id
stringlengths 32
32
| url
stringlengths 31
1.58k
| title
stringlengths 0
1.02k
| contents
stringlengths 92
1.17M
|
|---|---|---|---|
a7e1120e9aa87d8672c91bf550bab9a6
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2019/02/12/openfin-builds-an-os-for-traders-on-high-performance-html5/
|
OpenFin Builds An OS For Traders On High Performance HTML5
|
OpenFin Builds An OS For Traders On High Performance HTML5
Mazy Dar thinks trading apps should be like mobile phone apps.
“Think about what happens on phones, most users have an incredibly simple experience," says the CEO of OpenFin which lets trading apps approach the user-friendliness of an iPhone. "Users download an app, the apps are simple and easy to use and all the apps on the phone work together. If you are in Calendar and tap Address, it opens Google Maps and you can order Uber. And you can share messages,” he said.
Financial trading information on a phone Getty
“You also have a layer of security around all of this. If I download an app on my phone, that app doesn’t automatically have access to my photos or my location. That is the simple experience everyone loves on the phone.”
By contrast financial desktop applications don’t have instant distribution.
“It can take months to deploy an app to a trader because banks and other financial firms put the app through security reviews and other testing to make sure it won’t do anything nefarious or malicious once it is installed on the desktop. But even after testing, once the app is installed, it has complete, unfettered access to all the other systems.”
To attain interoperability across financial desktop applications generally requires using a person as the integration layer. A trader sees pricing on a trading screen and then types that CUSIP into an internal system to see the inventory and then has to go to a separate CRM app to find customers who traded that bond.
“What we have done at OpenFin is built an OS layer that sits on top of Windows, Mac and Linux and brings that phone app experience to the financial desktop…the desktop OS we use in finance are almost entirely Windows 7, although but firms are working to upgrade to Windows 10. However, neither has any of the capabilities iOS and Android have on their phones. The key is HTML5, which brings industrial strength performance and security to the enterprise."
Open Fin has been a hit with financial firms; Dar said it has been deployed to more than 1,500 firms, and runs over 1,000 apps on nearly 200,000 desktops.
Stock Market Tickers Getty
“Our mission is to have the OpenFin OS on every desktop at every bank and buyside firm.”
It uses HTML5 to provide a desktop experience in a web browser. OpenFin exposes APIs that allows a web app to start to look and behave like a native desktop app, allows windowing, secure system access, all the things a browser cannot do.
The industry is in the middle of an evolution to HTML5, he added.
“Even a few years ago people said HTML5 isn’t fast enough. You don't hear that any more. Now trading apps are being upgraded to HTML5 because it is faster than .Net and Java and some of the biggest upgrades can be deployed instantly. They have to go through testing but basically the issue is whether it works, will end users be happy, not whether it is secure.”
For apps built on older tech like C++ and .Net, OpenFin connects to them through adapters. But increasingly apps are being built on HTML5, what Dar describes as a macro trend that began around 2013 and has been accelerating since.
“Many of the largest banks have web-first strategies where they are building primarily in web tech and migrating older apps over to the web as well. We provide an environment for web apps to run in so you can have interactive desktop experience that end users expect.
"A big bank may have an app in .Net or Java and use OpenFin Adopters, and then eventually rewrite some parts of the app in HTML5, like writing a trader blotter in HTML5 while leaving the trading app alone. The end user doesn’t know that part of what he is using is .Net and part is in HTML5. This allows firms to migrate intermittently over time without creating a disjointed experience for users.”
Banks typically have a huge amount of legacy code, but as older apps are rewritten or simply retired, new apps will be in HTML5.
One advantage to HTML5 is that it offers write once, run anywhere — desktops, home MacBooks and phones.
“Several years ago big banks started asking what the future would look like and they realized their apps are targeting users in different places. They had some apps on internal desktops for their own employees and those often were .Net or Java. They had apps targeting institutional customers on their desktops — those were written in Flash and Silverlight. Then they had apps there for the Web that needed to run in browsers, and they were dealing with mobile. So they could be rewriting interfaces in four different places to distribute the same content — whether research or market data.”
Now it is rare for a vendor to develop an app that isn’t built in HTML5.
The OpenFin structure builds on the security a financial firm has in place already.
“We are replacing native apps, and native apps which even after security reviews have access to the local OS. We have a great security story which resonates with folks in IT security because they realize we leverage all the investment they have made in security — filtering web content, tools to monitor logging — we leverage all that with the web apps that run on OpenFin.”
