Poker is hot. Binion’s World Series of Poker on ESPN and
Bravo’s Celebrity Poker have huge ratings. Maybe they should
bring the cameras to Silicon Valley, where entrepreneurs live for the
high-stakes game. Sun Microsystems is a classic example. Two decades
ago, CEO Scott
McNealy took some Motorola microprocessors and bluffed his way into all
sorts of new markets, from stock exchanges to telcos to webhosting.
Bluff, press, win; invent more, bluff, and press again - that’s
what entrepreneurs do. McNealy has been a master. I’ve made and
lost wages investing with a game called Pass the Trash but that’s
another story.
Continue reading "Wired: Cashing In, Selling Out" »
This article appeared on Techcentralstation
Gotta love it. Two 30 year olds, armed only with Lava lamps and
100,000 cheap PCs spitting out Google searches, are flipping the
proverbial bird to blue-blood suspender-wearing Wall Street. And why
not? Google is the most profitable company I have ever seen. Their 60%
operating margins make Microsoft look like pikers. There are certain
unwritten rules for structuring a tech company and filing for an
initial public offering and Google just broke them all.
Continue reading "TCS: Google Street Fight" »
I guess we just need villains to take the blame for our own stupidity.
My old colleague Frank Quattrone was convicted on three counts of
obstruction of justice on Monday. Guilty? Innocent? Who knows, but he
is taking the fall for a lot of sins. And that, I suppose, is how eras
end.
Continue reading "WSJ: Let’s be Frank" »
