While the recession had many predicting the IPO market would be largely non-existent in 2009, several new tech stocks listed on public markets during April and now in May. The companies squeaking out of the IPO queue, however, are mature, profitable and cash-rich. Their proceeds are going to insiders, not corporate coffers.

It’s one of those cruel paradoxes common to the market these days: The companies raising capital through IPOs are the ones that don’t really need it. Continue »

In a footnote to Amazon’s 2008 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos related this moment of Zen:

At a fulfillment center recently, one of our Kaizen experts asked me, “I’m in favor of a clean fulfillment center, but why are you cleaning? Why don’t you eliminate the source of dirt?” I felt like the Karate Kid.

It may sounds like a koan for the anally retentive, but it says a lot about Amazon’s approach to innovation. While many tech companies are focused on new products, services and business models, Amazon is focused more on new ways of wringing efficiency from its operations. And in a year when consumer and business spending is slowing, focusing on new ways of improving how you do things may yield more returns than coming up with new things to sell. Continue »

It was unkind irony that just as MySpace was reshuffling its leadership with the hope of reviving its fortunes, Yahoo quietly announced the end of GeoCities. It was as if the hand of fate overseeing Internet startups was offering MySpace an uncomfortable peek into its own future.

Like GeoCities, MySpace won quick success by making it easy for people to build a customized online presence. Like GeoCities, MySpace sold out to a bigger media company that ended up a caretaker for its long years of decay. And now MySpace is slowly becoming, like GeoCities, an abandoned amusement park on the web.

Is fixing MySpace, as Om said recently, a “mission impossible“? Or can Owen Van Natta keep it from becoming GeoCities 2.0? Continue »

Come Wednesday, it will be Apple’s turn to discuss its results for the first three months of 2009. But among the crowd of Apple watchers, the discussion has been simmering for months, with the tone shifting from pessimism about recession-whacked sales to cautious optimism — especially as the stock has rebounded 58 percent and skeptical analysts have revised previously bearish outlooks.

While Apple is still feeling the weight of the bad economy, it’s also still holding the loyalty of cost-conscious consumers who continue to see value in its products. As encouraging as this last quarter may prove to be for investors, however, the bigger story for Apple is the three months that lay ahead. Not only will they be far more interesting, they could mark a significant turning point for the company and the markets it’s helping to reshape. Continue »

CEOs are typically shy about talking about other companies during analyst calls; Google’s Eric Schmidt is even more bashful on this front than most. So it was interesting that when Schmidt was asked about Twitter this afternoon, amid reports that Twitter is shopping around for a partner that can help wring money from its popular service, he didn’t hold back.

“Twitter proves innovation is alive and well in Silicon Valley,” Schmidt said. “The question is how to make money. You can imagine that as these companies become successful, as Twitter is already successful, they could become a channel for product information and marketing, whether it’s a text ad or video ad off it. That’s a logical strategy to pursue and we’d be happy to pursue it with them.“

Everyone, it seems, it excited about the Palm Pre. Those who have been granted time to fondle the Pre praise its features, the press is welcoming it with a fanfare worthy of the iPhone, and investors have tripled Palm’s price to $9.42 as of Friday’s close, its highest level in 18 months. But as hungry as investors may be for a feel-good story, they risk getting ahead of themselves. Even if the Pre is a smash hit, the journey from crisis to turnaround to recovery is a long one, and one that produces a lot of baggage. And when it comes to financial baggage, Palm already has more than its share. Continue »