The HTML5 does run into some opposition from the IT staff responsible for software packaging, he added.
“They are used to packaging software and a particular mode of getting apps to end users and they sometimes struggle with idea there is no need to do a security review. We met with one of the biggest banks and a number of individuals were asking why they wouldn't treat this like any other app. Their boss said we are using all the same technologies that the bank is already comfortable with for browsers and since they don't package web sites they don't’t need to package apps that come across OpenFin. We have huge interest in getting behind [this approach] because it [traditional deployment] costs a lot of money and serves no useful purpose.”
In a report released a year ago, Driving Innovation Through Software Deployment, Greenwich Associates said that “the current method for developing and deploying software within large financial services institutions has changed little over the last 20 years, and is archaic when compared to the rapid innovation achieved in software deployment to consumer-focused devices.”
It pointed to the distribution of apps for mobile phones as a model.
“Slow and inefficient software deployment processes cost the financial services industry some $1.5 billion annually,” concluded Kevin McPartland, head of Greenwich Associates Market Structure and Technology Research.
“The widespread adoption of improved software deployment processes could deliver significant cost and efficiency gains and spur an explosion of institutional fintech innovation that is clearly bubbling below the surface and waiting to emerge,” he added.
|
4a4e831c0b9b0449a2dbca91afbd4578
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2019/03/29/mineral-tree-offers-businesses-an-alternative-to-paper-checks/
|
MineralTree Offers Businesses An Alternative To Paper Checks
|
MineralTree Offers Businesses An Alternative To Paper Checks
More than 70% of payments by middle market ($5 million to $500 million) businesses in America pay their invoices by check. MineralTree is trying to change that. BC Krishna, its founder and CEO, wants to move those payments onto electronic rails with commercial virtual credit cards.
He has chosen credit cards as the most convenient form of payment and signed agreements with American Express, Visa and since January, Mastercard. MineralTree’s Invoice-to-Pay solution is pre-integrated with Mastercard In Control, ensuring easy on-boarding and rapid time-to-value for both Mastercard issuers and their clients.
MineralTree uses virtual credit cards for fast payments that earn companies points. Getty
“Credit cards are a very attractive form of payment," said Krishna. "We are all familiar with it, it’s relatively easy to get access, it’s pretty straightforward and you get rewards.”
For businesses, that is likely to be cash back rather than hotel or airline points, he said, and they also get to float their payments for 25 to 30 days — the grace period on their statement.
“The industry has created virtual cards and basically the virtual card is like a credit card but it exists only electronically. The card is generated once and used only once, so the security is very high. I can email you the credit card to process yourself on your merchant terminal.”
Fees at 1.5% to 3% are not insignificant, but cards provide the best electronic payment method, at least until real-time payments and request-to-pay platforms become widely available.
Wires are real-time and expensive with very strict revocation rules, Krishna said. ACH has a lot of security issues, he added, and origination of payments is a problem — most mid-market firms don’t have access to the ACH rails. With the networks from the three major business card players (Discover doesn’t have much of a role in business, he said) cards are becoming a popular way to pay.
AWS only accepts card payments, he said, and the sums aren’t small —MineralTree spends $30,000 to $40,000 monthly on the cloud platform.
Credit cards are a very convenient form of payment. Think of the alternative for Amazon — send out an invoice, collect a payment, and reconcile the payment against the invoice.
“Using credit cards for business payables is something our customers want and need,” Krishna said.
John Wagner, CFO at EverQuote, which is an online insurance marketplace for auto, home and life insurance, uses MineralTree from the time an invoice arrives. The company spend a lot on advertising, so it uses MineralTree as its workflow to get the invoice approved by the person who contracted for the service or supplies.
Suppliers are in the system with their payment preference such as check, card, or ACH. Once approved by the person who ordered the service, the invoice goes to Wagner who can see any information he wants.
“I approve and get a call on my mobile with a security code to show it was me…and the payments go out.” MineralTree handles the rest, from printing a paper check to creating an ACH file or sending a virtual card, and notifies the supplier that a payment has been authorized along with information on what invoice it is for.
A challenge with ACH is its limited information.
“If you send a supplier $35,000 and they had sent me nine invoices and this was to cover just five, not a lot of information that can be transmitted with ACH. With a virtual credit card the message says you have been authorized to charge this amount covering these invoices. MineralTree all communicated back to our NetSuite system.”
