AAPL Insider: Apple Stock Price Turns Rotten

"

In a private communication last week, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs acknowledged the beating his company's shares have taken during this time of economic uncertainty, but remained confident that investors would inevitably recoup their losses and then some.

"Wow... what a remarkable last few days," he wrote in an email to employees, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider. "Our stock is being buffeted around by factors a lot larger than ourselves."

The Apple co-founder expressed sadness for many of the company's investors who may have seen their investments fall under water, but encouraged those with positions to put the matter into perspective by examining the performance of Apple shares over the past 24 months.

"As you can see, we have outperformed many other blue-chip tech companies, including Google," he wrote, tacking on a stock performance comparison chart for illustration. "I continue to believe that our fundamentals - our remarkable people, our clear and focused strategy, our new product pipeline, our 200+ retail stores, our $18 billion of cash in the bank with no debt, etc., will serve us well in the coming months and years."

Jobs, whose 5.54 million shares make him the single largest shareholder in Apple behind Fidelity Investments, was among the hardest hit by Wall Street's recent sell-off, with losses in company shares alone totaling an estimated $377.5 million on paper since the start of the new year."

PC: Lance Armstrong Takes “Significant” Stake in Demand Media; Launching Wellness Site Together

"Demand Media, the heavily capitalized Santa Monica-based online domain monetization and media company, has made an interesting turn: it has tied up with cycling legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and his foundation, to launch a health-and-wellness site LiveStrong.com. As a result of this deal, Armstrong and his Lance Armstrong Foundation will take a “significant” equity stake in Demand Media, though the size of the stake was not disclosed. The site will launch in beta next quarter.
Demand Media has raised about $320 million from investors including Oak Investment Partners and Goldman Sachs, and according to WSJ was valued at $1 billion last year when the last investment round happened. The company has about $150 million in annual revenue and operates about 60 sites, besides its other domain activities.
“Live strong” is Armstrong’s personal mantra as a cancer survivor, and his foundation believes that launching a for-profit site would increase awareness about the foundation and promote its core mission of helping people with cancer. Demand Media will provide the technology and social media features and will keep the ad revenue generated by the commercial site; CEO Richard Rosenblatt said his company will reinvest much of it back into the livestrong property. The foundation also owns Livestrong.org, its main website, and users will be pushed to the commercial site to this non-profit site.
Of course they’ll be in tough competition with tons of other health and wellness websites, both from media companies, product companies in the space, as well as blogs focusing on various sub-sectors. "

Forbes 2008 Midas List

"Recent credit crunch and market woes be damned: Technology's most powerful deal makers have been on a winning streak.
Companies that venture capitalists helped launch hauled in $34 billion from 86 public offerings and 304 acquisitions last year. The final quarter of 2007 saw 31 IPOs--more than any other quarter since 2000's third quarter--worth $3 billion.
The Forbes Midas List shows just who ushered in all those billions. Our ranking considers venture-backed technology and life sciences companies that have gone public or been acquired in the past five years, as well as the amount of capital it took to get there and the level of involvement in a company by its investors and advisers.
Topping our list this year is L. John Doerr, a star partner at famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Doerr led Kleiner's investment in search behemoth Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ). The company raised a total of $40 million in venture capital and reached a market capitalization of nearly $17 billion on its first day of trading--a 400 bagger even before the aftermarket run-up in the stock. Today Google is worth a staggering $178 billion. Doerr was also an early investor in, and adviser to, Tellme, a voice software shop sold in May to Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) for an estimated $800 million.
These days Doerr spends much of his time aiding entrepreneurs and scientists who are creating alternative fuels, eco-friendly sources of power and electric vehicles, among other things. "I worry that America will not be able to innovate fast enough in its policies and technologies to prevent the catastrophic, irreversible climate crisis. I want Kleiner to make major, measurable contributions to solving global warming. It's the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century, and a moral imperative," says Doerr, whose firm has invested in 26 energy-related investments. A third of the $1 billion KP has under management is earmarked for green "

