There was a time in 2008 when Twitter really started taking off. Celebrities were starting to use it. Kevin Rose, former geek leader and entrepreneur, dissed his own startup, Pownce, by saying that he preferred Twitter. The company was on a good trajectory. That was on the surface. Behind the scenes, it was far from cozy. They were having coding issues. They couldn’t stay up for an entire day without presenting a fail whale for an extended period of time. They were, in essence, a tech company that was getting too popular for their own good and couldn’t figure out how to bring everything together. Then,…

The good news for tech companies is that America seems to like them the best. Amazon topped the list, followed by Apple at #2 and Google at #4. The bad news for all American corporations is that nearly of Americans feel that corporate America in general is “poor” or “terrible” while two-thirds of Americans think that corporate America is “fair” at best. Only 9% perceive corporate America as “excellent/very good”. What does this mean? It says that tech companies are easier to trust, to like, and to do business with, likely because most of the interactions with them are online. Once face-to-face or…

It isn’t too common for Wall Street analysts to be very wrong. They have good indicators and past performances upon which to generate their predictions and it’s often more accurate than the weather. With Google’s Q4 2012 analysis, they were wrong by a mile even at Google’s revenue standards. They reported $14.42 billion in the last quarter and earnings per share of $10.65 on a non-GAAP basis. Analyst had expected that Google would have revenues of $12.3 billion. “We ended 2012 with a strong quarter,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “Revenues were up 36% year-on-year, and 8% quarter-on-quarter….

I said over a year ago that Facebook would be the worst tech investment in history. It’s now being confirmed as the worst performing IPO on record. Shortly after launching, I said that it would drop to $17 within a year, over 50% below its opening price. @robfontano @emiltsch OK. 1 Year. I say Facebook will be $17 1 year from today. Over/Under? — JD Rucker (@0boy) June 5, 2012 Sadly, I may have been too optimistic. Shares fell to a new low today after the initial lockout period for early employees ended: Rules expired Thursday that had restricted some early investors from selling down their stakes…

Stocks shot up 18% after a report that Groupon had slayed expectations from The Street to post its first quarterly profit. Better decisions on marketing spends and an increase in customers and merchants were the trigger point that marked the first real turn after a disastrous start. The company has been plagued by accounting issues and bad press surrounding their inexperienced CEO Andrew Mason. Now, then “humbled” Mason is making sound decisions, pushing for mobile expansion as well as growth overseas. “Revenue growth was impressive and they also had material margin expansion,” said The…

They say you have to spend money in order to make money. The problem for Yelp is that they may be spending too much money compared to what they’re earning. This is common for publicly-traded companies, but in their case they may be spending too much compared to how much they have the potential to make, a prospect that nobody at the company and few on Wall Street are willing to entertain. There is definitely growth-potential for whoever can do well in the local listings and recommendations industry. Mobile devices, the Apple products in particular, rely on Yelp as a way for users to find the best sushi…