For EverQuote, the card charges add up to nearly $400,000 a year. Not all vendors like the fee, but they do like the speed of payment, Wagner said. EverQuote encourages vendors to take card payments and tries to pay them faster, he added. Banks also make money from the interchange fees cards generate.
The company could use ACH through its bank, but the process would not be automated, he added.
Many financial institutions have recognized the opportunity to help middle market businesses automate AP with virtual commercial cards, but have not been able to offer an easy to implement and easy to use solution that fully automates the process, he added.
“Financial institutions will now be able to offer this platform to help middle market businesses improve cash flow, make real-time payments, increase security, and rely less on paper checks.
MineralTree uses OCR with manual oversight, and it connected to the firm's AP system so it can do overnight processing with 99.9% accuracy. Mid-size firms save four to six hours a week of AP clerk entry. Industry estimates are that a check costs $5 to write and mail.
"We migrate as much as we can off check and onto cards so they can get a rebate for card payments."
Add the saving from late fee improvements, man hours saved and fraud reduction, moving from checks to cards can generate $25,000 to $40,000 in card fees at a small company, he said.
In a paper it produces with PYMNTS.com, Mastercard said that 40% of middle market firms are planning to adopt real-time payments within three years, a process that often coincides with moving to AP automation.
"Leaders have a clear understanding of what automating their B2B payments processes can help them gain. Foremost among these benefits are fewer errors and reduced costs, cited by 84 percent and 81 percent, respectively."
MineralTree offers automated invoice data capture and online approval workflow and synchronization to common accounting and ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite and QuickBooks.
More than 25 leading financial institutions are offering MineralTree’s solution, Krishna said.
|
19b92c6c451481d0b65cc28c02228a4e
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2019/04/19/bank-4-0-will-be-all-digital-low-overhead-mobile-first/
|
Bank 4.0 Will Be All-Digital, Low-Overhead, Mobile-First
|
Bank 4.0 Will Be All-Digital, Low-Overhead, Mobile-First
“Banking 4.0 —Banking Everywhere but Never at a Bank”, isn’t really about banking — that’s just the familiar terminology Brett King uses to carry along his narrative. He comes clean late in the book when he describes how since 2009 more than one billion people in India, sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere have gained access to a simple store of value…”initially none of these individuals have entered financial services through traditional branch access.”
His theme is financial services access; banks are just one avenue.
Bank 4.0 -- Banking Everywhere but Never at a Bank Courtesy Brett King
King founded Moven, a bank account that uses a mobile phone, a debit card and technology to show users not only their current balance but what they can safely spend, and helps them save money. Moven now offers its technology through licensing; TD’s MyBank in Canada was the first to take it up.
He has been saying for years that banking is going digital and mobile; the U.S. lags behind much of the world in this. Too many banks go digital by analogy, in King’s terms — moving paper processes to a digital approximation rather than re-thinking them.
Smartphone transactions have surpassed branch transactions but banks are still branch-centric in both organization and design. For the foreseeable future, banking will continue to move to digital and the bank tool of choice will be the smartphone, although at some point voice and biometrics will reduce the importance of the phone.
Yet American banks are still stuck with paper processes; only 18 percent of banks and credit unions permit smartphone onboarding yet Simple, Moven, BankMobile and GoBank have offered it for years.
“We will see the disappearance of banks that rely on branches for account openings,” he predicts.
New bank branch --- obsolete before the drive-through lanes are paved? Photo by Tom Groenfeldt
Part of the problem is American regulators lag behind regulators in other parts of the world, especially when it comes to licensing tech-based banks. Varo in San Francisco is in discussions with the OCC, the FDIC and the Fed and hopes to have a license soon, its CEO, Colin Walsh, told me recently. (Look for an article about the bank the week of April 22).
Digital applications like M-Pesa in Kenya and Alipay and We-Chat Pay in China have expanded financial services to billions of people who never had an easy way to save or transact before.
“When it comes to financial inclusion, Kenya has done more to improve the lot of its populace in the last 10 years the U.S. has in the last 50 through legislation like the Community Reinvestment Act.”
King thinks we will see experiences like firms providing credit when you need it and then monitoring your spending, and discouraging unnecessary spending, so you can pay it back. That’s within the realm of technology now — Moven and Simple provide some of that. The big problem is it reduces bank profits by reducing credit card use.
