Last week, Jeff Bezos made $2 billion in one day, courtesy of a massive spike in Amazon shares. That gives him more money to plow into the likes of Aviary, a Long Island-based company that makes design software. The Amazon CEO has made a second investment in the company as part of a $7 million round led by Spark Capital.
You can now formally call off eBay’s efforts to spin off Skype–not that many people took them seriously to begin with. The company has sold off 65 percent of its internet telephony business to a consortium of private investors for $1.9 billion. The deal puts Skype’s overall value at $2.75 billion, a bit more than the $2.6 billion eBay paid for the company in 2005.
Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest retailer, but online, it’s still a relative piker. Now the company is trying to change that by opening up its Web store to other retailers–just as its biggest competitors already do. But no need for Amazon and eBay to start sweating just yet.
See? You don’t just have to be a buzzy social network to suffer through security problems. You can be a relatively staid Web 1.0 giant, too. eBay is warning developers who build programs that incorporate the online marketplace’s engine about a security breach.
Here’s a funding story you don’t see often, recession or no: A start-up buying back its shares from its venture capitalist, at a premium.
But that’s the transaction that video-chat firm Paltalk and Softbank have completed. Paltalk, which sold off 20 percent of its equity to Softbank for $6 million in 2004, has bought the shares back. No one has spelled out a purchase price, but I’m told the deal will be considered a “single” for Softbank–it gets its capital back, plus a return–which in this economy ought to be a home run.
Jay Maynard, a.k.a. “The Tron Guy,” is famous for dressing up like, well, one of the guys from the movie “Tron.” But while that distinction made him one of the early breakout stars on YouTube, it hasn’t made him rich. Or at least, not wealthy enough to afford the customized airplane he bought last year for $140,000. He’s auctioning it off on eBay at a fire sale price.
More fuel for the “things may not be getting worse, and may even be getting a little bit better” meme that I’ve been detecting (or perhaps promulgating ) recently: Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney notes that the Internet stocks he covers are up an average of 28 percent so far this year while the tech-heavy NASDAQ is only up seven percent and the broader S&P is down two percent. If this keeps up, we might have an M&A market again. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
The online ticket resale business–what most people would call legalized scalping–seems like a pretty decent market. But Ticketmaster may be getting out of it in order to mollify regulators, and an analyst predicts Ebay may do the same to please Wall Street.
It’s a whole lot harder for the start-ups buzzing around South by Southwest to find someone to back them than it was a year ago. But there are still investors willing to place some bets, even on the most nascent companies. Meet Dave McClure, who runs the angel investing program for the high-profile Founders Fund.
Anyone who buys into the FriendFinder Networks IPO won’t just be buying a piece of a debt-ridden, money-losing collection of porn sites and social networks. They’ll also be buying a piece of a car the company bought from one of its founders, and now values at $95,000. Readers tell me it’s a Ferrari Modena.
If flat is the new up, then online retailers should be doing handstands: comScore says shoppers actually bought more Friday than they did a year ago. Well, just barely: The Web measurement service estimates that shoppers spent $534 million on Black Friday, up one percent from last year.
Holding back on your holiday shopping? You’re not alone. Retail sales have plummeted in the first half of November, according to a new report from Mastercard–and the Web hasn’t been spared.
Remember last week? When, in the aftermath of a historic presidential election, things were so giddy it seemed that even newspapers might be valuable again–at least as collector’s items? Well, that’s over.
Even more Wall Street analysts are cutting their estimates for Google, making the reasonable argument that if the world’s economy stinks, that might have some impact on the world’s biggest media company. To be more specific: Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney says that big online advertisers Amazon, eBay, Expedia and Priceline will all be making big cuts in their Web ad budgets this quarter.
Who says newspapers are dead? New York has three dailies, and it’s impossible to buy any of them at newsstands today, according to an informal channel check conducted by … me. Capitalism/speculation to the rescue: An eBay seller is asking a mere $19.99 plus $3.99 shipping costs for a copy of today’s edition of The New York Times. Any takers?
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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