Mike Arrington: "I don't know a single black entrepreneur ... There aren't any .... Silicon Valley is a meritocracy. Success here depends solely on your brain size and how you use it."
Mike Arrington is an absolute, total motherfucker. There is no other adjective for this guy. This guy is like, okay, noone is talking about me anymore. The AOL thing, well, people have already moved past that. I no long write for TechCrunch. So I don't have any comments to read. What do people think? That I have disappeared? I have not. Here, let me make a blatantly racist comment and get back in the news. And so it goes.
These decisions have a tendency to change. I was planning on doing one, then two, then most three events during Social Media Week in February, I ended up doing seven. But for now my decision for Internet Week is to camp out in one location and do as many events as possible in that one location, and to spend more time in the hallways wildly shaking hands than sitting obediently in halls as panelists pontificate.
Monday is my oh so important immigration court date, and that takes priority, and since my hearing is scheduled for 1 PM, and I am meeting my lawyer at 11 to prepare, and court hearings have a tendency to start late and drag on, I have no Internet Week plans until 3 PM Monday, and I am at peace with not even showing up until 4 PM, maybe 5 PM: no soup for you. But once I am done with the court stuff, which might be in the late afternoon, I hope to drop by and inaugurate my Internet Week. I am seeking refugee status, kind of like Einstein.
Wall Street Journal: AOL, Private-Equity Firms Explore Bid for Yahoo: devising a bold plan to marry two big Internet brands facing steep challenges...... The discussions are preliminary and don't include Yahoo. ...... Shares of Yahoo jumped 13% ..... one of the best-performing tech stocks of the day...... A big chunk of Yahoo's current market value comes from its Alibaba stake. ..... Yahoo and AOL discussed a merger in 2008, as Yahoo weighed a $45 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. Microsoft eventually pulled its bid ..... Bartz has improved Yahoo's profitability by cutting costs, but revenue hasn't grown much and the company faces other problems..... more than 600 million people use its home page, email service or other sites every month
This is Tim Armstrong trying to do the Larry Ellison thing. Larry Ellison went after PeopleSoft. I have no dog in this fight. I am just on the sidelines watching the drama. But AOL is not Oracle size. And Yahoo is not PeopleSoft size. Actually AOL and Yahoo are two similar size companies with similar problems/challenges. They both used to be number one, and now perhaps they never are going to get back the throne. Jimmy Carter also retired.
Wait, they are not similar size companies. AOL is a two billion dollar company, Yahoo is a 20 billion dollar company. Tim Armstrong has started to believe his own PR, or maybe he is reading too many of Mike Arrington's blog posts. Arrington has been quite hostile to Carol Bartz over an extended period of time.
Image via WikipediaShould not the talk be of merger? But AOL did try that once. That marriage was a spectacular disaster. Buying or merging is the easy part, integrating is the hard part. Larry Ellison seems to be good at both. But then he starts with the advantage of Oracle's size and muscle. Oracle will still perhaps do the next big thing in its space. AOL and Yahoo are not even trying to do the next big thing. For now they are still figuring out what their space is.
Perhaps Tim Armstrong got too much of a boost from buying TechCrunch. The buzz got to him or something. TechCrunch might be the top tech blog, but in terms of a business it is pretty small. It is actually very small. TechCrunch is an asteroid to Yahoo's Mars.
Nothing Yahoo could have done on its own would have boosted its share price by 13%. That's a big jump. Congrats Carol. Make some more Alibaba moves. Google just went into wind farms.
Bloomberg: Yahoo Said to Hire Goldman to Handle Takeover Approaches: The private-equity funds have weighed raising $10 billion to $12 billion ..... Yahoo also owns 35 percent of Yahoo Japan Corp., operator of the nation’s most visited Web portal. ..... a reverse merger with AOL gaining managerial control .... . Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in December 2008 that talks about possible deals for AOL were under way with Yahoo, Microsoft and Google Inc. When those talks didn’t lead anywhere, Time Warner opted for a spinoff.
AllThingsD: Yahoo’s Stock Acts Like It’s in Play–Because It Kind of Is, as Predators Circle: assessing the situation aggressively ..... the key players in the growing soap opera are the execs who run Yahoo-affiliated companies in Japan and China. That would be Masayoshi Son of Yahoo Japan and Jack Ma of the Alibaba Group ..... any approach would have to be nonhostile ..... Armstrong, said sources, has not shied away from the idea of Yahoo acquiring AOL and installing him as CEO with Bartz as chairman. ...... Although AOL has also been trying to turn itself around and is in a much less powerful position than Yahoo, Wall Street likes Armstrong’s story for AOL as a modern-day media and media distribution company. ..... “At least he has a narrative that is believable,” said one big investor in both companies. “Bartz has no vision.”
I haven't talked you in a little bit, so I am not sure what you are up to....but I came across something that might be perfectly suited to your talents:
A guy called Ed who is a good friend of Alex Great Minds Think Alike Cybriwsky yesterday talked me into applying for an internship with AOL. The next person is going to ask me to apply for college: Back To The Future.
