Google (GOOG) is looking to expand its reach into the user-generated content market. It's reportedly in discussions with Yelp, a user review and ratings site that covers everything from recruiters to restaurants. The selling price is expected to be more than $500 million ... if Google and Yelp are able to reach a deal.

Will the negotiations go anywhere? As usual, there are no guarantees, and this isn't the first time Google's talked to Yelp about an acquisition. In past years, Google has shown some interest in the site, but this time around, it looks like the action's becoming serious, according to the New York Times.

Continue reading Google in Talks to Buy Yelp

Google in Talks to Buy Yelp originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sergey Brin claims that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) didn't try to buy Twitter. The co-founder of the search engine giant made a surprise appearance at Web 2.0 Thursday, where organizer John Battelle asked point blank if he'd made a move for the popular microblogging website.

Of course, Brin revealed his fluency in corporate speak, continuing, "But if companies approach us we definitely consider any opportunities to buy," according to Reuters. A denial doesn't always mean a denial, especially if there were agreements to keep negotiations confidential.

Continue reading Did Google try to buy Twitter?

Did Google try to buy Twitter? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading With the Internet, newspapers face their biggest hurdle, but not their first

With the Internet, newspapers face their biggest hurdle, but not their first originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you look at top websites -- like Wikipedia and craigslist -- a common theme is user participation. It certainly can be a powerful thing.

Well, this is what Glassdoor.com is trying to do. Actually, this week the company announced a $6.5 million venture capital round (the total amount raised since its founding is $9.5 million). The investors include: Sutter Hill Ventures and Benchmark Capital.

So far, Glassdoor.com has attracted 115,000 contributions from its user base (the site launched in June). Basically, they have provided information about their employers, such as on salaries, culture and so on. There are even ratings of company CEOs.

All in all, it's a neat idea. After all, making the decision on a new job is critical -- but often fraught with uncertainty. So why now allow the community to help out?

According to the Glassdoor blog:

"Now more than ever, people want to know what it's really like inside a company and more and more employees are sharing details about their jobs and work environments. With increased resources, employees and employers can improve upon the decisions they make for their career and for their company. In this environment, in particular, we think this investment sends a strong signal about the value of the information available on Glassdoor.com to people around the globe."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

Glassdoor.com gets a $6.5 million payday originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Despite all this, venture capitalists continue to pour money into Web 2.0 deals. According to a report from Dow Jones VentureSource, there was about $1.34 billion in investments last year (across 178 transactions). In fact, this was an 88% spike over 2006.

Sounds good, huh?

Perhaps not. If anything, we may be seeing a weeding out of the weaker players and a bigger focus on the winners. After all, Facebook snagged about $300 million in funding. There was also a $44 million infusion for Ning as well as a $49.25 million deal for MyStrands.

Continue reading Is Web 2.0 fading away?

Is Web 2.0 fading away? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of my favorite books is Patricia Seybold's Outside Innovation. Her main point is that much of a company's innovation will come outside its walls -- such as from employees, partners, investors, and so on.

For example, the hip online clothing retailer, Karmaloop, gets about 40% of its brand ideas from its customers. Of course, the biggies -- like International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM), Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and Dell, Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) -- also operate idea sites.

In the case of Cisco, the company has established the I-Prize competition so as to find the next billion-dollar idea. The company says it may invest up to $10 million into the winning idea.

So what can your company do to benefit from other people's ideas? Let's take a look:

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Striking gold from other people's ideas

Entrepreneur's Journal: Striking gold from other people's ideas originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google close to launching Chinese music downloads originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Being a parent can certainly bring lots of joy. At the same time, it can be terrifying. But there's help: iParenting Media. The company operates websites like www.PregancyToday.com and yes, www.iParenting.com.

