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We thought it would be great if people and organizations were more open with what they're reading - so we created our own company newsroom to share what our team is Amplifying.

Yelp securing a huge investment from Elevation Partners

Amplifyd from www.techcrunch.com
Yelp, fresh off of leaving Google at the altar, is closing a hefty fifth round of financing from Elevation Partners, say multiple sources. The deal isn’t closed yet, says one source, but the guys at Elevation Partners have been telling friends that it’s a done deal.
The size of the rounds is in the $50 million range, but includes both a primary investment component as well as a secondary offering for long time employees. Read more at www.techcrunch.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  20 days ago

Reserch Firm values Twitter at $526 - $674 million

Chris Parandian says:

Interesting analysis by Next Up Research that values Twitter at less than the $1.1 billion valuation from their recent round… There some other good information in the report.

How Much is Twitter Worth? Less Than You Think

Twitter, the San Francisco-based micro-messaging start-up, recently raised about $98 million dollars from T. Rowe Price, Insight Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. valuing the company at a whopping $1.1 billion. NeXt Up Research, the firm founded by veteran financial analyst, Michael Moe, disagrees with that post money valuation, and instead values Twitter at about $526-to-$674 million. Read more at gigaom.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  2 months ago

@Ev interview with Fortune…

Chris Parandian says:

I highly recommend the whole interview.

Amplifyd from money.cnn.com

Evan Williams talks about Twitter’s users and his struggle to focus on the task at hand.

evan_williams.03.jpg

Recently, Williams spoke on camera at Twitter’s offices with Adam Lashinsky for Fortune’s look at 40 rising stars under 40. He touches on why it’s okay if young people don’t tweet and his own struggle with focusing on the task at hand. An edited transcript follows.

No investor we have ever talked to — whether current or new investors — have said you need to get on with the moneymaking part sooner. Everyone who really gets the big vision has said don’t worry about that. You need plenty of money? We’ll raise plenty of money. Invest it in for the long-term.

Read more at money.cnn.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  3 months ago

The Future of News Media…

Chris Parandian says:

I recommend the full post by Craig Newmark on Huff Post.  I really like the future he envisions….

Amplifyd from www.huffingtonpost.com
A Nerd’s Take On The Future Of News Media
It’s a cliche now, but I hear that the kids don’t look for professionally curated news, they feel that news will find them. Yakov Smirnoff style: old model, you find news; new model, news finds you. That is, we would look around for a newspaper or TV news show previously; now, we subscribe to the Twitter or Facebook feeds of those friends who have a passion for news. I see this everyday in the feeds I read.
The successful news organizations of the future will pursue models for news curation/selection which is a hybrid of professional editing and collaboration among talented consumers.
Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  3 months ago

Twitter to have lists / like Amplify group Clogs

Chris Parandian says:

same functionality (public / private) etc…

Amplifyd from blog.twitter.com

Soon to Launch: Lists

My name is Nick Kallen (@nk) and I’m the project lead on Lists, a new feature we’re testing with a small subset of users. The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.
Lists are public by default (but can be made private) and the lists you’ve created are linked from your profile. Other Twitter users can then subscribe to your lists. This means lists have the potential to be an important new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.
Read more at blog.twitter.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  4 months ago

Twitter Snags Digg Talent…

Chris Parandian says:

Twitter is beefing up operations and I imagine some other announcements on the horizonl…  On an Amplify note, I had to clip the last sentence ; )

Amplifyd from www.techcrunch.com
Twitter Continues Talent Scoop, Takes Digg’s UX Guy
Fresh off their new $100 million funding round, Twitter continues to scoop up talent from around the web to expand operations. The latest catch is Mark Trammell, who had spent the last two years working on user experience for Digg. Trammell will start his new job at Twitter in a week on the design team working to build a user research program.
Despite the loses, Digg still has no real peer in terms of size in the social news space. Read more at www.techcrunch.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  4 months ago

Learning from Failure

Eric Skiff says:

I agree with Fred Wilson that our experiences - particularly our failures - provide us our greatest opportunities to learn and grow. Willingness to fail and keep trying is not easy, but it’s essential to ever having a chance to succeed.

I think embracing failure is one of the things that makes this country such a great place to do business in. In many parts of the world, if you fail once, you are done. People won’t touch you with a ten foot pole. But here in the US, it’s almost a badge of honor. And our President explains why.

So don’t hide your failures. Wear them as a badge of honor.Read more at www.avc.com
 
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Posted by Eric Skiff  5 months ago

Getting news out in the era of Twitter

Eric Skiff says:

Dan York has a great, detailed piece on assembling package (really, a barrage) of related info, stories, and messages to get your news out. He’s got some great advice, and we’ve certainly seen the “attention wave” effect work. His full piece is well worth the read.

So you have some news you want to get out there. You are thinking of issuing the standard old news release… Yet in the era of the “real-time web”, when new stories are found through services like Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed
how do you get people to pay attention to your news?
create an “Attention Wave”.
The opportunity has never been greater to tell your story in your own words.Read more at www.disruptiveconversations.com
 
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Posted by Eric Skiff  5 months ago

Twitter and the revenue question…

Amplifyd from www.techcrunch.com
Twitter And The Revenue Dilemma
The company has to decide whether or not to turn revenue on. It sounds ridiculous, but it is a real decision. Once revenue is on, how the company is valued by the market can change dramatically.

Some of the biggest blockbuster acquisitions on the Internet have been pre-revenue companies. YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006 is one example. Reaching back further, Hotmail to Microsoft for $265 million in 1998 is another. Neither had any revenue to speak of, but both “owned” a new and fast growing market. And there are lots more examples.

When you don’t have revenue you can’t be valued based on a multiple of revenues. Read more at www.techcrunch.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  5 months ago

What is Obama reading?

Chris Parandian says:

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton was kind enough to let us know what the President was reading on his vacation.

We still don’t know what Sarah Palin reads…

Amplifyd from www.latimes.com
Obama’s summer reading list
The list of books a president reads during vacation is often parsed for meaning.
Last week, Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton volunteered — even before anyone could ask him — that President Obama had brought along a pile of books on his vacation to Martha’s Vineyard:
* “The Way Home,” George Pelecanos.
* “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” Tom Friedman.
* “Lush Life,” Richard Price.
* “Plainsong,” Kent Haruf.
* “John Adams,” David McCullough.
Read more at www.latimes.com
 
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Posted by Chris Parandian  5 months ago