Earnings

AMGN
Amgen Earnings Call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET today - CCBN
JNPR
Juniper Networks Earnings Call scheduled for 4:45 pm ET today - CCBN
WFR
MEMC Electronic Materials Earnings Call scheduled for 5:30 pm ET today - CCBN
CY
Cypress Semiconductor Earnings Call scheduled for 11:30 am ET today - CCBN
GOOG
Bidding starts Thursday in US FCC wireless auction - at Reuters
NOK
Q4 and Full Year 2007 Nokia Earnings Call scheduled for 8:00 am ET today - CCBN
MO
2007 Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Results Call scheduled for Wed, Jan 30 - CCBN
BLOG
BladeLogic Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Jan 30 - CCBN
HAL
Halliburton Company Earnings Call scheduled for Mon, Jan 28 - CCBN
CSCO
Cisco Systems Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Feb 6 - CCBN
VMW
VMware, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Mon, Jan 28 - CCBN
INFN
INFINERA CORPORATION Earnings Call scheduled for Thu, Jan 31 - CCBN
MFE
McAfee, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Thu, Feb 7 - CCBN
ACTS
ACTIONS SEMICONDUCTOR CO LTD Earnings Call scheduled for Mon, Jan 28 - CCBN
ATHR

Atheros Communications, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Mon, Jan 28 - CCBN
VLO
Valero Energy Corp. Earnings Call scheduled for Tue, Jan 29 - CCBN
AMKR
Amkor Technology, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Feb 13 - CCBN
USNA
USANA Health Sciences Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Feb 6 - CCBN
CFC
Countrywide Financial Corporation Earnings Call scheduled for Tue, Jan 29 - CCBN
AKAM
Akamai Technologies Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Feb 6 - CCBN
RVBD
RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY INC Earnings Call scheduled for Tue, Feb 5 - CCBN
BIDU
Baidu Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Feb 13 - CCBN
MBI
MBIA Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Thu, Jan 31 - CCBN
SBUX
Starbucks Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Jan 30 - CCBN
ESLR
Evergreen Solar, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Wed, Jan 30 - CCBN

RIP Mr. Market

"Fears that the United States may be in a recession reverberated around the world on Monday, sending stock markets from Mumbai to Frankfurt into a tailspin and puncturing the hopes of many investors that Europe and Asia would be able to sidestep an American downturn."

"Until now, overseas markets had largely avoided the sell-off that has caused steep declines recently in the United States, whose markets were closed in observance of Martin Luther King’s Birthday. But investors reacted with what many analysts described as panic to the multiplying signs of weakness in the American economy.

And in a sign that the United States could join the sell-off on Tuesday, trading in stock index futures pointed to a substantial decline when markets reopen on Wall Street.

The angst about the United States belies the popular theory that Europe and Asia are not as dependent on the American economy as they once were, in part because they trade more with each other. The theory, known as decoupling, has been used to explain why economies like China and Germany have kept growing robustly, even as the United States has slowed."

Digg: OPENhulu: Watch most of Hulu.com content, no registration

Rafat Ali: LinkedIn: Yes, We Had M&A Talks

"Not that this is a surprise, but LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has finally admitted it has been having talks with the “usual suspects” for a buyout, but then decided not to. “I know we are going to be much more valuable in a year or two...We have had (buyout) conversations with all the usual suspects, but I think an IPO is by far and away the most likely outcome”, Hoffman told AP. The story says an IPO is likely in a year or two. The company is still projecting $75 million to $100 million of revenues in 2008...about 18 million people now have profiles on the site, roughly twice as many as a year ago, the company says.
Updated: LinkedIn CEO Coy On Sale Rumors; $1 Billion Not Enough "

Paul Kedrosky: Tech: Refining the Safe Haven Thesis

"If you think that the tech sector is a haven from the tribulations in the debt market, I have some troubling news for you.
Essentially, there are three ways that the debt crisis could directly bite the tech sector.
One, there are some tech company’s with significant debt on their balance sheets. In a post today, my friend Paul Kedrosky provided a list of two dozen tech companies with market caps of at least $200 million that have debt-to-equity ratios of 2.0 or more. The list includes some prominent players in the tech economy: see below."

