Our thoughts: Is Facebook 10 times the value of YouTube (which definitely is growing as the largest media and information sharing community online)? This looks more like wanting to stay in the “online social-site play” than business value. Microsoft will of course like to believe otherwise because they have already bought it.
Microsoft is quoting the 50 million users of today (and projected 300 million in 2-3 years) as the source of value. With $240m, you can create similar user communities on CNN and BBC – potentially getting over 100 million on its own – and with majority stake. Wonder if these alternatives were explored at all.
Microsoft also got exclusive rights to sell ads on Facebook outside of the US as part of the investment (60% of Facebook users are outside US)
This is the real benefit. Its similar to how Google bought ad rights for MySpace for $900 million in August last year. Now MySpace was supposed to have 100 million users, but analysis revealed 43 million. Along similar lines, its possible that Facebook has about 25 million real users (or about 15 million non-US users).
MSN Ad Network (similar to Google’s ad network) will benefit with a captive demand – and will keep MSN Ad Network alive (maybe this was the real thought behind the deal – and also the reason why Google didn’t push it hard – as they already have what Micorsoft wanted most). Without considering any additional deals by Microsoft into Facbook, it will need $120 million of ad sales to break-even on this investment. We’ll keep an eye on this.
PowerPoint has become the “default group communication mechanism”, and there’s a very high chance that if you are reading this, you use PowerPoint reasonably often. Now, anyone who has done a PowerPoint presentation or is going to do one should watch this video by Don McMillan. Its simple, but there’s a lot of truth in it.
If you have worked in a corporate, then you have surely been ‘trained’ a few times – ranging from technical skills on how to use the new email gadget, to people skills like team management and negotiation, and business skills for sales and profitability. If you searched the market for trainers, you will be amazed at how many there are. A simple Google search for ‘corporate training’ gives back 162 million search results. Is that a lot? Well, a search for ‘viagra’ the super popular Internet product gives 42 million search results. The point is – corporate training is a very popular business expense.
Corporates seem to like making training investments, but do they pay-off? In this video prepared by Canada AM, Jim Clemmer explains why corporate training usually doesn’t work because the training is so far removed from the “real” work environment. One of his useful suggestions is about how the effective training is usually the one delivered by senior management – and as you can feel, its also the most difficult to achieve! His website is: www.Clemmer.net
If you are in New York city, you would have surely noticed one of the brightest campaigns by India Inc.
The Incredible India@60 event is currently running in New York City (Sep 23-26). It was inaugurated at the Lincoln Center, New York City amidst a large of the Indian Americans and American businessmen and diplomats. Incredible India@60 is organized by Confederation of India Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India showcases the vibrant, participative democracy that is India; presenting the face of a changing nation to an international galaxy of top political, business and media leaders who have congregated in New York for the UN General Assembly.
The CII and its business leaders, including Nandan Nilekani and Sunil Mittal, have done a great job of using their collective business experience and applying that to create a super-professional India package.
Here’s a great presentation by Dr Patrick Dixon for MTN Mobile & Telecom. Dr Dixon is a business thinker and futurist. His Web TV site has more than 10 million unique users. He is Chairman of Global Change Ltd, author of twelve books (455,000 printed in 22 languages) including Futurewise and Building a Better Business, has spoken to audiences in 50 nations, and has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today.
In this video, he speaks about: How to make things happen. Connect with passion. Managing uncertainty with rapid change. Leadership styles. Why people get out of bed in the morning. How to motivate teams at work to do great things. Business management. Secret of leadership and ultimate leadership speech. Business ethics and values in corporations. Secrets of business success and increased productivity. Cutting costs. Increasing output. Adding shareholder value. Sustainable business success. Work life balance and lessons from non profits / volunteering. Why building a better world is such a powerful motivation.
