Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Despite the surge in Facebook and MySpace, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been mostly on the sidelines with social networking.
But that's changing. The auction powerhouse is now jumping on the bandwagon with a social network called "Neighborhoods." Basically, it allows you to form groups where you can share photos, reviews, comments and so on.
To get some perspective on things, I had a chance to talk to Robb Hecht, who is a social networking expert and the operator of MEDIA 2.0. According to him, "The Starbuck's (NASDAQ: SBUX) of online shopping? That could just be what online consumers call eBay's new social commerce experience.
"By adding Web 2.0 engagement features like consumer tips, responses, photos and product reviews, eBay opens up its brand. It also shows how Web 2.0 is so much more than mere 'tools' added to websites; rather, Web 2.0 changes entire business models and organizational philosophies. eBay's new Neighborhoods 'nichify' the online shopping experience -- bringing like minds together, building a sense of camaraderie and community around the previous solitary online shopping activity. It is clear eBay is trying to create an addicting open commerce engagement platform it hopes buyers and sellers will park in and never want to leave."
In Internet time, eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) $4.3 billion deal for Skype seems like a distant memory (it was about two years ago). Back then, the fast-growing peer-to-peer communications company was the "it" company. It could do no wrong – and would be a killer deal for eBay. Hey, doesn't eBay know how to cultivate loyal communities?
Maybe so. But, the fact remains that the deal turned out to be a stinker. eBay recently took a write off of $1.4 billion.
Interestingly enough, the cofounder of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom, admitted that the price tag was too high. Yet, at the same time, he thinks Skype will eventually pay off in a big way (he termed it "substantial income").
In light of his prior statement – and that founders tend to hype things – I'm not sure I would take this to the bank, though.
But, does it really matter? After all, Zennstrom is using is payday to fund a variety of startups, such as Joost.
But if he knocks on your door to sell his one of his ventures, I would try to negotiate a little better than eBay.
PetSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) this morning trimmed its sales and profit forecast for the rest of the year due to weak consumer spending and warmer-than-usual weather. PetSmart now expects 17 cents to 20 cents per share for the third quarter, from a previous forecast of 21 cents to 23 cents earnings per share.
ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) "voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes its Banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, including Wisconsin."
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) yesterday announced it has agreed to acquire LogicalApps, a provider of automated Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) controls management solutions.
While many schools ban and confiscate Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPods, some found a good use for them, The New York Times Reports -- to help bilingual kids with some difficulty understanding English. As for the iPhone, Piper Jaffray conducted a survey and found that 3% of teens already own an iPhone.
Hoping to capitalize on the social networking craze, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has launched its own version of a social networking service today, Neighborhoods, and is promising other customer-friendly features by year's end.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has bought Jaiku, an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.
There was much news on Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) yesterday and the shares surged after a Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa estimated the transaction's likelihood of closing at greater than 60%. The merger, she said, could produce up to $7 billion in cost savings. She has upped XM's price target to $19.50 from $15. The market, however, still gives the deal only a 24% chance of passing regulatory muster. SIRI shares closed up 3.77% and XMSR shares up 6.87%.
Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) reported 17% growth in third-quarter profit, despite a mere 1% growth in U.S. profits. Profits in its China division grew 28% and international division profits were up 21%. Overall, net income rose to $270 million, or 50 cents per share beating expected earnings of per share of 45 cents. Yum shares climbed $1.94, or 5.7%, to close at $36.29 yesterday ahead of the results and continued to gain in after-hours trading.
After crossing the $600 threshold in yesterday's session, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continue to climb in premarket trading. The search giant will likely continue doing what it does best and that is to monetize its assets. Google is scheduled to announce tomorrow that it will begin showing YouTube videos on thousands of other Web sites, hoping to profit from ads attached to the clips. The ads accompanying the YouTube clips will appear as a graphic straddling the video or as a link along the bottom.
Deutsche Bank downgradedCoca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) to Hold from Buy, citing valuation after shares have appreciated 22% since March. PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) received a similar downgrade from Buy to Hold at the broker. KO shares are down half a percent in premarket trading.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reported its sales in China for the first three quarters of the year and the growth has been considerable at 30%. Sales of Ford brand vehicles, grew 27%, sales of Changan Ford Mazda, the three-way tie-up among Ford, Japan's Mazda Motor Corp and Changan Automobile Co Ltd, were up 59% and sales of the hot-selling mid-sized Focus sedan, rose 69%. Premium brands sales were up 72%. Ford has also announced it and Mazda Motor Corp will build a second, $500 million plant in Thailand to produce 100,000 cars a year to meet the region's growing demand for small cars.
Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) will buy 10% of a share sale by Alibaba.com Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce firm, as it steps up a battle with Google and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) in the world's second-biggest Internet market. Yahoo already has a 40% stake in the Chinese firm's parent, Alibaba Group.
MarketWatch reports on continued speculation that Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is eyeing the purchase of a stake in Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) or even a full takeover. Sanofi-Aventis shares rose 1.8% in premarket action.
Well, that didn't take long. Hackers have cracked the new update Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has implemented in the iPhone and iPod Touch. Third party applications access and other hacks have been reported. And the shares continue to climb, after another record close when AAPL shares gained 4% yesterday, they continue the gains this morning, up 1.2% in premarket action.
As they resigned from their executive positions in Skype, co-founders agreed that eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) had indeed overpaid for the internet telecom group.
Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are partnering up this holiday season to try and keep all those nasty but legit-looking email messages out of your Yahoo! Mail inbox. Yahoo! is by far the world's most popular web-based email service and I can only imagine the effort it takes to sniff out fraudulent and phishing email messages from tens of millions of inboxes every day.
In many cases, Yahoo! Mail users will receive official-looking messages that appears to come from eBay or its online payment division, PayPal. Those who are fooled into divulging personal information like passwords and account sign-in information usually have a large headache cleaning up the identity theft mess later. But, what if those unofficial email messages never arrived in your inbox to begin with?
Last last week, the three companies (PayPal is a wholly-owned eBay subsidiary) announced that the DomainKeys e-mail authentication system would be used to block malicious email messages from the inboxes of Yahoo! Mail users. Yahoo! stated that the upgrade would occur over its global email network for the next few weeks, allowing it to verify the domain from which email messages arrive. In other words, those Russia-based fraud emails that look like real eBay communications may soon be blocked for good.
This is a great initiative between the largest email provider and one of the largest commerce sites on the entire internet, and it's perfectly timed for the holiday e-commerce season that's already underway. Now, Yahoo! needs to market this new partnership in every way possible to let customers know what it is and how it can help them. Something like this does no deserve to be just working behind the scenes.
Sprint Nextel Corporation's (NYSE: S) investors are unhappy, and led by the activist investor Ralph Whitworth, are voicing their displeasure with chairman and CEO Gary Forsee and the company's board, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The Associated Press reported that members of the United Automobile Workers union at two General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) locals have approved the union's tentative contract agreement with GM, local union officials said Wednesday.
Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) has been ordered by a Delaware court to provide confidential information about its stock-granting practices to a Louisiana-based police pension fund that has invested in Countrywide, reported the Los Angeles Times.
CNet.com reported that Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) is upgrading its e-mail system starting today with technology designed to block phishing, spam, and other fraudulent e-mails that look like they come from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and PayPal, but actually don't.
It seems that Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Jobs perfectionism isn't so perfect lately. In the past 24 hours, there have been reports that a number of the new iMacs have been freezing. These are screen freezes, with the exception of the mouse pointer, when underneath the computer keeps running. Meanwhile, it seems that perhaps Apple wasn't intentionally bricking hacked iPhones, perhaps the software update was just a bad one as even non-hacked phones have been known to brick after the update.
It seems that Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) efforts in China have paid off. Today the search giant said it is closing the gap with rival Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) in the second largest internet market in the world. Google has increased its market share after it announced its partnership with Sina Corp (NASDAQ: SINA).
eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) said it has acquired Afterbuy.com, which enables professional trading on eBay's German Website and other online marketplaces. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) today said fourth-quarter net income rose 17% to $37.8 million, or 26 cents a share. Analysts expected earnings of 25 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO said Steve Ballmer said at a press conference in Zurich that he did not rule out further acquisitions of a similar size to web advertising firm aQuantive ($6 billion). Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is expected to post earnings after the close today. Analysts expect a per-share profit of 50 cents for the second quarter. Shares are up some 1.8% in premarket trading ahead of earnings.
Countrywide Financial Corp (NYSE: CFC) was ordered to give confidential information about its stock-grant practices to a pension fund, according to the Los Angeles Times web site.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless is launching the LG Voyager, a cell phone that looks Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone with a large touch screen, a camera and extensive multimedia, Web browsing and e-mail capabilities, but also has a QWERTY keyboard and a second, non-touch sensitive screen. The Voyager will of course be on Verizon Wireless' latest data network, providing much higher speeds than AT&T (NYSE: T) network that the iPhone runs on. The phone is promised to come out in time for the holidays.
