Archive for July, 2007
Google buys another business
July 24th, 2007
MatthewGoogle has announced the acquisition of Clayton, Missouri based ImageAmerica
, a company that builds high-resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery.
ImageAmerica has previously provided images for Google Maps and Earth, including high-resolution black and white imagery of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Stephen Chau, Project Manager of Google Maps and Earth said in a statement that Google was excited “about how ImageAmerica’s technology will contribute to [Google’s] mapping services down the road.”
The acquisition price was not disclosed.
iPod sales disappoints
July 24th, 2007
MatthewThat’s what is happening to Apple (AAPL,) today, after AT&T (T,) reported that only 146,000 iPhones were activated in the second quarter.
Shares of Apple were down $3.75, or 2.6%, to $139.95 at midday on the news, which one analyst called a "reality check" for Apple. Shares had been down as much as $7.15 earlier this morning.
Apple watchers should get more clarity on iPhone action once the company reports its fiscal third-quarter results tomorrow after the market close. But for now, the AT&T report is giving some investors a case of the jitters.
The iPhone was introduced June 29, leaving only two days in the second quarter, and in Apple’s fiscal third quarter, for the iPhone to take off. But analysts had forecast between 200,000 and 500,000 activations in those two days.
Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves said the activation number was low. "It doesn’t mean it’s a failure, but it’s making investors stop and re-evaluate some of the numbers," he said today.
"The reaction is pretty appropriate. Expectations certainly were for a lot more than 150,000 units. Even though it’s just two-day sales, it’s a reality check," Hargreaves added.
There is still some margin for error due to Web sales and resales over the Internet, Hargreaves said, but the 146,000 is a good proxy for determining total sales of the iPhone.
Another analyst agreed, although he cautioned that the shares, and iPhone sales, had room to recover.
"For the data that came out, Apple’s stock drop is probably the right reaction," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said. "But if you look at where the stock can go over the next year, there is still a significant move up."
Demand dwindling?
Other observers think iPhone sales aren’t as hot as everyone had hoped.
"Based on our store checks, we believe that demand for the iPhone has seen a significant decline in the past 10 days," CIBC World Markets analyst Ittai Kidron wrote in a note to clients today. "We have noticed decent inventories at stores, and thin demand at best.
"Among the stores we visited, most visitors were not looking at the device, and only a very small subset bought it," Kidron wrote.
But Munster cautioned that iPhone sales seemed to be following a pattern set by the introduction of the iPod. "We saw this with the iPod a few years ago," he said. "It takes a few years to take off."
Apple’s earnings could be sweet
Although official numbers will likely come in Apple’s earnings report, an estimated 500,000 iPhones were sold over the first weekend it hit shelves. At $499 to $599 a pop, that’s $249.5 million to $299.5 million, some pretty tasty fruit.
The iPhone will be a massive financial impact on Apple in 2009, Munster said. "You just have to manage the reality of these things," he explained.
Wall Street is looking for earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $5.29 billion. In the fiscal third quarter of 2006, Apple earned 54 cents per share on $4.37 billion in sales.
AT&T’s earnings shine
Elsewhere in today’s earnings report, Dow component AT&T said net income jumped 61% to $2.9 billion, or 47 cents per share, from $1.81 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2006.
AT&T benefited from the purchase of BellSouth last year, which gave Ma Bell full control of the unit formerly called Cingular Wireless. AT&T Wireless has the exclusive rights to service Apple’s iPhone.
Excluding certain items, AT&T earned 70 cents per share, 3 cents ahead of analysts’ estimates. Shares of AT&T were down 10 cents to $39.93 in midday trading.
YouTube Offers Embedded, Customizable Player
July 23rd, 2007
MatthewBy now, everyone should be including, or at least determining the best way to use video on your website. From how-to’s to interviews, video can find a place in just about every site’s marketing mix. Now, YouTube offers a way to make video an even bigger, more seamless part of your site. Customizable video allows users to choose colors, name of the player and layouts.
It’s a nice way to include video while keeping some sort of continuity with the overall look and feel of your website.
Company Updates
July 23rd, 2007
MatthewI took the weekend to go over new ideas for the company. We have got some awesome things in the works that will be updated on the site shortly. I am really excited about the team we have here and so are all our clients. It is nice to have the opportunity to help business owners grow their business and in some cases start a new business.
We will start a national marketing campaign within the next few weeks and are working overtime to finish our clients projects and the neccessary changes to get ready for the campaign to start. We are taking our small but efficient design company to new heights. We truly are the leaders in which other design companys copy.
Mobile VOIP
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewA few years ago, cellular companies did us all a huge favor by charging the same for a call across the country as for a call across the street. It kicked the floor out from under long-distance rates long before VoIP savings arrived.
Now we cell phone users can show our gratitude by using a new breed of VoIP websites to sidestep one of the cellcos’ few moneymakers: international calling charges. Services like Cordia, Globe Dialer, JaJah, Pingo and Rebtel let us hop onto the internet and overseas via our cell phones–typically for 2 to 25 cents a minute (plus any plan minutes used). Rates vary by country, but providers claim to save you up to 90 percent over the cellcos’ international plans.
