BBC which produces and distributes BBC programmes
on DVD and has had big successes with shows such as Little Britain and Top Gear./ppMK One, which
operates 125 stores aimed at young women and teenagers, has 1,400 staff jobs at risk./ppThe latest
potential job losses come amid vast cutbacks in the retail industry, which is slashing staff costs
by reducing workers' hours. Argos, for instance, has cut workers' hours by 20%. The specialist
magazine Retail Week yesterday reported that across the high street such cutbacks now equal 100,000
full time jobs vanishing in the last year. The retail sector employs 10% of the UK workforce./ppThe
stock market fell sharply again yesterday as investors worried about the effects of a recession on
the corporate sector. Leading UK shares suffered their third worst week on record with the FTSE 100
slipping to 3,780, its lowest level since April 2003./ppWoolworths has been battered by other
retailers for years, but in recent weeks it has also been squeezed by the economic downturn and the
impact of credit insurers - who protect suppliers from non-payment of invoices in the event of a
retailer going bust - withdrawing cover to Woolworths' suppliers. That has left the chain having to
pay suppliers on delivery - or have empty shelves./ppWoolworths bosses have tried to sell the chain
for a year in order to protect the other two businesses, but without success. A possible offer from
Iceland supermarket boss Malcolm Walker in the summer fell apart when Baugur, the Icelandic
investor backing his approach, ran into its own, credit crunch-related, problems./ppEarlier this
week Woolworths confirmed it might sell the stores, which are all leasehold, to Hilco. The US-owned
group would have also taken on pound;265m of Woolworths' pound;380m of debts. Woolworths wanted the
other pound;115m of debt to be transferred to EUK and 2entertain, which last year made profits of
more than pound;40m before interest and tax./ppIn normal banking circumstances, such an arrangement
would be commonplace, but a source familiar with the situation said: "The banks just won't let it
happen. They seem to want to put the whole lot into administration to get all their money back
immediately. The banks have the whip hand here."/ppWoolworths has a range of lenders, and many have
been hit hard by the credit crunch. Its lead lenders are GMAC, of the US which is applying to the
American bank bail-out fund for support, and Burdale, part of the deeply troubled Bank of Ireland,
which yesterday said it had received a takeover approach./ppWoolworths' other lenders include
Barclays, which is raising pound;7bn from Middle East investors, the American bank Wachovia, which
has just been taken over, and GE, which has had two profits warnings this year./ppA spokesman for
Burdale, one of the lead lenders, refused to comment on the discussions with Woolworths./ppThe
crisis at Woolworths and MK One will increase fears that other ailing retail chains could collapse
in the coming weeks. Casualties - and a fresh round of job losses - had been expected in the new
year, when the Christmas winners and losers emerge. But lenders and suppliers had been thought
unlikely to force stores into bankruptcy in the run-up to Christmas, when they should be raking in
cash. Woolworths, for instance, normally makes 90% of its profits in the six weeks before
Christmas. However, in the first six months of this year it crashed pound;100m in the
red./ppWoolworths shares closed last night at just 1.43p, down 32%, valuing the entire business at
just pound;25m - equal to about three days' sales./ph2strongJob cuts this
week/strong/h2pstrongMonday/strongbr /Citigroup, London strong2,400/strongbr /Avis, Hayes,
Middlesex strong100/strongbr /Hoover, Merthyr Tydfil strong337/strong/ppstrongTuesday/strongbr
/Wolseley, nationwide strong2,000 /strongbr /National Express, East Anglia strong200/strongbr /PSL
Energy Services, Aberdeen strong50/strong/ppstrongWednesday/strongbr /SIG, nationwide
strong900/strongbr /Fidelity International, London strong300/strongbr /Deutsche Bank, London
strong450/strong/ppstrongThursday/strongbr /Rolls-Royce, Derby strong140/strongbr /AstraZeneca,
Macclesfield strong250/strongbr /BAE Systems, nationwide strong200/strongbr /Daily Mail and General
Trust strong400/strongbr /Tughans, Northern Ireland strong20/strong/ppTotal strong7,747/strong/pdiv
style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/woolworths"Woolworths/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/redundancy"Redundancy/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a
href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660246112201400459684"img
src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660246112201400459684"
border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media
Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a
href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a
|
Guardian Unlimited -
16 hours and 11 minutes ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/28506?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Acid+attacks+and+rape%3A+growing+threat+to+women+who+oppose+traditional+orderch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Afghanistan+%28News%29%2CGender+%28News%29%2CWomen+and+women%27s+interests%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CWomenc6=Clancy+Chassayc7=2008_11_22c8=1122121c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Afghanistanc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FAfghanistan"
width="1" height="1" //divp They were walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a
group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed
them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell
as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn. /ppHer friend rushed over to help her,
struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face,
crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was
a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others
permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school. /ppIt was not an isolated incident.
