Jason Calacanis just announced the acquisition of Weblogs Inc. by America OnLine. Weblogs Inc. is a blog network of 90 weblogs employing over 130 bloggers in the consumer, technology, wireless, video games, media & entertainment, business, life sciences, and events. Weblogs Inc. received venture capital funding from Mark Cuban. I have heard terms of the deal are cash and stock with about a $25 million base and $15 million worth of incentives. If true, Weblogs Inc. received a similar valuation to Flickr. Update: Wired News reports the deal was $25 million in cash with no mention of incentives. Some questions…
Category Archives: Business
eBay and Skype terms and details
I talked to Steve Jurvetson today about the sale of Skype to eBay, the terms of the deal, and what the team at Skype looked for when considering potential acquirers. It sounds like Skype had a pretty good deal and were able to name their terms. Skype was approached by a variety of potential acquirers but was not too interested in selling at first. Skype was able to keep some form of autonomy by through its own board of directors, an annual budget from eBay, and a two-way incentive plan that provides financial and ownership incentives if Skype meets certain…
Determining the birth of a startup
Many people consider September 7, 1998, the day Google was incorporated, to be it’s birthday. Google has a birthday logo on its home page today as well as a blog post about the the company’s birthday. When is the born on date of a startup? When you first file papers of incorporation? When you move into your first company-specific office? When you hire your first employee? When you close your first deal? I consider the birth of a startup to be the first time you solve the problem you set out to solve. It might be the first time…
Bay Area Technology Jobs Blog
I created a new weblog focused on technology jobs in the San Francisco Bay area. The process of potential employees with potential hirers seems so inefficient I just had to try to better connect the two sides. The economy is improving and there are many interesting jobs available at technology companies building cool new things that push the boundaries of conventional wisdom, behavior, and code. The new weblog provides a way for me to experiment with various forms of advertising, connect people, a provide a pulse on industry employment movements to all who are interested. I am currently using FeedBurner…
Signs you should consider replacing your company
Brad Feld’s recent post about signs a board of directors should replace the company’s CEO got me thinking about a larger issue. Why not apply the same problems to a worker’s role in the company? The main difference is the middle manager or line worker usually has less money and capital invested in the success of the enterprise but many of the same ideas hold true. The list below is modified from Brad’s post to focus on the role of an individual worker. Signs you should consider replacing your company I never hear from my commanding officer (other than at…
Time wasting at work
According to a new survey of 10,000 workers by America Online and Salary.com the average worker in the Software and Internet sectors admits to wasting 2.2 hours per work day. Human resource managers admitted to an assumed loss of 0.94 hours per work day and a suspected loss of 1.6 hours per workday. The top reasons employees provided were not having enough work to do (33.2%), feeling they were underpaid for the amount of work they perform (23.4%), distractions from co-workers (14.7%), and not enough personal time after-work (12%). I think the top two cited work hinderances are actually related:…
The history of Labor Day
Today is Labor Day. A day for every man and woman in the United States to take some time off, sip some ice tea, and spend time with friends and family. The tradition began with coordinated unpaid day off of work and became a part of the national scene under political pressure and a mid-term election in 1894. The work environment of the late 19th century heavily favored the employer. The Pullman Palace Car Company company was one example of a company where you assumed not just a job, but a lifestyle. Founder and CEO George Pullman created the town…
RSS jobs at Yahoo! and Microsoft
Yahoo! and Microsoft are definitely paying attention to emerging forms of data transport such as RSS. It is evident not only in their product roadmaps but also in the essential tools to help potential candidates succeed in their jobs. Microsoft mentions RSS in 15 current job descriptions across product groups such as portable media center, marketing, and MSN. Looks like Microsoft has some plans for RSS on mobile devices. Yahoo! mentions RSS in 12 current job descriptions including what they are calling their “open content (RSS) platform.” Google currently has no job listings for feed technologies RSS, Atom, or even…
LinkedIn social hack
Would you like to contact people listed on business networking site LinkedIn without a paid account or even an approval? I have received a few calls from recruiters lately using LinkedIn as a prospecting service but not paying anything for the service. How? They simply look at my current company and search the web for corporate contact information. A quick call to a receptionist at a small company like Technorati and the recruiter asks to speak with me. It’s not too difficult, and the recruiter just avoided the LinkedIn InMail cost of about $5 an e-mail. The practice seems to…
Paul Graham on blogging and open source
I just finished reading Paul Graham’s latest essay he prepared for OSCON: What Business Can Learn from Open Source. Paul is an excellent writer and hit on a few key points I want to emphasize here. I think the most important of the new principles business has to learn is that people work a lot harder on stuff they like. Well, that’s news to no one. So how can I claim business has to learn it? When I say business doesn’t know this, I mean the structure of business doesn’t reflect it. Business still reflects an older model, exemplified by…