Note: These are mobile calls, not PC connections over wired services like Skype. And unlike Skype, the new VoIP services aren’t waiting for the FCC to force cellcos to share the networks they’ve spent bazillions to build. They get in and out of the cellular walled gardens using combinations of toll-free land-line numbers, software downloads, text signals, callbacks and call forwarding.
Rebtel, for example, assigns you and your contacts different local numbers to reroute cell calls over the internet. Cordia has your overseas buddies use a toll-free number, then forwards the calls to your cell. JaJah and Globe Dialer require software downloads, while Pingo uses local or toll-free access numbers with its prepaid calling cards. It’s always a multistep process with varying amounts of hassle. But you don’t need to be near a wired broadband connection, and how does 12 cents a minute to your buddies in Brunei sound? Pick the service whose methods you can tolerate and that serves the countries where your foreign contacts live.
Business Mail Solution
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewAs much as e-mail and digital documents have become mainstream, most entrepreneurs still rely on the U.S. Postal Service to accomplish key tasks. But that’s not to say technology can’t boost your company’s efficiency in your daily use of the good old-fashioned mail.
The latest DYMO Desktop Mailing Solution is a $240 hardware and software package that lets you weigh, calculate and print postage and labels. There is no monthly fee, and the system keeps track of changes in postage rates–meaning no more trips to the post office for stamps.
The kit includes a LabelWriter Twin Turbo thermal printer, a USB-connected postal scale, DYMO Stamps software, DYMO LabelWriter software, and starter rolls of address and postage labels. The Stamps software comes from internet postage vendor Endicia, is both Windows- and Mac-compatible, and generates stamps approved by the USPS. The LabelWriter software ties in with programs like ACT!, Goldmine Outlook and QuickBooks and cross-checks your addresses against a USPS database. All told, the DYMO system is an easy solution for automating address labels and mailings. See dymo.com for more details.
Text Voicemail
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewYour mobile phone voice mail is no longer restricted to living–and expiring–on your phone system. New services let you listen to or read your voice mail on your PC. CallWave Mobile Visual Voicemail is a free service that sends your cell phone voice mails to your e-mail and notifies you with a detailed SMS. You can then listen to, save or delete at will. CallWave is compatible with most carriers and is also available as a widget. Setup is fast and painless, and audio quality is as clear as with regular voice mail.
Two companies taking a slightly different approach are SpinVox and SimulScribe. Already well-established in the United Kingdom, SpinVox’s Real Visual Voicemail service has recently come to the U.S. It uses speech-to-text technology to send your voice mails to you as e-mails or text messages. SimulScribe delivers transcriptions of voice mails to your mobile phone, PDA or e-mail account. The company’s basic plan includes 40 messages and costs $9.95 per month. The text conversion systems will appeal to users who need to blaze through a high volume of voice mails without listening to each message completely.
Moving Toward Web 3.0
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewIn a previous post I mentioned that the search engine world would be changing dramatically with what is being called ” web 3.0″ The below article is a step in that direction.
Daring to go up against powerhouses like Google and Yahoo is no small feat, but serial entrepreneur Scott A. Jones, 46, and Brad Bostic, 32, believe they have what it takes to outdo the search masters. In 2005, Jones was preparing a speech when he discovered he could gather material for it faster by calling knowledgeable friends than by using the top search engines. Acting fast on that enterprising revelation, he and Bostic decided to found ChaCha, a people-powered search engine that takes search up a notch by combining computer results with human intelligence.
The Carmel, Indiana, company features a community of more than 30,000 human "guides" ready to chat live with users who need assistance. And a team of influential investors–led by Bezos Expeditions, the investment firm started by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and including Compaq co-founder Rod Canion–contributed $6.5 million in 2006 alone. With year-end sales expected to reach into the eight digits, Jones is already fully engaged in the next stage: cell phone search. "That’s the really giant idea," he says. "And that’s a greenfield market."
Online Layaway
July 22nd, 2007
MattheweLayaway.com is delivering the retail pay-as-you-go concept to online shoppers. "A lot of people are maxed out on their credit cards, others want to plan their purchases and some have no credit at all," says Sergio Pinon, 41, who, together with Matt Ryncarz, 25, launched eLayaway in August 2006.
For a flat 1.9 percent fee, eLayaway lets online customers make incremental payments until their purchases are paid off. The idea sprang from Ryncarz’s former venture, which facilitated vacation planning through payroll deductions. Pinon saw the potential for a broader market in online sales, and eLayaway was born. "We had a fire under us because we wanted to be the first to get it to the market," Pinon says. Their premier position has paid off: The company is the layaway option at more than 30,000 online merchants. Tallahassee, Florida-based eLayaway reports 400 percent growth since January.
