A depressed Spain

I consider myself a quite apolitical individual. In fact I have not voted in the last 6 or 8 years and this is mainly due to the fact that Spanish politicians and Spanish politics as a whole do suck, badly... It does not matter what their colors are. They all suck and they are not ready to take the country out of a recession in which they dragged it themselves. Let's not forget about the unions, damn, have these guys ever worked? You take a look at the so-called "leaders" acting in politics and you want to cry.

I am pessimistic these days. It is really sad to look around. It is about crisis and downturn all over the place, about cuts, about tax raises...It is true that many, if not all, Western countries are going through a rough time and it seems to be like that recovery will eventually come in a W shape (we are in the second downward slope).

I feel somewhat privileged considering the job that I have, my wage, and so forth. But it drives me nuts when, for instance, I see one of these "leaders" claiming that higher taxes "is the price that Spaniards must  pay for living in a modern country". It makes me mad when an "effort" is demanded from those who earn the most (please, let's be serious defining what earning the most means... it is not 30k or 40k a year, for Christ's sake!), considering that it is these people who go out there and spend money to prevent restaurants, shops, bars and so forth from closing and from sending people to the unemployment lists.

And in this shitty scenario, let's not forget that Spain has recently lost to Canada the "privilege" of being the country with the most inaccessible housing in the world (the ratio price to income is 172, in the US, for instance 94).

With all these in mind, one thinks whether it is worth it to leave in this country. What do you work for? To see how all these "leaders"  become richer and richer, to digest how uneducated people take the reins of one of the top 10 or 15 economies in the world? It is so frustrating. Today I came across a blog posting on the leading Spanish financial site Cotizalia. Two paragraphs that really got me to think about quite a bunch of people that could see themselves pictured in these words:

"Tengo un amigo que es un crack. Tiene 32 años, como yo, un buen puesto en una gran empresa española y un don de gentes fuera de lo común. Un líder, vamos. Hace un par de semanas quedamos a comer y me dijo que estaba pensando irse a trabajar fuera de España. ¿Por qué? ¿Descontento en su empresa? ¿Malas relaciones con su jefe? No, y tampoco era por la envidia que suelen provocar programas del tipo “Españoles por el mundo”.

El problema de mi amigo es que ha dejado de confiar en España. No ve salida a la situación por ningún lado. Y no se refiere a llevar un sueldo a casa a fin de mes, que yo creo que nunca le faltará: se refiere a poder hacer algo grande en este país, a las capacidades de proyectarse, de desarrollarse profesionalmente, aspirando a lo máximo, a ser un líder en los negocios globales".

One of those people that I know was in San Francisco not long ago and one of the things that impacted him the most was what the vibe around business is. People are non-complacent, they are thrilled to explore new ideas, to take on challenges, to leave crises behind, to be productive... It is true that San Francisco is vibrant and quite different to most places in this context. But the problem is that Spain is exactly on its antipodes. 

Que dios reparta suerte...

Recari goes international

A little bit of self-promotion on this Sunday evening. It's taken us a while but finally the Revista Espanola de Capital Riesgo, our small venture in the area of private equity and M&A is going international.

Since yesterday the site is available in English and Portuguese. This is just a babystep since the publication is still all in Spanish but trying to be on the radar for the growing Spanish population in the US and for the largest and most appealing county in South America for private equity purposes sounds like a must.

Let's see how things play out.

Yahoo-Nokia marriage

A week or so ago Yahoo and Nokia announced that they had struck a global deal pursuant to which Yahoo will power email, search and chat on Nokia's mobile devices, while Nokia will provide mapping services for all Yahoo's navigation products.

A see this agreement more like a defensive move. Why? Simply put because both Yahoo and Nokia lost their momentum in their respective core markets long ago. Google has definitely beat Yahoo in the search/advertising battle, while Nokia is seeing how Blackberry, iPhone and Android keep eroding market share from it in smartphones every single year ( I still remember the days when I wanted nothing but a Nokia phone...now it clearly trails the other three OS).

Though both Yahoo and Nokia still serve millions of customers around the world, this seems to me like an emergency solution.

The essence of basketball

Yesterday the Lakers beat the Suns in the 6th game of the NBA's Western Conference Finals. Since the Celtics smashed the Magic in their series, that means that the "final of the finals" is back for the second time in three years.