Now, the company has sold out to The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). No doubt, this looks like a great fit and should provide iParenting with much more distribution and content resources.

iParenting got its start in 1996, when the cofounders -- Alvin All and Elisa Ast All -- looked for a site to help with Elisa's pregnancy. Well, there weren't many good sites. So why not start one? Over time, they built a thriving community of more than 40 different sites, covering areas like teens.

iParenting will be a part of the The Walt Disney Internet Group, which already has a set of popular family websites like Family.com, FamilyFun.com and Wondertime.com.

Disney did not disclose the terms of the deal and in today's trading, the stock price is down 49 cents to $32.55.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Disney makes a Web2.0 play, buys iParenting originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Google further blurring the desktop and the Internet

Google further blurring the desktop and the Internet originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So, what does this mean in practice?

Continue reading What's next, Google TV?

What's next, Google TV? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the consumer world, we are seeing a revolution in social technologies: blogs, wikis, video sharing, and so on. And some of the top properties, such as Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace, are becoming mega brands.

But there is another emerging trend: social media is making its way into the Corporate world.

I recently had a chance to talk to Reid Conrad, who is the cofounder and CEO of Near-Time. His company has a Web 2.0 platform geared mostly for corporate customers.

What are you hearing from business customers regarding Web 2.0? Is it becoming more of a priority? If so, why?

We are seeing businesses increasingly view Web 2.0 as their standard. They are quickly realizing the advantage of Web 2.0 capabilities over traditional, proprietary applications. I think the key to this has been the realization by businesses that they can deploy consumer platforms with unprecedented reach and flexibility.

Continue reading CEO Interview: Near-time brings Web 2.0 to Corporate America

CEO Interview: Near-time brings Web 2.0 to Corporate America originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In light of the mega deals from Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), IBM (NYSE: IBM), and SAP (NYSE: SAP), the buzz is that business software is dead. How can small- and mid-sized players compete?

Well, I think there's still life in the sector. Take a look at the on-demand operators, such as Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and NetSuite. They are disrupting existing markets - and growing at break-neck speeds.

We are also seeing some new-fangled Web 2.0 players enter the market. Take Huddle.net, which announced a venture capital round of $4 million (the investor is Eden Ventures).

Basically, the company realizes that the MySpace/Facebook generations want a different approach to software. As a result, Huddle.net has a cool system that allows for online workspaces, which even allow for social networking.

True, I know many think that this is a fad. Ironically enough, that's probably good news for Huddle.net. It allows the company to build out its offerings and learn form customer interactions.

In fact, for the past six months, Huddle.net has seen 25% growth in new users per month.

If you want to check out other cool venture capital deals, visit DealProfiles.com.

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

Huddle.net raises $4 million: Ready to tackle the software giants? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Question: what does every e-commerce site need to enable it to sell more merchandise?

If you answered more giant Whoopi Goldberg ads, you're only half right.

What every Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY) needs is better metrics. Why?

Search engine marketing (or SEM) is about paying for traffic. By bidding on keywords, advertisers with Google or its competitors are paying to bring people to their websites. Once there, a website needs to convert traffic into sales. Not an easy thing to do and clearly, some traffic is more valuable than other traffic. The better Google gets at valuating the traffic and providing these metrics to their advertisers, the more profitable everyone becomes. Google makes more money because it optimizes the bidding on keywords by really valuating a click. Advertisers win because they have the tools to bid on the most profitable traffic. For an unbelievable treatise on why analytics are so important, check out Dave McClure's great work on the industry and why investors should take note (Warning: Dave uses some strong language).

Continue reading Omniture and Visual Sciences: Riding the Google analytics wave

Omniture and Visual Sciences: Riding the Google analytics wave originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Three reasons why Google will beat Facebook at its own game

Three reasons why Google will beat Facebook at its own game originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bloggingstockcast: A review of personal finance website Mint originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Several years ago, I had a chance to talk to Satish Dharmaraj, the CEO and cofounder of Zimbra. He told me that the company spent two years building a sophisticated email system (in stealth mode) - and was using some cool Web 2.0 capabilities.

