UPDATE: Following recent financial problems, the entire staff of 38 Studios has been laid off and Big Huge Games has been closed. Kotaku broke the news that layoffs were happening at Big Huge Games earlier today followed by a report from The Verge that 38 Studios has let go its entire staff. Now, WPRI in Rhode Island has confirmed the layoffs. According to WPRI, the following memo was sent to all 38 Studios employees earlier today: "The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary. These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012." Lead world ... Continue reading →
(Bruce Powell/AP Photo/University of Chicago Medical Center) “There is a powerful narrative among support groups and cancer survivors: Screening saves lives. . . For the most part, it’s wishful thinking. And it demonstrates the growing gap between what screening (and science more generally) can offer, and what the risk-averse public wants it to be.”—Globe and Mail, May 21, 2012 A recent recommendation by a U.S. government advisory panel to ditch the PSA test for prostate cancer has reignited the call for a cancer screening rethink. It’s no longer okay to abide by the “screen early, screen everybody” maxim, the conversation goes, echoing the one that emerged when the frequency of routine screening for breast cancer was scaled back last year. Now, it’s good to be ... Continue reading →
An initial public offering is the first chance for a company to truly find out its worth. Facebook earned a valuation of US$104 billion when it went public on May 18, in the most anticipated IPO in years. That valuation is also 104 times bigger than the company’s profit in 2011, causing some to worry that Facebook is overpriced. For perspective, we’ve applied the same measure—market capitalization divided by profit—to other notable public offerings to create our own IPO Hype Meter. The result: the Facebook frenzy is intense but not unprecedented. A pricey IPO doesn’t always mean poor returns in the short-term; hype can help drive shares higher over the next year. But Facebook’s high valuation has so far proven to be unwarranted. The company’s ... Continue reading →
Research In Motion has lost the smartphone war. With its global market share at 7 per cent, down from 21 per cent in 2009, RIM has ceded the very market it created to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android smartphone platforms. Yet RIM still boasts 75 million subscribers, $18-billion in annual revenues, relationships with 110 carriers, customers in business and government, numerous patents and a global presence – all of which could be more valuable in the hands of a company that needs a stronger mobile presence, such as Facebook. More related to this story Still fighting, RIM has reorganized and is planning to launch a new software operating system called Blackberry 10. Sadly, it’s all too little, too late. RIM waited too long before taking ... Continue reading →
We just got off the phone with a hedge fund manager who says his fund owns Facebook stock "in excess of a $100 million." The fund bought the stock Friday, after the IPO. This source spoke to us because he is very angry about the Facebook IPO—particularly the way NASDAQ has handled it. His allegations/claims/opinions: NASDAQ knew its systems were broken before the Facebook IPO, and instead of aborting the offering and facing huge embarrassment, it went ahead. Traders then lost hundreds of millions of dollars as they tried to buy and sell Facebook stock without getting confirmation that their trades had been executed. NASDAQ made the problem worse on Monday. NASDAQ told traders who thought they had sold their Facebook stock on Friday—but had ... Continue reading →
