Microsoft Bids 44.6 Billion for Yahoo or $31 a Share

I'm really not a huge Microsoft fan but I just had to post this. Yahoo! has been struggling over the last couple of years trying to restore itself to the early glory days of the web. There is little chance that this offer would have accepted 6 months ago. But today Yahoo! is in trouble and about to be gobbled up by the MFST shark.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080201/microsoft_yahoo.html?.v=1

In a letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company will bid $31 per share, representing a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday, and emphasized that the deal isn't subject to financing.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion cost savings generated by the merger, and intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo engineers, key leaders and employees. The software giant said it believes the takeover would receive regulatory clearance and close in the second half of 2008.

Go Tech Go

Last couple of days have been a roller coaster for the markets. The sub prime mess has taken its toll. Last couple of days have been looking good with the major exchanges trading up - but today they ended down.

And then Microsoft became the beaming light of tech by releasing record earnings of 6B on 16B in reveneue. With all the talk of slow down its so good to see MSFT banging it out of the park.

Go tech go.

Trade shows make my feet hurt

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve gone to a couple of conferences, one in Orlando and the other in Whistler. These have been the first conference/trade shows for Q4 where we have exhibited and sponsored aspects of the events. Both of them have gone quite well and we’ve been able to expand our pipeline of sales prospects considerably.

However I have to say that I’m so tired (and we’ve got one more in Colorado next week) and that my feet feel like they constantly hurt. So my big question is what are the solutions for dealing with sore feet? I’ve heard cold water afterwards, changing your insoles, drinking constantly (haha) but nothing seems to work. I think if I can figure out how to keep my feet from hurting I’d be doing alright.

So, if you’ve got a tip let me know – I’m all ears!!

WebEx sucks all the way to the end - what a painful experience

We started using WebEx http://www.webex.com/ in January of this year. It's a web conferencing system that allows you to do online meetings and conference calls. We thought we were safe by buying the leader in the market. Well we were certainly wrong about that. Some of our experience:

The WebEx software only works about 2/3rds of the time. Typical for users on the other end to have problems installing the software.

When you call WebEx to get help they expect you to keep your prospect on the line while they try and figure something out (ya right!). To get to anyone that knows anything takes 3 or 4 people - each time we were left with "if you don't know anything then why the %&*@! am I talking to you?!!"

Once the problem is solved (or in most cases not) WebEx sends you an automated survey "How did we do". In each case we gave them a terrible review, but did anything change? No.

I could go on and on about the problems we had with them, but instead I'll focus on the last issue.

About a month ago we cancelled the contract with the end date of June 14th. I received confirmation from them that the service would stay on until the 14th. Well today we discover that they terminated the service and we're offline. In typical fashion I called WebEx and had to speak to 3 different people all who didn't have the ability to do anything to help me. So, we get cut two weeks early and my only recourse is to sign-up for the service again - or use their pay per use service.

In closing. WebEx sucks.

Is Google going to buy Salesforce.com?

Bit of news from Reuters this morning:
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2127967220070521?src=052107_0745_FEATURES_mna_today

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Salesforce.com Inc. rose nearly 5 percent in pre-market trading on Monday after a report it is in talks with Google Inc. for an alliance that could help them compete better against Microsoft Corp..

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the two companies are still working out details of a potential partnership, which is expected to be announced in the next few weeks. The report cited unnamed sources.

The paper said one outcome could be a Web-based offering that integrates some of Google's online services such as e-mail and instant-messaging with those of Salesforce.com, whose customer-relationship management tools help salespeople track their accounts.

Salesforce.com shares rose by around $2.14 to $47.94 in pre-market trading while Google shares were flat at around $470.

Why I love Salesforce.com

So I feel a little like a gushing school boy when I say I love Salesforce.com, but it’s true. At Q4 Web Systems we use Salesforce to manage all of our sales and marketing efforts and all customer interactions.

Having all of our sales people using it along with customer support gives our management a detailed insight into all aspects of the customer process. I have a complete view into the entire lifecycle of a customer. Using this information we are able to make better sales, marketing and customer service decisions.

It’s the same way I feel about my blackberry. I honestly think (and know) that it simply wouldn’t be possible to do what we do without these amazing tools. It’s great to work with these on a daily basis, it allows us to do more and it helps us make better decisions in improving our own software.

Disclosure: I was not paid by Salesforce or RIM for this post ;)

By far the best explanation of Web 2.0 and what it truely means

So busy with Q4 these days and trying to post on Q4 Blog and I've been neglecting my personal blog. Hope this clip helps redeem me :)

This is by far the best explanation and most inspring video that I've seen about Web 2.0. Very exciting stuff.

Working 28hrs a day - again!

A while back I posted about working 28hrs a day to get the new company off the ground. I also said something like once we closed our first round of funding that I'd be back to posting. Well...back in Sept we closed the round and we haven't stopped running since. We've been really fortunate to add a couple of really smart people and we're starting to push on sales and marketing. So, in short I'm still trying to work 28hrs a day and not burn out.

In the mean time I'm still keeping track of how things are changing on the web. Here's an interesting article about My Space opening up their API.
http://news.com.com/2061-10802_3-6133753.html?part=rss&tag=2063-10802_3-0&subj=news

Welcome Winter

Can't believe I'm writing this, but it is snowing in Toronto right now. Welcome Winter.

