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Biting the hand that feeds IT

Facebook post-IPO: Free not fee will make Zuck a buck
3 Feb 2012 at 1:03pm
Dam friction-less sharing and the company is toast

Open ... and Shut No sooner did Facebook file its S-1 in preparation for an IPO than speculation kicked into high gear on how Facebook could possibly sustain its $75bn to $100bn valuation. After all, despite its hugely impressive revenue and profit numbers, key components of its revenue model ? like advertising revenue ? are decelerating. So should we expect Facebook to impose a paywall on some or all of its users, as MyLife.com chief executive Jeff Tinsley suggests it could??

BT reported this morning that its sales had fallen 5 per cent for the three months ended 31 December, however earnings and cash generation remained steady, the company added.?

Quotw This was the week when Facebook finally filed for its IPO.?

History may record Scott McNealy as a straight-dealing leader of a major Silicon Valley tech company.?

Analysis Mark Zuckerberg: a shrewd businessman or simply the world's greatest ever opportunist. Now we can finally find out.?

Japanese conglomerate Hitachi ? which derives a fair portion of its sales and profits from the IT and telecom sectors ? has taken it in the chin profit-wise in its third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended in December. For the quarter, sales were essentially flat at ¥2,2665bn ($29bn), but net income fell by 42.3 per cent to ¥46.4bn ($595m).?

Dell has appointed a former tech company CEO and blue-chip middleware executive to lead its software group.?

Analysis Is Facebook hugely overvalued or a solid business with some reliable growth ahead of it? A great deal of both.?

Sony's new CEO will have his hands full at the helm of the loss-making Japanese firm - the entertainment megacorp announced today that its net loss in the quarter ending in December was 159 billion yen ($2bn) and it has slashed its full-year forecast to a loss of 220 billion yen ($2.8bn).?

As expected, Facebook has announced the terms of its initial public offering and is looking to raise $5bn.?

MasterCard has published its roadmap for getting Americans to use chip-and-PIN cards in stores, following Visa's lead in proposing to replace swipe cards by April 2013.?

Mark Zuckerberg seems to want Facebook's public debut to be as dull as his bluey-grey t-shirts. The dominant social network is widely expected to file regulatory documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission later today. But the company's CEO is reportedly hoping to play down the whole affair.?

ARM, the eponymous designer of the chip architecture, had a stonking 2011 with revenue and profits up as it tightened its hold on both embedded and generic computing.?

BSkyB has once again seen the number of new subscribers signing up to the broadcaster's products fall, compared to the same period a year before.?

It's difficult not to mention Google in the same breath as Facebook these days ? and that's especially true when one considers the initial public offering the dominant social network is reportedly planning later this week.?