SiliconBeat

About a year ago, I started using a service called SlideShare. The idea is pretty simple. You can upload PowerPoint presentations and it converts them into Flash presentations. These new presentations can then be shared and embedded just about anywhere. It’s all very Web 2.0.

I’ve uploaded a few of my presentations here. Very modest stuff, nothing world changing. And over the months, I’ve embedded dozens of presentations over at The Next Newsroom Project.

Since I’ve been using SlideShare for awhile, I was happy to get a chance to chat on Monday with SlideShare co-founders Rashmi Sinha and Jonathan Boutelle. The company is announcing two new services today that are noteworthy, if for nothing else, because they will move SlideShare into earning revenues in ways besides advertising. And since I think ad-supported business models are mostly doomed to fail, I applaud them for moving into new revenue models.

But as we chatted, and as I thought about presentations, I was struck by just how important such presentations have become in our culture. Indeed, corporate presentations have improbably become a form of entertainment. It says a lot about how our relationship to business and celebrity has been transformed in the digital era. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, I wrote a column calling the Federal Trade Commission’s attempts to regulate blogging a mistake:

“I have no doubt the folks at the Federal Trade Commission have all the best intentions when it comes setting out disclosure guidelines for bloggers in order to protect consumers. But it’s an effort that’s doomed from the start.”

I can’t link to the column because it’s behind our paywall. But I figured no good would come of it.

Well, I didn’t expect the FTC to listen to me, and they didn’t let me down. On Monday, the FTC released new rules to regulate product endorsements in advertisements and blogs.

I could offer up an extended rant on this, but I’ll just point you to Jeff Jarvis’ stinging rebuke instead. Jarvis writes: Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading a post on Daily Kos today,the progressive political blogging site, through my Bloglines feed reader, when the ad below popped up:

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I’m reporting a piece on job-hunting in the great and growing wildness of the twittersphere. I’m finding hype, hope, good and bad, lots of noise. It’s a wonder you tweeting job-hunter don’t have your heads explode after a few hours in that place. The piece should run later this week sometime. Let me know what you think.

Chip industry watchers have been eagerly awaiting news about the progress of Intel’s graphics-oriented chip, dubbed Larrabee, which has been under development for what seems like ages.

Intel executives hope Larrabee will help them compete with the highly popular graphic chips offered by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

But when Intel gave a little demonstration of its chip last week during the Santa Clara company’s annual San Francisco event for people working on Intel-related products, the reaction among some analysts was less than awestruck.

“The 3D graphics were underwhelming” compared with those offered by Nvidia’s and AMD’s chips, wrote Global Crown Research in a note to its clients.

In its own note, Raymond James called Intel’s unveiling of Larrabee “surprisingly pedestrian” and noted that “the sad demo tells us the project is in trouble.”

Ouch!

Back on Sept. 17, Palm released its long-awaited earnings. They were eagerly anticipated because these would be the first full quarter that included the performance of the Palm Pre. Ever since, analysts and investors have been trying to figure out whether the numbers were good news, bad news, or something else entirely.

This head scratching was reflected in the news coverage of the earnings. The Mercury News had a first-day headline that said “Pre Sales Give Palm A Boost.” But within a couple of days, the consensus seemed to turn against Palm, with analysts and others questioning just how good the numbers were, and worrying about the company’s outlook. Four days later, the Motley Fool wrote: “Palm Discovers Its Limits.”

The confusion was largely due to a change in accounting methods. More on that in a second. But once we take a closer look at the numbers, it seems clear to me that Palm seems to be setting itself up to be sold. And that would likely need to happen sometime in the next six to 12 months.

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Passing this along to you job-seekers from the Santa Clara County Association of Recruiting Officers: Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite types of securities filings usually comes a few days after an acquisition is announced and includes the “background of the offer.” This section provides an unusually detailed narrative of how and why a deal came together.

On Thursday, Adobe filed its “Schedule TO” with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its $1.8 billion acquisition of Utah-based Omniture that was announced earlier this month. And amid all the fun, trivial details there are two interesting revelations:

First, Adobe pursued a reluctant Omniture hard, for several months, upping its offer twice, from $20 per share to $21.50 per share to beat out other bidders for the Utah-based company.

And second: Adobe made it clear for a couple months to Omniture that Adobe urgently needed to get the deal done by Sept. 15: Read the rest of this entry »