Return to the little kingdom

I finally finished yesterday "Return to the little Kingdom" by Michael Moritz. A Story about how Apple was founded and turned into a big company -though the story ends many years before the Apple we know today was created (the writer covers the most recent events in the brand new 2009 epilogue).

Anyway, I have not loved it. It is just ok. What I have loved the most is to feel the thrill of founding a company and make it grow, though it is obviously not an easy task.

I am posting below the review I have written on Amazon. I always use Amazon to see some reviews before I purchase something, so I find it fair to do the same for others.

Next on my shelf is "Too big to fail" on how Wall Street cracked a year and a half ago.

Litigation time

In the last couple of weeks I have read a number of news regarding litigation conflicts among important players in the TMT scene. It is amazing how a ruling in one way or another might have such a huge impact on a company's strategy going forward. An unfavorable one may force a company to change its plans overnight because of the burden imposed. On the other hand, a favorable one may bring a considerable boost to a company's cash reserves or clear the way for future actions.

For instance, today I have read that Google's Nexus One smartphone is facing an unexpected hurdle since the US Patent Office's has refused to register the phone's name, due fact that the "Nexus" name is registered by Integra Telecom, a telco operating in the Western US. After the release of the phone it seems to me like Google will have to pay Integra big time. Didn't anybody think about some basic due diligence?

On a separate pre-litigation - or maybe for litigation avoidance - note, it seems like Google is determined to pull out of China. I do not know whether Google is the new "evil" or not but I do value that the company is not giving in to the Chinese Government's blackmailing to censorship and is willing to leave the biggest world market (and to forego some yummy dollars).

A few days ago, a court finally dismissed Dish's appeal against a Tivo's lawsuit for DVR patent infringement. Thus, Tivo will be entitled to receive $300m in damages. As a result, Tivo's stock jumped 62%!!

Even Spain is seeing some action in this regard. At a time where the main private FTA channels are in merger discussions , Sogecable, owner of Cuatro", will have to pay cable provider Ono around 90m euros due to abuse of dominant position and a breach of a distribution contract. Some claim that these rulings may severely harm Sogecable's strategic plan for the coming years.

A snapshot of the internet era

Last Tuesday I was at the London city airport waiting to board for my flight to Madrid and I stopped by at the bookstore and got the last issue of Wired. First time I knew of this magazine was maybe 10 years ago, thank to a friend who was about to graduate in computer science engineering. I remember that at that time I - a law student - regarded it as a technical publication, a somewhat geeky one that was not the right reading for me at all. It was a few years later, upon my becoming interested in, and more knowledgeable about, the TMT biz, that I started to buy it from time to time as I noticed that it is more about trends and lifestyle than about core tech.

The thing is that when I bought it last Tuesday, after maybe a year since I had last got it, I realized I had idealized it too much. I was quite disappointed, I have to admit. Maybe it was just a poor issue, who knows...

Anyway, in this poor issue I was mentioning I particularly liked an article where the dot.com era was analyzed from different perspectives. One piece of the article was a two-entry chart where a number of things were plotted according to their degree of awesome/awful and for being lucrative/money bleeding. See below.

I find very funny - plus quite accurate - the evolution of Jerry Yang and the positioning of Mark Cuban and definitely agree with where Tivo, iPod and Dutch auction IPOs, to name a few. Simple but entertaining summary!

My online brand

The main reason why I decided to start this blog was the idea of building up my credible online brand on top of the Linkedins and the Facebooks of the world... and also of your own resume that you might use for job hunting from time to time. If you are passionate about something it is way more powerful to prove it by actually following it and writing about it in a recurring way  than by saying "I have always loved xyz".


Today I was taking a look at Fred Wilson's blog and his post "Own your online brand" caught my eye... and actually made quite happy (Fred is one of the most famous venture capitalists in the US and probably in the world). At the MBA Media & Entertainment Conference - which I attended twice in NY, both at Columbia and NYU - someone posed a question about the use of social media in job search, and in particular about employers' reaction to potential employees' online presence. A lot has been told about this, in particular regarding Facebook pictures and so forth. I have to admit that I am quite wary of them.


But what I really liked from Fred's post was the importance of building a "strong online presence" by managing and controlling your own online properties. This can easily be done by googling yourself. I have done so I can see my Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook profiles up there...and hopefully this blog will be next. In fact, Fred also comments that they "have hired all of our junior investment professionals largely on the basis of their blogs, not their resumes or linkedin profiles", which is quite impressive.


I feel like I am on the right track.