Jenna Spears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwnQZFJ8Q3o

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Henry Hagar and Jenna Clinton

"People knee-deep in IRS searches (+31%) have taken the time to look up "wesley snipes tax evasion" travails. As the former blockbuster star goes before a jury of his peers in February, it's hard to imagine how public sympathy will play out. Will they be on the side of the daywalker, who said recently that the government's just out to make an example out of him? Or will taxpayers believe a super-rich 12th-degree black belt should've known better?"

What bubble? VC Investments Rise to Six-Year High

"Venture capital investments in U.S. startups climbed to a six-year high of $29.4 billion in 2007, raising hope that ample money will still be available to back promising new ideas even if the staggering economy falls into a recession.


The amount of venture capital spread across 3,813 deals represents the industry's busiest year since $40.6 billion went into nearly 4,500 U.S. startups in 2001, according to data scheduled for release Saturday by Thomson Financial, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.


The $29.4 billion invested last year marked an 11 percent increase from $26.6 billion in 2006.


In 2001, venture capitalists were actually curtailing their investments after the dot-com economy pushed the U.S. economy into its last recession."

Slide: $500 Valuation

"Slide: The $500 Million Widget
After cashing in big with PayPal, Max Levchin could be at it again with his social network tool. The latest funding values Slide at a half-billion"

Slide gets $50m

"Social network software maker Slide Inc said on Friday it had closed a $50 million institutional financing round, marking the rising valuations of start-ups riding fast-growing Facebook's wave of popularity."

"Slide made some of the hottest programs running on Facebook and News Corp's (Other OTC:NWSAF.PK - News) MySpace, including media-sharing applications Slide Shows, Top Friends, SuperPoke! and FunWall.

Max Levchin, its Ukranian-born and Chicago-raised founder, declined to name the investors. But sources close to the deal said they were Fidelity Investments and T Rowe Price (NasdaqGS:TROW - News).

The round is nearly 10 times the size of the median round of $5.18 million for Web 2.0 firms in the first half of 2007, according to Dow Jones investment tracking unit VentureOne.

This follows the roughly $500 million recently raised by Facebook from Microsoft Corp (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, giving it an implied $15 billion valuation.

Slide, incorporated in 2005, was originally self-funded by Levchin, 32, who co-founded online payments company PayPal a decade ago. He later took funding from Peter Thiel, the other founder of PayPal, which eBay Inc (NasdaqGS:EBAY - News) bought in 2002.

Subsequent funding for San Francisco-based Slide was provided by leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists Mayfield Fund, former Nokia (Helsinki:NOK1V.HE - News) venture arm BlueRun Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, Thiel's venture fund."

Jonathan Schwartz Sun CEO: MySQL acquisition $1B - Helping Dolphins Fly

"But the biggest news of the day is... we're putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP. If you're an industry insider, you'll know what that means - we're acquiring MySQL AB, the company behind MySQL, the world's most popular open source database.
You'll recall I wrote about a customer event a few weeks ago, at which some of the world's most important web companies talked to us about their technology challenges. Simultaneously, we gathered together some of the largest IT shops and their CIO's, and spent the same two days (in adjoining rooms) listening to their views and directions.
Both sets of customers confirmed what we've known for years - that MySQL is by far the most popular platform on which modern developers are creating network services. From Facebook, Google and Sina.com to banks and telecommunications companies, architects looking for performance, productivity and innovation have turned to MySQL. In high schools and college campuses, at startups, at high performance computing labs and in the Global 2000. The adoption of MySQL across the globe is nothing short of breathtaking. They are the root stock from which an enormous portion of the web economy springs.
But as I pointed out, we heard some paradoxical things, too. CTO's at startups and web companies disallow the usage of products that aren't free and open source. They need and want access to source code to enable optimization and rapid problem resolution (although they're happy to pay for support if they see value). Alternatively, more traditional CIO's disallow the usage of products that aren't backed by commercial support relationships - they're more comfortable relying on vendors like Sun to manage global, mission critical infrastructure.
This puts products like MySQL in an interesting position. They're a part of every web company's infrastructure, to be sure. And though many of the more traditional companies use MySQL (from auto companies to financial institutions to banks and retailers), many have been waiting for a Fortune 500 vendor willing to step up, to provide mission critical global support.
So what are we announcing today? That in addition to acquiring MySQL, Sun will be unveiling new global support offerings into the MySQL marketplace. We'll be investing in both the community, and the marketplace - to accelerate the industry's phase change away from proprietary technology to the new world of open web platforms. "

