by Jon Gray, Contributor, Laid Off and Looking, The Wall Street Journal
My productivity lapses don’t come from Facebook. My problem is a combination of world news sites and Twitter. Using RescueTime, an online time management tool, I’ve named two productivity goals for myself. One goal sets my unproductive time at less than 90 minutes per day. The other sets my highly productive time at greater than five hours per day.
by Scott Austin, Lead Editor, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal
In light of Ancestry.com’s IPO today, tech site Vator.tv calculated the average age of the venture-backed tech companies that have gone public this year.
by Pui-Wing Tam, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Atherton, Calif., is the mansion Mecca for many of Silicon Valley’s tech multi-millionaires. And so far in 2009, even though home sales and median property sale prices in the town have slowed from a year ago, The Wall Street Journal found that there hasn’t been as little activity as some techie buyers might think.
by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Eric Schmidt is brimming with Bay Area pride.
In the 33 years that the Google CEO has lived in the Bay Area, Schmidt says he has watched a long list of regions try–and fail–to create technology capitals of Silicon Valley’s scale.
Motley Fool Holdings Inc. this week announced it raised $25 million in venture financing. Good for The Fool.
But pulling back the curtain, there’s more than just a simple round of financing here. The deal points to creative ways in which venture firms are finding liquidity other than the standard acquisitions, IPOs and secondary sales.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Garmin this morning reported much better-than-expected Q3 results, giving an early lift to shares of the GPS device maker.
For the quarter, Garmin posted revenue of $781 million and non-GAAP EPS of $1.02 a share; the Street had expected $704 million and 69 cents. Revenue was down 10 percent year over year, but up 17 percent sequentially.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
So, the race to $0 book prices continues.
As the AP notes this morning, the fierce price cutting in the book business, which until now had focused largely on pre-orders, has now spread to current works: Amazon.com is offering both John Grisham’s short-story collection Ford County and Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel The Lacuna for $9 apiece.
by Vanessa O'Connell and Elva Ramirez, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
A self-described iPhone freak, designer Norma Kamali spends each morning reading the day’s headlines on her gadget’s current-events application. To unwind, she plays Scrabble on a game app. When her miniature dachshund Zeke acts up, Ms. Kamali looks up her iPhone’s encyclopedia on canine ailments.
by Loretta Chao, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
China Unicom may have gotten a bad rap for its lackluster iPhone announcement this week, but its launch upstaged the event at the Apple store.
The iPhone did, in fact, draw a crowd today, despite a rare rainstorm that had streets jammed in Beijing. At China Unicom’s outdoor event, several hundred people lined up to be first to buy the phone.
by Jerry A. Dicolo, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Intel Corp. Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said evidence is beginning to emerge that corporations are returning to technology spending, although such spending is driven more by the savings offered than by any spending increases.
“Our sales guys are picking up more interest at corporations,” Mr. Smith said in an interview Thursday.
by Loretta Chao, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Apple Inc. is a master at creating buzz around its product launches. But as the popular iPhone approaches its official debut in China–the world’s largest mobile-phone market–consumers here seem anything but excited.
by Martin Peers, Columnist, Heard on the Street, The Wall Street Journal
Just how long can Amazon put off paying its bills?
It’s no secret that Amazon’s financial success is partly based on its ability to take in money for selling merchandise before it has to pay suppliers for those goods. But lately Amazon has gone one better: steadily lengthening the time it takes to pay suppliers. That has been a factor behind the retailer’s soaring cash flow.
by Miriam Jordan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
A coveted visa program that feeds skilled workers to top-tier U.S. technology companies and universities is on track to leave thousands of spots unfilled for the first time since 2003, a sign of how the weak economy has eroded employment even among highly trained professionals.
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