BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com BloggingStocks http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/media/feedlogo.gif BloggingStocks http://www.bloggingstocks.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[AIG continues to spend money on stupid stuff]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/11/26/aig-continues-to-spend-money-on-stupid-stuff/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/11/26/aig-continues-to-spend-money-on-stupid-stuff/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/11/26/aig-continues-to-spend-money-on-stupid-stuff/#commentsFiled under: , ,

When longtime AOL executive Ted Leonsis got a holiday gift from his insurance company, American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), of a Tiffany box with two champagne glasses, he got angry.

"Arrgghhh! Are you kidding me?" wrote the owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team on his blog. "Please! Save the money and keep some people employed. Give the money to charity. Take less money from the taxpayers. Why do I need two more champagne glasses? Dumbest thing I have seen this week."

Leonsis is, of course, right. The last thing AIG needs to be caught doing is wasting money on stupid crap like corporate junkets or buying rich people stuff they do not need. By the way, the most expensive Tiffany champagne glass I saw retails for $55. This underscores that the insurance company's management team does not get it.

When a company gets a multi-billion bailout from the federal government, it means things went horribly wrong. The same thinking that got them into this mess can't get them out of it. Limiting executive pay is a good first step, but more needs to be done.

Let us know if you got an expensive gift from a failed bank.

AIG continues to spend money on stupid stuff originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AIGAOLTed LeonsisTedLeonsisTiffanyWed, 26 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Veteran dot-commers invest in widgets?]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/03/06/veteran-dot-commers-invest-in-widgets/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/03/06/veteran-dot-commers-invest-in-widgets/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/03/06/veteran-dot-commers-invest-in-widgets/#commentsFiled under: ,

According to a story in Red Herring, The cofounder of AOL, Steve Case, as well as a big executive name from the '90s, Ted Leonsis, have invested about $5.5 million in Clearspring.

Clearspring develops so-called widgets. Basically, these are small programs that can enhance a web site. For example, widgets can do things like show videos or allow for quizzes or slide shows. What's more, Clearspring has a proprietary system that allows for tracking the use of widgets.

It's cool stuff.

So, I pinged a good friend of mine, who works for a tier-1 venture capital firm. He also thought it was cool. But he did have a good question: "How do these guys make money?"

I'm not sure. But, at least for now, Clearspring is making money from some willing investors.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Veteran dot-commers invest in widgets? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Clearspringred herringRedHerringsteve caseSteveCaseted leonsisTedLeonsisWidgetsTue, 06 Mar 2007 16:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Insider Blogging: Ted feels good about Time Warner results, Scoble talks Ultra Mobile]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/05/05/insider-blogging-ted-feels-good-about-time-warner-results/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/05/05/insider-blogging-ted-feels-good-about-time-warner-results/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/05/05/insider-blogging-ted-feels-good-about-time-warner-results/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Insider Blogging looks at the employees blogs of our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information."

AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis feels "pretty good -- not great, but pretty good" about AOL's results, as reported Wednesday. He'd feel better, of course, if the street wasn't a little peeved about the too-rapid decrease in subscribers. He doesn't mention why he doesn't feel great, instead focusing on the positive, the ad revenue growth: "the businesses we get compared to most often are Yahoo! and MSN, and we grew nearly as fast as the former and nearly four times faster than the latter."

He's also wonderfully pleased with the company's decision to take the content out from behind the subscriber-only wall and offer it to everyone (along with free e-mail). "Customers like our products," he says, pointing out AOL's 107 million unique visitors, a number that's stable despite the subscriber loss.

Meanwhile, over at the Yahoo! Publisher Network blog, we finally have a response to their unceremonious boot-age of many MySpace publishers.

Continue reading Insider Blogging: Ted feels good about Time Warner results, Scoble talks Ultra Mobile

Insider Blogging: Ted feels good about Time Warner results, Scoble talks Ultra Mobile originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 May 2006 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>aolearningsleonsisrobert scobleRobertScoblescobleizertedted leonsisted's takeTed'sTakeTedLeonsistime warnerTimeWarnertwxultra mobileultra mobile pcUltraMobileUltraMobilePcumpcFri, 05 May 2006 13:34:00 EST<![CDATA[YouTube, I tube, we all tube?]]>http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/04/30/youtube-i-tube-we-all-tube/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/04/30/youtube-i-tube-we-all-tube/http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/04/30/youtube-i-tube-we-all-tube/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Or, as Ted Leonsis goes, so goes the world. Everybody's doing YouTube and (as he wrote, and we covered last week), AOL's Ted Leonsis is one of them. In the Washington Post [registration required], the YouTube phenomenon is reviewed and the writer notes that all the biggies are launching video sharing sites of their own; we've got AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! all on the list as of last count.

The concept - that users create their own videos and upload them - seems more of a play for a company that doesn't already own lots of video-ready content (i.e., Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft) than one that does (i.e., AOL). Video content is expensive for corporations to create, but very cheap for individuals.

But can any of them match the success of the seemingly grass-roots upstart, YouTube (actually a heavily-venture-capitalized firm founded by early employees of PayPal)? If even the execs at the would-be competition are lauding YouTube, I have to wonder.

YouTube, I tube, we all tube? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>aolaol leonsisAolLeonsisgooggoogleleonsismicrosoftmsfttedted leonsisTedLeonsistime warnerTimeWarnertwxyahooyahoo!yhooyoutubeSun, 30 Apr 2006 17:27:00 EST