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Twitter gets venture funding from Amazon.com's Jeffrey Bezos

Sarah Gilbert — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:44:00 EST

Talk to anyone about what little technology company has a chance at being the Next Big Thing in social media, and chances are you'll hear the name "Twitter." Everyone's twittering about Twitter, even my mom knows all about it. News of the platform's $15 million funding round has been making the rumor rounds for over a month,

Today the rumors were confirmed with news of the funding on the Twitter blog, and a new nugget: Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is one of the funders, through his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions. The company didn't confirm the size of the round (or so much of a whisper of the company's valuation), but said they would spend the money on the always-aching infrastructure and reliability.

As my favorite media analysis guy Marshall Kirkpatrick says, "As founders are concerned, Bezos could be called Mr. Scalability - making this an awesome partnership to tackle Twitter's biggest obstacle." It may not prove great things for Twitter's one-day IPO; Bezos certainly hasn't proven to be a brilliant generator of shareholder value -- but for today, it's proof that the great idea has a lot of legs.

Twitter gets venture funding from Amazon.com's Jeffrey Bezos originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Option update: Amazon (AMZN) near record high; Borders (BGP) near record low

Paul Foster — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:45:00 EST

Filed under: Before the Bell, Management, Amazon.com (AMZN), Options

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) closed at $93.38.

AMZN overall option implied volatility of 45 is above its 26-week average of 39 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.
www.Amazon.com operates retail websites.

Borders Groups (NYSE: BGP) recently closed at $13.10.

Dow Jones reported: "Spencer Capital Management LLC, which holds a 7.9% stake in BGP, said Thursday that it has asked the book retailer to add a person designated by Spencer to its Board."
BGP over all option implied volatitliy of 48 is above its 26-week average of 37 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update: Amazon (AMZN) near record high; Borders (BGP) near record low originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ten CEOs who need to leave

Jon Ogg — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:31:00 EST

Filed under: Management, Insiders, Yahoo! (YHOO), Dell (DELL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Home Depot (HD), XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Citigroup Inc. (C), Gap Inc (GPS), Eastman Kodak (EK), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM)

24/7 Wall St. has generated a list of public company CEOs where investors in the underlying companies would likely be better served by a new CEO. While this may seem aggressive, some of these aren't actually calling for the CEOs to be fired. The difficulty in calling for new new leadership is that in many cases there is an issue as to who would be the replacement candidate. How many Jack Welches and Lou Gerstners are there in the world? Taking the Six Sigma class and studying under them only goes so far.

This list is put in alphabetical order by company name. Calling a guy the No. 1 needing to go versus the No. 3 is too subjective, and as a reminder, some of these CEO change suggestions are nominal in actuality and execution. This list and brief note is a mere summary of the full article.

Amazon.com's (AMZN) Jeff Bezos. He doesn't need to go away entirely! He just needs to do a partial title change. But will anyone inside the company tell the emperor he is wearing no space suit?

Citigroup's (C) Chuck Prince. The prince calls for Draconian measures, and maybe the prince didn't mean just THIS Prince.

Dell's (DELL) Kevin Rollins. Rollins may survive since the stock has recovered. If the stock falls back again, Wall Street has already telegraphed a true Michael Dell Inc. would be better again.

Eastman Kodak's (EK) Antonio Perez. Maybe he's nice, but for heaven's sake get the restructuring over with and get some mojo. Bring in a digital media leader.

Gap Inc.'s (GPS) Paul Pressler. Every generation may have one, but his generation gap has helped the Gap to alienate customers and send them to competitors.

Home Depot's (HD) Bob Nardelli. Does anyone on Wall Street respect him? Just because he was one of the runners-up to run G.E. doesn't mean he shouldn't change his name to Richard.

Qualcomm's (QCOM) Paul Jacobs. He isn't being sent home yet, but his dad's shoes are proving very hard to fill.

Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) & XM Satellite Radio (XMSR). It is a dead heat in the race, and if two companies need to merge, it's these two. There can be only one.

Wal-Mart's (WMT) Lee Scott. The company is struggling under its own weight, and it needs some good PR. Getting rid of the Darth Vader of Corporate America and bringing in someone fun and likeable would be the best start.

Yahoo!'s (YHOO) Terry Semel. Yes, when you see him leave or forced out, Yahoo! holders should be happy.

A lot of these may be controversial, and there are plenty of other companies which might benefit from a new CEO. None of these attacks are personal and these are merely based on observation and analysis. The list could probably be 100 CEOss long.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St. LLC; He does not hold securities in the companies he covers. He also not been compensated to represent any of these companies in any light.

Ten CEOs who need to leave originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cramer slams Amazon.com, says Bezos 'buying revenue'

Jon Ogg — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:12:00 EST

Filed under: After the Bell, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Amazon.com (AMZN)

What is it about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)? Tonight on MAD MONEY, Jim Cramer remarked how the company saw its profit slip over 30%, yet the stock gained over 10%. While it may be hard for most to understand such a mixed-up Street, Cramer said it makes sense if you think like a Mad Man -- like he does.

Cramer has been a hater of Amazon for a long time, he said. Why is it up? He thinks that so many were betting against it that they now HAVE to love the quarter, theorizing that a lot of the pop is short covering because they had 14% of the float short. Cramer said the company didn't change the long-term picture, but they spooked the shorts because of the near-term (which is another way of saying the Street is afraid Amazon.com might someday be good). Cramer said if you owned it you can go to the cash register and ring it.

But Cramer said he stands by his long-term prediction that Amazon.com is no good and he screamed "WE WILL BURY YOU!" He accused the company of "buying revenue" and predicted its stock will go lower. Cramer thinks Amazon's management is focused elsewhere, pointing out that Bezos is building a spaceport. He said the expansion into every aspect of retail isn't working because it is just too big. The stock is just too expensive, trading at twice its growth rate. He thinks he isn't wrong on Amazon, the longs just got lucky. He ended saying "If you ask me, you don't want to go near it."

AMZN traded up 12% to $37.68 in regular trading, but it fell 0.8% to $37.38 after Cramer slapped it.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St. LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Cramer slams Amazon.com, says Bezos 'buying revenue' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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