They say “flat is the new up” and that certainly seems to be the case with the venture capital industry. Though we’ve had two consecutive quarters without an IPO and the venture market is all but frozen, VC optimism is beginning to return. The latest Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index shows a small but noteworthy uptick in the VC community’s views of the entrepreneurial environment in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A few weeks back, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue warned that Nortel is facing a very bleak future. “Considering the worsening macro environment, Nortel’s challenged industry position, and concerns related to liquidity while the capital markets are basically closed, we think bankruptcy is a distinct possibility down the road,” Sue wrote in a note to investors. Looks like Sue was right, and the road to which he referred was a short one.
“Bankruptcy” and “distinct possibility.” Not the sorts of words a company hopes to see in its press coverage, but precisely the ones Nortel has been confronted with today. Describing the telecom equipment manufacturer as “overwhelmed with debt and burning cash,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue cut his price target on Nortel to $0 from $1.50 and warned that the company is facing a very bleak future
Black Friday, the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season, will kick off far earlier than usual this year, thanks to Circuit City. In the aftermath of a particularly nasty second-quarter loss and a 95 percent decline in share price, the long-suffering electronics retailer said today it is shuttering 155 of its stores across 12 U.S. markets and sacking 17 percent of its domestic workforce.
Well, the champagne bottles must be popping over at SkyMall today. The gadget vendor’s rival, The Sharper Image (SHRP), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late yesterday and announced plans to shutter 90 of its 184 stores as soon as it’s able to sell off their inventories.
Seems increased competition and diminishing margins–not to mention that [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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