Selling Continues Right Up To Closing Bell

"Wall Street capped off a brutal day with a final bit of ugliness as selling picked up in the late afternoon.
The S&P 500 tumbled 2.9%. It undercut the lows it hit during the March and August downturns and is now at its lowest level since September 2006. The Nasdaq closed down 2% after taking out its August low intraday. Meanwhile, the Dow plunged 2.5%, while the NYSE composite gave up 2.8%.
Preliminary readings show volume was much lower on the Nasdaq than it had been on Wednesday. But it was a bit higher on the NYSE.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing stocks 13-to-2 on the NYSE and nearly 4-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
Losses spread across a range of industries. Of IBD's 197 industry groups only four registered gains — Diversified Operations, Retail-Discount & Variety, Bldg-Residential/Commercial and Retail-Drug Stores.
Even with today's modest advances, many of the retail and building stocks are still trading well below their old highs.
A number of former leading stocks are breaking down. They include names like Apple AAPL, CF Industries CF, Mosaic MOS, GFI Group (NASDAQ:GFIG) GFIG and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) BHP — all of which suffered nasty drops today as well.
3 p.m. Update: Wall Street So Far Not Impressed With Stimulus Talk"

>

Mark Pincus: More Than Games, a Net to Snare Social Networkers

"FRIENDSHIP means being able to sink each other’s battleships.
That is the thinking of Mark Pincus, a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has built several Internet start-ups, including Support.com and the early social network Tribe.net. On Tuesday, Mr. Pincus is pulling the wraps off the Zynga Game Network, a company devoted to developing online games that work on the pages of popular sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Zynga, which has 27 employees, has spent the last few months quietly reinventing card games like poker and blackjack and classic games like Risk, Boggle and Battleship. Users of social networks can add the games to their profile pages and play with their friends online.
The games, particularly Zynga’s version of Texas hold ’em poker, have already amassed hundreds of thousands of regular users. The company and others like it share a belief that Internet ventures can be created on the backs of the rapidly growing social networks. Last year, these networks invited entrepreneurs to take advantage of their big crowds of users and to keep the revenue they generate from advertising.
Whether this approach can generate big profits over the long term is not clear, but plenty of people are giving it a try. More than 7,000 applications have been introduced on Facebook since the company opened to outside programmers in May, and more than 80 percent of its users have added at least one application. Seasoned companies and small start-ups alike are rapidly developing add-ons for Facebook and other sites, including MySpace, which has promised to open its service to developers early this year."

Dealbreaker: Monkey Feces at ML

"Earlier this afternoon, CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino reported that some guy in Merrill Lynch’s fixed income research group had “inappropriately relieved” himself in protest of the downsizing of his bonus. Merrill has officially explained that this was simply an unfortunate accident, and then the bank turned red and scurried to the other side of the room.

We’ve been digging into this story because the way it’s told by the delicate souls at CNBC, it’s way to vague. What worse, the vagueness is giving rise to rumors that are totally untrue. It's fast becoming the Wall Street equivalent of an urban legends. Here’s what didn’t happen: a guy did not urinate on his desk because he was “pissed off.” The real story is so much worse.

In the first place, it wasn’t piss. It was shit. DealBreaker can confirm this much. After that the details get a bit fuzzy. The way we first heard it is that a guy took a dump in the rest room, stomped in it, and then dragged it all over the place by walking around with it on his shoes. Merrill’s story is that there was “an unfortunate accident” in one of the stalls—which we take to mean that some guy smeared his shit all over the bathroom because how the Hell could you miss the toilet—and that another person inadvertently stepped in it and tracked it all over."

