ynet - Jewish Scene

Monday, April 9, 2012

If I Had A Billion Dollars, Would I Buy Instagram, AOL, Or A House? - Forbes

If I Had A Billion Dollars, Would I Buy Instagram, AOL, Or A House? - Forbes: "tatus symbols in Silicon Valley. Give it six months and if you can’t reach a billion dollar valuation at cash-out you’ll be nothing.

These deals do little more than set down the big bind in the high stakes VC poker of Silicon Valley. You want to play? Find a billion. You’ve built a mobile phone application and it has some users? It’s nothing till you can sell it for a billion."

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Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion. Smart Arbitrage. - Forbes

Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion. Smart Arbitrage. - Forbes: "Thrive, Benchmark and Greylock at a reported $500 million valuation. Quick paydirt for them. The fact that Facebook would pay 2x what the company was supposedly worth within a week’s time suggests this is a defensive move against Google or Twitter or Microsoft buying Instagram. Facebook has the money (almost $4 billion in cash on hand as of December 2011), and certainly isn’t desperate for more users, most if not all of whom are already on Facebook (which greatly influences the price-per-new-active-user Facebook is paying. See crude math below.)"

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Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion. Smart Arbitrage. - Forbes

Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion. Smart Arbitrage. - Forbes: "t is one of the best apps for taking and sharing photos from the iPhone. Its square images and assorted image filters let anyone make retro, techno and pretty pictures out of mundane shots of their kids, pets, food. Instagram’s Android version, released last week, got millions of downloads immediately. But $1 billion, if true, is still a crazy number. Instagram doesn’t make any money. Nor did it say it was focusing on revenue. It is still chasing big users. Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO, wrote this to calm down his users in response to the deal. An excerpt:"

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AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options

AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options: "Clinton revealed that she has been studying Khamenei's fatwa, saying that she has discussed it with religious scholars, other experts and with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"If it is indeed a statement of principle, of values, then it is a starting point for being operationalized," Clinton said in Norfolk."

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You go girl! Talk softly and carry a big stick.

AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options

AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Iran has not moved "even one millimeter" from its nuclear program despite its financial struggles.
"The sanctions are painful, hard," Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. "But will this bring about a halt or a retreat in the Iranian nuclear program? Until now, it has not happened."
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday that the sanctions "may have caused us small problems but we will continue our path."
Iranian officials, however, say its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes. The latest US intelligence assessments have not concluded that the regime has given the go-ahead to develop a nuclear bomb.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in February that possession of a nuclear bomb "constitutes a major sin" for Iran, reiterating a fatwa -- or religious edict -- that he made in 2005."

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AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options

AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options: " offer Iran support for peaceful nuclear energy if the regime gives up highly enriched uranium and other work which critics say could be used to make a bomb.
Clinton, speaking earlier Tuesday at the Virginia Military Institute, said that the talks should not be "open-ended."
"We expect to see concrete commitments from Iran that it will come clean on its nuclear program and live up to its international obligations," Clinton said.
The United States has been threatening sanctions to press other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, the country's chief money-maker. Turkey said Friday that it was cutting oil imports from its neighbor by 20 percent."

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AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options

AFP: Clinton warns of 'destabilizing' Iran options: "talks would open on April 13 with six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in the first such negotiations in more than one year.
But Russia said Monday that the date and venue have not been definitively set, leading the United States to say that Iran was sending mixed signals.
Clinton, who had earlier given April 13 as the date and Istanbul as the venue, said Tuesday only that the United States is "hoping that those talks will commence within the next several weeks."
"And we're hoping that there will be a path forward that gives the Iranians a reason to believe that it is in their national interest not to pursue their nuclear program," she said."

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It seems to me, that China and Russia need to be every bit involved in this as the US (and Israel naturally due to their proximity).

Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk - Forbes

Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk - Forbes: " when you’re not involved with your team, it’s easy to lose their trust and have them gripe about how they don’t understand what the job is like.

This is a lesson that was actually imprinted on me in one of my first jobs, making pizzas for a franchise that doesn’t exist anymore. Our general manager spent a lot of time in his office, focused on the paperwork and making sure that we could stay afloat on the razor-thin margins we were running. But one thing he made sure to do, every day, was to come out during peak times and help make pizza. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. The fact that he did so made me like him a lot more."

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Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk - Forbes

Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk - Forbes: "Kirk sometimes goes with one, or the other, or sometimes takes their advice as a springboard to developing an entirely different course of action.

However, the very fact that Kirk has advisors who have a different worldview not only from each other, but also from himself, is a clear demonstration of Kirk’s confidence in himself as a leader. Weak leaders surround themselves with yes men who are afraid to argue with them. That fosters an organizational culture that stifles creativity and innovation, and leaves members of the organization afraid to speak up."

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