oceandude

eBay 'Boycott' Shows Lack of Trust Between Buyers and Sellers

The most ridiculous thing with Ebay's recent changes is the publicizing of "lower seller fees". This is complete deception. LISTING fees are lower but sales commissions are quite higher.

This is great for sellers who list the same overpriced crap over and over without selling. This is terrible for folks that simply want to sell inventory quickly at a fair price for buyer and seller.

Yahoo's Future: The Employee Perspective

You obviously don't know much about Yahoo culture. The phrase 'bleed purple and yellow' is thrown around pretty often. Despite a lot of folks leaving in the past couple years there are still many people who are quite loyal. And again: not all the engineers are in Silicon Valley! Not sure why I have to keep mentioning this.

23 Safe Dividend Stocks For Trying Times

Thanks very much. We just rolled over a 401k and this is a very appropriate list to put some of that savings into.

Yahoo's Future: The Employee Perspective

I keep hearing remarks like: "Microsoft is not a Valley company."

That's funny in a search advertising context, since Yahoo's Search Advertising group isn't in the Valley either. They are in Burbank, CA (Southern Cal) -- the result of Yahoo's Overture acquisition.

Yahoo is in a no-win situation. All three major options are depressing to employees.

1. Microsoft buys Yahoo. Ick. "Real" engineers hate Microsoft.
2. All deals fall apart. Stock slides back to 18 or so. Shareholder lawsuits filed. Believe me, Yahoo employees don't care about the stock's "upside". They want the highest price for their options, now. Plus the lawsuits would be a huge distraction.
3. Outsource to Google. Basically this would be giving up. Not much worse for employee morale. And what happens to all the employees replaced by Google? Pink slips?

The News Corp. thing is okay, except it will probably massively overvalue MySpace. It's obvious to everyone under 25-30 that Facebook is far superior to MySpace. Frankly I think MySpace started it's decline in 2007. And what's so great about MySpace anyway? Google themselves complain about the advertising revenue from it.

Yahoo is simply in a very tough spot.

Stocks Furthest Above, Below Their 50-DMAs

title of first chart is wrong

Microsoft Should Call Yahoo's Bluff and Refuse to Raise Its Bid

I don't think MS will completely drop their offer. That would be an excellent negotiation tactic, but it will drag out the deal for quite a long time (since you also have to allow time for regulatory approval). Meanwhile Ballmer knows Google will keep chugging along.

I do agree that $34/share is a fair price. In the long run MS would be better off paying $34/share amicably than dragging out a boardroom war.

Microsoft Should Call Yahoo's Bluff and Refuse to Raise Its Bid

I don't get this "why would MS bid against themselves" argument.

Hasn't anyone ever tried to buy something that is NOT for sale? Say you go to a garage sale and the guy has something in his garage you want. It's not for sale. You make an offer anyway. It is refused. You up your offer. Are you bidding "against yourself"? NO! You are simply trying to buy something that does not have a sale price. How is this any different?

13 Predictions for 2008

Virginia Tech marketing professor, the "internet types" that don't vote make a conscious decision not to vote because the choices are usually the lesser of two evils (I'd argue they should vote 3rd party, but anyway that's the reality). In other words they are disillusioned.

I can't count how many stories I've seen on the Internet of people that plan to vote for the first time specifically for Ron Paul. Many tales are out there of "selling your soul", i.e. registering Republican, just to vote for Dr. Paul.

The simple truth is that very few politicians understand economics. To them it is purely about taxes. Ironic that no Democrats understand inflation, since inflation is essentially a targeted tax on the poor.

The milk-for-$6 prediction is exactly right. I'm sure the 2008 candidates will be making a big deal out of the cost of milk and bread as the election draws nearer. They'll probably think that Congress can do something about it. Maybe they'll start sending out more food stamps. Yeah right. The only thing Congress can do is to start overseeing the Fed -- a job they've ignored for 90 years.

Did FCC Commissioner Drop Hints On Sirius/XM Merger?

It will go through because both companies will be non-existent in 5-10 years if it does not.

LDK Found Error-Free, Rises 30%: Where is the Solar Rally?

It will go down after earnings were merely in-line. Margins still barely over 30%.

I'll be backing up the truck, poised for a big 2008 gain!

Give Troubled Borrowers Cash - Greenspan

And Greenspan used to be a disciple of Ayn Rand? She is spinning in her grave.

Where does this cash come from? I guess it's a *slight* improvement if people get cash first instead of Fed -> Big Banks but whatever happened to personal responsibility? Oh yeah it died with FDR.

A Smorgasbord of Tech Bargains - Barron's

Stratasys is SSYS not SYSS

United Online Cancels Classmates IPO

Darn, I wanted to short Classmates!

Waiting for Dell's iPod Moment

There's a fundamental concept that you are missing: Apple is a software company. Dell is a hardware company.

Dell is tied to Microsoft on the software side. Windows is simply crap. You can dress up the hardware all you want but in the end it is still running crappy Windows.

If you want an "iPod moment" from Dell they need to take a hard look at breaking the status quo. Perhaps Dell could help out with improvements in Ubuntu Linux and start pushing that heavily on their gear. Just one idea, but they won't do anything like this because they have no guts.

Is Google the 'Most Basic Element of Internet Life'?

Actually the argument here is if something like Yahoo Search were replaced as the default search in a browser toolbar, would anyone know the difference?

I'm aware of very little that Google does exclusively. They are a great company, but I don't see how they are indispensable.