Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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Nokia's Not Connecting: Fitch Follows Moody's, Downgrades Nokia to BB+ With A Long-Term Negative Outlook Top
nokia-logo-1Financial fallout from last week's Q1 earnings from beleaguered handset maker Nokia, which saw the company report declines in sales, profit and much else across the board: Fitch Ratings has once again downgraded the handset maker. Nokia now stands at a BB+ rating from a previous rating of BBB- for its senior unsecured notes, Fitch writes in a statement. That puts the company's stock at "below investment grade," primary analyst Owen Fenton tells me, BBB- having been the lowest investment grade rating. Fitch further says that it has downgraded the company's long-term issuer default rating, with the outlook on the long-term IDR now at "Negative" and that it may consider downgrading even further.
 
Some Users In China Reporting They Are Able To Access Facebook, Despite Ban Top
greatfirewallA sign of a crack in the Great Chinese Firewall? Internet users in China today are reporting that they are able to access Facebook in the country: some say they can access the site through mobile Internet connections and iOS apps; others are reporting access using HTTPS connections on their computers. The social network has been having problems in the country as far back as 2009, when the site was "punished" for allowing a Uighur activist to post details of an upcoming protest.
 
Citrus Lane Lands $5.1M Series A Funding For Subscription Baby Goods Delivery Service Top
citruslaneCitrus Lane, the Mountain View, California-based startup that provides a monthly subscription delivery service of new and useful products for families with infants and toddlers, has raised $5.1 million in a new round of venture capital funding from GGV Capital and previous investor Greylock Partners. The round serves as Citrus Lane's Series A, adding to the $1.5 million in seed funding the company raised in March 2011 from Greylock. The money will be used mainly to expand Citrus Lane's full-time staff of 14 employees and build out its technology, co-founder and CEO Mauria Finley said in an interview this week.
 
Startup Accelerator FounderFuel Raises $6M, Puts Another $150K On The Table For Each Team Top
FF_logoLast June, FounderFuel became the latest in a new crop of Canadian startup accelerators, joining Year One Labs and more in the mission to support and grow the country's entrepreneurial ecosystems. Created by the same team behind Montreal Start Up, FounderFuel launched with $2 million from Real Ventures in tow, kick-starting its 12-week, mentor-driven startup "boot camp" and allowing it to provide its classes of 8 to 10 founding teams with $20 to $25K in seed right off the bat. But that was apparently just the beginning. In an effort to keep up with the reserves of top accelerators like TechStars and Y Combinator, FounderFuel is today announcing that it is upping the ante and putting quite a bit more capital on the table for its startups.
 
Bee Media Acquires Adcentricity To Unite Location-Based Advertising & Mobile Shopping Top
Screen shot 2012-04-23 at 7.27.50 PMBee Media, the makers of a mobile shopping platform that serves location-specific offers and info to mobile devices, today announced that it has acquired Adcentricity, a similarly location-focued digital media startup. Under the terms of the acquisition, Bee Media secures rights to the Adcentricity name and will operate as Adcentricity going forward. Doug Woolridge, the current CEO of Bee Media will take the helm of the joint venture as its new CEO, while Adcentricity CEO Rob Gorrie will become a senior strategic advisor. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
 
The Slow Decay Of The Microsoft Consumer Top
62009797001_66854922001_vs-66851521001Five years ago, Microsoft reported revenue of $14.398 billion. They reported a profit of $6.589 billion. Last week, for the same quarter, Microsoft's revenue was $17.407 billion. Their profit was $6.374 billion. The company is still growing, but not fast. And they're actually making less money. Compare that with Apple. Five years ago, revenue was $7.1 billion. Profit was $1.0 billion — the first quarter with a billion dollar profit in company history. Last quarter, the company reported $47 billion in revenue. And they recorded $13 billion in profit. On the surface, an apples-to-oranges comparison, perhaps. But it points to something that has happened. Apple has completely taken over the consumer market, while most of Microsoft's growth these days comes from the enterprise side of things. Apple has destroyed Microsoft as a consumer technology company.
 
Is T-Mobile Getting The Samsung Galaxy Note? Top
galaxynoteEven though I think it's way too big for the average human, Samsung's Galaxy Note is doing quite well since its debut in January at CES. In fact, Samsung has sold 5 million units of the Galaxy Note thus far, which comes out to about 1 million Notes sold per month. But could it be selling better? Possibly. The phablet is only available at AT&T with a rather steep $299 price tag, but that may be changing soon according to TmoNews.
 
