Stop with the $15 Billion for Facebook

Russ Mitchell emits: Maybe Facebook isn't worth $15 billion after all. Matt Cohler, Facebook's product guru and one of its earliest employees, announced he's leaving to play golf...er, become a VC.. at Benchmark Capital.That silly $15 billion figure gets thrown around...

Jun 19 2008

Ballmer's Facebook Lust: Like High School?

If you hang around the tech industry long enough, you realize: It's just like high school. These grown men and women may have millions or billions of dollars, but it's the same old set of dramas on a bigger canvas....

May 08 2008

Meebo and Facebook Chat

Soon after Facebook Chat showed up on my Facebook page, I emailed Seth Sternberg, one of the founders of Meebo, and asked if he'd be pulling Facebook Chat into Meebo. Seth replied: "Facebook has said publicly that they plan on...

Apr 29 2008

Facebook Page? Or Exhibit A in Court?

Facebook pages as potential courtroom evidence? Defense lawyers representing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey are pushing the envelope in two pending class actions. They are seeking to hold the insurer liable for its refusal to pay health...

Feb 05 2008

MySpace Is This, And Your Space is That

Is Chris DeWolfe just trying to get through an interview, or is MySpace about to exploit Facebook's recent privacy issues?

Dec 28 2007

The Social Networking Orgy: What the ---- ?!

OK, we've got, like, a stinkin' bacchanal of social networking strategery going on today, and I don't know about you, but most of the time I don't have ANY idea what these companies are talking about or how I'll use...

May 12 2008

LinkedIn Goes Mobile

LinkedIn, the fast-growing social network for business professionals, is going mobile, beginning today. The company plans to announce that its 19 million members can now access the service from BlackBerries, iPhones, and other Web-enabled wireless devices. Unlike social networking websites...

Feb 25 2008

Microsoft: Still No Facebook Insider

What is Microsoft meant to do with its 1.6% stake in Facebook? While it's easy to get excited about the implied $15 billion valuation for the the social-networking company and start talking about Mark Zuckerberg's multi-billionaire status, the fact...

Oct 25 2007

Why the Rush for Facebook at These Prices?

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's $240 million purchase of a 1.6 percent equity stake in Facebook—which values the social networking startup at $15 billion—comes word that the hedgies are getting into the action. Elizabeth Corcoran at Forbes.com reports that...

Oct 25 2007

Money for Facebook

It's not exactly news that Facebook is about to get a cash infusion from some big industry player, though it's being reported that way today. Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a room of 5,000 Web 2.0 attendees that...

Oct 24 2007

Last Bytes: Yahoo, CBS/CNET, Facebook, more....

-- Yahoo appealed to the S.E.C. to keep its board intact in the face of Carl Icahn's proxy onslaught. Yahoo also accused Microsoft of being "unresponsive" and "inconsistent" in its pursuit of Yahoo. A Microsoft spokesman called the charge "simply...

Jun 30 2008

Yahoo, Google, and MySpace Versus Facebook

Beleaguered Web giant Yahoo, under takeover threat from Microsoft, has joined Google's OpenSocial consortium, which is developing universal standards for applications across social networks. In a joint announcement, Yahoo, Google, and MySpace announced the creation of OpenSocial Foundation, which will...

Mar 25 2008

Why Isn't There a Corporate Facebook?

Ran across this MSNBC story about companies getting sick of employees spending time on Facebook, so they're blocking the social networking site. But it makes me wonder: Why hasn't Facebook created a product for internal company use? I mean, I...

May 07 2008

Facebook Looks to Europe

Facebook has received a "significant" investment from the Samwer brothers, three German Internet entrepreneurs, Reuters reports. Alexander Samwer declined to divulge the value of the investment, though he said that it was less than the $240 million that Microsoft paid...

Jan 15 2008

Let the Games Begin. And the Gadgets. And the Robot Dog . . .

You've waited all year for it. Now it's here—and I'm not talking about the new ABC sitcom Cavemen. This weekend, about 60,000 tech geeks, gadget nuts, and the people who love them, are expected to congregate at the Jacob K....