Fortune: Here come the hot IPOs of '08

"Here are some IPO candidates to keep an eye on:
MySQL. One of the most anticipated tech IPOs of the coming year, MySQL is the leading open-source database company on the planet. Its software might not have the bells and whistles of Oracle 11, but it also comes at a much cheaper price. According to the venture capitalist lunch chatter, MySQL is expected to file very soon.
Ingres. From 30,000 feet Ingres looks like a competitor to MySQL, but actually focuses on another part of the database food chain that is more competitive with Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Another open source company, it has the heft, approaching $100 million in revenue and is cash flow positive. It is widely expected to file for a public offering by mid-year.
SugarCRM. Yet another open-source company, it offers, as its name suggests, software for customer relationship management, things like sales force automation and customer support. It is also on-demand. Think of it as an open-source version of SalesForce.com (CRM). The word is that it is cash flow positive.
ExactTarget. A slew of software as a service companies got out the IPO door in 2007, and on-demand e-mail marketing company ExactTarget has filed with the SEC to join that group in early 2008. And get this: unlike some of its on-demand peers, it's profitable. For the first nine months of 2007, revenues came to $34.2 million, up from $22 million during the same period in 2006. Earnings in 2007 were $2.1 million. The comparison here is competitor Constant Contact (CTCT), which went public last October. And although Constant Contact got out first, the chatter about ExactTarget has been nothing but good.
Parallels (formerly SWsoft). The virtualization technology company has more than doubled revenues every year for the past eight years, so it's got the track record. And its products are giving VMware a run, especially in the small- and medium-business marketplace. Just find someone who uses Parallels and they will not stop gushing about it. Given VMware's successful IPO, you can bet the SWsoft executive team and their investors including Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners are looking hard at their IPO options in 2008. "

TTD: CES: Leavin’ Las Vegas

"Well, here I sit in the Las Vegas airport getting ready to fly back to the Valley. While I’m sitting around, here are a few observations on the Consumer Electronics Show, the universe and everything:
Almost everyone I talked to at the show seemed to think that the big takeaway this year was that not much really happened. There were plenty of product announcements, and lots of incremental innovation, sure. If there was one big life changing thing on display at the show, I didn’t see it.
The 150-inch Panasonic plasma television, weighing in at roughly 1,800 pounds, is perfect for the person who watches a ton of television. (Ha!)
There was a lot less discussion of what Apple (AAPL) is going to do at Macworld next week than you typically get at CES. Which can only mean that Steve Jobs is going to wow everyone in a way that no one at CES did.
One constant theme: finding ways to move Internet content onto big screen televisions. But this is a delicate exercise: there were a host of people offering interim steps, closed-garden subsets of content for TV. But ultimately, everyone is going to have to come to grips with the idea that consumers are going to want all of the content on the Web available easily on their television, whether the cable and satellite companies like it or not.
High-def is going to be everywhere: Bill Gates said it at his keynote, and he is 100% right.
Top software choice for people demonstrating the gaming capabilities of their displays: Guitar Hero.
Top hardware choice for people demonstrating the gaming capabilities of their displays: the Nintendo Wii.
Sad sight: the large but nearly empty HD-DVD booth.
Lots of discussion about moving high-def content around the house. Actually, two area of wireless transport got the spotlight. Wireless HDMI - to get rid of wires from peripherals to your TV - and 802.11n, for moving content wirelessly around the house.
Device I had never heard of before that I heard people raving about: the LG Viewty, a phone that so far is only being sold in Europe.
Number of times today that I actually briefly dozed off during an interview with a group of corporate executives: 1. The name of that company: That is going to stay in Vegas, baby.
Story that got less buzz than I would have expected: Microsoft’s (MSFT) deal to host the official U.S. site for live and archived streaming Olympic video content.
Best celebrity appearance: Well, I didn’t see Tony Bennett and Jerry Seinfeld at the Sony booth, and I missed Billy Bob Thornton’s singing gig, and I passed on Mary J. Blige at the Monster Cable awards. So the prize has to go to Slash, who showed up at the end of the Bill Gates keynote. Nearly as good, and actually funnier: Flight of The Conchords singing Business Time at the end of keynote by Comcast’s (CMCSA) Brian Roberts.
Complaints: Lack of decent free WiFi in the Venetian. Taxi lines. The insanely slow commute from the Venetian to the LVCC by shuttle bus. Lack of time to walk the show floor. Smoking in casinos. Too many overlapping events. Not enough ground-breaking news. Not enough time to actually make blog posts. And those infernal guys on the Strip who snap business-size cards at you advertising escort services: somebody ought to do something about those guys. "