Beware of Scams
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewIt was just before Christmas 2006. Danny Nielson* was sitting across the table from a friend. They were talking about raising money for Nielson’s growing business. Nielson described the contact he’d recently had with a potential investor. "I’m just not sure he’s for real," Nielson told the friend. "He’s asking for a deposit, so we’re checking him out."
First Contact
Several weeks earlier, Nielson had posted his company’s business plan on one of the many websites that purport to connect entrepreneurs with angel investors and venture capitalists. Nielson, 37, knew the drill. He had worked with investors and investment bankers before–he had even invested in other people’s businesses–so he was not going to get too excited about anything before he checked it out.
Based on the website posting, Nielson received three legitimate offers to purchase the business outright, which he declined. Those kinds of inquiries were genuine and easy to authenticate. Equally easy to spot, he says, were the many inquiries that were not from genuine investors: "That was by far the vast majority." The obvious frauds usually promised a large, immediate investment based solely on the business plan: Just send a transaction fee, and they’d send the money, no questions asked. Many of those were from outside the U.S.
"Then we got a call from a group in DC," says Nielson. "I returned [the] message, but then [didn’t] hear from him for another month." When the two finally spoke, the man said he’d been on an extended business trip abroad, and that he remained interested in learning more about the business. The man said he managed a large venture fund and wanted to discuss an investment of more than $1 million.
Over the ensuing weeks, Nielson exchanged several e-mails with the self-described investor, his secretary, a vice president and others within the organization. They all asked lots of questions. They even sent a lengthy, formal request for due diligence information and asked for professional references from Nielson. "Everything seemed very legit," he says, "until we got the contract."
Although it was lengthy and looked official, the contract included a request for an upfront "earnest money deposit" of $10,000. Warning bells went off in Nielson’s head, but, he says, even this request was made to seem justifiable. "Along with the contract, they sent an entire page explaining why they do the earnest deposit." The explanation seemed particularly reasonable since, over the years, Nielson had encountered many investment bankers, loan brokers and others who all required an upfront fee. Still, Nielson harbored doubts, so he intensified his research on the purported investor and his venture fund.
Web searches turned up very little. The name of the venture fund was surprisingly similar to other, much larger investment companies. That was all part of the fraud, Nielson now realizes. Con artists often use aliases that sound like other more well-known firms. "If you Google [their name], you get thousands of pages of [the real company]," says Nielson. "It’s hard to find information because they piggyback on these names."
Much to his surprise and relief, he had better luck with personal references. Three different calls to the group’s landlord seemed to confirm that it had offices and staff (although oddly, no one was ever available to speak on the phone when Nielson called). The investor also happily produced references of previous customers–all of which turned up nothing but glowing reviews of satisfying experiences. Nielson finally asked for a face-to-face with the investor, conveniently scheduled during the man’s "business trip" to Atlanta, where they met at a restaurant. Nielson left Atlanta satisfied that the investor was for real.
Finally, after nearly three months spent checking and double-checking, Nielson held his breath and made a $10,000 wire transfer to the investor’s bank account. That, of course, was the beginning of the end.
The Feds
The kind of business fraud that Nielson encountered is unusual only because it was so well-orchestrated, says Ken Lucas, media and public affairs specialist at the FBI. "Unfortunately, [Nielson] ran into a very smart, well-backstopped scammer." Much more typical are the personal and business scams that try to score a quick buck off of unsuspecting entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, there is no sure way to know whether the person you are dealing with is legitimate. Lucas encourages entrepreneurs to be skeptical of any transaction with a new person or group. The best protection, he says, is to call references, check online fraud sites, inquire at the Better Business Bureau and trust your gut. Pay attention to the voice in your head that says, "Something just does not seem right." "If you’re already thinking that this guy could be a fraud, slow the pace down," Lucas advises. "A lot of times, your gut check is a pretty good reality check as well.
"Embedded in every money transaction is a level of trust," Lucas adds. "Once the money leaves your hands, is there a way to check that? I don’t think so. Cash is cash. Once it’s gone, it’s gone."
Compounding a victim’s frustration, the FBI is often unable to investigate claims made by individuals or entrepreneurs because the agency’s limited jurisdiction and resources make it very difficult to investigate smaller crimes. Lucas says there is no hard and fast rule, but the agency is most concerned about larger frauds perpetrated by organized groups. For crimes netting less than $500,000 or so, a local or state agency will most likely be behind the investigation.
But the FBI does offer some tools. Lucas recommends the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which helps victims report fraud to the FBI and other appropriate agencies. Also, LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.com provides a quick reference to the most common scams and how to avoid them.
Moving On
Nielson’s story is far from over, but he doubts he’ll ever see his $10,000 again. Even so, he has reported the crime to the FBI and other agencies. And he put the word out through various websites and blogs so others will not be duped by the same man.
Nielson, meanwhile, puts aside a little time each week for advancing his case against the man, but he believes his chances of seeing justice are slim. And he admits that next time he’s out raising money, he’ll be even more skeptical. Says Nielson, "It’s been a huge learning experience."