HURRAY!

America's Fastest-Growing Small Public Companies

] Pity Marc Benioff. Sure, his net worth may well exceed
] $250 million when Salesforce.com, the company he helped
] to start in 1999, goes public, most likely in the next
] couple of months.

It's Not Google. It's That Other Big I.P.O.

] "After a deep three-year slump that erased more than one
] million jobs, U.S. technology companies have begun hiring
] again, marking a so far modest but solid trend that could
] well brighten the country's economic outlook," The Wall
] Street Journal reported in a front-page article today.

There is no spoon.

Tech Help Wanted, at Last

] For most of our lives, Malone says, "the big message of
] business history was that getting bigger and more
] centralized was the way you succeed. But now you can have
] both the economic benefits of bigness and the human
] benefits of smallness."
]
] He cites all the small companies that now can sell around
] the country and the world via the Internet: "They're no
] longer limited by being in a certain region. They can buy
] and sell anywhere."

The Future of Work: An 'Apprentice'-style Office?

] The GOP is also counting on Kerry rhetoric that ticks off
] some techies. The Democrat has demonized "Benedict Arnold
] CEOs" who send jobs offshore and has backed expensing of
] the industry's prized employee stock options. "When you
] tee off on Benedict Arnolds, you probably have to play a
] few rounds before you interest the business community,"
] says John Endean, president of the American Business
] Conference, which represents midsize growth companies.

If Kerry simply reversed his position on expensing options, he'd have all the pieces of the puzzle.

Here Comes Broadband John

] Here's some sobering math. If the Nasdaq were to surge 50
] percent a year (like it did last year) for the next three
] years, it would not reach 5,000 again until sometime in
] early 2006. Of course, a 50 percent increase in the
] Nasdaq is not exactly the norm.
]
] Even if the Nasdaq has several consecutive years of 20
] percent gains -- which would still be above the normal
] historical rate of return for stocks -- it wouldn't hit
] 5,000 again until the beginning of 2009.

Bye Bye .com it was good knowing you. We had a blast! Thanks for the ride and good memories! Back to the grind...

Investors have learned from Nasdaq 5K

] The level of broadband adoption in the United States
] continues to grow -- up two points to 36 percent in the
] fourth quarter of 2003.

as Zoidberg would say, "HOORAY!"

Moving On Up to Broadband

] They say everyone is connected to everyone else in the
] world by no more than six degrees of separation. Now a
] new set of dot-coms such as Friendster, Ryze, and
] Tribe.net are putting that notion to the test, allowing
] individuals to create an electronic Web of friends,
] families, and business contacts, who in turn, are
] connected to their other friends, families, and business
] contacts.

blah blah blah. Yeah, there used to be a site called sixdegrees.com... of course it blew up just like a bunch of other 'good' ideas. I blog'd this more as a data point of the hullabaloo in the space versus any useful info gleened from it.

The Perils and Promise of Online Schmoozing

] After this year, they say, the stock-option party may be
] drawing to a close.
]
] The party pooper is an accounting standard change slated
] to take effect in 2005. The controversial rule, proposed
] by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, the
] standards-setting body for the profession, requires firms
] to record a charge on earnings statements to reflect the
] cost of employee stock-option grants.

This is a travesty in every sense of the word. The Bush administration has basically robbed every middle class worker the opportunity to EARN OWNERSHIP and participate in the wealth building process. It will make it harder for companies to recruit, retain, and leverage their workforces. And it will further exacerbate the already ridiculous pay packages given to executives and insiders.

Last Hurrah for Stock Options

] Fascinating stuff, I told the spokeswoman. She said
] Wal-Mart was simply trying to do the right thing by the
] war on drugs.

Yes Virginia, you can go too far.

Wal-Mart's ignoble war on drugs