Google buys YouTube for $1.65B in stock

In case you haven't heard...the deal between Youtube and Google was announced yesterday. I love YouTube and have always been impressed with Google (how can you not be!) Here are the details of the release. http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/google_youtube.html

What is truly amazing about YouTube is their history.

Feb 2005 - Company Founded
Nov 2005 - $3.5M round of funding from Sequoia Capital
Dec 2005 - YouTube goes live
April 2006 - $8M round of funding from Sequoia Capital
Oct 2006 - Sold to Google for $1.65B

An impressive track record to say the least!

Office 2.0 - impressive list of web apps

Chris Vickerson, our CTO at Q4 sent me this link last night. It's an impressive list of web 2.0 apps. If you've been wondering about where the web is headed and what it means for business be sure to check out this list. Office 2.0 Database

SEC pumping $54 Million into XBRL based EDGAR

Although the SEC's chairmen Christopher COX has made many statement regarding XBRL and it's benefits, investing $54 Million into EDGAR to transform it into an XBRL based system goes a really long way to proving they are serious about it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE2006-158
Agency Invests $54 Million in Three Contracts Toward Transformation of EDGAR Database

Washington, D.C., Sept. 25, 2006 — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox announced today that the SEC has awarded three separate contracts totaling $54 million to transform the agency’s 1980s-vintage public company disclosure system from a form-based electronic filing cabinet to a dynamic real-time search tool with interactive capabilities.

Complete release can be found here.

Dominic Jones over at IR Daily does a good job of putting this into context.

Salesforce.com moves closer to a true Web OS

Salesforce.com is the worlds most successful web-based customer relationship management (CRM) software. With over 25000 customers world wide Salesforce.com is leading the software as a service revolution. With this latest announcement Salesforce appears to be closing the gap on web based software and traditional software. The complete article can be found here.

Imax (IMX.TO) in the sights of BIll 198

Looks like Imax (IMX.TO) is currently the subject of an informal inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its revenue-accounting practices, yesterday became the target of a potential $200-million Canadian class-action lawsuit that could become the first test of Ontario's new Bill 198 law aimed at making it much easier for shareholders to sue companies and their executives.

Here is the article on Globe Investor.

Here at Q4 Web Systems we are watching this very closely. The reasons being our lead product called Q4 Record automatically records all of a company's disclosure on the web and can be used to help defend companies in the event of legal action such as this.

Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List

Keeping on the Web 2.0 topic, here is a watch list from Seth Godin that tracks 937 sites. If you're looking to burn a couple of days this would be a great place to start. Here's the link: http://www.alexaholic.com/sethgodin

Collaborate, share and remix all your stuff.

I came across this list the other day, thought it was pretty interesting. There are now 350 web applications listed. They range from online document collaboration to photo sharing to online calendars. Take a look and get your web 2.0 a moving. Here is the link to the main site. http://www.philb.com/iwantto.htm

Google Maps with Traffic

http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html

Google has enhanced its Google Maps mobile application by adding traffic information and the ability to save routes. Go to http://www.google.com/gmm on your handheld to download it. I tried and it's pretty cool.

Need to get more done? Work 28 hours a day.

The last couple of months have been very busy for me. Getting Q4 off the ground and closing our funding has taken a huge amount of time and dedication. Things are going smoothly and we're on track to close our first round of funding over the next couple weeks. The point of this post however, is to pass along some advice I received awhile back.

About 2 months ago I asked a trusted advisor how to balance the critical requirements of acquiring new customers while raising money. I said "there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to raise money and put time into selling, what should I do?" his reply "there is if you work 28 hours a day" he was joking...but not really.

So now it's 2 months later, we've put our share of 28hr days in and it's starting to pay off. Once the funding closes I'll be back to posting on a regular basis.

Until then.

New TSX site

The TSX just recently launched a new site. I must say this is a HUGE improvement over their last site. www.tsx.com

The Real Value in Sarbanes-Oxley

Informative interview on the value that SOX is bringing to companies. I find this interesting because lately a number of smaller companies have been complaining about the increased cost associated to being compliant. This article really opens up the true value of compliance and why this is a good thing for all companies.

The Real Value in Sarbanes-Oxley

APRIL 10, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Fear can be a powerful generator of upstanding conduct, say Stephen Wagner and Lee Dittmar. But business runs on discovering and creating value. In this month's Harvard Business Review, the co-authors discuss how smart companies are finding unexpected benefits in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Wagner, who is the managing partner of the U.S. Center for Corporate Governance at Deloitte & Touche, and Dittmar, who leads the enterprise governance consulting practice at Deloitte Consulting and co-leads its Sarbanes-Oxley practice, talked with Kathleen Melymuka about how your company can use compliance requirements to its advantage.

Personally I find the last statement in the article the most interesting:

It seems that a lot of these Sarbanes-Oxley benefits are the kinds of things that CIOs have been advocating for years, with mixed results.

DITTMAR: I agree. CIOs say, "Things would be better if we standardized on a particular application," and the business units say, "Sure, as long as everybody moves to mine." So this is an opportunity not just for CIOs to step up but to get various CXO stakeholders to understand all the elements -- people, process and technology -- because they all have to go together. The president of a very large technology company recently told me that compliance will be the single largest driver of IT priorities over the next decade. CIOs have a very important role to play, and even though they've been frustrated over the last decade, the impacts of IT are pervasive, and companies can't do this efficiently and effectively without properly leveraging technology. It's not enough to just write good policies and processes; you have to have technology to support it, or it won't be sustainable.