Gawker: bubble

The Valley's private equity hype

Jackson West — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:40:00 EDT

It's late, I'm tired and the coffee is wearing off, so I'm happy that Paul Kedrosky takes a stab at deciphering the latest quarterly report on Bay Area venture capital activity from Fenwick & West:

So, higher asset prices on fewer transactions, and no clarity on how many are inside deals? That sounds familiar. What could it be? Hmmm. Gosh, it sounds like the dying days of the real estate bubble, circa late 2006.

(Photo by Annie Lawry) [Infectious Greed]

GOOG shares hit their highest price ever...

Megan McCarthy — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:37:40 EDT

GOOG shares hit their highest price ever today, reaching $560.70 at one point this afternoon, bringing Google's market cap up to $175 billion. [San Jose Mercury News]

Amazon.com shares are up 27 percent to $87.79,...

Owen Thomas — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:59:44 EDT

Amazon.com shares are up 27 percent to $87.79, and analysts have set new stock=price targets ranging from $99 to $105. Guess they're not worried about Harry Potter and the Deathly Refunds. [Tech Trader Daily]

Opsware, Marc Andreessen's boring but modestly...

wagger1 — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:38:40 EDT

Opsware, Marc Andreessen's boring but modestly successful software company, has hit a market cap of $1 billion for the first time. Yahoo Finance

Dear bubble veterans: We get it. Now shut up, you're harshing our buzz.

Nick Douglas — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:08:23 EDT

NICK DOUGLAS — To everyone who was "there for the first bubble," let me speak on behalf of those of us who weren't (and those who were and don't need to keep yammering about it. We get it. You're old and experienced and SO OVER this retro fad called making money off the Internet. Now shut up and let us make some.

Let's be clear who I'm talking to. It's those of you who were in Silicon Valley or (better) New York's Silicon Alley and took part in the dot-com boom, and you know all about how stupid it was, everyone running with the bulls, though you've no explanation for why, then, you ran along with the rest of the fatheaded tourists and watched your friends get gored. You're the ones who KNOW that every startup will fail, that MySpace was a waste of News Corp's cash, that no one makes money off a wiki. Any time one of the rest of us mentions an obvious, actual waste of money (PodTech anyone?), you treat it as proof that the whole industry is doomed for collapse.

I was one of you, sure. For about half a freaking year. It didn't take me long to realize I was dead wrong about the fate of YouTube. And I was never so blind as to write off the Flickrs and Jotspots and Diggs of the world as anything REMOTELY resembling Pets.com.

You pissers, you know why you're here talking to us? Because you fucked it up. You didn't get your piece of the pie before the bubble was out, and now all the time you WOULD have spent throwing your money around, you instead spend on the free pursuit of comparing everything to "the last time."

And you know what that doesn't do? It doesn't make everyone who just moved into town go "Oops, guess my hopes and ambitions are for naught, and the future can only repeat the past! Thank you oh sir for you deep wisdom of TEN WHOLE YEARS! Teach me sensei, that I may also piss on the achievements of others!"

No, what it does is make all of us feel like the Big Lebowski, the Dude, shouting "God Walter, why is everything a travesty with you?" New adventures are happening around you and you can only deal with it by comparing it to 'Nam! You're whiny Walter Sobchak, muttering "calmer'n you are" after waving a gun around the bowling alley. But this has nothing to do with 'Nam.

Or you're like Uncle Whatever in Napoleon Dynamite, reminiscing about how great you COULD have been if you hadn't torn a tendon or quit before you vested or whatever the hell bad decision or accident you blame for your pitiful washed-up existence. And what do you do to change that around? You sell Tupperware. You buy a time machine off the Internet. You putz around at OUR conferences and OUR geek dinners and you titter at all the people with the guts to try and fail.

Well you go do that, and we'll laugh with you about our silly startups named Twitter and Meebo and our arrogant videoblogging community and Justin.tv, who may be a dick, but he's OUR dick. We'll laugh. We'll laugh all the way to the billion-dollar buyout. And when the dust settles and it's time to make the fuck-you money say "fuck you," we'll see who looks stupid.

Nick Douglas writes for Valleywag, Blogebrity, and Look Shiny. He's looking for angel funding and a Jack and ginger ale. Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid

Economic indicator: Engineering talent going freelance

dtweney — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:38:55 EST

Are we in a bubble yet? One indicator: When there's a lot of demand for talent, the smartest talent goes freelance, because there's no upper limit to what you can charge when you're a consultant. Open-source programming guru Nat Torkington notes that many of his techy friends have done just that, presumably in search of $300 per hour IT consulting fees.. The flipside: when contractors start heading for the security of regular jobs, watch out.

Good News, The Bubble is Over

rabruzzo — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:00:00 EDT

The NY Times took a break from glad handling Google to report after 10 years in business, the massive server farm Internap Network Services finally posted two whole quarters of profit. Congrats on not getting delisted from NASDAQ!