paidContent.org: Microsoft Deal Man Bruce Jaffe Exits

"Bruce Jaffe, a key Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) executive involved in acquisitions, will leave the company at the end of February. According to Valleywag, which reported the departure this afternoon, the VP of corporate development is looking to launch his own startup. Microsoft confirmed the departure to MarketWatch, but there’s nothing official yet on what he’s doing next. Jaffe has been with the company in various roles since 1995, though he took his current job in early 2006. The departure follows a very busy year for Microsoft on the acquisition front. And with the company already announcing a $1 billion plus deal this year, for Norway’s Fast Search & Transfer, the company doesn’t look to be slowing down.
Microsoft To Buy Norwegian Search Firm Fast Search & Transfer For $1.23 Billion "

Very Tech: TheCheapOutDoors.com

"Welcome to TheCheapOutdoors.com. Our goal is to scour the web and share the best online deals for outdoor gear, equipment, and apparel. Updated frequently, these deals are hand-picked and tediously browsed for by real people who enjoy being active and outdoors. After many years of searching high and low for the best bargains, we realized that it would be great to share our findings and hard work so everyone could benefit.

Whether you are into camping, hiking, trail running, skiing, triathlons, or really any active outdoor activity, we hope that our site becomes an invaluable resource for you."

NYTimes: Microsoft to Buy Norway’s Fast Search for $1.23 Billion

"Microsoft agreed to buy Norwegian online-search software maker Fast Search & Transfer for 6.6 billion kroner ($1.23 billion) as it adds products that help companies mine information on the Internet.
Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, will pay 19 kroner for each Fast Search share, the Oslo-based company said in a statement through the Oslo Stock Exchange. The offer is 42 percent more than the closing price on Jan. 4.
The purchase will give Microsoft tailored Internet search functions used by customers including Deutsche Telekom and United Parcel Service."

SOA News: DataSynapse' Virtualization Market Share Flourishes

"DataSynapse announced that it experienced another solid year of growth in 2007, as it increased its sales year-over-year by more than 50 percent, while making significant additions to its product portfolio, executive leadership team and customer roster.
“For a company to remain successful in the rapidly evolving virtualization and real-time infrastructure markets, it has to be continuously listening to its customers, watching industry developments and refining its own technology,” said Dan Kusnetzky, president and principal analyst, Kusnetzky Group LLC. “Since its inception, DataSynapse has taken all the right steps in building and aligning its technology with the needs of the market.”
According to IDC, the virtualization market will grow to $11.7 billion by 2011 as businesses turn to the technology to address data center issues. In preparation for continued market growth in 2008 and beyond, DataSynapse strengthened its executive management in 2007 and deepened its alliance roster. Expanding its global presence, DataSynapse teamed with more companies throughout Asia and Europe to complement its 13-country customer base. DataSynapse also announced significant enhancements to one of its flagship solutions and introduced the first commercial product that provides visibility and analytics for virtualization infrastructures. "

NYTimes: Comcast Plans to Offer a Huge Menu of Films

"Comcast, the nation’s largest cable television company, will outline an ambitious plan Tuesday to set up two new paradigms for how people will watch movies and television shows in their homes or on the road.
The plan, which Brian L. Roberts, the chairman and chief executive of the Comcast Corporation, will describe in a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is aimed at making a nearly limitless supply of movies and television shows available on television, where Comcast subscribers could view them on demand, and through the Internet, where anyone with Web access could watch them.
Although the television component is still at a nascent stage — Comcast’s existing video-on-demand service has about 300 titles, compared with the 6,000 it eventually hopes to offer — the Web portion is further along. "

Barrons: 29 Tech Steals

Barron's Tech Trader previews investment boutique B. Riley's Cash-Rich Technology Stock [CRTS] index, which seeks out small and mid-size tech companies trading at or near net cash per share. B. Riley doesn't make calls often, but its CRTS has a remarkable, if brief, track record: In 2002, 15 picks gained 326% over 18 months. In 2005, 13 stocks gained 18.6% over 13 months. CRTS III consists of 29 stocks.

