Filed under: Rants and raves, Scandals, Walt Disney (DIS), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Media World, Sunday Funnies, Headline news

It is no surprise that we at BloggingStocks are no less prone to grab a headline with sexual provocation to increase our hit rate. That we did when we posted a story on Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and their unhappiness with a young women’s attire, our most popular story of the week. Having such success, like every other tabloid in the country, we could not resist a story (or two or three) about a young Disney (NYSE: DIS) starlet having some obscure personal photos, including a nude, pandered on the web.

News is news and there is no hiding from the headlines. However, I write this story almost in a self-referential manner with self conscious feelings, as well because I can’t write it without being accused of the same malady, so I feel some confusion about the issue. For this reason I decided not to refer to any of the other stories and not to link to any photos, sorry to disappoint some of you — search elsewhere.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Sex still sells, even on the Money & Finance page

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Filed under: Law, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Intel (INTC), McDonald’s (MCD), small business

No doubt, Facebook is one of the internet’s hottest startups. The company has raised gobs of venture capital, has deals with companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and is often rumored to go public or be bought out.

The company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is just in his early twenties, fresh from Harvard. Over the past few months, several of his recent classmates have made claims that they are the real owners of the Facebook concept.

Such disputes are very common for early stage companies. And it’s also common for these companies to be sloppy in protecting themselves from legal claims.

So what can be done?

Continue reading Entrepreneur’s Journal: Facebook’s lessons on intellectual property

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Filed under: Products and services, Amazon.com (AMZN), Entrepreneurs

In an amazing display of internet capability, users anywhere in the world can help the search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett via Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Mechanical Turk. The Mechanical Turk service acts as a middleman for companies that need to incorporate in their web processing tasks that their computers cannot handle.

For example, if I repeatedly needed to search blocks of 1,000 portraits for the one best resembling Humphrey Bogart, I could write a piece of code that would automatically throw it to Mechanical Turk. MT would then identify the go-to person for such a task, assign the work, and send me the results when finished. For the company and the customer, the process is indistinguishable from using outsourced computing power, and provides work for behind-the-scenes experts.

In this case, Mechanical Turk is asking volunteers to review digital satellite images of the possible crash area, provided in high resolution to their PCs. The organizers hope to have five to ten people review each segment to minimize the possibility of overlooking potential sites.

The concept of a flashmob working together reviewing digital imaging has incredible potential for search and rescue. It also stands to make millions of potential customers aware of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, which could give it a huge shot in the arm.

I only wish the occasion weren’t a search for one of our modern pioneers.

Via Mashable

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Conventions and conferences, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), iPhone, Economic data, Sunday Funnies

This week at an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) event and a follow-up press release Steve Jobs masterfully filled shareholder and consumer psyche with un-quelled anticipation about new iPhone and iPod product developments. Not to disappoint anyone, he did release information about a totally unanticipated huge development, a $200 price cut in the high-end 8 gigabyte iPhone. This reduces the retail price from $599 to $399 after only two months.

The screams from the “beta testers” that had to be the first ones on their block to own an iPhone were so loud that the actual discussion about the products themselves took a back seat. Surprised (maybe) and embarrassed marketing genius Jobs decided to announce a $100 rebate redeemable for merchandise at Apple stores to those angry customers who felt foolish and betrayed. In addition the stock took a hit, although in the long run the one day movement is irrelevant, in my opinion.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Apple (AAPL) iPhone price drops but Fed rate holds firm

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Filed under: Scandals

Paris Hilton has reportedly sued Hallmark for a greeting card that uses a photo of her and her trademarked catch-phrase “That’s hot.”

Hilton is seeking at least $500,000 in damages and a permanent injunction barring Hallmark from further use of her name, likeness, and catchphrase. She accuses the company of invading her privacy and misappropriating her image.

Yes, it isn’t the sex tape that has hurt her privacy. Oh, and what about the innocent people who could have been harmed when Paris drove drunk? What about their rights to privacy/life? No, it’s all a Hallmark greeting card.

Paris Hilton is being an idiot with this lawsuit. She’s a public figure — in fact, that’s all she is. She’s famous for being famous, and has been among the most shameless self-promoters this side of Don King. Given that, she should expect to be satirized, and that’s exactly what Hallmark has done.

When Hilton went on Larry King after her release from the slammer, Paris talked about her “new outlook on life,” and later mentioned her desire to do some good in the world and devote time to philanthropy.

She appears to be back to her old stunts: feeling sorry for herself as a result of her own self-inflicted celebrity. Hey Paris, get on with the charity work you waxed about, and stop being lame.

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Filed under: Blogs, Private equity

As an M&A junkie, I’m always interested in cool blogs on the topic. The problem is: they’re not many. But over the past couple months, I’ve been regularly following the M&A Law Prof Blog.

The blogger is Steven Davidoff, who is an assistant Professor of Law at Wayne State University. Before this, he was an attorney at Shearman & Sterling. Oh, and he is also the founder of Wasabi Sushi.

On his blog, Davidoff goes into detail on the intricacies of M&A transactions, covering things like Material Adverse Change clauses, tender offers, poison pills and so on. It’s great stuff.

Well, he has a must-read M&A Fall Preview. Basically, the private equity crowd is going to be very busy with restructuring deals, renegotiations — and perhaps some litigation. That’s good news for strategic buyers (and, of course, deal attorneys). Also, it’s a good bet that deal making in Europe will continue apace.

All in all, the M&A Law Prof Blog is standout. So, if you want to increase your deal-making IQ, definitely check out the site.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Nokia Corp. (NOK)

Well, it looks like social networking is going to invade mobile devices — in a big way. Take Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). The mobile giant plans to use technology — from its Twango acquisition — to deploy a cool social network platform.

To get more perspective on things, I interviewed Robb Hecht, a social networking expert who operates MEDIA 2.0. According to him:

“With Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone maker, adding the Twango technology platform to its wireless phones now puts social networking into the hands of mobile users on the go.

“It also puts the Nokia brand front and center on the road map of the ever-growing social networking industry. With this addition to its cell phones, Nokia can now be the first wireless brand to truly own ’social mobile networking.’ “

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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