For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to
publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives./ppThe Afghan MP Shukria
Barakzai receives regular death threats for speaking out on women's issues. Talking at her home in
central Kabul, she closed the living room door as her three young daughters played in the hall.
"You can't imagine what it feels like as a mother to leave the house each day and not know if you
will come back again," she said, her eyes welling up as she spoke./pp"But there is no choice. I
would rather die for the dignity of women than die for nothing. Should I stop my work because there
is a chance I might be killed? I must go on, and if it happens it happens."/ppBarakzai receives
frequent but cryptic warnings about planned suicide attacks on her car, but no help from the
government. Officials advise her to stay at home and not go to work, but offer nothing in the way
of security assistance, despite her requests. She said warlords in parliament who received similar
threats were immediately provided with armoured vehicles, armed guards and a safe house by the
government./ppAfghan women are feeling increasingly vulnerable as the security situation worsens
and a growing number of western and Afghan officials call for the Taliban to join the
government./pp"We are very worried that, now the government is talking with the Taliban, our rights
will be compromised," said Shinkai Karokhail, an outspoken MP for Kabul. "We must not be the
sacrifice by which peace with the Taliban is made."/ppUnder Taliban rule, up until 2001, women were
not allowed to work and were forbidden from venturing outside the home without a male escort.
/ppAfghan women who defy traditional gender roles and speak out against the oppression of women are
routinely subject to threats, intimidation and assassination. An increasingly powerful Taliban
regularly attacks projects, schools and businesses run by women. /ppSix weeks ago,
Lieutenant-Colonel Malalai Kakar was assassinated in her car on her way to work in Kandahar. She
was Afghanistan's highest-ranking female police officer and a fierce defender of women's rights.
Only five feet tall, she was known to have beaten men she found to be abusing their wives. Another
senior female police officer was killed in the province of Herat in June./ppstrongSafe
house/strong/ppTalking to the Guardian at a safe house on the outskirts of Kabul, Mullah Zubiallah
Akhond, a Taliban commander from the southern province of Uruzgan, said the group's attacks on
women were always political and not based on any desire to target or punish women specifically.
/ppHe condemned the acid attack on the group of schoolgirls in Kandahar, and insisted the Taliban
were not involved. "We support the education of girls, but separate from boys. We would not attack
schoolgirls. We only target those working with the government."/ppThe Taliban's regional commands
have varying attitudes toward women, but all those fighting under the Taliban banner are committed
to enforcing their interpretation of sharia law, which forbids women from working or leaving the
house without a male escort./ppThe Islamist group is just one of the many threats facing
Afghanistan's few outspoken female MPs. "Our parliament is a collection of lords," said Barakzai.
"Warlords, drug lords, crime lords."/ppIn parliament, she says, she is often greeted with screams
of "kill her" when she stands up to speak, and she has had no shortage of personal threats from
fellow MPs. /ppThey visit her privately to tell her she will be killed if she continues to speak
out on such issues as the right of a woman to have a personal passport (separate from the standard
"family passport") or against compulsory virginity tests for young women, and the right of a man to
have custody of a child at two years old. It is not only men who oppose women in parliament - both
Barakzai and Karokhail have faced obstruction from other female MPs on key women's
issues./ppKarokhail said that, of the 68 women in the 249-strong parliament, only five were vocal
on women's issues. The majority of women in parliament vote in favour of more traditional
legislation that often rules against women's rights./ppSome women now fear the parliament is
becoming more conservative towards women. "Talibani ideas are natural among our people,
particularly their vision about women," said Barakzai. /ppAccording to Afghan commentators,
President Hamid Karzai, desperate to win next year's elections, has been bringing former mujahideen
commanders into parliament in the hope they will support him at election time. /ppMost of these
former jihadi commanders share the Taliban's ideas about women and are expected to support
legislation that will once again limit women's freedom. In addition, according to the Taliban
commander, the group has a growing number of MPs in parliament lobbying for their policies./ppIn
much of the country, especially rural areas, women remain subservient to the men in their family
and rarely venture out of their homes. Even in the relatively liberal capital, Kabul, it is common
to see women robed in blue burkas trailing five paces behind their husbands./ppIt is difficult to
gauge how the worsening situation in the country is affecting women, but according to a recent
study by the UN, some 87% of them suffer abuse in the home. Afghan human rights groups are
documenting cases of "honour" killings, forced abortions and rape, and a database is now being
constructed by the UN./ppNajla Zewari, who works for the UN's gender and justice unit, believes
violence against women is increasing, fuelled by growing frustrations caused by the economic crisis
and lack of security. She said there had also been a sharp increase in rapes by men who claimed
they could not afford to pay the dowry needed to marry. After the public shame of an attack, the
victim is usually outcast and the rapist is then the only man who will have the woman as his
wife./ppIt is crimes like this that make many Afghans nostalgic for the harsh justice of Taliban
rule. Barakzai countered: "Women were safe, in one sense, under the Taliban - but they were kept as
slaves, they were not allowed to do what they wanted even in their own home."/ppAs the Taliban
strengthen, the future for women in Afghanistan looks bleaker. Barakzai said women's rights, once
heralded as the great success of post-invasion Afghanistan, had been sidelined and might suffer
more in the struggle to find a solution to the fighting./ppLast week, a council of 400 women
