Tech Finance

Richard Waters Why a lower share price is good for Facebook

May 21, 2012 10:01 pm by Richard Waters

After the breathless build-up, Facebook’s fizzling stock price is drawing plenty of negative reaction this week. But compared to one alternative scenario – a big first-day “pop”, which many investors seemed to have been betting on – this is far preferable in the long run for both the company and its shareholders. Read more

Tags: ,
Posted in Internet, Tech, Tech Finance |

Facebook IPO: the public network’s opening day

May 18, 2012 11:30 am by FT

Facebook has become the public network – no longer a private company, the social network now has shareholders and a ticker symbol (FB) to go with the 900m users of its service.

Its initial public offering was priced at $38 on - the top end of its range, giving the Silicon Valley company a valuation of $104bn. But after opening at $42.05, Facebook’s underwriters had to fight to keep it above its float price, the shares closing at just $38.23, up 0.6 per cent.

For a Facebook “Timeline” of its opening day – from before the opening-bell ceremony at its Menlo Park headquarters through a frantic trading day – read Tim Bradshaw and Chris Nuttall’s live blog after the jump.  Read more

Tags: ,
Posted in Social, Tech Finance |

Maija Palmer European technology funding April

May 8, 2012 7:20 pm by Maija Palmer

Funding Circle, a UK-based online marketplace where individuals lend directly to small businesses raised $16m of Series B financing from joint investors Index Ventures and US-based Union Square Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $21m.  Launched in August 2010, the company now facilitates around £1m in loans each week. The company is planning to use the funds to double its staff over the next year.

Dragonplay, a Tel Aviv-based games developer raised $14m in a Series A funding from Accel Partners.  Dragonplay specializes in makes card, casino and board games for smartphones and social networks and is best known for Live Holdem Poker Pro, which has more than 2m monthly active players.  The company will use the investment to expand its portfolio of games. Read more

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Cleantech, Europe, Games, Internet, Tech, Tech Finance |

Chris Nuttall Needle sews a social-commerce road trip

April 28, 2012 6:30 am by Chris Nuttall

Needle has been making its point about mobile and social, taking its office-on-wheels around the San Francisco Bay area this week to meet customers, hire staff and hold parties.

Its Airstream motorhome, which I visited as it was parked on Union Square (pictured), has served as a headquarters, recruitment office and promotional vehicle for the Salt Lake City start-up. Read more

Tags:
Posted in Mobile, Social, Tech Finance |

Richard Waters Facebook gives the bulls pause for thought

April 24, 2012 12:47 am by Richard Waters

Amidst the rising anticipation ahead of its IPO,  Facebook’s latest quarterly numbers are like a splash of cold water in the face. The growth in user numbers continues unabated, but revenues and profit margins are not what some investors were expecting. Here are a few things to note: Read more

Tags:
Posted in Internet, Tech Finance |

Path raises $30m

April 17, 2012 12:39 am by April Dembosky

Path closed a $30m round of Series B funding on Monday, giving the mobile social network a $250m valuation.

The current round was led by Redpoint Ventures, with several other investors participating, including Sir Richard Branson, head of the Virgin empire, who said he is betting as much on Path’s chief executive, Dave Morin, as his product. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Social, Software, Tech Finance |

Richard Waters With its Instagram purchase, Facebook treads a familiar path

April 9, 2012 11:42 pm by Richard Waters

Can you name this start-up?

Some 18 months after launching, it reaches 20m users and may be on the way to owning its category. An established internet giant, which has been trying to break into the same market, jumps in with a takeover offer worth more than $1bn – even though it’s not clear how the start-up will make money. With a market value that has soared to over $100bn, though, the acquirer feels it can afford the risk.

No, this is not Facebook buying Instagram – but the parallels are striking. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet, Mobile, Tech Finance |
From Opinion March 28, 2012

There are many laws that help us to make sense of the world: the laws of physics; the law of averages, write George Osbourne, the UK finance minister, and Eric Schmidt, Google chairman. However, one of the more significant is Moore’s law, which forecasts that the processing power of the latest computer chips doubles every two years. This prediction has proved to be unerringly accurate over the past 50 years, and means that the pace of technological innovation is accelerating, not slowing nor flatlining.

However, it is not just the pace of technology progress that is accelerating. The role that technology plays in driving job creation and economic growth becomes more important each day.

 Read more

Tags:
Posted in Tech Finance |

Story of the Week: Apple’s shares bear fruit

March 25, 2012 6:49 am by Maryam Nabi

Spring cleaning was in the air for Apple this week as the company announced its plan to pay a dividend and institute a share buyback programme. The announcement had many tech commentators putting themselves in the shoes of Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, to ask: what else could Apple have done with its cash? Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Computers, Mobile, Tech Finance |

Chris Nuttall Apple’s dividend and buyback – how it happened

March 19, 2012 12:56 pm by Chris Nuttall

Apple has announced plans to pay a dividend and institute a share buyback  programme as it deals with a cash mountain that has grown to more than $100bn.

The maker of the iPhone and iPad said it would begin with a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share, sometime in its fiscal fourth quarter, which begins on July 1.  A $10bn share buyback would begin in its next fiscal year, starting September 30 and be executed over three years.

Apple held a conference call to discuss the moves (it also revealed a record weekend of sales for the new iPad). Our live blog on that, and the reaction to it, is after the jump. Read more

Tags:
Posted in Computers, Consumer Electronics, Digital media, Tech Finance |
BackOlder entries
Newer entries