[NY Times]

Remainders: I like it when you call me Bigdaddy

ndouglas — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:10:40 EST

Google's new infrastructure, now rolling out, is named Bigdaddy. No comment needed. [Matt Cutts]
Bubble's back, babe. [Techdirt]
CBS proves its loyalty to Google Video. [LA Times]
Okay, so Robert Scoble was the "big-name blogger" who wanted his evil back — turns out he even blogged it. The pain of discovering this scoop's old age was mollified by the discovery of Google: Evil or Not? [EvilorNot]
Linus Torvalds joins the "Sliding Scale of Evil" movement [CNet]

Media Bubble: What Did he Know, and When Did He Know It?

Jesse — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:00:35 EDT

• With the disclosure of Karl Rove's phone call to Robert Novak, today's the day the Cooper/Miller/Novak/ Plame/Rove saga finally becomes a genuine -Gate, says the epperific Greg Mitchell. [E&P]
• Finally: Janice Min's new, 2-year Us Weekly contract is signed. [NYP]
• Even as TV loses its audience, it hangs onto its advertisers, says Sexy Jon Fine. [BusinessWeek]
• If you just spent $35 million on some dying biz mags, why spend an additional chunk of change on a Times ad celebrating the purchase? "To make a bold statement," says new Fast Company and Inc. owner Joe Mansueto. Obviously. [Folio:]

Media Bubble: The Face That Launched a Ship

Jesse — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:55:54 EDT

• The Emmy nominations were announced this morning, and Desperate Housewives tied Will & Grace for the lead, with 15. Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman, are up for best actress; Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan are not. But we're sure that won't cause any tension. [NYT]
• At least there's one upside to prison: "The New York Times and Miller will cleanse themselves of their WMD sins," says Margaret Carlson. There must be an easier way. [LAT]
• An ailing Peter Jennings, once a longtime ABC correspondent in London, played a big role in last week's bombings coverage. [USAT]
• Martha Stewart to write how-to business book. No. 1 tip: Don't piss off Doug Faneuil. [NYP]
• We hate ourselves for this, but we can't resist pointing you to Greta Van Susteren's yacht. [Tamby Bay Illustrated via TVNewser]
• Americans actually don't hate anonymous sources nearly as much as Plame prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wants you to think they do. [AJR]

Media Bubble: More Billable Hours for the Lawyer in Pearlstine's Head

Jesse — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 13:58:35 EDT

• Good thing Time Inc. honcho Norm Pearlstine has that lawyer in his head. Now SI seems to be up a legal shit's creek. [WSJ]
• And apparently the lawyer in Pearlstine's head is a better strategist than the one at Judy Miller's defense table, or so say Howie Kurtz's sources. [WP]
• But that's OK, because Bob Woodward tells Larry King he'd be happy to serve Miller's jail time for her. Then he goes back to his townhouse in Georgetown. [E&P]
• Meantime, you know what'd be great? A book about being a reporter in Iraq! [NYO]

Media Bubble: Are We Journalists?

Jesse — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 14:18:46 EDT

• Now, newspapers maybe kinda sorta like blogs. [WSJ]
• But bloggers still don't get to count as real journalists. [National Journal]
• Unless, of course, the Federal Election Commission says they do. [WP]
• While they're figuring it out, we'll be taking Simon Dumenco's yuk-alicious media-studies pop quiz. [Ad Age]
• And staying far, far away from Don Imus. [AP via Yahoo]

Media Bubble: Double Super Secret Roundup

Jesse — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:30:10 EDT

• Matt Cooper's original conversation with his source was on "double super secret background." Which apparently can only be relinquished with "dramatic" and "secret" permisison. [Newsweek]
• But Cooper's "dramatic" and "personal" release from his confidentiality pledge was neither dramatic nor personal. Discuss. [NYT]
• Norm Pearlstine: Journalist, lawyer, businessman, David Carr subject. [NYT]
• Miller/Cooper fallout reaches Cleveland, where the Plain Dealer is holding two stories because they're based on illegally leaked docs and no one wants to go to jail for publishing them. [E&P]
• Who owns a reporter's notes? Who knows? (And how much would some scrawled notepads with Media Bubble lists and possible Times-mocking punchlines fetch on eBay?) [Slate]
• Breaking: In wake of London bombings, Fox News is insensitive and anti-French. [Guardian]
• Even worse: Big July news screws with journos' vacation plans. [USAT]

Media Bubble: Judy Miller, Fashion Plate

Jesse — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:55:26 EDT

• Dressed to be sentenced yesterday, Judy Miller's "quilted jacket speaks of Barbour and the Upper East Side. And the black reads like a nod to glamour and chic and the thing that proclaims: I'm a New Yorker and not some well-to-do lady from Chicago." [WP]
• Today she's wearing "a green or brown jumpsuit with the word 'prisoner' on the back." [NYT]
• But, hey, whatever she's wearing in jail, it's basically just book leave, says Russ Baker. [Mediacrity]
• PBS and ABC clean up in news Emmy nominations, and ABC's World News Tonight — who could use some good news — gets most nods of the three evening newscasts. [NYP]
• Virginia Heffernan doesn't like comedies that aren't necessarily funny. Much as we feel about reviews that we can never tell if they're positive or negative. [NYT]
• And reports of the press's death might be greatly exaggerated. [National Journal]

