Thursday, May 24, 2007

Trulia Raises $10 million from blue-chip Sequoia Capital

More smart money into online real estate space ... Series C Round.

Here's a good take/analysis on the deal & space from Matt Marshall at VentureBeat... comparing Trulia to Zillow.

Check out Glenn Kelman's (CEO of online broker RedFin) comments about management' talent/education & experience on Trulia vs. Zillow - quite amusing.

VentureBeat Article.

Marketing in Web 2.0

Last night, I attended a speaking event called "A Whole New Ball Game: Marketing Successfully in the Web 2.0 World," which was put on by the Northwest chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. They typically have influential, well-known leaders in the space and the panel this time was represented by execs from Technorati, Facebook, Wetpaint, Aquantive, and Zaaz.

The turnout at the Bellevue Hyatt was quite good; lots of familiar faces from the Seattle tech scene. And I got the chance to catch up with ex colleagues at HouseValues, which was nice.

So what did I learn? Nothing too extraordinarily eye-opening but a few nuggets here and there:
  • To leverage the power of Web 2.0 which they defined simply as being - 2-way interactions, expressions, personalized conversations, points of view, etc., a marketer needs to be active and present in the "communities" to reach them since they are highly atomized
  • You have to engage the influencers first since they are the drivers of the content/influence
  • It's important to reassess your audience and periodically reshuffle your segmentation to see what works
  • Re: monetization, advertising is a necessary evil to users but make it as much as possible a benefit vs. a cost (related to various segmentation strategies)
  • Embrace the fact that your brand is going to be manipulated and be" put threw the ringer"; as such, you need to be present to address what people are saying and be authentic in your voice (i.e. no corporate speak)
  • Lastly, look for ways to leverage these networks/audiences on places like Facebook, MySpace, et al. (e.g. engaging distinct segments where they "hang out")

Friday, May 04, 2007

Microhoo. A Microsoft and Yahoo Combination

The press caught early wind of more talks between the #2 and #3 players in search, Yahoo and Microsoft/MSN, respectively.

As a result, Yahoo shares surged 18% from $28 to $33 at the opening bell. It was the big news story on CNBC this morning. $50 billion has been thrown out there as a purchase price which to me sounds a bit rich based on today's current valuation and based on Yahoo management's most recent performance outlook.

I am guessing this deal will not happen ... setting financing aside, I think there's pretty huge integration risk. Yahoo is not the dinky startup with 10-15 employees that Microsoft typically absorbs into its amoeba-ish structure. The consumption of Yahoo seems simply way too big for Microsoft's stomach.

A key question ... do the potential synergies (likelihood of increased market share) created from the combined search orgs overcome the integration risk? What I am saying is that after you risk-adjust those synergies, are they still there?

I'm no post merger integration expert by any means but the task just seems too daunting. Too many things can go wrong - talent exodus, differing technology platforms, culture, misaligned strategies, et al.

Will be interesting to see what falls out in the next few weeks.

Update: 4 pm PST 4/4/07. It appears the WSJ has confirmed no substantial talks are taking place regarding the takeover.