People don't understand LinkedIn (LNKD). In fact, there's a fundamental disconnect between the networking platform's objectives and consumer expectations. In a world of purely rational individuals, LinkedIn clearly provides its members maximum utility (i.e. job offers). And while these offers differ, I can't think of an online platform that yields a better ROI for time spent online.
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What If Yahoo Had Acquired Facebook?
Nearly nine years ago, Facebook (FB) discussed an acquisition agreement with Yahoo (YHOO). Unprecedented at the time, a high-riding Yahoo sought to purchase the young social network for $1 billion. Like most tech acquisition offers, Yahoo hoped to leverage its size and capital advantages in order to buy Facebook before the company realized its full potential.
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Yelp Needs Help
The Wall Street rumor mill has been working overtime during the past month. Just a week after shares of Salesforce (CRM) popped double-digits following a report that the company was preparing to sell itself for $55 billion, shares of Yelp (YELP) jumped nearly 30% for the same reason.
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Corrupt Costolo Out Of Time
In what was one of the more unusual events on Wall Street last week, Twitter’s (TWTR) Q1 earnings report was leaked before the closing bell. Ironically, the results were made public via a series of tweets from Selerity, a data science firm. The tweets revealed that Twitter missed revenue expectations by more than $20 million and also cut quarterly and annual guidance. Not surprisingly, Twitter’s stock price plummeted more than 20%.
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Offensive Advertising Pays Dividends
A new marketing campaign by supplement retailer Protein World has people fuming over the company’s decision to use scantily clad fitness models to advertise weight loss products. Many people claim the main goal of the advertisements is to make people feel guilty about their bodies because they are not, as Protein World states, “beach body ready.” In response to Protein World’s promotion, over 70,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to the offensive advertising campaign.
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Facebook To Dethrone Google
Last week marked the 10-year anniversary of the first video ever uploaded to Google’s (GOOGL) popular video sharing service, YouTube. As one of the most popular websites on the Internet, and the second leading search engine behind Google, YouTube clearly has a lot to celebrate. However, as a profitless Google subsidiary, YouTube’s future could prove quite volatile, especially as its main competitor continues to invest in an entirely new video-sharing platform.
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$100 Billion Is Nothing
When it comes to athletic retailers, Nike (NKE) is a man among boys. With a market capitalization of more than $77 billion, it is nearly twice the size of its largest competitor, Adidas (ADDDF), and almost 5x bigger than Under Armour (UA). Because of this advantage, Nike’s annual revenues exceed almost $29 billion and its stock is currently trading at all-time highs of roughly $90.
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