I have not been very tuned to the NBA this season, mainly because the time difference does not play in my favor (the best way to follow it is by watching games rather than by reading articles and watching the highlights). But now is the time to get back to business.

From a business perspective I am sure that Mr. Stern and the rest of the NBA's management will have a spark in their eyes. No better scenario than a Lakers-Celtics final to gain momentum and to keep on milking the NBA brand around the world (in particular following Lebron's defeat).

I've always been a Laker fan, as far as I can remember. I did love Magic Johnson and that turned me into a Laker fan forever. Needless to say, when Pau Gasol signed for the Lakers such a feeling was re-boosted. On the contrary - and maybe precisely because I am a Laker - I do not like the Celtics at all. Never have and characters such as KG and Paul Pierce are not the kind of guys who will make me think differently.

Let's see how all this plays out. A couple of years ago the Celtics were way stronger and deserved to win. Let's see if Kobe, Pau, Lamar, Ron and the rest of the crew kick ass out there in the coming weeks.

Privacy is in fashion

Internet users' privacy has always been a concern. That is obvious and reasonable. It must not be allowed that companies do whatever they want with the data they might gather. Over the past couple of weeks, significant outcry has raised against two giants such as Google and Facebook.

Google has faced trouble in countries such as Ireland and Germany. Apparently, Google gathered data from unencrypted wifi  networks while getting info for location-based products from its Street View cars. The Irish authorities have forced Google to delete all the collected data and Google has met that demands quickly and has confirmed through a public statement .

On the other hand, Facebook has experienced the last of its many incidents concerning the use of its users' private information. I am quite an avid Facebook user and I must admit that I have never paid super detailed attention to my Facebook privacy controls beyond the people I share pics and information with. The other day, after reading about Mark Zuckerberg explanations (how many so far!!) on the Washington Post I went to my Facebook's settings and they are a mess and hard to understand. Zuckerberg acknowledges that, though people are willing to share information (but with the people they want to, not necessarily with third parties, I'd say!!!!!), they want simpler privacy controls and claims that Facebook has heard such feedback from users and that some changes will be introduced shortly. Well, this sounds to me like the same old story. It is the "n-time" that Zuckerberg goes out there to apologize/explain their treatment of users' data. C'mon guys, enough, just do what you have to do (i.e. all settings should be "private" and "opt-in" by default) at once. I understand that Facebook might need such information to monetize its audience through third parties but this is not the right way to do it.

These have been to of latest stories about privacy. Rest assured it they won't be the last.

AAPL > MSFT

I need to catch up with my writing. I have been most busy over the past two or three weeks but I hope I am gonna have some more time in the coming weeks. Wait and see.

Today is a remarkable and quite meaningful day in the tech era. It signals the change in trends that many have predicted long ago. Apple has become larger than Microsoft.  By today's closing bell Microsoft's market cap was $219bn vs that of Apple's of $222bn

The chart below shows the evolution of both stocks and the Nasdaq over the last 10 years. Apple's stock has skyrocketed and the return over 10 years has been 1000%. On the other hand, if I had put my money on Microsoft, today I'd have less money in absolute terms (and let's leave the time value of money aside).

But what I find most shocking is how similar the Nasdaq's and Microsoft 's trendlines look. It's pretty much the same since 2004!! Microsoft has had a very profitable business over this period of time but, still, it has not been able to beat the index.

This situation confirms Apple's health: the iPhone, the iPod, the increasing clout of macbooks. Apple is a company that is in fashion and so many people love it. Microsoft, despite being very profitable yet, has lost its mojo and there are many doubts about some of its businesses (operating system/explorer, search/bing, mobile, etc.).

Simply put, if you were given the chance to work at Apple or at Microsoft, what would you do?

Keeping an eye on my money

A couple of days ago I signed up for Moneystrands. Moneystrands is an application that allows you to oversee your personal finances from one single location. The application retrieves information from your bank and centralizes all that input on your application's "desktop", allowing you to see both how much and in what you spend your money and where your income is coming from.  The application also allows you to get recommendations and set alerts.

Before coming back to Spain from the U.S. I remember reading a lot about Mint, a similar service that won a number of awards and that was widely acclaimed by the start-up community. I had tried to use Mint at some point but I noticed that it only works with US banks for the time being.

