Well I fire up my RSS reader and of course the big news everybody is talking about this morning is Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo. I always thought this would be a good thing considering there’s just no way Microsoft by itself can compete with Google in search. Microsoft’s share is just too small and while Yahoo is ailing, it has lots of valuable assets and web properties (aside from the obvious main Yahoo portal), hence the enormity of the offer. If it happens, it would be one of the largest, if not the largest tech takeover. Microsoft can probably fund a huge chunk of this acquisition using cash they have on hand.
Category: Business
Discussion of general business subjects and my own entrepreneurial pursuits.
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AMD Needs to Get Its Act Together
Intel’s been on a tear ever since it’s Core 2 architecture was launched. The company now continues to release new chips with better performance and lower power usage. On the other hand, not only has AMD fallen behind on performance and production technology, it has done nothing to bridge that gap. AMD has continually delayed release of its new chips and its recently released line contains glitches that affect both stability and performance. This has affected its stock and it was reported not too long ago that AMD’s market value dropped below what it paid to acquire ATI!
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Facebook Valued At $10 Billion?!
So apparently Microsoft is in talks with Facebook to possibly buy a 5% stake in Facebook that would value the company at $10 billion. Read that again – yes, $10 billion. Google has expressed interest as well. Give me a break. Bubble bobble..
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SunRocket is Crashing
The VoIP company I use, SunRocket, apparently is going out of business. They have a lot of outstanding debt that they can’t pay and all last ditch efforts to either continue operations or sell the company have fallen through. In fact, a leaked internal memo states that SunRocket may shut down at close-of-business TODAY!
More important info after the jump:
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Why is Poor Customer Service So Common?
I’m often amazed at how so many businesses and their customer-facing employees provide such poor customer service. As a web developer/consultant, almost everything I do is about customer service. Deadlines are to be met, work provided should meet/exceed expectations and stated requirements, and basically client needs should be taken care of. I really don’t know why/how businesses out there perpetually provide poor customer service and don’t do anything about it – I just know it’s really frustrating. Here are just some recent examples:
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What Web 2.0 Means For Developers and Entrepreneurs
With all this Web 2.0 hoopla, developers like me are seeing increasing demand for new web design and development projects. Of course this is a good thing, any resurgence in the Internet sector means more sites need to be designed or redesigned. More projects, more revenue. But here’s the thing – many people aren’t even sure what Web 2.0 means. You ask different people and they’ll give you different answers or no answer at all. They hear this buzz word being floated around and they think it’s the next best thing, without really understanding what it means. Some critics say it’s a new mini-bubble. This becomes a big problem when a client or potential client tells me they want a “Web 2.0 design” or a “Web 2.0 site” instead of giving more detailed specs.
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Cancellations the Way It’s Supposed to Be Done
About a month ago, I signed for a trial membership over at Doba, a wholesale dropshipper directory. Basically it’s a list of different manufacturers and distributors that will dropship orders for you. For those unfamiliar with dropshipping, you take the order, forward it to the dropshipper, and they’ll ship the item to your customer. You charge the customer a retail price and the dropshipper charges you the wholesale price plus shipping fees. They will usually remain transparent in this process so the customer thinks you’ve sent them the product. So anyway, I called to cancel my trial membership yesterday and I only had to speak with the customer service rep for literally 2 minutes.
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VoIP Engines Are Revving
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is about to take off. This is one of the first times I had a business prediction that was right on the mark. Three years ago, few people knew what VoIP was. Those Kazaa guys were working on something called Skype and no one really took it seriously. At the time, I thought to myself – man, VoIP is going to be big – it’s going to be disruptive and it’s going to seriously threaten traditional land line telecommunications. For my business planning class a year and a half ago, my idea was to create VoIP phone equipment and strategically partner with services like Skype. The idea was not received well because VoIP was just considered too new. Instead we did our project on mass customization of women’s handbags which turned out well (won an award and some money). Mass customization of retail products is an emerging trend too but I digress.