Banc of America Securities upgraded General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) from Sell to Neutral, raising the target price to $37 from $25, following the UAW agreement. The analyst said the auto maker has shifted more of its medical costs to workers than he expected.
Following the vast toy recalls this year, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has warned sellers peddling recalled items that they could be kicked off the Web site and may have to forfeit their fees.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares are up some 0.8% in premarket trading after many wrote favorably about the stock yesterday, especially Silicon Alley Insider Henry Blodget, who, never failing to give bombastic valuations, said Google will go to $2,000 a share. Mind you, Hilary Kramer likes the stock as well. A lot.
The rumors yesterday were confirmed when Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) unveiled three new Zune models to better compete with Apple's iPod. The 80, 8 and 4 GB models are slimmer and the last two are flash memory-based. The new models include an FM radio tuner and the ability to wirelessly share songs with other Zune owners. The new Zunes are set to go on sale in mid-November for $249, $199 and $149 respectively.
Pfizer's troubles in Nigeria aren't over. A Nigerian judged that Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) retired chief executive and nine other officials should be in court to hear allegations that a drug experiment by the pharmaceutical giant led to deaths and disabilities among children.
While not exactly news regarding Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), the Wall Street Journal writes that the "Wal-Mart Era Wanes Amid Big Shifts in Retail." As Douglas McIntyre pointed out, the WSJ may be a little late on this one. While Wal-Mart has been struggling the past few years along with economic prosperity, it may be that Wal-Mart may recover if the economy slows.
Yesterday, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced that the co-founder and chief executive of its Skype division, Niklas Zennstrom , was stepping down, and that eBay would take $1.43 billion in charges for the internet phone division. Of that, $900 million will be a write-down in the value of Skype, what's called an impairment charge. The rest, $530 million, is payment for certain shareholders to settle future obligations.
Well, well, well. It seems that eBay had finally caught on. Hadn't investors been saying the $2.6 billion Skype acquisition in October 2005 was overvalued from all along?
While Skype was profitable the last two quarters, its contribution to eBay's top line was abysmal considering it was one of three legs eBay was counting on in its Power of Three strategy. The other two being the online auction business, or market place, and PayPal, the online payment service. For 2006, Skype contributed $194 million to eBay's near $6 billion revenue, that's about 3.2%. To give you an idea, market place contributed $4.3 billion and PayPal $1.4 billion. In the first six months of 2007, Skype did better and contributed $168 million or 4.7% to eBay's total revenue of $3.6 billion. Better, and certainly growing nicely (over 100% year-over-year growth), but still a far cry from what it should be considering the price paid.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) said it would buy out minority shareholders in scandal-hit Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial Corp for $4.6 billion, as part of its push into the world's second-largest economy. Citigroup spent about $8 billion to buy a 68% stake in Japan's third-largest securities firm earlier this year and would offer its own shares to buy the remaining 32% it does not own.
According to BetaNews, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will hold a event today in Redmond to launch the second generation of Zune music players. Bill Gates will be on hand for the event with the main part of the announcement to be the players, which will include the first flash memory based Zunes. Engadget adds that the rumors concerning the Zune launch may be for today or October 16, and it looks like retailers are starting to receive display units. It looks like, Engadget says, there will be two flash models and a slimmed-down hard drive edition.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has signed partnership deals with seven companies including CNN (NYSE: TWX) and Sony Pictures (NYSE: SNE) to bring video content to its top-of-the-range multimedia phones.
Many investors would say that it's about time eBay had admitted it had paid too much for Skype. It happens, but the key is to realize it so the company could move forward. Well, yesterday eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced that the co-founder and chief executive of its Skype division was stepping down, and that the parent company would take $1.43 billion in charges for the Internet phone service division. Of that, $900 million will be a write-down in the value of Skype. The rest, $530 million , is payment for certain shareholders to settle future obligations.
If anyone still wasn't sure McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) was going after Starbucks's (NYSE: SBUX) market, yesterday the company said that it plans to make specialty coffee drinks available in all of its U.S. restaurants by the end of 2008. Yes, that means lattes too.
Some analyst calls this morning:
Deutsche Bank downgradedCBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) to Hold from Buy, saying disappointing rating trends and poor local advertising growth are likely to offset much of the political advertising previously expected.
Goldman Sachs analysts resumed coverage of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) with a Buy rating, citing "enormous unrealized equity gains."
