For those familiar with Bethany McLean's The Smartest Guys In The Room, the forthcoming comparison will make sense; for those unfamiliar with her book, regarding Enron's executive leadership, the following analogy may fall on deaf ears. In any case, allow me to preface all further Enron remarks by first decrying the company's actions. While its employees were, for the most part, incredibly intelligent, Enron epitomizes all that was, and still is, wrong with corporate America.
Read More
Reddit's Rebellion Against Pao
The Internet's most popular online community, Reddit, is currently spiraling out of control. After the recent firing of Victoria Taylor, one of its most prominent employees who was responsible for favorable website features, many different subreddit (sections of the site) managers have disabled user access to popular content. These actions represent an online protest meant to drastically reduce website traffic.
Read More
America's Most Secretive Company
Data surrounds us; it's everywhere. And it’s what helped Palantir track and kill Osama Bin Laden. From phone calls to emails, from video chats to text messages, trillions of data bytes flood our tech infrastructure. As such, this creates plentiful information for analysts to sift through. Moreover, terrorist attacks like the 9/11 hijackings exemplify the importance of cyber surveillance and security.
Read More
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.
Read More
Goldberg's SurveyMonkey Legacy
SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg unexpectedly passed away late Friday night due to head trauma from an exercise accident in Mexico. Goldberg was not just one of the most popular CEOs in the Silicon Valley, but he was also one of the most successful. Goldberg was married to Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg and was just 47 years old at his time of passing.
Read More
$2.8 Billion In One Year
Slack, a relatively new messaging and communications application, specifically aimed at increasing business efficiency, has announced that it recently raised $160 million in new funding at a valuation of $2.8 billion. Its investors include big VC names like Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Google Ventures. To date, Slack has raised $340 million of working capital to fund expansionary business strategies.
Read More
Facebook's Recent Release
Social media giant Facebook (FB) recently took a page out of AOL’s (ancient) playbook by creating a standalone desktop messaging platform similar to AIM (for those who remember, this was the greatest invention of all time). The goal of Facebook’s new PC application is to expand its user base, increase data collection, and generate higher revenues.
Read More