Brett King, author of Bank 4.0 Photo by Tom Groenfeldt
Which leads to another issue that King touches on — is finance too expensive? Tim Chen, CEO of Nerdwallet, said bank profits equaled $180 per household in the third quarter, an outsize return for what are basically simple, and similar products. As Mehrsa Baradaran explains in her book “How the Other Half Banks,” bank accounts are just too expensive with their NSF fees and minimum account charges, for many people. Changing that will probably require regulations (NSF fees at $35 for a simple digital action?) or regulatory permission for fintech competition. (All-mobile Varo Bank charges no fees and pays 2.12% on savings and up to 2.80% for regular direct deposit and specified debit card use.)
Traditional banks have to support vast branch networks, large staffs and expensive legacy systems. The legacy banks will have to change or die, says King.
“Old regulated systems on rails can’t survive — even with protectionism — because they simply aren’t fast, flexible and scalable enough in a world where 200,000 internet-enable smartphones are sold every hour of every day.”
He also sees changing coming to: “regulation built for 19th century banks on top of legacy systems built decades before the internet existed.”
Perhaps inevitably a book about banking focuses on institutions, the individual may be slighted — experiences are something the financial institution does to her not something she selects and controls for herself — although King noted that the average consumer has four to seven financial relationships and that recommendation sites are beginning to change the the power relationship consumers have with their financial providers. Still, this is relatively new in financial services, Angela Strange of Andreesen Horowitz said at Money2020, noting that comparison sites save airline travelers $10 billion a year. Financial services like Nerdwallet, Credit Karma and Magnify Money are growing, though.
King concludes with some check lists for bankers to see where they are on the road to digital. A key point, does your head of digital outrank your head of branches? If not, maybe you should go work for Blockbuster or Kodak, he advises.
The book is a good read and well organized with the footnotes at the end of each chapter. I suspect it will be alarming for many in the business.
|
7489137b2fafdc21ee50520e6090c74f
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2019/04/29/varo-money-builds-a-no-fee-high-interest-paying-bank-on-new-technology/
|
Varo Money Builds A No-Fee, High Interest Paying Bank On New Technology
|
Varo Money Builds A No-Fee, High Interest Paying Bank On New Technology
Varo Money Inc. may be on its way to becoming the first full-service all-mobile bank in the U.S. It provides tools that let users monitor their spending and save for special purposes. It is similar to offerings from Simple and Moven which also offer advice on how much is safe to spend by using AI and machine learning to understand a customer's income and regular payments, like rent. Like them it has worked through a partner bank.
Unlike them, it has applied for its own banking charter; in September 2018 it announced a preliminary approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) of its application to become a national bank.
Colin Walsh, CEO & co-founder of Varo Money, had been a leader for American Express consumer and charge card business in Europe, and before that he worked for money center banks, including Lloyds Bank in London and Wells Fargo.
The UK has seen a surge of challenger banks, many built on new technology platforms that provide great agility and far lower costs than the old mainframe systems at the core of traditional banks.
He took a look at what a bank could do for customers’ financial health.
“I spent most of my life in banking and in financial services. So many things were not in the customer’s best interests, especially if you were not the one percent. The culmination of my life’s work is to try to do some good in the world.”
Fast developments in technology, especially in artificial intelligence and machine learning, could impact financial services. He wasn’t going to be discouraged by the fact that no new national bank charters have been issued since the global financial crisis, he said.
“I’ve lived inside the regulated systems my whole career and I understand it. Once we got early funding and had our team set up, we started to talk to the OCC and said we wanted to be a full national bank.”
Tom Curry, who was Comptroller of the Currency at the time, was talking about developing a charter to let fintechs get into banking.
“We said we are a group who understand banking and understand what it takes to buy and sell in this space. We think the time is right for a new mobile-centric challenger bank in the U.S. That was the start of our dialogue; we have talked to the FDIC and the Fed and we have a strong relationship with all,” he added.
A key focus of Varo Money is helping people save, especially the younger generation, Walsh said.
“Far too many people don’t have financial assets and banks have not equipped them with the tools to start saving money. People have volatile cash flows, and if you don’t have a big buffer it is problematic.”
Varo Money doesn’t have fees, even for a lost debit card, so customers aren’t losing money even if they have minimal amounts in their accounts.
Next, it actually pays serious interest on savings: 2.12% on basic accounts and 2.80% up to $50,000 for accounts with direct deposit of at least $1,000 a month and use of a debit card five times a month. It also offers automatic savings and a roundup feature on its debit card.
“We’re try to create incentives to save,” Walsh added.