Luxury apartment in SF; swank hotel in NYC?
VIP access to concerts & events?
Input on core product decisions?
Reporting to Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL?
Basically, the internship of a lifetime.
Job Overview
We're looking for one very savvy individual to fill an important position. It's an easy job because all you have to do is be yourself. There's not a job like this anywhere else...guaranteed. Intrigued? Read on...
A Little About You
You're the type of person we can see spending a lot of quality time with this summer. You have the perfect balance of charisma, insight and ambition. You might be thinking, "Sure, but what's in it for me?"
Frankly, a lot.
But we'll get to that later.
First, let's talk more about you.
Like a bloodhound on the hunt, you've got an uncanny ability to sniff out new trends. You go with your gut. Like a sixth sense, it always leads the way.
Your enemy is the status quo. Status updates, however, are your friend. You judge others not only on the content of their character, but also on the content of their Tweets.
People listen to what you have to say, because they know that you know what's up. You’re a social-media butterfly with the wingspan of a jumbo jet—you don't flutter, you soar.
You're comfortable in your own shoes and your friends love that about you.
Why? Because you’re cool, that's why.
Like it's your job.
Which brings us to why we're here...
The Job
For two solid months you'll be an integral part of the Lifestream Team and have the opportunity to work directly with Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL. You'll sit in high-level meetings and speak your mind to our top product engineers, marketers and executives. You’ll tell them what you like and what you don't like about AOL products. We're depending on you to tell it like it is, and we know that you will.
Ok, we know. You’re still wondering what’s in it for you.
Here's The Deal
This is not your average summer internship. In fact, if we didn't know better, we'd think this was some sort of Employment rickroll.
You, friend, will not only receive a paycheck, but you'll also be living the bi-coastal lifestyle. A luxury apartment in San Francisco. A hip hotel in NYC.
Through AOL Lifestream, you'll be sharing all your experiences with your social networks via Facebook updates, Tweets, Flickr uploads, Foursquare check-ins and YouTube videos. Give your followers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes culture of AOL. Remember, your friends are our friends, too. And if our friends have something to say, we want to hear it.
We've been making a lot of changes around here and we're not afraid to take risks. To inform those risks, we're counting on you to bring us weekly dispatches from the frontlines of the latest pop culture trends. So throughout the summer, you'll have in your possession VIP access to events around the country—the hottest clubs and restaurants, the most coveted live concerts, sporting events and industry social gatherings. Your loyal followers will benefit too, all because they know you.
You'll get all this and more for allowing us to harness the awesome power that is you.
(Oh, and did we mention the expense account?)
Think you can handle it?
If so, please fill out the application.
We can't wait to start working with you this summer!
Key Dates:
June 8th: Last day to submit applications
June 9th: Finalists will be notified; in-person interview may be required this week
Week of June 14th: Videos of Top 3 candidates posted to this site; final winner is determined by an online vote
June 28th: First day on the job in San Francisco
Mid-August: End of internship
Social media, as opposed to broadcast/mass/old/traditional media, is going to drop that first word in a few years and simply become media. Social media is the way media should always have been. The talkers matter, but so do listeners. Thanks to social media we are now having two way conversations at small and large scales. It has become easier now to participate in family and social/political lives. It has become easier to stay in touch with friends. As for businesses, finally the dog has caught up with the car. Businesses have always wanted to have intimate conversations with customers, all customers, and now that is actually possible. This total feedback loop will only get more sophisticated over time. And customers will see through all aspects of businesses. They will be designing products and services. They will be participating in customer support. They will become small investors. Social media is about bringing democracy into our everyday lives. We are now constantly voting, every hour of the day.
This description totally speaks to me. I kid you not, but I put out this blog post this morning several hours before a friend emailed me the link to this opportunity: http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-web-properties.html AOL is still one of the top web properties in the world, but you don't have the buzz you had 10 years ago. It might not be possible to recapture that buzz, but I think Tim is walking down the right path in trying to turn AOL into a major content platform. Me, or anyone else who might fill this intern position, is not going to be your turn around artist. That is Tim. But you are looking for someone who will offer some brutal out of the box thinking in the ways you do business. You are looking for someone who gets visibly uncomfortable in formal clothes. Big, old corporations are yawn, yawn, they are scary. You are looking for a Maverick, like in Top Gun. That is me. I got the attitude. Not only that, I am deep into social media. My entire social media presence and more would be at your disposal. Whatever you pay me and spend on me, you are going to get back in all the marketing buzz I will create five times over, before the internship is even over.
And Steve Case follows me on Twitter. I have a Direct Message from him. That has to count for something.
What I am is a tech entrepreneur at heart, but I am a year away from getting my green card. Until then I need to go work for someone else. This allows me to postpone going to work for someone else for a few months. And if things work out, hey, I could be with AOL for that year before I get my green card and go launch my company. I would love to have Tim Armstrong as one of my angel investors. http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/06/larry-ellisons-1995-network-computer.html
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