(Reproduced from WSJ 01.28.11)
http://tinyurl.com/4cso47y

By SAM SCHECHNER And JESSICA E. VASCELLARO

Just as the digital wave transforms the television industry, Hulu, a pioneer of Internet TV, is in internal discussions to dramatically transform itself.

The free online television service has become one of the most-watched online video properties in the U.S. and a top earner of web-video ad dollars since its 2008 launch.

WSJ's Sam Schechner reports on Hulu re-tooling its business plan to keep up with a changing digital world.

But its owners—industry powerhouses NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.—are increasingly at odds over Hulu's business model. Worried that free Web versions of their biggest TV shows are eating into their traditional business, the owners disagree among themselves, and with Hulu management, on how much of their content should be free.

ok so let's see. Linked in is definitely the leader in pro social networking with 90 million subs. At $161m revenue, that's about $1.78/sub. At $1.9m profit, that's TWO CENTS per sub. Welcome back, tech bubble.

What you should know about LinkedIn’s IPO
(reproduced from venturebeat 01.28.11)
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/27/linkedin-ipo-facts/

You’ve probably seen that professional networking site LinkedIn filed for its initial public offering today. Now that the first wave of excitement has died down, let’s take a look at the most relevant facts about the company and its IPO plans, drawn primarily from the filing:

How much does LinkedIn want to raise through the IPO? Up to $175 million.
How does LinkedIn describe itself? “We are the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Through our proprietary platform, members are able to create, manage and share their professional identity online, build and engage with their professional network, access shared knowledge and insights, and find business opportunities, enabling them to be more productive and successful.”

What does LinkedIn want to do with the money? “We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, including further expansion of our product development and field sales organizations, and for capital expenditures. In addition, we may use a portion of the proceeds from this offering for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets.”
How big is the workforce? The company says it had 990 employees at the end of 2010.

What is LinkedIn’s business model? “We generate revenue from enterprises and professional organizations by selling our hiring solutions and marketing solutions offline through our field sales organization or online on our website. We also generate revenue from members, acting as individuals or on behalf of their enterprise or professional organization, who subscribe to our premium services.”

How much money is LinkedIn making now? In the nine months ending on Sept. 30, LinkedIn says it made $1.85 million in profits on $161.4 million in revenue. In 2009, it lost $4.0 million on $120.1 million in revenue
Who are LinkedIn’s current shareholders? Founder Reid Hoffman (pictured) and his wife Michelle Yee own 21.4 percent of the company. Sequoia Capital owns 18.9 percent. Greylock Partners owns 15.8 percent. Bessemer Venture Partners owns 5.1 percent. CEO Jeff Weiner owns 4.1 percent.

What does LinkedIn see as a potential threat to its future success? Among other things, the company lists security, government regulation, the fact that most of its traffic comes from a minorty of users, and the challenge of balancing members’ needs with moneymaking opportunities as risk factors.

Walden meat sequoia. Sequoia meat Walden.

Sequoia Capital rakes in $1.3B for the Valley and China

From VentureBeat
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/sequoia-capital-rakes-in-1-3b/

Perennially successful tech investor Sequoia Capital is once again setting its sights on Silicon Valley, having raised at least $1.3 billion for a new fund that will zero in on up-and-coming startups, according to a filing released today by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sequoia, a storied venture-capital firm that has invested in white-hot tech companies from AdMob to Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube and a host of others, will call the new fund Sequoia Capital 2010.

It most recently poured $27.5 million into Square, the mobile payments startup founded by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, on Jan. 10. That funding valued Square at $240 million overall.

The firm has said in the past that any new fund would focus primarily on early and growth stage companies located in the U.S. and China.

Thus far, Sequoia Capital 2010 has secured more than $1.35 billion in capital commitments since last March, Fortune reported today.

The University of Michigan Regents, which invests with Sequoia, described the VCs’ plans for the fund  in a memo released last July:

“In the U.S., venture investments will be primarily in new technology companies formed in the western part of the country, particularly California’s Silicon Valley. The China investments will focus on companies positioned to benefit from China’s growing economy and increasing number of consumers and are expected to be in the financial services, consumer services, technology, and healthcare, and internet sectors.”

A Sequoia representative did not immediately respond to queries about the new fund.

It’s not clear if Sequoia will ultimately take in more than the $1.35 billion sum raised so far — but given recent figures on how venture capital is roaring back in Silicon Valley, not to mention Sequoia’s track record and reputation, it seems like it could easily pull in more.

Why would I want a hotspot at 3G speeds, with all the latencies and of course, the $20 extra dollars ? iPhone is not another droid Verizon :-)

Verizon iPhone hot spot to cost $20 a month with 2GB of data

From MobileBeat 01.26.11
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/26/verizon-iphone-hot-spot-price/

Just as we suspected, Verizon will be charging $20 a month for its iPhone’s mobile hot spot feature, the same as it does for other smartphones, the company told Macworld yesterday.

The feature will allow up to five wireless devices to connect to Verizon’s iPhone and share its mobile data connection. The hot spot will come with a 2 gigabyte pool of data separate from the iPhone’s own data pool. Each additional gigabyte of data will cost another $20.

The mobile hot spot is one major differentiator between AT&T’s iPhone and Verizon’s (other than the fact that Verizon’s model features different hardware to run on its CDMA wireless network). The feature will likely make its way to other iPhones in the upcoming version 4.3 update of the iPhone OS, but like the initial ability to share your iPhone’s mobile internet connection with a single device via tethering, it will likely be left up to carriers to enable it.

That means we shouldn’t expect AT&T to enable it any time soon — it was notoriously slow about offering tethering, and the last thing it needs is more data hungry users on its network. AT&T is also more stingy about data for its tethering plan — it charges $20 a month for iPhone tethering, but the data used is taken out of user’s data plans, which for new users is capped at 2GB a month.

Due to limitations of CDMA technology, Verizon’s iPhone can’t simultaneously handle voice and data traffic. But the promise of a more robust 3G network, plus mobile hot spot support, may be enough for many users to overlook that deficiency.