Reed Hastings Talks Netflix Content Plans: More Exclusives, No Tiered Pricing (Yet) Top
netflixEven though Netflix's first-quarter earnings came in ahead of analyst expectations, CEO Reed Hastings still had to answer plenty of (usually skeptical) questions during this afternoon's earnings conference call about how he plans to expand the company's streaming content library. Hastings has already talked about how the streaming strategy will differ from Netflix's past, emphasizing a narrower selection of exclusive and original content rather than the more comprehensive selection that the service had with DVDs. He elaborated on that idea today, once again comparing Netflix to cable: "It's a natural outcome of us been a network like any other cable network." He says it's normal for a network to start out with "low-end, nonexclusive content," then, as it tries to bid for more premium content like Mad Men (Hastings described it as moving up in "the content-buying economic strata"), it's essentially competing with other cable networks for exclusive syndication rights. You can expect to see that trend continue, Hastings said, but there will always be "a broad range of nonexclusive content."
 
You Earn Facebook An Average Of $1.21 Per Quarter Top
Facebook User Price Rot Done 5 Straight DONNEFacebook makes an average of $1.21 on you per quarter, depending on who you are and where you live according to documents filed today. Most of that goes towards running the site, as Facebook's net income from January 1st to March 31st this year was just $205 million despite its total revenue of $1.058 billion. So while you are "the product" on Facebook, just like on any website or physical venue that makes money through advertising, don't expect a check in the mail. And thanks to your contribution, Facebook now values itself at $71.97 billion dollars. That's based on what it paid for Instagram, which could end up being way more than $1 billion.
 
Zynga Contributed 15% of Facebook's Revenue In Q1, Down From 19% A Year Ago Top
bosom-buddiesZynga and Facebook are ever gradually trying to separate from each other. It's working -- sort of? Facebook said today that 15 percent of its revenue in the first quarter came from either advertising or payments tied to Zynga games.* That's down from 19 percent during the same time a year earlier. About 11 of the 15 percent in revenue was from the 30 percent revenue share Facebook takes from transactions in Zynga games on the platform or advertising that Zynga directly paid Facebook for. Another 4 percent comes from advertising shown alongside Zynga content.
 
Netflix Beats Q1 2012 Expectations, Reports Losses Of $.08 Per Share On $870 Million In Revenue Top
NetflixBuilding4Netflix just released their Q1 2012 earnings report [PDF], and managed to beat analyst estimates by reporting losses of $0.08 per share on $870 million in revenue. In the weeks leading up to the release, analysts projected a net loss of $0.27 per share on $866 million in revenue thanks to the company's pronounced push for international growth. That works out to a $5 million net loss for the quarter, though the brass are preparing themselves for better days to come. According to their release, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells expect to return to global profitability next quarter, and are gearing up for their launch in a still-unknown new European market in Q4.
 
Wajam's Updated Social Search Takes On Google's "Search, Plus Your World" Top
Wajam_logoEver since it launched earlier this year, Google's "Search Plus Your World" initiative has been heavily criticized for favoring results from its own social network over those from larger and more popular services like Facebook and Twitter. Even though Google's focus on Google+ is keeping the market open for competition, social search isn't exactly an easy field to enter. Wajam, however, a startup based in Canada, is determined to try to beat Google at its own game. The service integrates its social search tools directly onto the search result pages of Google, Yahoo, Bing and a number of other popular sites. Today, Wajam is launching a big redesign that makes it easier to use and integrates it into even more services.
 
Hands On With The Fitbit Aria Scale Top
scaled-1442Fitbit has consistently proven to be the best smart pedometer on the market. Competitors exist, including the excellent Striiv, but the ease of use and portability of this little pedometer clip beats them all. In short, Fitbits just work. With the launch of the Aria wireless scale, Fitbit has added another sensor in the panoply of health data available to high-tech health nuts. This innocuous-looking device takes both your weight and your body fat percentage and automatically sends it to the Fitbit website for later perusal. Like the mini-pedometer, these readings help you understand your current health status and remind you, ceaselessly and without mercy, of your - well, my - failures as a biological entity.
 
