On, Off and Now On Again?

I just saw that the news wires are carrying a story that Microsoft and Yahoo! are in talks again, but this time they hinge on something less than a total acquisition.

Icahn must be scarier than everyone thought. For Yang to prefer to go back to the evil empire instead of fighting a proxy battle against the evil corporate raider speaks volumes. (And that's of course the kind of volume that's written in Latin, has a diabolical name and is oft featured in Hammer horror films.)

Race Day

Monterey Festival Of Speed, 2008

Saturday was the Monterey Festival of Speed, so obviously I decided it was a priority to skive-off there for a day. Originally, the program was supposed to feature the CART championship race that was, until last year, being held in downtown San Jose, but the reunification of CART and Indy racing meant that it got cancelled. Instead, the day offered Formula BMW, Formula Atlantic, IMSA and the Rolex Sports Car series. More on that in a later post.

Anyhoo ... it was as hot and sunny on Saturday as it had been earlier in the week, which of course meant I got sunburned, though less than last year so I suppose I've learned something even if not quite yet to use sunscreen. Perhaps because of the program change, it wasn't particularly crowded so finding space to sit in the shade up by the Corkscrew was fairly easy and there were no issues walking round the paddock, buying food or even getting a good seat in the grandstand, so long as you don't mind sitting in the blazing sun that is.

Fine way to spend a day, and a reminder that no matter how much money you may have then racing will soak it all up, and then some.

101 On The 101

Nope, we're not talking speed for once but rather temperature. In fact, according to what my car was telling me today while driving just a few miles on 101 from a local meeting back to the office, it was at least 103 degrees out there.

Good day to be in the office (air conditioned at someone else's expense); bad day to be sitting in traffic (sun beating down, price of petrol, death by frustration, black interior and dash). However, both places are preferable to home where our air conditioner can barely keep the main living room down to a comfortable temperature and stands no chance at all of cooling the main bedroom, conveniently located right under the roof in a open plan house so it's guaranteed to be the hottest room in the place bar none. And no, it doesn't cool off at night when we get these high pressure systems parked over the desert states.

More of the same promised tomorrow, with precious little relief on Saturday when I'll be spending all day in the heat-bowl that's Laguna Seca.

Time To Feed The Beast

Well that was quick. Yesterday, stories were swirling around that Icahn's position in Yahoo! might lead to a proxy battle and today we find the first shots have now been fired.

As reported by Yahoo! news (ah yes, irony for breakfast again in Silicon Valley) by way of Reuters, '"If Jerry Yang had a tough time dealing with Steve, wait till he meets Carl Icahn," said Colin Gillis, a Canaccord Adams analyst.' Indeed.

Never met Icahn myself - we move in somewhat different circles, him being in the top 50 wealthiest men in America, and me being .... well... err... nothing equivalent really - but his reputation of scaring the living daylights out of CEOs who don't bend to his particular brand of shareholder activism precedes him, usually by about a country mile.

Jerry, quick word of advice: don't answer any phone calls coming in from the east coast if you don't recognise the number. And never, ever, forget to carry that garlic .....

Yahoo! Becomes Shark Bait

According to the WSJ & others this morning, Carl Icahn has bought into Yahoo! following the withdrawal of the best-and-final offer from Microsoft. Having Icahn out there stirring up trouble is most definitely bad news for Jerry Yang, Yahoo!'s CEO, because, as reported, it might signal a proxy battle is looming.

Not clear if Microsoft would come back to the table even if Icahn could replace a slew of board directors but clearly Yang's support base would vaporize along with those changes. If history is anything to go by, it's now just a matter of when Yang goes rather than if. Anyone remember what happened at Motorola last year when Icahn bought a little over 1% of the company? Zander was harangued both in public and behind the scenes, especially once it became clear that the Razr wave was spent and nothing was following in its wake, with the net result that he was unceremoniously booted out by year end.

"Wall" plus "writing" = ?

More Excuses

Whatever is happening at the macroeconomic level notwithstanding, our business seems to be holding up well with a lot of potential activity on the books for 2Q. We came up a little short in 1Q so we really do need to nail down a good slug of bookings between now and the end of June in order to get us back on track for the full FY. However, things seem to be converging in such a way that we could have a record quarter ... more news as it happens!

Adding to the inherent pressures around just operating, and more importantly, growing, the business, fund raising efforts continue apace too. This creates yet another thing for the management team to pay attention to and right at the time when maximum efforts need to be concentrated on closing business ... which is of course itself important in order to get the funding round done. Chicken-and-egg surprise anyone?

Anyway, this is all by way of yet another excuse for not posting more frequently here for a week or two. However, I will be at Laguna Seca this weekend for the 2008 Monterey Festival of Speed so at least moving into next week I can just post shots of yet more racing cars to keep you all distracted by pictures of bright shiny things that can go very fast.

The Dog Ate My Breakfast

"Yes, that is indeed the guilty party, m'Lud, I'd recognise him anywhere."

So there I was this morning, having breakfast at home for once instead of the office which is where I usually scrape something together, when, as I will describe below, the dog ate my toast. Yes, it was balanced somewhat precariously on the couch at the time, but still. This was an unexpected and somewhat startling development. Let me explain.

The point here isn't so much that dogs will snaffle food when opportunity knocks but rather that in this instance I'm convinced he gamed me, deliberately and with malice aforethought, creating an opening to allow this larceny to take place.

