SunRocket’s suddent demise has left it’s 200,000 customers with many questions and few answers. Most are trying to get money back for the annual fee they paid, and in parallel, calling Vonage for a new account. Recent layoffs had indicated that SunRocket was not doing well, but on Monday morning, when subscribers couldn’t make calls, it was clear that SunRocket went down from it’s position as the #2 Internet VOIP provider in the US. Lets will see what SunRocket’s sudden demise means for VoIP market and customers. One thing is for sure, Vonage will gain from this, and will further consolidate it’s top spot.
All posts by myorbitx
Google buys Feedburner
By PureVC
If you haven’t heard already, Google has purchased Feedburner. Fred Wilson gives some color to the deal on his blog. While terms were not disclosed, Fred admits that his firm made about 3 times its money on the deal. That doesn’t sound like a “homerun” but he clearly outlines how rewarding the investment was for him and his firm in terms of personal satisfaction and in learning about the new media feed world.
This transaction confirms what few prescient VCs have known is the next wave of startups that take advantage of new media. Several years ago no one knew what a widget was or what a feed was. We were all using email and looking at portals and webpages. A very small iteration occurred, and that included the “blog”, the “feed”, and the “community”. In the past few years these have taken off and it remains an undercapitalized investment category simply because a lot of VCs don’t understand the power of this space. Continue reading
Goldman Sachs dominating private equity in 2006-2007
Goldman Sachs has worked on nearly half of all private equity deals globally, according to Financial News Online. It has worked as a deal adviser or financial backer on 50 deals worth a combined $226.5 billion. There has been a total of $500 billion worth of deals announced so far this year. If all these deals were brought to fruition, Goldman Sachs could earn in the $4 billion neighborhood for five months worth of work. The firm overall was boosted by advisory work for its in-house private equity arm, which has racked up nearly $90 billion in deals. JPMorgan and Citigroup rank second and third.
Microsoft Yahoo Merger??
There is strong rumor that Microsoft and Yahoo are talking on a deal – they did engage in talks a year back but nothing came out. But in the same one last one year, Google has made a few big moves, which can easily make these two ‘other giants’ rethink their original positions. Yahoo has continued to struggle while Microsoft has seen an increasing threat in the form of Google and both companies have seen major reorganizations in their top management.
So some form of teaming might make more sense now and The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “executives at Microsoft and Yahoo are taking a fresh look at a merger of the two companies or some kind of match-up that would pair their companies’ respective strengths.” While talks are reputedly in the early stages, Microsoft is certainly feeling a sense of urgency due to the Google threat. “Short of a wholesale merger, Microsoft could spin its online group into a separately-run Yahoo, in return for a Yahoo stake. Continue reading
Internet and Spam: the story continues…
Symantec has released its periodic report on the State of Spam for April 2007.
Some of the interesting points in the report are:
- The percentage of spam as image spam has been volatile over time, but remains high at 37 percent.
- Phishers are once again begining to use tricks, such as obfuscation in scripts, to conceal phishing attacks.
- Spam is beginning to appear in force in European languages.
- There has been a notable increase lately in spam advertising replica (“knockoff”) watches.
- The US alone is responsible for almost 60 percent of all Internet mail and almost 50 percent of all Internet spam.
And I wonder who is responible for the mail that comes from Nigeria, and of late Malaysia, saying ‘you have won $10 million in inheritance and if you don’t claim it in 15 days it will go for charity’. The bad part is that some people see charity as so low down the order of how money can be used.
Just a couple of weeks back, I also got a serious sounding mail from Barclays.com.uk (fake URL) on how I need to speak with the signed person ASAP to resolve an issue. Thankfully, the delete button is in our control.