Facebook's Amended S-1: 901 Million Users, 500M Mobile, Paid $300M Cash + 23M Shares For Instagram Top
Screen shot 2012-04-23 at 12.15.45 PMFacebook has just filed a fourth amendment to its S-1 to IPO that notes that it now has 500 million mobile users, 901 million monthly active users, and that it paid 23 million shares at $30.89 a share plus $300 million cash for Instagram for a total of $1,010,470,000. Facebook also made $1.058 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2012, up 44.7% from Q1 2012 but down 6.5% from Q4 2011. So if Facebook maintains its current revenue rate, it would make between $4.69 and $4.81 on each of its 901 million users each year. Read on for more on Facebook's business, user counts, photos, apps, employees, Instagram, and to see our embed of the full amended S-1.
 
Investors Who Gave Groupon, Like, A Billion Dollars Slip Closer To, Like, Breaking Even Top
andrew-mason-groupon1Remember when Groupon raised, like, a billion dollars? We certainly do. Well, it looks like Groupon's slide over the past month is bringing its last round of venture investors ever closer to breaking even. The stock has rebounded slightly this morning to $11.49, but the number to watch is $7.90. That's effectively what several top-tier Silicon Valley venture firms including Kleiner Perkins, Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz paid per share when they invested $946 million in Groupon between December 2010 and January 2011. At that point, they bought Series G Preferred Shares for $31.59 each. These later converted into four shares of common stock on October 31 of last year, just a few days before Groupon's initial public offering on November 4.
 
Pinterest Rival Fancy Gets Fancier With "Match By Color" Visual Search Top
visual-search-fancy-redHigh-end design, fashion and travel-focused Pinterest rival The Fancy is rolling out several new features today, including a new slideshow option, the addition of four more languages, and a new visual search engine that allows users to search for items with similar colors. The latter addition, which brings to mind the "search by color" feature over on crafty community Etsy or the new color search option on Fab.com, is powered by image recognition technology built by The Fancy itself.
 
Now That's An Investor List: Viddy Backed By Biz Stone, Shakira, And Jay-Z's Roc Nation Top
viddyRight after racing to the top of the App Store charts, Viddy just announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a long list of celebrities — not just tech celebrities, but also the kind that non-techies have heard of. Here's who invested: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Omniture founder Josh James, Skull Candy chairman Jeff Kearl, Roc Nation (the record label and entertainment company co-founded by Jay-Z), Overbrook Entertainment (founded by Will Smith and manager James Lassiter), ShoeDazzle founder Brian Lee, professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, soccer star Gerard Pique, and (I'm quoting from the press release here) "pop culture icon" Shakira.
 
Rather Than Pay Off Yahoo, Facebook Built A Fortress 1,400 Patents Strong Top
Facebook's Patent FortressFacebook had a choice to make: With just 56 patents to its name at the start of 2012 it could pay its way out of Yahoo's infringement lawsuit with gobs of money and remain vulnerable to other patent attacks, or make a long-term investment into an intellectual property portfolio it could protect itself with for years to come. Facebook has wisely taken the second path, upping its patent stockpile to over 1,400 with today's $550 million cash purchase and licensing of 650 AOL patents from Microsoft today. These new patents cover email, instant messaging , web browsing, search, ads, mobile, and e-commerce, according to a source with direct knowledge of the purchase. Surely, Facebook might have gotten better deals on this cache from Microsoft and the package of 75o patents it bought from IBM had it not been so desperate, but better late than never. Now with a healthy patent portfolio that I break down below, Facebook may be able to stop scrambling to buy IP, and can fend off the attack of any who would spoil and suck money from its IPO.
 
Gmelius Promises To Improve the Look and Feel Of Your Gmail Inbox Top
gmelius_logoGoogle started rolling out its new user interface for Gmail late last year. Not everybody is in love with it, of course, so it doesn't come as a surprise that a little cottage industry of Gmail enhancement tools has cropped up over the last few months. Google will soon migrate even those users who have, until now, resisted this change to the new version. Even if you hate the new Gmail design, though, you can reclaim some of your sanity - and screen estate - with a browser extension like Gmelius, which came out of beta today. Among the most useful features that Gmelius offers are the ability to customize Gmail's navigation icons to show both text and icons, for example, as well as tools to remove Google's people widget and Google chat from your inbox. Gmelius is available for Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
 
Official.fm Launches Its New Music Promotion Platform Top
4 - Official.fm - 6These days, it seems SoundCloud is the player to beat in the music platform space. It's been called (among other things) the "Flickr for audio" or the "YouTube for audio." Evidence of this lies in the fact that the company raised $50 million in January at a $200 million pre-money valuation -- they must be doing something right. Instead of competing with SoundCloud, Official.fm is taking things in a slightly different direction. Today Official.fm launched a new music sharing and promotion platform that aims to become the only music platform that professionals will need.
 

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