politicians met in Kabul to discuss this possibility and prepare ways to counter it. Karokhail
said: "Our biggest fear at the moment is that the return of Talibani ideas to government will wind
back the gains we have made in these last years."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan"Afghanistan/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender"Gender/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women"Women/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a
href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660269112201400459684"img
src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660269112201400459684"
border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media
Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a
href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a
|
TimesOnline: Britain -
16 hours and 49 minutes ago
Overbearing health and safety regulations are hampering the ability of the National Trust to
encourage more people to venture outdoors for walking or to visit country houses.
|
CNET News.com -
18 hours and 28 minutes ago
President-elect Barack Obama wasnt the only winner in the election. The Huffington Post, a
political site, landed a sizable venture round, according to the Times UK.
|
Digital Media Wire - connecting people & knowledge -
18 hours and 34 minutes ago
p iLondon /i- Politics and culture blog The Huffington Post is near the close of a new $15 million
third round of venture capital financing, The Times reported, while PaidContent adds that sources
tell it that Oak Investment Partners will lead the round.pa
href="http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/11/21/report%3A-huffington-post-closing-%2415-million-third-round"read
more/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=pF2uN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=pF2uN" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=5j7bn"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=5j7bn" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=cdC6n"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=cdC6n" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=1qy8N"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=1qy8N" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=3gdKn"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=3gdKn" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dmwmedia/~4/461237334" height="1" width="1"/
|
Times Online:rss -
18 hours and 53 minutes ago
View video and Need to Know interactive heatmap
|
paidContent.org -
21 hours and 5 minutes ago
pimg src="http://paidcontent.org/images/uploads/arianna_120x120.jpg" align="right" border="0" /The
a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" title="Huffington Post"Huffington Post/a has raised a
href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article5201252.ece"
title="another $15 million"another $15 million/a in funding, according to the iTimes/i, as it
continues on a high growth trajectory, which also means a high cash burn....to be fair, the site's
traffic went through the roof and sky during the election season, and it has been investing a lot
in expansion. /p p Our understanding of the third-round funding as of last week was that it hadn't
closed yet, and there was a possibility that the round may even end up near $20 million...we're
trying to get more on it now. While we haven't confirmed a valuation, our educated guess is that it
is bin the $100 million ballpark, post money/b. The investment, we understand, is being led by a
third party who has not invested before: SoftBank Capital has been the lead in previous rounds, and
Greycroft Partners has been the secondary investor, besides money from co-founder Ken Lerer and
others in seed round. /p p The election momentum surely helped them achieve the high end of what
they were expecting, but does this create unrealistic expectations on the business side? The big
question for the site is on two fronts: whether it can sustain the traffic post-election (the Obama
administration transition process and drama is probably still helping it) and secondly, is the
direct advertising efforts scaling up, in a market which is brutal, especially for general interest
sites like HuffPo. /p p The Times UK story says that the money will in part be used to develop
local news sections across the U.S. and into more investigative journalism. I have my doubts on
that exact focus, and I would venture to say even HuffPo understands it. It has started a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chicago/" title="a Chicago site"a Chicago site/a, but local is
hardest to scale, and with a small direct sales force at HuffPo, even harder. As for investigative
journalism, HuffPo's real daily value is in its aggregation and the spin on it, and investigative
while admirable, will not bring in the dollars needed. /p p More as we find out more. By the way,
Arianna Huffington is a
href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-our-la-year-end-review-and-mixer-a-qa-with-ashton-kutcher-and-arianna-h"
title="doing a QA"doing a QA/a with Ashton Kutcher at our year-end ContentNext mixer, and even
though she will be asking the questions, we will make sure she answers some too. /p p For
everything HuffPo, read a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/tag/huffingtonpost/" title="our
dedicated section"our dedicated section/a. /p piOur streamlined mobile application for the
BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. a
href="http://m.paid.mwap.at/"Click here to download/a./i /p pa
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=xbSfvJ"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=xbSfvJ" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=fTarN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=fTarN" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=shOFN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=shOFN" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=TQ0Hn"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=TQ0Hn" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=H2iRN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=H2iRN" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=tAXbN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=tAXbN" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/461099271" height="1" width="1"/
|
Billboard.biz - Top Stories -
23 hours and 49 minutes ago
Nashville-based independent Broken Bow Records has formed a joint venture with the newly-launched
Holeshot Records.
