The Valley's private equity hype

It's late, I'm tired and the coffee is wearing off, so I'm happy that Paul Kedrosky takes a stab at deciphering the latest quarterly report on Bay Area venture capital activity from Fenwick & West: More »

Paul Kedrosky's CNBC talk turns into Google, Apple slapfest

Venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky went on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning to talk about "tech cyclicality," but ended up talking about NAND flash and listening to Jim Goldman and Joe Kernen talk about Apple and Google's up-and-down stock prices. The bit about flash was boring, but the stock talk was amusing. Have a look — buy, sell or hold?

Yahoo launches Tech Ticker ... sort of

In a repeat of last week's failed launch of lifecasting service Yahoo Live, Yahoo's new online finance show Tech Ticker has launched with a broken page. If the millions of users exposed to it could see it — the show is prominently placed throughout the site — they'd learn that it is hosted by BusinessWeek's Sarah Lacy and TheStreet.com veteran Aaron Task, with contributions from the likes of Paul Kedrosky and Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget (interviewed in one of the first episodes). After being down for more than 20 minutes, Tech Ticker seems to be back up ... sort of. The interview with Blodget is viewable on the Tech Ticker website but now the embed code seems to be broken. How much money is this company worth again? If they find an engineer to fix it, here's the clip: More »

We hear that Yahoo TechTicker, the online-video show from Yahoo Finance featuring Valley fox Sarah Lacy and red-hot moneymen Henry Blodget and Paul Kedrosky, is delayed, and won't be airing early episodes next week as rumored. Dammit! Scott Moore, we blame you for this, too.

Michael Arrington's Sarah Lacy fantasies indulged by Yahoo

Yahoo TechTicker may launch as soon as next week, reports Michael Arrington. The TechCrunch editor then spins off into lurid fantasy: "Screen shots are starting to leak, and we have this one with Lacy and Blodget just prior to locking into a passionate embrace, I'm sure." Heavens, Michael. No wonder Lacy tried to cool your jets in Hawaii. Besides, we prefer to imagine Blodget, a known admirer of male beauty, canoodling* with Paul Kedrosky, the ruggedly handsome VC pundit who's also appearing on TechTicker. More »

For anyone who missed the rumor in Valleywag last month, Michael Arrington confirms that Yahoo will launch a streaming-video finance program with hosts Henry Blodget, Sarah Lacy, and Paul Kedrosky — the exact lineup we reported. The name is TechTicker. [TechCrunch]

Tech stocks an "investor wasteland"

Look away! Venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky put together this chart for SeekingAlpha. It tracks major tech stocks over the four days leading to yesterday's market close and look away! It's not pretty. (Though at least all that red and green makes for a nice holiday decoration.)

The return of Yahoo FinanceVision

Remember Yahoo FinanceVision? It was Yahoo's attempt to imitate CNBC, except on your computer. Launched in 2000, with an annoyingly overenthusiastic commercial embedded above, dragged on for two years before declining online advertising revenues put a bullet in it. We hear it's rising from the grave. We've confirmed that BusinessWeek columnist and certified Valley Fox Sarah Lacy has been signed as a talking head. Other rumored contributors include VC blogger and TV pundit Paul Kedrosky and manflesh connoisseur Henry Blodget, the disgraced Wall Street analyst and founder of Silicon Alley Insider. Blodget, at least, has experience talking up stocks. More »

Oracle's earnings have beaten Wall Street's expectations, suggesting that the turmoil in credit markets has not had an impact on tech bellwethers. Score one for VC blogger Paul Kedrosky, who has cast tech stocks as a safe haven in today's market. [Associated Press]

Tech publisher O'Reilly announces a new conference, Money:Tech, chaired by VC blogger Paul Kedrosky. Finally, a get-together where geeks can safely admit to being motivated by something other than changing the world. [Infectious Greed]

Why venture capitalists hate profits

I hate you, Paul Kedrosky. Why? Because you've said, more perfectly than I ever could, why venture capitalists love profitless companies like Twitter, which has just raised a financing round from Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture capital firm run by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham. Companies with real business plans, making real money? It's cheap enough to start a company these days that savvy entrepreneurs don't need venture capital, funding themselves from a few angel investors and reinvested profits. It's only the clueless, the hapless, and the willfully profligate types like Evan Williams of Twitter, who want to fumble around with a fun toy for as long as they can get away with it, on whom VCs can make the tall dollars.

CNBC clip: Paul Kedrosky vs. Google Earth screenshots

The host of CNBC's On the Money just YouTubed a TV clip called "Google this!" in which savvy investor/columnist/blogger Paul Kedrosky explains why Google's success is such a headache for Yahoo. He and the other poor commenter have to compete with a video feed of some CNBC worker zooming in on the Googleplex in Google Earth. More »

Remainders: The first rule of Silicon Valley fight club is, squeal like a girl

• The New Yorker publishes a followup six years in the making — the wedding of designer Jason Kottke and Blogger co-creator Meg Hourihan. [New Yorker; Photo source: Kottke]
• Mini-Microsoft blogger stops writing; Microsoft now allowed to be huge and ungainly again. [Mini-Microsoft]
• Publisher Tim O'Reilly writes a lengthy response to the Web 2.0 (TM) shitstorm. The upshot: Yes, O'Reilly wants to own the name "Web 2.0 Conference." He's also disappointed in you all. [O'Reilly Radar]
• Blog mogul Jason Calacanis answers Michael Arrington: Jason meant to defuse the rumor that Arrington's TechCrunch reviews are for sale. But since Mike wants to make a public spat out of it, Jason's only too happy to oblige. [Calacanis.com]
• PR Agency Idea Grove wants to cheat test Technorati. Here's some help, just 'cause their site is pretty. [Idea Grove]
• "In McKinsey space," says VC blogger Paul Kedrosky, "no one can hear you scream." The consultants that told eBay not to worry about Google's PayPal killer, now invites other dot-coms to a bull session. [Paul Kedrosky]
• See, it's funny because Google bought GoogleMastercard.com on the eve of MasterCard's IPO. PayPal is screwed. [Simple SEM]
• Someone forgot the first two rules of Fight Club. [USA Today]

News Corp to Facebook: Talk to the hand

We're certainly not paying $2 billion for Facebook. If the price was right I'd be interested in it.

More »

Remainders: The FCC doesn't suck

Someone runs up a false Digg item about a Google acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Turns out that not everything linked from Digg is true. Huh. Who knew? In any case, the lesson here: Digg may be big, but it's not exactly at stock-manipulating level. [Silicon Valley Sleuth] More »