News Corp. Throwing Away The Crown Jewel: Fox Audience Network

News Corp. isn’t beating around the bush with its digital assets. Rotten Tomatoes has been sold off to Flixster. Photobucket went to Ontela. IGN had 20% staff cuts, and MySpace is dealing with co-presidents.

Fox Audience Network, the advertising arm for News Corp.’s digital assets has trudged stoically through all the drama. Under President Adam Bain the entity has grown and now powers the ads not only for MySpace and other News Corp. websites, but also a fairly robust set of third party partners.

Fox Audience Network is the 8th largest advertising networks according to Comscore, with nearly 150 million U.S. unique visitors a month. And it’s a close race. AOL is first with 185 million, and Google is second with 178 million.

Posted: March 23rd, 2010 under Uncategorized.
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Apple : The New Yorker

For Apple, which has enjoyed enormous success in recent years, “build it and they will pay” is business as usual. But it’s not a universal business truth. On the contrary, companies like Ikea, H. & M., and the makers of the Flip video camera are flourishing not by selling products or services that are “far better” than anyone else’s but by selling things that aren’t bad and cost a lot less. These products are much better than the cheap stuff you used to buy at Woolworth, and they tend to be appealingly styled, but, unlike Apple, the companies aren’t trying to build the best mousetrap out there. Instead, they’re engaged in what Wired recently christened the “good-enough revolution.” For them, the key to success isn’t excellence. It’s well-priced adequacy.

Posted: March 23rd, 2010 under Uncategorized.
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Why Investors Should Never Bet Against Founders, Even If They Want To Sell Before You Do

So what is this “entrepreneur thesis?” It’s the view that I back great entrepreneurs and help them pursue their dreams no matter what. Sometimes this will mean we collectively double down and try to build a bigger business and sometimes it may mean selling earlier than I had thought we would. I know this sounds Polly Anna-ish. I’m not just writing that “I love entrepreneurs” to curry favor with startup CEO’s. Anyone who has ever worked with me knows that I’m no pushover and I’m certainly not a wallflower. I’ll argue my point vociferously. But I don’t believe in betting against founders.

Posted: March 2nd, 2010 under Uncategorized.
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