Semis: California Micro Devices (CAMD), Centillium (CTLM), ESS Technology (ESST), Exar (EXAR), GSI Technology (GSIT), Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI), Silicon Image (SIMG), Silicon Storage Technology (SSTI), Transmeta (TMTA), Trident Microsystems (TRID), FSI International (FSII).

Communications Equipment/Telecom: Ditech (DITC), Endwave (ENWV), Extreme Networks (EXTR), Sycamore (SCMR), Tollgrade (TLGD), Westell (WSTL), IDT (IDTC).

Internet: Infospace (INSP), LookSmart (LOOK), RealNetworks (RNWK).

Software: CallWave (CALL), OpenTV (OPTV) and Pervasive (PVSW).

Storage: Datalink (DTLK), Dot Hill (HILL).

Biotech/Healthcare: Maxygen (MAXY), PDI (PDII).

Digital Signage: Wireless Ronin (RNIN).

LSU players use video games to prepare through XOS Technologies

"When practice is over and film study is done, LSU quarterbacks, as most college kids do, play video games. The difference is Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux are usually still working on the game plan for the BCS national championship game against Ohio State when they fire up the Xbox these days. "

"XOS Technologies, a company that specializes in gearing technology to the needs of coaches, worked with EA Sports to produce the PlayAction Simulator that LSU has used this season.

"What they've done is they put our plays into the video game and then they put in our opponents' defenses," said Crowton, the Tigers' first-year offensive coordinator.

The game looks and plays just like the popular Madden NFL and NCAA football games, though all the goofy stuff such as player celebrations, cheering crowds, mascots and bands have been removed."

Reuters: JDate owner, Spark Networks, seeking buyer-NYT

"Spark Networks (LOV.A: Quote, Profile, Research), owner of the popular Jewish online dating site JDate.com, is seeking a buyer, The New York Times reported in its online edition on Friday.

The report, quoting people close to the auction, said Spark Networks was in early talks with companies including Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research), eHarmony, News Corp's (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) MySpace, as well as IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which owns Match.com.

A company representative was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando)"

Bizjournals: 'Carried interest' tax issue hits heart of VCs

"A proposal to double the rate venture capitalists are taxed on their earnings is not only a major issue in the coming year, but some in the industry contend that it's one of the most important issues faced by the VC industry in a decade.

The proposal to change the tax on profits, commonly called the "carried interest," from capital gains to ordinary income, was passed in a U.S. House of Representatives alternative minimum tax bill earlier this year, but removed from the bill in the U.S. Senate before approval this month.

Industry observers are unsure whether the matter will be revisited during 2008.

The measure would change the treatment of profits from capital gains to ordinary income, increasing the interest rate from 15 percent to as much as 35 percent.

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said in November the proposal was being dropped because the Senate wouldn't approve it along with the alternative minimum tax. But Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has said it would be revisited next year.

Massive earnings by private equity firms such as the Blackstone Group prompted the tax reform and the National Venture Capital Association has objected to VCs being counted among the private equity firms and hedge fund managers.

NVCA president Mark Heesen said the issue is not just about money. The issue would discourage the best and brightest business minds entering the profession and ultimately creating viable, successful businesses, he said. "

SJMerc: The valley's top IPOs for 2007

Valley's top IPOs for 2007

Stock values soared for these valley companies.

VMware, up 193 percent since Aug. 13 offer price. The Palo Alto pioneer of "virtualization software" was the valley's biggest IPO since Google.

NetSuite, up 51 percent since Dec. 19. The valley's most recent IPO, the provider of business software made majority owner Larry Ellison about $1.1 billion richer.

Cavium Networks, up 71 percent since May 1. Backed by new wave VCs, the fabless designer of sophisticated networking processors is popular with analysts.

Data Domain, up 76 percent since June 26. This San Jose company makes computer storage and disaster backup systems.

MAP Pharmaceuticals, up 46 percent since Oct. 4. This Mountain View company develops inhalable drugs to treat migraine and pediatric asthma.