3/11/14

3/11/14

Good morning, All,

There’s a lawsuit that hit the California courts, concerning big tech players who were basically price-fixing in the form of colluding not to hire each other’s employees. Which kept salaries in check. “Lawyers for the programmers say top executives from these companies agreed not to recruit workers from each other, which helped limit increases in salaries and benefits for as many as 64,000 programmers. Their class-action suit, which is being argued in federal court in San Jose, Calif., is based on vivid and compelling emails, internal company documents and depositions that undermine the public image of the technology industry, which is widely seen as egalitarian and competitive.”

Founders are a resourceful lot and remember that many investors start out as company founders. That said, we seemed to have moved on from collusion – too many potential legal ramifications. Now we have fwd.us, backed, again, by the big tech players and investors. Ultimately, it’s price/salary fixing by any other name –  in the name of appearing to be egalitarian and competitive.  Only the language has been changed to deceive the clueless.

We saw this recently: Why Twitter Will Never Have More Users Than Facebook. Which is like comparing the readership of Columbia Spectator with the number of households listed in the Manhattan phone book, yea, despite the fact that many New Yorkers no longer have landlines. They’re completely different platforms, and while the highly desirable youth market has been fleeing FB, it’s true that, on balance, they never really engaged with Twitter. Or so you’d think. This just in: want to market to this audience? Meet The Stars Of Vine: These Kids Have Millions Of Followers And Make Eye-Popping Amounts Of Money. FB just spent $19B to capture this audience, and they’re now they’re fleeing the WhatsApp platform. For those of us playing the home version, Twitter owns Vine. As always and above all, know your audience. Or your target market and how to reach them. And comparing apples and oranges won’t make the math – or a bogus chart – any more compelling. Onward and forward.

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