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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Kodak Is a Walking Corpse of a Company and That Makes Us Sad [Kodak]

Click here to read Kodak Is a Walking Corpse of a Company and That Makes Us Sad

Oh, Kodak, once the acme of all things camera, now a stark lesson in Darwinism in technology. You adapt and evolve, or you die. It was revealed today that Kodak is shedding more than $70 million a month. Let's hold hands. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QSltIi_S-QI/kodak-is-losing-70-million-a-month

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Monday, December 5, 2011

Zynga hopes to raise about $1 billion in IPO

NEW YORK (AP) ? Hoping to harvest some fresh cash, the online game company behind "FarmVille" said Friday that it plans to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering of up to 100 million shares.

Zynga Inc. is the latest in a spate of IPOs by Internet companies this year, ranging from professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. to the online deals site Groupon Inc. They're all precursors to Facebook's public debut expected sometime after April next year. Facebook could fetch as much as $10 billion in its offering.

Zynga, whose games are played mainly on Facebook, plans to sell its shares at $8.50 to $10 each. If the shares are priced at $10, Zynga will be valued at $7 billion based on the number of its total shares. That's a smaller valuation that the company's shares have traded recently on SharesPost, a secondary stock exchange used to trade the stock of privately held companies. There, a recent trade valued Zynga at $11.7 billion.

The company expects to sell 14.3 percent of its available stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's a relatively high "float," which could give investors confidence that the company isn't trying to artificially inflate its value. Groupon raised some concerns when it sold just 5.5 percent of its outstanding stock. Though not unprecedented, the amount was below that of many prominent tech companies, such as Google (7.2 percent), Amazon (12.6 percent) and LinkedIn (8.2 percent).

The offering gives investors the option to buy an additional 15 million shares to cover over-allotments, bringing the total number of shares for sale to 115 million.

Newly-public tech companies aren't always a hit after their initial offering. Shares of Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc., are trading below their IPO price and Groupon is slightly above and has fluctuated wildly. Unlike those two, however, Zynga is profitable. The company makes most of its revenue by charging small amounts of money for virtual items in its games. Players pay for new crops in "FarmVille," for example, or new buildings in "CityVille," its most popular game.

The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes such as game development, marketing and other expenses. It also plans to use part of it for its philanthropic venture, Zynga.org.

Zynga has about 2,300 employees. It was founded in 2007 by CEO Mark Pincus. Following the IPO, Pincus will continue to be the sole holder of Zynga's Class C stock, each share of which carries 70 votes. After the offering, Pincus, 45, will control about 36.2 percent of the total voting power at Zynga through Class B and Class C shares he owns.

Companies often split their stock into different classes to keep control of the decisions about the company in the hands of founders and early employees. But having a class of shares carry 70 votes is unusual ? about 10 is more common.

Associated Press Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-12-02-US-Zynga-IPO/id-5fa13483a44d4b0ab13cd8b32c809d02

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Italian Players Union president Damiano Tommasi tells athletes to stay in the closet

Dec 3rd, 2011 by Cyd Zeigler jr..

Yet another example how European soccer is one of the most homophobic corners of the sports world. Italian Players Union president Damiano Tommasi demonstrated an incredibly shallow understanding and compassion for living as a gay person when he said in an interview that gay athletes should stay in the closet, and that there is no need for anyone to ever come out to be happy. Some of the little gems from his interview, as reported on RawStory:

It?s to be discouraged. The fact of being identified or singled out as ?the one who is?, regardless of your profession, whether journalist, footballer or politician, I don?t think it would be an advisable path to take.

Homosexuality is still a taboo in football in the sense that there is a different kind of cohabitation to other professions.

But there is the risk that something intimate would then become uncontrolled public discussion. ?

I don?t think that people don?t come out in football due to fear but rather that they don?t do so for personal reasons. I don?t think there?s any need to express your sexual preferences in order to work or live in a civil manner with absolute tranquility.

While it may seem that Tommasi is simply expressing how he sees the state of soccer, let me give you an alternative way he could have expressed himself:

There is homophobia in football, but I for one will stand with anyone against it. Athletes should be able to come out freely and be themselves. And if a player wants to come out in soccer, I will stand by him and support him.

Big difference, right? Both express that there is homophobia in soccer; But one virtually defends it while the other stands against it. Unfortunately, Tommasi decided to stand by the homophobia and put the onus of dealing with it on closeted athletes.

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Posted in: Homophobia, Soccer.
Tagged: Damiano Tommasi ? Italy

Source: http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2011/12/03/italian-players-union-president-damiano-tommasi-tells-athletes-to-stay-in-the-closet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=italian-players-union-president-damiano-tommasi-tells-athletes-to-stay-in-th

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Google's Getting Hit with a 400-Page Smackdown from the European Commission [Google]

Click here to read Google's Getting Hit with a 400-Page Smackdown from the European Commission

The European Commission is the latest governing body to jump on the Google antitrust dogpile. According to the FT, it's about to serve Google with a 400-page statement of objections, containing a litany of by-now familiar complaints. More »