Moneystrands is one of the diverse initiatives of Strands, a venture built around social recommendations and of Spaniard origins - the founder and CEO is Francisco Martin, a Barcelona-born scientist - with a significant footprint in the US already.  Strands has raised around $55m so far and VC firm Debaque as well BBVA and Spaniard businessman Antonio Asensio, are the investors of reference.

I have only been using Moneystrands for a few days. It is entertaining to play around with it and see in a simple and efficient way how you manage your personal finances. Nonetheless, I am missing some stuff here so far.

- I'd like the system to be able to access my credit card information. Right now that is not possible and one can only track such monthly payments as a single item, which leads to somewhat misleading information

- it would be useful to keep track of your stock, investment funds, ETFs, etc

But all in all, Moneystrands works fine and it is really easy yo use.

HP to buy Palm

Important shakeout in the technology market. HP has agreed to purchase Palm for around $1.2bn.

It does not surprise me. Palm is a brand that lost its mojo some years ago - I still remember having a couple of basic Palm PDAs to take control of my agenda and contacts - and that has failed to keep up with the changing times.

PDAs have evolved for the most part into today's smartphones and Palm has been kicked in the butt by other manufacturers such as Apple or RIM. Not even the release of the Pre - the latest generation smartphone which generated a lot of buzz and some good reviews at the time of its launch in 2009, and in which the company had placed all its hopes - was able to turn the situation around.

HP is still a leading player in printers, laptops, desktops, servers and business services, though it has also lost the battle in the increasingly popular area of portable devices.

By acquiring Palm HP secures some interesting patents and IP in general - including Palm's webOS - that might result in interesting products in the portable devices space. Time will tell if this is a good move.

...y la sangria continua

Hoy le ha tocado a Espana y, confirmando los peores presagios, S&P ha reducido su rating y lo ha puesto a la par de grandes potencias mundiales como Eslovenia. Y en perspectiva negativa, asi que cualquier cosa puede pasar...

Y esto en una jornada en que por ejemplo Iberdrola y BBVA han presentado unos resultados que han batido las estimaciones de los analistas.

Contadictorio o no, el IBEX35 otro 3% abajo.

Los mercados tiemblan

Solo dos lineas para constatar el golpe que se ha pegado el IBEX35 hoy, a sumar a las de la ultima semana. 800 puntitos de nada.

La bajada de rating por S&P a Grecia a nivel de bonos basura, la bajada de rating a Portugal y el riesgo de contagio de todo este maremagnum financiero a economias como la espanola y la irlandesa (he ahi los  spreads por ejemplo con la deuda alemana) no dejan indiferente a nadie. No puedo sino entender a Merkel, que se niega a meter la mano en la caja porque si para ayudar a quienes no hacen sus deberes.

No soy ningun experto en bolsa pero si esto se cae por el precipicio espero esta vez estar ahi para pillar algo del rebote, que la ultima vez me pillo con el bolsillo lleno de telaranas.

The need for early-stage investors

On April 15 Istanbul hosted EBAN's (European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and other Early Stage Market Players) 10th Annual Congress, including the 5th Annual Award Ceremony to the best business angels operating in Europe over the past year.

It is funny to see that a year ago I was attending the 9th Annual Congress, which took place in Madrid, representing the Revista Espanola de Capital Riesgo. I remember it was a quite interesting day with some presentations about the status of VC and angel investing in Europe. The global economy, the Spanish one in particular, had already taken a hit but, at least in Spain, the situation is even gloomier a year later.

On the day where we have known - thank to an involuntary leak by the national statistics authority -  that unemployment in Spain has surpassed 20%, becoming an entrepreneur becomes the only alternative for a lot of people who have gone down the unemployment road.

In a time of crisis like the one we are living early-stage investments play - or should play - an important role in supporting entrepreneurs with the courage to start potentially good businesses. Plus it is also a fact that by investing in such uncertain times investors are able to obtain lower valuations which might result in higher future returns.

In any case, governments should be legislating to provide a more favorable framework for these investments. All tools - not just tax raises and public expenditure cuts and some recurring others - should be put in place to help us get out of this situation. This is particularly interesting to note at a time where there is a global push for increasing financial regulation, including that of alternative investments by means, for instance, of the proposed AIFM Directive.