|
GigaOM -
23 hours and 57 minutes ago
 Yieldex, a startup that helps online publishers forecast ad inventory, has
won the Amazon Web Services Startup
Challenge, netting $100,000 in cash and services. Yieldex
built its ad forecasting platform using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and the Amazon Simple
Storage Service. It won $50,000 in AWS services as well as $50,000 in cash, and may even get an
Amazon investment. In addition, it and six other
finalists got to pitch their businesses to several VC firm including BlueRun
Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Greylock Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Madrona Venture
Group, who help judge the contest. Last year’s
winner Ooyala managed to score $8.5 million in venture funding two
months after it won. But those were different times.
 |
GigaOM -
23 hours and 57 minutes ago
Yieldex, a startup that helps online publishers forecast ad inventory, has
won the Amazon Web Services Startup
Challenge, netting $100,000 in cash and services. Yieldex
built its ad forecasting platform using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and the Amazon Simple
Storage Service. It won $50,000 in AWS services as well as $50,000 in cash, and may even get an
Amazon investment. In addition, it and six other
finalists got to pitch their businesses to several VC firm including BlueRun
Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Greylock Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Madrona Venture
Group, who help judge the contest. Last year’s
winner Ooyala managed to score $8.5 million in venture funding two
months after it won. But those were different times.
    |
Mashable! -
1 days and 2 hours ago
 Well, it took 6 months since we first heard a peep about an official
release of Gmail themes for Google to make them a reality. But even with this week’s
rollout from Mountain View HQ, some of you will still want more.
Indeed, the Google design corps won’t hit the spot for every Tom, Dick, and Henrietta. So
there’s really only one alternative route to venture down to get Gmail a new dress: some
good ol’ CSS
chop-shoppage via the ever-popular Greasemonkey and
Stylish Firefox
add-ons. Here are our current top picks:
Be sure to post your faves if you’ve got ‘em, and tell us how they
compare to Google’s own.
Gmail Redesigned
The king of all Stylish Gmail themes, Gmail Redesigned is without a doubt the most professionally done of all the themes
listed here. It sports a fancy custom loading screen, and many details you won’t catch
right away, but they’ll get under your skin after a while, making you wish the official
Gmail theme had them.
Super Clean
Super
Clean is very liberal with its use of white and sweeping blues. Which, if
we’re honest, give it a sort of Microsoft Live-like atmosphere.
Admittedly, it looks quite good, wouldn’t you agree?
Dark Gmail 2 Nasa
What’s not white and fits in with the Nasa Night Launch
Firefox theme? Yep, Dark
Gmail 2 Nasa. This one’s pretty rich on the graphics, so if you’re
seeking something more clean-looking (like Gmail’s own “Terminal” option), this
isn’t the thing for you.
Dark Gray
Apart from a white search field and some glimmers of light gray around the periphery,
Dark Gray holds
true to its name.
Dark Shiny Blue
There’s lots of shininess to the Dark Shiny Blue theme. Dark gray and blue tones get equal treatment.
The drop-down transparent menu is a nice treat to see. All things considered, gamers may take a
particular liking.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
GMail Adding Greasemonkey
Support?
5 Extreme Gmail
Makeovers
Three New Ways to Play With
Gmail Labels
Gmail To Get Themes
Support?
Pimp Your iGoogle With These Greasemonkey
Hacks
Gmail and Gtalk (Finally) Get Decent
Emoticons
GMail Phasing In IMAP
          |
fsdaily.com - Free Software News - Published news -
1 days and 4 hours ago
pThe question of whether business can co-exist with free and open source software (FOSS) was
settled long ago. It can, and not only successful companies like Red Hat but also the willingness
of venture capitalists to fund FOSS business models proves the case./p
|
Mashable! -
1 days and 5 hours ago
Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for helping us grow to be the #1 website on
social news and technology.