Sep 26 2007

Official: Facebook Poised to "Take Over The World"

Flush with cash, allied with Microsoft, growing exponentially, and positively humming with buzz, Facebook is definitely the "it" site on the Internet. Now what? At the annual Foursquare Conference today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave some hints about the future...

Nov 07 2007

Microsoft's Supreme Search Screw-up

If Microsoft is back at the table trying to buy Yahoo's search business, an outside observer can only conclude that Microsoft has failed miserably at search. The question then is: How can Microsoft have tried so hard to crack the...

May 20 2008

Last Bytes: Microsoft, Yahoo, Icahn, Facebook, Android, more...

-- Microsoft/Yahoo/Icahn: It's on again. Was it ever off? [Portfolio.com]-- T-Mobile is reportedly preparing to launch 3G phone service based on Google's Android mobile operating system. [News.com]-- Facebook will launch on officially sanctioned version of Scrabble, via Hasbro and Electronic...

Jul 07 2008

Contact Overload!

I was talking with Ted Leonsis -- vice chairman of AOL and owner of the Washington Capitals -- in the hockey team's offices, and he pointed to his recent blog post about all the ways you can get in touch...

Aug 16 2007

Idle Chatter: McCain, Bob Woodruff, Facebook...

-In a new ad, John McCain boasts that he was in a Vietnamese prison while Hillary Clinton was at Woodstock. Related: Mitt Romney says he was also in a Vietnamese prison. [The Trail]

Oct 25 2007

Facebook Loses Face Again

Early this afternoon, Gawker.com exposed a new (as yet unannounced) feature on Facebook: Put your cursor in the 'search' box, press the down arrow, and a list of five names will appear. The early speculation was that the list represented...

May 13 2008

Facebook Wins

In the weeks since Facebook opened up to application developers, tech industry power players have jumped into the site in a big way -- as users. People like Ning CEO Marc Andreessen, Lotus founder Mitch Kapor and Real Networks CEO...

Jun 15 2007

AOL Spending $850 million for -- Bebo?

Raise your hand if you're on the Bebo social networking site? Or even ever HEARD of the Bebo social networking site. No? Yeah, that can be expected unless you live in Ireland or New Zealand, where it actually is popular....

Mar 13 2008

Ballmer Avoids His AOL-Time Warner; Can't Find His MySpace

Are we to praise Steve Ballmer, or bury him? Oh, what the heck, let's do both. Though we'll go light on the praise part. Because Microsoft has proven itself to be horrendous at this whole M&A game. Microsoft-Yahoo won't happen,...

May 04 2008

MySpace, YourSpace

MySpace has unveiled a new plan to turn the site into a central storage hub for users' personal data and profile information by allowing them to access and use that information when they visit other websites. The idea is...

May 09 2008

Andreessen Joins Facebook Board; Business Model Still M.I.A.

Sam Gustin thinks Facebook's decision to add Marc Andreessen to its board is great and all, but he still wants to know how the company plans to, you know, make money.Late Monday, Facebook said that Andreessen, one of the original "Golden Geeks" of tech, will join its board of directors, ...

Jun 30 2008

"Fad" or Feint? Microsoft's Ballmer on Facebook

Steve Ballmer, who has reportedly offered to pay $300 million to $500 million for a 5 percent stake in Facebook has warned that the social networking phenomenon risks becoming no more than a "fad" in an interview published today....

Oct 02 2007

Diller Disses Writers Strike, Facebook, and MySpace

The writer's strike is a "dumb thing" because there is "no current economic equation" that could possibly meet the writers' demands, says IAC Corp. chief executive Barry Diller. Speaking at the Monaco Media Forum on Monte Carlo Friday, fresh...

Nov 09 2007

Blogger Bullying Draws a Website Warning

Has Nick Denton gone too far? The new-media minimogul is notorious for poking New York media types in the eye (including Condé Nast Portfolio, Portfolio.com, and this writer). But now he is accused of ambushing a publisher's daughter by using...

Jan 16 2008

Euphemism of the Day: "Complaints" on the Web

Sometimes, when a law enforcement officer asks you to do something, it is best to simply say, "Yes, sir." That is precisely what Facebook did today by settling a dispute with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York over discouraging...

Oct 16 2007