Media Bubble: 'Surrendering Her Liberty In Defense of a Greater Liberty'

Jesse — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 14:25:10 EDT

• A "proud but awful moment": We confess that the Times's Judy Miller editorial leaves us a touch verklempt. Really. [NYT]
• The Post misses Harvey at Sun Valley. [NYP]
• New Today show EP has an epiphany: Let Matt and Katie talk to each other! [NYT]
• Inexplicably, the Timesman who admitted in his Iraq memoir that he sometimes made shit up when he couldn't read his notes is not the most popular man on 43rd Street. [NYDN (Second item)]

Media Bubble: Sometimes, Rich People Buy Magazine Companies

Jesse — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:39:41 EDT

• Two weeks are left till Maureen Dowd returns from book leave. We're pretty agnostic on that, but we're psyched to see that her final pinch-pontificator is Sarah Vowell. [FishbowlNY]
• Why so many magazine deals? Because rich people are buying them. Or something like that. [NY Sun]
• There are two new AMEs at the Times — which isn't the most riveting news in the world, especially because their duties don't seem to be changing — but it doesn't happen every day and it gets their names on the masthead, which is cool. [NYT]
• Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley media cofab is set to start, despite some mogul's jets landing late after being delayed by the prime minister of Turkey's plane. Fucking Turks. [NYP]

Media Bubble: Where Did He Park, and When Did He Park It?

Jesse — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:32:32 EDT

• Hey, Tom Brokaw's got a secret: Bob Woodward had this secret source he used to meet in a parking garage. [E&P]
• Just when you thought there was no way the Bush administration could be worse for the press — controlled information, Armstrong Williams, the new public-broadcasting ombudsmen — it turns out the leaker Matt and Judy could go to jail for protecting might well be Karl Rove. Boy genius, indeed. [Newsweek]
• The rule of law always trumps a reporter's promise of confidentiality, says a fair and balanced report in Time magazine. [Time]
• From Napster to TiVo, the important thing is the technology, not the gimmicky name. And even gimmicks — like, say, giving away some regifted swag — have limited utility if they're unveiled while everyone's busy watching Fireworks. [AdAge]
• Is NBC maneuvering to replace Katie Couric with Alexis Glick? Um, probably not. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Media Bubble: So a Journalist and a Lawyer Walk Into a Bar...

Jesse — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 13:08:25 EDT

• "The journalist and the lawyer were fighting in my head," Time Inc. chief Norm Pearlstine tells the Times about the decision to hand over Matt Cooper's notes. Then, of course, while the ref's back was turned, the corporate exec rang into the ring and joined the lawyer to double-team the journalist, who was left unconscious and bloodied on the mat. [NYT]
• And the Journal realizes that actually, no, Time never published the name of the source. Duh. [Regret The Error]
• Two generals familiar with his thinking on the matter and four retired members of the intelligence community, one of whom worked on covert operations in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and another of whom has seen the actual contract, confirm that Sy Hersh has signed a $750,000-$1 million deal to write a book for Knopf. Also, Keith Kelly reports it. [NYP]
• Class, class, newspapers, class. Times class, Journal, class. Reporters, bankers, New York, series, class class class class. [Slate]

Media Bubble: The New Tucker is 'All Cross and No Fire'

Jesse — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:34:35 EDT

• Meredith fires 75 staffers it inherited from Gruner & Jahr in its purchase of Family Circle, Parents, Child, and Fitness. Among those let go: Susan Ungaro, editor-in-chief of Family Circle for 11 years. [Mediaweek]
• The peacock folks are considering merging the operations of NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC and putting them all under one roof in — gulp — New Jersey. [NYP]
• Alessandra Stanley plants a clickety stiletto right between Tucker Carlson's eyes. [NYT]

Media Bubble: On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Failing Cable Network

Jesse — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:00:50 EDT

• MSNBC.com is "defying gravity." Its cable sister (and her bow-tied new boytoy), on the other hand, know gravity all too well. [OJR]
• Despite lack of any actual news — no changes in plans, sacrifice "worth it," course must be stayed, post-9/11 world, yada yada — all the TV networks ultimately decide to carry Bush speech. [WP]
• Not just circ cheats at Newsday, but alleged pedophiles, too. [Newsday]
• Is Judy feeling lonely? Time might turn over docs to keep Matt Cooper out of jail. [E&P]
• No, she's not! An appeals court upheld a contempt ruling against her fellow Timesperson James Risen, in this case for refusing to reveal Wen Ho Lee sources. [NYT]