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Valley Buzz: eBay Undoes Bad Dealmaking and More
Posted Apr 14, 2009 09:39am EDT by Sarah Lacy in Internet, Tales of the Valley, Products and Trends, Recession, Valley Buzz
There is one big story that made the rounds yesterday that has two parts. It’s about eBay, and its attempts to undo the bizarre acquisitions made by former CEO Meg Whitman. The company announced that it was spinning off StumbleUpon, a startup that helps people discover like-content on the Web, acquired for $75 million back in 2007. StumbleUpon has never been a fit with eBay, although the auction site’s cluttered inventory could certainly use some help on the search and discovery front.
But the bigger question on everyone’s lips: Is Skype next? Experts have expected something to happen with Skype this year, but the question was who would buy it in a market like this. Apparently, its original owners and some private equity investors have stepped up to the plate. Om Malik has a great write up explaining why eBay should accept the offer, even if it’s about $700 million shy of what eBay execs were hoping to get.
Other than eBay, the news was mostly filled with quick hits. Numbers came out showing that fewer VC firms raised larger than average funds in the first quarter. It's news that doesn’t tell us much about the health of the industry, considering a lot of firms are likely not out in the market right now.
Meanwhile, BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows notes that a big Apple bull has reclaimed his Mac-religion. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu issued a report saying Apple’s stock could rise from $119 per share to $152. All eyes are on the up coming World Wide Developer Conference June 8-12 to see if there’s really that much to get excited about.
Some bad news for Microsoft: according to InformationWeek, 83% of businesses won’t upgrade to Windows 7 until at least 2011, thanks to an economy and the bad taste from Vista in the corporate market.
And finally, some Palm Pres were spotted by bloggers in the wild. Could that mean the release date is sooner than we thought?
9 Comments
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Tuesday April 14, 2009 12:36PM EDT
EBAY HAS IT'S HEAD FAR UP IT'S ASS AND I KNOW... HAVE BEEN SELLING ON THERE SINCE 2004! PISS POOR MANAGEMENT! TYPICAL CALIFORNIA "FULL OF OURSELVES" HIPPIE MANAGEMENT! GET A NEW YORKER IN THERE, STRAIGHTEN THAT TWADDLE RIGHT OUT! LOADS 'O DEAD WOOD, TONS OF POOR PROGRAMMING SCREEN EXAMPLES, WORST EMAIL SYSTEM ON THE PLANET, STUPID POP-UPS, IDIOTIC FEEDBACK AND SELLER REQS. A handsoff approach would have been much better than what thy've got now!
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Tuesday April 14, 2009 12:37PM EDT
Ike, you have NO right to comment on this outfit unless you're a seller! Judging my your mental acumen, I kinda doubt it though.
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Tuesday April 14, 2009 12:39PM EDT
WHY am I seeing a GM video in an EBAY blog??? What the hell is wrong with this Yahoo? No wonder why Msoft keeps backing off! It's run as poorly as Ebay!!!
David in Richmond - Tuesday April 14, 2009 12:44PM EDT
Re Vista, eg: Bill Gates' best move was to get married and devote his time to eradicating the tsetse fly, or whatever. Whenever I want to flame him for saddling us with that monopolistic dinosaur, I remember that most people have entirely different priorities.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday April 14, 2009 12:55PM EDT
Why haven't we been seeing more live segments from Sarah Lacy? Come on Yahoo...live segments (combined with written pieces) are more interesting and enjoyable.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday April 14, 2009 02:31PM EDT
eBay finally realized that their attempt at cleaning up their inventory was not working. They should have restructured before Amazon [www.amazon.com] and newcomer Wigix [www.wigix.com] started stealing their market share. As online marketplaces progress, buyers will start to realize that they do not want to see 100 iPhone chargers before being able to purchase an actual iPhone.
Bruce - Tuesday April 14, 2009 04:29PM EDT
I have sent messages to several people about using the Lottery money for infrastructure, such as retirement homes and fire stations. The money gets spread around to get product moving up and down the highways sooner or later. Thats better than teaching a child, "Here little girl, wanta by a lottery ticket."
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Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday April 14, 2009 09:50AM EDT
Poorly written, limp wristed secondhand reporting. Yahoo I love you but please maintain some minimum standards