Monday, February 6, 2012

Facebook IPO

Few Intresting details out from the recent IPO filing for Facebook

Usage:
  • Facebook now has 845 million active monthly users, up 39 percent over the 608 million users recorded at the end of 2010.
  • Users generated an average of 2.7 billion "Likes" and "Comments" per day for the period from October through December last year.
  • 250 million photos are uploaded to the site every day.
  • More than half of Facebook's users -- 425 million -- now access the site using a mobile device, up from 350 million in 2011.
Revenue:
  • Facebook generated $3.711 billion in revenue in 2011, up from $1.868 billion in 2010 and $764 million in 2009.
  • Advertising generates approximately 85 percent of Facebook's total revenue ($3.154 billion in 2011).
  • Twelve percent of Facebook's total revenue in 2011 came from Zynga. Under an agreement with the social gaming firm that won't expire until May of 2015, Facebook retains 30 percent of the face value of user purchases in Zynga's games on the Facebook Platform.
  • Facebook's 2011 net income was $1 billion -- more than triple the $229 million it recorded in 2009 and up 34 percent from $606 million in 2010.
Expenses:
  • Facebook spent $427 million in 2011 on marketing and sales.
  • A total of $388 million was spent on research and development.
  • The company spent $280 million on general and administrative expenses.
  • While company co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 2013 annual salary will be $1, he received a base salary of $500,000 last year.
  • Company COO Sheryl Sandberg's base salary in 2011 was $300,000, as was CFO David Ebersman's base pay. Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering earned $275,000 and Theodore Ullyot, vice president, general counsel and secretary, also earned $275,000.
  • Facebook paid between $600,000 and $800,000 last year for a security system at Zuckerberg's personal residence, as well as security personnel assigned to him and personal and professional use of chartered aircraft.
Acquisitions:
  • Facebook spent $68 million in 2011 acquiring other businesses.
Ownership:
  • Zuckerberg owns 28.4 percent of the company's common stock (533.8 million Class B shares). James Breyer, a partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners, owns 11.4 percent of the company's shares; Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz owns 7.6 percent; and venture capitalist Peter Thiel owns 2.5 percent.
  • A number of investors -- including Moskovitz, Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network), The Founders Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation and others -- have given Zuckerberg "irrevocable proxy" over their shares. That means Zuckerberg controls 1.07 billion Class B shares, along with an additional 42 million Class A shares, giving him control of more than 57 percent of the company's stock.
  • In both 2004 and 2005, Mark Zuckerberg's father, a dentist in New York, provided the company with working capital. In return, he was given the option to purchase 2 million Class B shares of stock in the company. In 2009, three years after Dr. Zuckerberg declined and the options were no longer valid, Facebook's board of directors gave the same amount of options to Glate, LLC., a company owned by the elder Zuckerberg, in consideration of his initial financial assistance.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Jerry Yang : Another Steve Jobs in the making?


Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has announced that he would be leaving the Internet company he founded with his dorm friend David Filo. Yahoo has hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its new CEO. For Yahoo it would be the 4 CEO’s in the span of 5 years and this speaks volumes of the condition in which the company currently is.

The departure of Mr. Yang from the company he founded reminds me of my favorite business leader Late. Mr. Steve Jobs. Jobs was also removed from the company he founded, but he utilized his time outside Apple and when he came back for his second innings he made Apple world’s best technology company.

I think the similarities are many, Yang is a billionaire, young (43 is young, SRK can still romance with college girls, remember!) and above all has the ability to build up a company using ideas, I sincerely hope that the world gets to see his second innings either at Yahoo or elsewhere!                                                                                                       

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New Year, New Beginning

It has been a while since I posted on my blog, call it a new year's resolution that I have decided that I would take out time going forward to be regular on my blog. I realized that this is the only creative thing I have done in the recent past and hence should continue the habit. 

Monday, July 18, 2011

In-App Advertisements : The new Big Thing

Mobile marketers are turning more attention toward in-app advertising. Currently the in-app ads account for around 5% of mobile ad spending, and that number is only expected to rise over the next few years. Currently the Ad spend is around $87 M which is pegged to grow up to $894M by 2015.

Personally I don't like the advertisements in the apps I use, but one of the reasons in-app ads are taking off is their effectiveness, the majority of the user are able to recall ads at a higher rate than the ads they see while browsing the mobile web.

Well like it or not this is here to stay and to grow.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Cognizant looks to buy Genpact

CTS is eyeing buyout of Genpact... Read the complete story here

Friday, July 16, 2010

Indian Rupee gets its symbol


The Indian Rupee now will have a symbol like the Dollar ($) or the Euro (€) or the Pound (£). The Cabinet today finalized the design for the Rupee. The symbol, with a blend of the Devanagri ‘Ra’ and Roman ‘R’, was approved by the Union Cabinet to distinguish the Indian currency from the rest, such as the rupee or the rupiah of Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The symbol would be included in Unicode Standard and major scripts of the world so as to ensure that it is easily displayed and printed in the electronic and print media. Unicode is an international standard that allows text data to be interchanged globally without conflict.
The symbol is designed by Bombay IIT post-graduate D. Udaya Kumar. Mr. Kumar's winning entry was chosen from 3,000 designs received for the currency symbol competition. He will get an award of Rs. 2.5 lakh from the Finance Ministry.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

BP Set to Test New Fix For Leaking Well

The latest update on the BP oil spill, picked it from the Wall street Journal. Click here to read the complete article