Where Have we Beeen?

Published on the 20th of March, 2008

So close to a month has gone past since my last off topic entry at fowlerrd.com!

Why?

I have been busy working on two other projects, not an excuse I would like to give but I am sad to say that it is one I must pull out of the bag to be used. I have not lost hope in this project nor am I proud of the fact that it has so painlessly been pushed aside. But the truth is I have been negligent on a project that was just beginning to see some returns.. Oh well back to square one we go.

On the upshot at least now we are getting some decent search engine traffic. For the few entries we have made!

So now I have posted a lame ass, I am sorry, excuse. I guess I should be forced to make amends and get back in the habit of posting stuff up again!

Microhoo? - Microsoft Attempts to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 Billion

Published on the 3rd of February, 2008

If you have been living under a technological rock for the last day and a bit you might have missed the fact that Microsoft is attempting to buy-out yahoo for $44.6 Billion.

There are several hurdles that both parties must get over before this happens. Firstly Yahoo must agree to the deal, already there are rumours of a counter offer by News Corp as well as a rising price for Yahoo shares. Secondly the deal would have to be approved by both the US and EU antitrust regulators.

We are interested to see how this deal will not only unfold but also how Microsoft would handle owning two of the largest networks that have so heavily competed against each other for such a long period of time. When you think of it from a network point, it becomes greatly complicated, two instant messenger applications, two web based email applications, and two search engines essentially it would be two versions of Microsoft competing with each other to see which one survives.

Whilst many have labelled this buyout as a means to compete with Google we see it as more of ability for Microsoft to bolster its growing advertising portfolio, a direction that Google to has been heading in recent times.

One aspect of this buyout that is a little worrying for us is the track record Microsoft has of mishandling changes such as the Hotmail, MSN live move that all but folded and the fact that Microsoft has a continuing reliance on purchasing established properties instead of innovating, which as we are all aware is where Google’s strength is and the reason they have become the number one competitor in every niche they have set their target on.

If we had a job at MSN or Yahoo right about now we would probably be a little worried.

TechCrunch has a good round up of what should stay and what should go
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/02/microsoft-yahoo-what-will-stay-and-what-will-go/

What do you think of the Microsoft – Yahoo deal?

We are back from our break

Published on the 8th of January, 2008

So we are back from our little vacation, Fortunately with the New Year in we have not missed any interesting or entertaining sales in the market place! If we have, feel free to give us a heads-up.

A quick update on some previous listings we made here;

• Footballtransfers has set up an auction on SitePoint with a reserve of $10,000.
• The highest bid on PimpMaSpace is for $10,000 with about 15 days to go.

There are a few slightly titillating sites popping up around the place, that are not quite entry worthy.

Notable is the somewhat dubious asking price of $3.5million for a business selling sleep enhancers. Why are we dubious?  Pharmaceuticals are big business and the players in this field have large amounts of capital, why would you be selling what appears on face value to be a profitable business on Sitepoint and not pitching the product directly to pharmaceutical companies? I am positive that a person with the capital to buy a website (in this case it is a business) for $3.5 million would not jump in blind, but it makes you wonder a little!

Midascode is brokering a deal for an erotic website with the seller asking for 1 year’s income.

Seller is looking to achieve something in excess of current Yearly income (Monthly income is in the region of $1000 - $1100)

Not the usual kind of site that Midascode would get involved in marketing - afterall with have a strict NO P0RN policy - but we did think perhaps some of our readership would be interested, so we are mentioning it here. (We have seen the site and can confirm it is not your usual P0RN site)

Welcome to 2008!

Published on the 1st of January, 2008

So in all likelihood we are currently out drinking and having a good time somewhere up the coast. We thought we would leave a little snippet of what we have planned for your entertainment in 2008!

1. Influence at least one seller into posting an auction our way!
2. Post at least 20 articles
3. Post at least 100 interesting websites for sale
4. Make a total of more than 180 Entries

1. Buy a website.
2. Document the purchase as detailed as possible.
3. Develop and maintain the website for close to a year.
4. Document the changes we made and why.
5. Re-invest all income back into the website.
6. Sell the website.

Now we are going to set some ground rules.

1. The website we will buy for this exercise will be under $3000.
2. It must have some form of revenue.
3. It must be purchased in an Auction.
4. It must be sold prior to 2009
5. All PROFIT MUST BE DONATED TO CHARITY

We wish you all the best for 08!

How to bury $300 Million - Digg.com for sale

Published on the 24th of December, 2007

Its not earth shattering news that digg.com is up for sale. Rumors have been floating around for the best part of a few months and it seems that they are a little closer to a deal with an unconfirmed buyer, for a little over $300 million, after they were recently spotted getting close to renowned sales broker´s Allen & Company.

Speculation has been rife that they would be purchased by either CBS, Google, Microsoft (who recently signed a 100 million dollar deal with digg)  or Yahoo however insiders have pretty much ruled these four out of the equation. 

The biggest problem we see for the sale of digg is exactly what you are getting. Digg Traffic and ad revenue are huge, but the bubble over diggs head is growing larger and many users are getting sick of digg or more to speak the community that it has evolved into. If the community is sick of the community then the masses will move, as has been showen with Myspace and to some extent the revolt against Facebook.

If YOU had a spare $300 Million would you purchase digg?