Since then, the company has continued to innovate. More importantly, Zimbra has been picking up a lot of customers (the current count is over 1,300). Some include Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Embarq Corporation (NYSE: EQ), Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB), and Century 21.

Well, the hard work has paid off; that is, Zimbra has fetched $350 million in a buyout from Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

No doubt, Zimbra's messaging platform has some slick features. But it's also sturdy enough for intense enterprise environments. For example, Zimbra allows for archiving and on-site deployment - which are essential capabilities in the Sarbanes-Oxley world.

Yahoo is a dominant player in email, with about 250 million registered users. Now, with the power of Zimbra, Yahoo can expand into corporate environments. In other words, there will be even more pressure on Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Office franchise.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Yahoo's $350 million email blast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Those of you who have been interested in blogs for several years are probably well aware of the company Technorati. This website made a splash by becoming the first market-share dominator in the entire Web 2.0 space, especially in the blog search engine space. But times have changed and Technorati is struggling to hold on.

The situation in Technorati is quickly shifting to more difficult, seemingly by the day. As TheDeal.com reported on Friday, the founding CEO of the company recently stepped down. In addition, the company has been forced to recently slash eight jobs to adjust the company's expense structure. Perhaps the most startling of it all -- Technorati is quickly losing its dominant market share position.

According to research firm Hitwise, Technorati's number one market share position is now just secured by 1%. The company currently stands at 34% of the blog search market, while Google's blog search product is a strong and growing 33%.

As you can see from the chart below (courtesy of Alexa.com), Technorati's page views figures are well off of their peak. Understandably, this traffic decline has been a huge catalyst to a weakening position in the blog search market, as well as financial difficulties, because for most internet companies, traffic is everything.

Continue reading Tough times for Technorati

Tough times for Technorati originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Web 2.0 is not just for consumer websites. In fact, corporate America is warming up to it.

One of the software players in the space is Jive Software, which recently snagged $15 million in its first round of venture capital. The investor is Sequoia Capital, which has backed biggies like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Basically, Jive develops web-based software that allows employees, partners, and suppliers to collaborate. There should be lots of growth -- although, the competition is tough. For example, one of the biggest players is Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Over the years, Jive has had a stunning record of success. Apparently, there are more than 2,000 customers and revenues are over $15 million (and growing nicely). But, with backing of Sequoia, it's a good bet we'll be hearing more about Jive and its competitors.

To see more venture capital fundings, click here.

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

Jive Software gets a cool $15 million originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A couple years ago, Suranga Chandratillake started Blinkx. The goal was to make it easier to search for online videos. Interestingly enough, he got a lot of pushback.

Of course, things are a lot different now -- especially with Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) purchase of YouTube.

Well, this week, Blinkx took another important step: The company went public on the London-based AIM exchange and raised about $50 million.

On the first day of trading, the stock price surged 40% to 65 pence, and the company has a market cap of roughly $355 million.

So far, Blinkx has deals with 130 media partners and has indexed more than 12 million hours of videos.

Because of the "quiet period," I can't talk to Suranga. But when it expires, it will definitely be interesting to get his observations on the process.

Check out the recent BloggingStocks interview with Suranga.

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

Web 2.0 goes public originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 May 2007 20:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Web 2.0, a web for sharing content among individuals, attracted over a quarter of a billion worth of venture capital in the first half of 2006 alone.

Some Web 2.0 start ups have made serious money for their founders. YouTube's founders pocketed $1.65 billion in 2006 when they sold out to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG); Flickr's founders took home an undisclosed amount -- estimated between $15 million and $35 million -- selling to Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) in 2005; and in 2005 MySpace's founders made $580 million selling to News Corp. (NYSE: NWS).

Here are some questions that came to my mind about Web 2.0:

• What is Web 2.0?
• How popular is it?
• Who is making money off it?
• How is it leaping the synapse from start-up to incumbent?
• What are its risks and opportunities for business?
• Where is it heading?

Click here for some thoughts on these questions. What am I missing? What do you think?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.

Web 2.0: now and next originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 May 2007 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.