Mark Zuckerberg is the guiding force behind Facebook's meteoric rise from college dorm room project to global Internet powerhouse. But with Facebook poised to hit Wall Street on Friday in one of the biggest initial stock offerings in history, investors have to decide whether Zuckerberg has the chops to lead a more publicly scrutinized company that could be valued at more than $100 billion. The level of difficulty for sustaining success at a company that size is high even for a seasoned business executive, much less a college dropout who just turned 28 this week. "He could do everything perfectly, but everything could still go to hell because the market changes," said Robert Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. "The ... Continue reading →
The office of Pleasanton social entertainment startup Milyoni Inc. has one wall devoted to visual reminders of what inspires each employee to succeed. For Chief Executive Officer John Corpus, that inspiration is profoundly personal: to do all he can to help his 13-year-old daughter, Samantha, and other girls afflicted with Rett syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. "Having a daughter with special needs definitely grounds you, makes you realize what's important," Corpus said as he prepared for Tuesday's seventh annual Samantha Corpus Foundation Golf Tournament at the Blackhawk Country Club. "I realize the success of Milyoni will drive other things, specifically helping to find and fund a cure for Rett syndrome," he said. Samantha was diagnosed with the physically debilitating disorder when she was 3 1/2, ... Continue reading →
(05-11) 14:02 PDT -- Facebook has brought its IPO road show to Palo Alto, with a lunchtime meeting Friday with about 200 potential Silicon Valley investors at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is believed to have been driven in to the hotel along with others executives in one of three luxury SUVs. But the heavily tinted windows prevented a gaggle of reporters and photographers from seeing inside to determine if he was wearing his trademark hoodie. Later Friday, people who were in the meeting said Zuckerberg was wearing his usual grey T-shirt and blue jeans, and that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had on a black dress. The young CEO's caual attire became controversial in the traditional suit-and-tie world of New York, but may ... Continue reading →
A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in itself) presenting Web 2.0 themes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) We think of Google and Facebook as Web gorillas. They’ll be around forever. Yet, with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both might be gone completely in 5 – 8 years. And there’s some academic theory to back up that view, along with casual observations from recent history. When I was a PhD student 15 years ago, I studied with Don Hambrick who is a scholar known for a career showing the effects of management teams and directors (for good and for ill) on their organizations’ strategies and performance. One of the central tenants of this school of ... Continue reading →
Facebook members in the United States and the United Kingdom can now publicly share whether they are registered organ donors, an initiative that donor advocates say could be crucial in raising awareness of people in need of life-saving transplants. Facebook on Tuesday introduced an optional "organ donor" status into Timeline profiles. Members are prompted to publicly share why they registered to donate their heart, kidney, liver or other organs after death. If they haven't, Facebook presents an online link to the appropriate donor registry. The organ donor note will appear on the member's Timeline along with other "life events" like graduation from college or getting married. "What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really ... Continue reading →
UC Berkeley has won a $60 million grant to establish a worldwide center for theoretical computer science to explore high-level mathematical algorithms that could help a variety of scientific fields, including health care, climate modeling and economics. The award from the Simons Foundation of New York will be used to start the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, which is expected start operations in July and move into a remodeled Calvin Hall on the Berkeley campus in 2013. "There's nothing like it in computer science," said Richard Karp, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science who is the institute's founding director. "We think it will be a magnet for people doing theoretical work in computer science around the world." The work of the ... Continue reading →
LinkedIn released an iPad app late Wednesday that for the first time weaves a member's personal calendar into the news updates and contact information offered by the professional social network. The Mountain View company is hoping to take advantage of the growing use of mobile devices, especially Apple's best-selling iPad. The new app could also become the enticement LinkedIn has long sought to give its members a reason to log in more frequently. LinkedIn's just-the-facts-ma'am desktop version has "been like a vitamin," said Susan Etlinger, a social-media industry analyst with the Altimeter Group of San Mateo. "You sort of do it because you have to, but it hasn't been the most pleasurable," Etlinger said. "This iPad app is definitely one of the most engaging things ... Continue reading →
George B. Rathmann, whose passion for science and business helped build Amgen into the world's largest biotechnology company, died Sunday at home in Palo Alto home. He was 84. Dr. Rathmann, widely regarded as one of the fathers of the biotech industry, had been treated for kidney failure for several years and died of pneumonia, his son James Rathmann said. Part of his treatment included a version of EPO (or Epogen), one of the drugs that turned Amgen into a biotech powerhouse. "It was a very wonderful irony," James Rathmann said. Dr. Rathmann, who had helped develop 3M's Scotchgard stain protection solution, was 53 when he was recruited in 1980 to become the first chief executive officer and co-founder of a new startup in Thousand ... Continue reading →
While companies like Yahoo, Facebook, Google and Oracle are waging intellectual property wars in the courts, Twitter on Tuesday took an intriguing stand by pledging that the company will not impede innovation by becoming a patent troll. And Twitter has drafted an “Innovator’s Patent Agreement,” or IPA, that the San Francisco company proposes as a standard for the entire tech industry. “The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers,” Twitter VP of Engineering Adam Messinger wrote in a company blog. “It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. ... Continue reading →