Nuevo talento

Me gusta mucho el cine y ver caras nuevas de vez en cuando, no a los mismos de siempre. Hay que apostar por el nuevo talento, asi que cuelgo los links a una serie de cortos en los que ha participado Nacho Diezhandino, gran amigo y aun mejor actor. Son cuatro en total e incluyen remakes de escenas de peliculas como Breakfast at Tiffany's y The Godfather.

http://www.ecam.es/multimedia/ver.php?id=2193

http://www.ecam.es/multimedia/ver.php?id=2192

http://www.ecam.es/multimedia/ver.php?id=2188

http://www.ecam.es/multimedia/ver.php?id=2183

http://www.ecam.es/multimedia/ver.php?id=2182

Se aprecia que estan bien rodados. De hecho cuentan con el aval de la Fundacion de la Escuela de Cinematografia y del Audiovisual de la Comunidad de Madrid (ECAM).

Que los disfruteis!

iAd: Apple entra en la batalla de la publicidad en el movil

Hace unos dias Apple presento su nuevo sistema operativo para el iPhone, el denominado IPhone OS4, que incluye diversas mejoras como la posiblidad de multi-task (utilizar varias aplicaciones a la vez) o la de organizar las distintas aplicaciones en carpetas. Pero lo que mas me llamo la atencion fue la presentacion de iAd, una nueva plataforma que permitira incluir publicidad de calidad (video, etc.) en las aplicaciones creadas por los desarrolladores. Un incentivo mas para desarrollar mas y mejores aplicaciones para el ecosistema iPhone.

Pero mas alla de todo esto, lo importante es que Apple se mete de lleno en la pelea por los dolares y los euros derivados de la publicidad, algo que al dia de hoy es practicamente un territorio propiedad de Google.

La perspectiva es en todo caso diferente. Mientras Google concentra su publicidad (y por tanto los ingresos) en las busquedas, Steve Jobs se centra en el uso por los usuarios de las aplicaciones. Tiene sentido. Atacar a Google en un ambito como el de las busquedas en el que es el lider destacadisimo probablemente sea una batalla abocada al fracaso (que se lo digan a Microsoft y Yahoo). Por otro lado, la popularidad de la App Store y de sus aplicaciones para el iPhone las convierten en un activo por explotar.

Os adjunto el link a la pagina de Apple donde podeis ver el keynote de Jobs sobre diversas cuestiones (iAd comienza hacia el minuto 44 del video y, por cierto, las cifras que maneja sobre la base del uso actual de aplicaciones y del numero de iPhones vendidos - 1.000 millones de anuncios al dia - son bastante impresionantes. Indicar igualmente que Apple planea entregar a los developers el 60% de los ingresos derivados de la publicidad).

En un momento en que se empieza a intuir cada vez mas la lucha por convertirse en el sistema operativo de referencia (yo apuesto sobre todo por iPhone y Android y en menor medida RIM, Windows y Symbian, en este orden), los ingresos derivados de las aplicaciones para moviles no hacen esa lucha sino mas interesante todavia.

On Foursquare

I have been taking a look at Foursquare over the past half an hour. Foursquare is one of the new "hot" things going on in the social networks arena in the US. It is a geo-location service that allows you to get information and recommendation about places in the area where you are at some point and also rewards your participation (e.g. you can get badges, points).

You can link up Foursquare with Facebook and Twitter to spot those friends who are using it. Well, out of my 500+ friends on Facebook only seven actually use Foursquare. This obviously means that it has not gone mainstream yet and it remains to be seen if it is here to stay.

So I have created an account, I have signed in, downloaded my Blackberry app... and I am unable to sign in on my cell. Another bug on my Storm. I feel like it is a problem with the device's GPS, which does not work well...so a geo-location service such as Foursquare does not work properly. Or maybe it is just some other thing... It had been some time without saying: looking forward to switching to Android or iPhone.

Hiding my IP address

The other day I finally did some research to be able to access sites located outside of Spain - I am mostly interested in the US - that require users to be within the country where the site is located. In other words, I pretty much wanted to access Hulu and the American tv networks, be able to use Boxee and so on.

It was so easy. I can't believe it took me so long to do so. I just downloaded a VPN application called Hotspot Shield which, based on the grounds of protecting your privacy when surfing, hides your IP and prevents the site you are trying to visit from blocking your access.

I have not used it much yet but it does work and the only downside appears to be that it slows down your connection. Nonetheless, you can put it to sleep anytime you want and you can then surf without hassle.

Pretty cool.