Advertise with us to get noticed.
Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large diverse audience —
social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers, and many more.
You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition to
thank you as our premium sponsors. Are you interested? (Contact us) advertising (at) mashable
(dot) com for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card. Just in time
for the holidays, Mashable is currently running an exclusive promotion with ad discounts. Inquire
today!
This week, our valued sponsors are Business
Exchange, SolutionSet, Influxis, Clickatell,
and EdgeCast.
SolutionSet combines efficient development with powerful creative design and a
user-centered approach to marketing. We can deliver social media solutions that meet your
business goals. SolutionSet is currently the only social application platform endorsed by
Mashable.
Business Exchange is a website that allows users to create business topics,
collaboratively edit and aggregate content from the entire web and share content with other
business focused users around these topics.
Influxis is an official Adobe hosting partner and resource for the Adobe Flash
Media Interactive Server. Influxis provides Flash hosting plans for all levels of use
– beginner to enterprise. With a reputation for exceptional customer service,
Influxis provides an extremely reliable international network of FMS servers in the U.S., U.K.,
and Germany.
Social Networks and Applications are the bread and butter of the new age Internet, commonly
referred to as Web2.0. Clickatell believes that using SMS to bind the two worlds
together is the most cost effective, reliable and simple to implement method available. With
Clickatell’s truly global reach, your social application can now extend its mobile
communications channel to 750 networks spanning 212 countries.
EdgeCast Networks offers a superior, cost-effective, global content delivery
service that gives our customers competitive advantage in the delivery of digital media. Our
world-class content delivery platform provides customers the cost benefits and flexibility of
controlling their own content delivery network while liberating them from ISP contracts, capital
investments and operational hassles.
Additionally, thanks to the following partners for making Mashable happen:
Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing our
My Mashable social network and W3 MARKUP for the
development and maintenance of Mashable.com
Mashable would also like to thank AttentionPR for their PR support. AttentionPR proves that PR today is measurable,
transparent, and yes, social. Learn more
about AttentionPR.
Mashable values Search Engine Optimization and endorses Stone Temple Consulting as the industry’s leading Search Engine Optimization
and Pay Per Click experts. Find out more about Stone
Temple Consulting.
We can get your name out there.
(Contact us) advertising (at) mashable (dot) com for more information on supporting
Mashable’s growth and development. Alternatively, visit our advertise section for more details about:
-Competitive direct ad sales
-Sponsorship Opportunities for Events and other channels
-Sponsored giveaways and contests
-Custom ad deals and partnerships
CPM-based advertising is available through our partner, Federated Media, but contact us for information
and unpublished discounts.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Open Web Awards Voting Has
Ended - Final Winners Announced Tomorrow
Meebo’s Custom Chat Rooms for New
Advertising Options
Happy New Year!
Meebo Hyping Kanye West Listening
Party Tonight
Rocketboom’s New Sponsorship
Program Launches with YouTube
Another Googler Moves
On
The 2nd Annual Open Web Awards Live
Gala:
     |
Guardian Unlimited -
1 days and 5 hours ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/52266?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Injury+concerns+for+Manchester+United+ahead+of+trip+to+Aston+Villach=Footballc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Manchester+United+%28Football%29%2CAston+Villa+%28Football%29%2CPremier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CPremier+Leaguec6=Mike+Adamsonc7=2008_11_21c8=1121854c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Manchester+Unitedc13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FManchester+United"
width="1" height="1" //divpManchester United have several injury worries ahead of their Premier
League match at Aston Villa tomorrow. Dimitar Berbatov and Wes Brown are both definitely out, Rio
Ferdinand is unlikely to play and Wayne Rooney is also a doubt after missing England's friendly in
Germany on Wednesday./ppBerbatov picked up a hamstring injury on international duty with Bulgaria
this week, limping off during their game with Serbia. Scans revealed he has not suffered a muscle
tear, but he will miss tomorrow's match, Tuesday's Champions League fixture at Villarreal and
possibly next weekend's derby with City./ppBrown will be out for several weeks after undergoing
exploratory surgery on his ongoing ankle problem, and fellow defender Ferdinand is unlikely to
feature at Villa Park because of a back injury. "Rio is very doubtful for tomorrow, I don't think
he'll make it," Sir Alex Ferguson said today. "Rooney has a good chance, he trained on Wednesday
and Thursday and if he comes through today he should be involved. Wes will be missing for a few
weeks. There's no times | |
