Thursday, October 18, 2007
SOME INTERESTING TECH NEWS
Now here's something interesting: according to a New York Times article, dot.com start-up companies are once again the hot favorites for many investors.
It's rather interesting, for they seem to have completely forgotten the not so long ago Internet bubble burst. And the bubble we speak of here, of course, was largely comprised of newly-established ventures with funny names, without any proven revenue stream, and attracted a mere trickle of customers. Yet somehow, another similar bubble appears to be emerging with newly-created start-ups that are commanding staggering prices.
Among which is Facebook, a financially unproven but highly popular online social network. It is reportedly being valued by investors at up to $15 billion. Indeed, an outrageous valuation since it's nearly half of what Yahoo is worth, a company with 38 times the number of employees and, based on estimates of Facebook’s income, 32 times the revenue. Unbelievable.
If you want to know more about this yet another impending madness, read Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again
On a lighter note, Shutter Box Philippines announces an interesting free event -- Freedom of Expression Digital Photography Workshop by Patrick Uy. It is sponsored by Acer Philippines to be held on October 20, 2007 at the AIM Conference Center Manila in Benavidez corner Trasierra Streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City. Two (2) sessions will be conducted for the said workshop: morning session is at 9am to 12nn and afternoon session at 2pm to 6pm.
Another free event is the Basic Orientation Seminar on Copyright conducted by IP Philippines. There are other month-long activities that are open to the public such as IPR seminars, art competition, exhibitions, and storytelling sessions; international seminars on patent; training programs under the Intellectual Property Rights Protection (IPROTECT) Training and other activities.
Full details for both events are available at Shutter Box Philippines
By the way, the above photo is not the much dreaded "blue screen of death." Can anyone guess the material I used in creating this photograph besides the laptop keyboard protector at the bottom? A clue is in the title.
Give up? Click here.
posted by Señor Enrique at 6:34 AM
12 Comments:
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said... newspapers!
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Señor Enrique said... Correct, Yuki! Hehehe!
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Watergirl said...
Cool! I thought it was a wrinkly fabric, but clicked to check.
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said...
Years ago I saw an economist on TV who stated that the reason the market has a major crises almost every decade or so is because that is how long our memory last.After the dust have settled and past market blunders are forgotten, people are again overcome by greed and the pursuit of the next microsoft startup.For me I am in for the long ride, I just make a regular fixed amount of investments in my index funds hoping to cash in when I retire.
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carlotta1924 said...
had to give up on that one lol. but using newspapers is cool! =)
pardon my being techie challenged, but what is blue screen of death?-
said...
This is interesting!
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Señor Enrique said...
It does appear to be a piece of fabric stretched above the keyboard protector, MTan :)
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Señor Enrique said...
Another auspicious time to be an investment banker, Leo, for they are the ones who spearhead such fantastic valuations and rake in the big bucks.
Aside from making millions in IPO fee management, they also receive hefty commissions from the sales of stocks as soon as their investors sre allowed by law to cash in their stocks, while the start-up is left to prove its worth on its own; its officers unable to cash in on any of their windfall for quite some time due to certain to federal laws.
And the investors who win in this game are not the usual regular Joes like you and me; these are block or bigtime investors who represent immense money from various pension, hedge, or insurance funds, and they get get priority to buy and sell henceforth -- before any bubble burst.-
Señor Enrique said...
Blue screen of death is when your Windows operating system hangs in which case yu have no other option that reinstall, Carla.
You give up easily ... hehehe!-
Señor Enrique said...
Where you able to guess it, Kyels?
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said...
I guess history always repeats itself.
Although the condition appears to be similar to the dot.com boom, it is also very different in the sense that established companies are the ones buying them instead of the ordinary folks through the stock market.
I could remember the time when anything dot.com, old or start up, investors just put their money blindly that pushed the prices higher. IPO's of most start-ups then was like hot cakes and the owners had a party as the prices shoot up like rockets from 5 to 50 or even to a 100 dollars just on the first day of offering. It was crazy days for us up to the time the bubble exploded. (Laki ng kita ko noon sa bonuses at commissions kasi kahit i-warn mo ang mga investors, wala sila pakiaalam basta ang sabi, buy me that f****ng company now at market. Wala na yong sinasabi na buy at the low. Noong pumutok naman, ganon din ang order, sell that f****ng company now at market just to get out at mabawasan ang lugi.) Ha ha ha.
I found a new start up company that is developing an in-browser live audio/vido/text chat called tokbox. This company seemed promising as the guys from youtube are the ones putting the bills for its development.
On the local scene, yuga sold his pinoytoblogs.com site to an undisclosed entity for an undisclosed amount. I am sure the price is right.-
Señor Enrique said...
Is that Yuga's pinoyblogs.com? Whoa! Smart guy. Good for him :)
As for this new bubble, brace yourself for another windfall ... hehehe! Blow-out naman :)