J.P. Morgan upgraded UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Neutral from Underweight, saying the bank is giving up on building a fixed-income business at the peak of the cycle and will concentrate on its strength of traditional investment banking flow business. UBS shares are up over 3.5% in premarket trading.
Merrill Lynch downgraded Walgreen, Co. (NYSE: WAG) to Neutral from Buy after the company reported results below expectations. Merrill said that management's explanations didn't provide a high degree of clarity specifically as to the expense line. WAG shares, which already closed down almost 15% yesterday, are down half a percent in premarket action.
Goldman Sachs CO said on 9/26: "Raising estimates due to continued revenue/listing improvements."
EBAY October at the money straddle is priced at $3.05. EBAY October option implied volatility of 37 is above its 26-week average of 33 according to Track Data, indicating slightly larger risk.
Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
The New York Times [registration required] reports that Pudding Media is offering a Web phone service that will listen to your phone calls and display advertisements on your computer screen on the topic of your conversation. In exchange, your calls will be "free."
A conversation about movies, for example, will display movie reviews and ads for new films that the caller will see during the conversation. Pudding Media is working on a way to e-mail the ads and other content to the person on the other end of the call, or to show it on that person's cellphone screen.
The government currently can spy on your phone calls, your Internet activity, and your e-mail. So would you really mind Pudding Media spying on you so it can send you spam while you talk on the phone? While I can see the appeal of this strategy to advertisers, I am confident that people looking for free calls without the spying and spam will be able to do just fine using eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) Skype.
Why not visit Pudding Media's site and give their spymasters a piece of your mind?
It's a smart move and I also think it shows the importance of a key concept: the lifetime value (LTV) of customers.
Generally, LTV involves the following: the profit per unit sold times the average units sold minus the costs of customer acquisition. This should be calculated over a period of time – say 24 to 36 months.
"We actually look at bookings just as much as revenue when we look at the LTV equation," said Jason Blessing, who is a general manager at Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO). "We feel this gives us a clearer picture of what we are spending to get new year bookings. We feel that we are operating at peak performance if we are getting $2+ in new bookings for every $1 we spend on sales and marketing."
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) shares are rising today as investors take a step back and digest the Fed cut earlier this week. The cut has created an inflationary situation that lowers the value of the US dollar, but creates a ripe opportunity for international business growth for companies like eBay with international exposure. If you think that the company won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on EBAY.
After a mostly flat year, EBAY has started pushing higher recently, reaching a new one-year high today. EBAY opened this morning at $38.81. So far today the stock has hit a low of $38.64 and a high of $39.00. As of 12:20, EBAY is trading at $38.89, up $0.75 (1.97%). The chart for the stock looks bullish but deteriorating slightly, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a January bull-put credit spread below the $30 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 5.3% return in just 4 months as long as EBAY is above $30 at January expiration. eBay would have to fall by more than 22% before we would start to lose money.
EBAY hasn't been below $30 since January and has shown support around $33 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out 10/17) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the stock's 200 day moving average, which is at $33 and rising.
Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: At publication time, Brent neither controls a bullish hedged position in EBAY.
In what I see increasing as a practice, music artist Prince has started a catfight with Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube service and eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) over copyright violations dealing with unauthorized video content on YouTube and Prince-labeled clothing and shoes on eBay.
The constant battle copyright holders continue to have with the opening of content and commerce on the global web won't be over soon -- far from it. In fact, the web can be both the biggest threat and the most lucrative distribution tool for music and video artists. Defining the line between those, however, is so blurry no corrective lenses will ever be able to see it clearly.
Prince's issue here is the constant re-posting of his videos and other content on YouTube, even after his internet policing specialist successfully worked with YouTube officials taking down content that infringed on his copyright. In true YouTube fashion, more content is immediately uploaded and the circle starts all over again.
Then come the mousepads and shoes showing up on eBay with Prince's likeness. Same deal as with YouTube -- he just wants those items to be taken down for good. In an age where users are the ones responsible for uploading and listing infringing material -- not the hosting companies like eBay and YouTube -- how far does the responsibility go for both companies? That question still has no answer, and the web will continue upending the entertainment industry little by little.
Despite the surge in Facebook and MySpace, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been mostly on the sidelines with social networking.
In Internet time, 
More profit warnings: 
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Yahoo!
In what I see increasing as a practice, music artist Prince has started a catfight with 
Interview with the head of Xerox's (XRX) Webster research lab
General Electric (GE) Q3 quarterly results preview
Foreclosures double again, another wave is coming
