LivingSocial next deal of the day service to IPO?

 Kate Kelly at CNBC just reported LivingSocial — a Groupon-like daily-discount company — is in the process of picking bankers for its IPO.

Here are the details, as reported by CNBC:

• An IPO could value LivingSocial at $10 billion to $15 billion.

• LivingSocial is likely to pick a banker by the end of the week.

• LivingSocial is expected to reach $1 billion in revenue this year, and they expect to be free cash flow positive by 2012.

China in Africa

Two centuries ago, Napoleon observed: "China is a sleeping giant, but when she wakes she will shake the world."

Certainly the case it Africa where an estimated 1 million Chinese now live

China is redefining the continent's economic landscape and gradually displacing the influence and relevance of western governments, corporations and development agencies.

Beijing now lends more to Africa than the World Bank does.

Trinity Mirror Exec Pay

The heat has finally been turned on Trinity Mirror CEO Sly Bailey by shareholders regarding her executive pay. As the article in the ST stated the size of her pay is completely out of wack with the (current) size of the business.

It may well be time for Ms Bailey to do the right thing and re balance her pay package to the size of business she has presided over for the last 10 years.

Shrinking business should equal shrinking executive pay.

I doubt it will in this case but it should.

Facebook hits a wall

Facebook has seen "big traffic drops" in the U.S. and Canada, even while it slowly closes in on 700 million members globally, according to Inside Facebook<http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/06/12/facebook-sees-big-traffic-drops-in-us-and-canada-as-it-nears-700-million-users-worldwide/>, which monitors membership rates of the social network.
The behavior of the social network's North American and (some) European membership suggests its growth potential in these nations is now limited. And that's potentially a big detriment to a Facebook IPO.
And this news on the day that Facebook IPO rumored<http://www.cnbc.com/id/43378490/> to be at $100bn valuation

Ad Placement (not funny)

Nokia and Apple friends again?

Nokia And Apple Bury The Hatchet, Settle Patent Suit http://cnt.to/os5

high50 launches

I am delighted to announce the launch of high50.

Its taken rather longer than we expected (3.5 years) but good things come to those that wait dont they? And over a million more people have turned 50 in the meantime so the delay isnt all bad.

So for those of you who have made it through the last half-century in reasonable shape and are looking forward to the next. Join us.

A big thank you to web wizard Toby Kay for all his hard work and the genius that is (Beta).

Apple arrives in the cloud

For those of us hard at work on developing cloud products that make it easy to access data from any device it was great to see Mr Steve Jobs unveil iCloud.

Following hard on footsteps of Google and Amazon Apple are
the latest 'big beast' to offer consumers the ease and convenience of storing data in the cloud and the ability to access it from any device.

Its a great space and one that will radically improve the way we manage our personal content and our media.

I can think of no better space to be in right now.

Groupon Q1 revenues blast

Groupon 2011 Q1 revenues of $645m, almost as much as for the whole of 2010 at $713m (FT)

Where are the true believers?

Startup fundraising isn't about convincing skeptics but rather finding true believers.

Twitter buys Tweetdeck

Taking out another potential competitor, Twitter has reportedly acquired TweetDeck for more than $40 million in cash and stock.

Apple dominates profits with 57% profit share in Mobiles globally

With 19% smartphone (Canalys) market share, and 5% Mobiles (IDC) market share, Apple takes a disproportionate 45% of the industry profits.

Blackberry (25% of Industry Margins), HTC (15%), Samsung (12%) and Nokia (8%) complete the list.

Microsoft to buy Nokia!

Microsoft rumoured to be negotiating to buy Nokia's phone business. Watch this space

Trinity Mirror continues to struggle

Trinity Mirror has reported a 10% fall in advertising revenue in the year to 1 May and warned of the continuing challenging and fragile economic environment facing newspaper publishers.

The Times iPad

Twenty-five thousand people read The Times on iPad each day. Its stablemate The Sunday Times counts 22,000 readers, including two million iPad page views.

Microsoft confirms $8.5 billion cash to acquire Skype

US CEO pay

CEO Pay Rose 11 Percent in 2010

The median value of compensation for CEOs of 350 major companies rose 11
percent to $9.3 million, according to a study conducted for The Wall
Street Journal by management consultancy firm Hay Group.

At the top of the list is Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, who pocketed $84.3 million in compensation - more than double his 2009 total.

Next was Oracle honcho Larry Ellison, who received compensation valued at $68.6 million, followed by CBS CEO Les Moonves, who can drown all his Charlie
Sheen-related sorrows with compensation valued at $53.9 million.

Four of the top 10 most highly compensated CEOs were heads of media companies, including those at Viacom, CBS, Walt Disney, and Time Warner. Meanwhile,News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch ranked 52nd on the list, receiving $16.5 million in compensation.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal:
http://e.thedailybeast.com/a/tBNx9sDB7SwhTB8a9g4DTNACvd$/dail4

News boon

What an extraordinary and momentous world news and current affairs calender .

Few can remember so many massive stories packed into so few months


We've had massive natural disasters, oil and nuclear disasters and financial disasters. We've had the reshaping of north africa and the middle east thanks to the Arab Spring. We've had the slaying of OBL after a decade of effort, we've had the wondrous spectacle of a royal weddings. Phone hacking. Etc. Etc.
The list just goes on and on.

Its provided a boon for news media  and the coming of age of social media as influential news channels.

This must be one of the very finest news runs of all time.

Smartphone sales growth

The worldwide smartphone market grew 80% in the first quarter compared to a year ago as manufacturers rolled out much-anticipated new devices and prices on older models dropped, according to new data from technology research firm IDC.

The number of smartphones shipped in the quarter nearly doubled to 99.6 million units from 55.4 million a year ago.

LivingSocial raises $400m

LivingSocial, the U.S. online coupon seller, has raised $400 million to fund expansion and keep up with larger competitor Groupon Inc,