Baci knows that his tail can cause havoc, especially when there's a cup of tea sitting on the table in the family room. It's low and large, positioned perfectly for him to threaten mayhem just by being happy. So here was his plan: feint a pass along the table with wildly wagging tail so I'll be forced to protect the cup of tea and then nip along the side of the couch to grab the tasty piece of toast complete with lashings of jam and peanut butter. He did, and it worked perfectly.

What worries me the most is that this was pulled off by a dog known to be dumber than the box of proverbial rocks ... allegedly at least. A dog so IQ-challenged he keeps falling down the stairs because he just forgets what they are for. So here's the issue: if he can evolve from basic household pet to a sentient, scheming demon capable of forming a plan and executing to it in a little over 6 months, what will he be capable of doing 6 years from now???

Ideas, Liberation, Speed

Just been reading an interesting article by Tom Peters reflecting on his work of now some 27 years ago: In Search Of Excellence. This revisitation was published in 2001 and so, to some extent at least, was a product of the then-bursting dot com bubble. But, having said all that, the three things he would add to the 8 basic principles espoused in ISoE, namely, ideas, liberation and speed, resonate well even now,despite the world of business moving on another 7 years in the meantime.

Today, for example, I spent the morning at a major player in the virtualization world seeing if there is some fit between our technology and their future directions. In the afternoon, I joined an internal meeting where we had an big external market analysis firm in to run a day-long working session around our market space and opportunity.

Liberation and speed came strongly to the fore in both meetings, with ideas bouncing around both rooms like a super-ball in a spin-dryer. And it was a fun - if long and tiring - day, perhaps precisely because those three basic tenets formed the basis for all that was covered? We talked nothing of organization, structure or even that much about technology, but everything around opportunity, needs and the freedom to change.

Personally, I'm no great fan of business books, and ISoE never really struck much of a cord with me if only because I somehow managed to spend very little time in my career in places where the old way, namely focusing solely on numbers and strict top-down hierarchical control of everything, was the norm. (I say that, but I did see it from the customer side. Anyone who had dealings with GEC in the UK in the 80s would recognise that ethos in spades, and likely attest to it's negative impact on staff morale and ultimately the long term success - or not - of the entire enterprise!) However , it was interesting to re-read this updated summary of a book that, when it first came out, made such a revolutionary impact, and to note that Peters was still able to add value, albeit with the benefit of 20/20 (years) hindsight.

Slip Or Save?

Microsoft Is Holding The Knife To Yahoo!'s ... ?

Interesting times here in Silicon Valley with Yahoo! rejecting, for the nth time, overtures from Microsoft and then being surprised that Mr. Softee walks away. Fascinating stuff and a topic that generated a lot of column inches on web-pages and newsprint alike.

Witness too lots of backpedalling from Yahoo! executives and board members as they try to explain how this will be good for Yahoo! in the long run, to be set against a bunch of really rather pissed-off institutional shareholders who think they just got royally screwed, and you have the stuff of SV legend.

However, this isn't going to be the end of the road, not by a long chalk. Expect warm-and-fuzzy overtures from Yahoo! to Redmond saying, in effect, "just kidding", alongside Microsoft getting more aggressive about undertaking other moves aimed at further weakening Yahoos! operating abilities. Yes, Yahoo! could do a deal with Google to outsource search but that would fundamentally weaken their core value to MS or indeed anyone else. It's also been talked about that they could buy AOL but frankly the laws of thermodynamics are against them if they believe that by tying two rocks together the combination will be able to stay afloat better than one on its own.

Whatever way you choose to look at this the real loser will be Yahoo! regardless almost of what metric you apply. Beware a woman scorned? Probably easier to deal with than a Redmond rebuffed.

2 Days In Carmel

Sunset, Carmel Beach

After a couple of days break in Carmel it's back to the salt mines once again.

Couple of things worth mentioning if you happen to find yourself down that way :

- in Carmel, the Bouchee restaurant is well worth a look. Good French country cooking but done in a more modern style, plus a great wine list. We found a half-bottle of Robert Foley Charbono for the reasonable (restaurant) price of $40. Dining in Carmel can be a bit of a hit-or-miss affair so we were happy with the food, price (approx. $140 for two in total) and service. I had coq-au-vin and S had the lamb, both of which were well executed and generously proportioned without going overboard. The Vanilla creme brulee was a bit more heavy duty but at least you could see bits of actual vanilla pod indicating that someone had taken due care in preparing things in the kitchen.

- while Julia Burns Pfeiffer park (about 35 miles south of Carmel) is well worth a visit then not sure the 4 hour loop hike to the top was a good return on the time and sweat invested. Sure, you get a good view at the very top, but then the same can be said of what you get from the restaurant deck at the Nepenthe, and they serve drinks. Instead, just do the first part of the loop and enjoy the cool trail under the trees, heading back to the parking lot and under the road to see the coastal view and waterfall. The same day pass ($8) will then let you into Point Lobos State Park on the way back (just south of Carmel) where you can get right to the ocean.

- we stayed at the Carriage House Inn. It was clean, quiet and comfortable, if all with a bit of an AARP feel to it. Still, it's only a couple of blocks from main street and just a short walk to the beach so it's hard to fault the location and this place has good discounts on offer so don't pay top dollar to stay there.

Amazingly enough, we dodged the fog on both days, which makes a big difference. A fogged-in Carmel loses a lot of its charm.