The bank’s lean structure — no branches, no cash to handle — and the latest technology help keep costs down. Its core banking platform will be Temenos, a Geneva-based banking software company with more than 3,000 deployments globally, both on-prem and cloud-based.
“Temenos is secure, proven, real-time, and we can go plumbing into it with our APIs. We weren’t just looking for a vendor and a system, we wanted a provider that would truly partner with us in order to achieve our vision,” Walsh added. “They needed to show that they continually invested in the platform, and that they would provide the cutting-edge technology to support our current product set and long-term growth strategy. "We work with partners like Temenos and AWS who share our vision for real-time, frictionless banking and helps us deliver truly differentiated experiences for our customers."
Although his bank isn’t yet licensed in the U.S., Walsh is thinking beyond domestic.
“We have ambition over time in the U.S. and beyond the U.S., and Temenos can be a really good partner for us as we look at global expansion.”
Emily Steele, president, North America for Temenos, said the company is seeing banks explore digital developments — as replacements for core systems, setting up digital banks alongside their legacy operations and, in Varo Money’s case, building a fintech into a bank.
“By building its new bank on a modern, open, digital banking platform that provides 24/7, real-time, straight through processing, Varo is positioning itself to provide the personalized, seamless experience consumers are looking for today,” she said.
Varo is using NICE Actimize’s cloud-based AML Essentials for most of its compliance.
Stephen Taylor, general manager, AML, NICE Actimize said that challenger banks, fintechs, crypto currencies firms are new, often short of capital and frequently don't have compliance expertise.
“They are trying to disrupt the industry but they still have to comply with quite stringent AML obligations."
From them NICE Actimize has developed a lightweight AML package delivered through the cloud so it is faster to deploy and a lot cheaper than on-prem compliance packages, Taylor said.
New technology is enabling more challenger banks, and they have a role, even if traditional community banks don’t want more competition.
At a meeting held by the San Francisco Federal Reserve, Walsh recalled, the community bankers association said the country has 6,000 chartered banks and doesn’t need any more. He challenged that view by pointing out that half the country isn’t banked.
“When are you going to wake up and address the issues?” he asked. “That set the stage for the discussion I have been having with regulators since then." The U.S. does need challengers and regulators are realizing that, he added.
“The wheels of change grind slowly in Washington, but I think they are saying the right things. There are not a lot of proof points; Varo is the first to make it this far through the system.”
In a year, he hopes, Varo Money will be a national bank offering current accounts, savings, some lending products, insurance through partners and tools to help people manage their money.
Challengers such as Chime, Varo, SoFi and Aspiration are acquiring millions of customers, he added. They are bringing banking without the customary fees and charges, like the $34 billion banks collect annually in NSF fees.
“Challengers don’t have legacy technology, they don’t have branches — things that weigh down the cost structures of incumbents. The majority of Americans are juggling to make ends meet, and meanwhile they incur fees and charges from their banks. Taking away those charges will put hundreds into consumers’ pockets.”
The big banks have the financial strength and massive customer bases to keep investing in technology so they will survive, he said.
“The smaller banks, with limited ability to innovate, face an existential threat. If they can’t innovate and don’t have a tech platform they control, it is not a good place to be.”
|
e9a5b6858e09b876a5757773fba71b1f
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2019/09/19/dlocal-supports-e-commerce-in-emerging-markets/
|
dLocal Supports E-Commerce In Emerging Markets
|
dLocal Supports E-Commerce In Emerging Markets
As American and European corporations reach a saturation point in their home markets, they begin to look to emerging markets for more growth. When they try to expand their e-commerce operations, they run into challenges with payments — how do they receive payments in a local currency and then convert it to dollars and euros.
As companies gain more experience, they expand the number of emerging markets they want to do business in.
“Four years back when they thought of emerging markets they thought Brazil, and then later Mexico,” said Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of dLocal, which has made a business of taking local payments and delivering dollars or euros. “Now it is also Argentina and Colombia, Egypt and India.”
Irrigation machines on a coffee plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Photographer: Victor... [+] Moriyama/Bloomberg © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP
Some of these markets are becoming more and more important to first world corporations, he added. Brazil is in the top five markets for Uber and Netflix has a huge customer base in Argentina.
The company’s customers are the merchants; the end user, the consumer of Uber rides or Netflix movies, doesn’t see anything of dLocal.
Credit cards are the most widely used payment tool in e-commerce, he said, followed by cash where a user purchases a digital code at a retailers point of sale or from a bank. Wallets are used in some areas and payments by mobile phones are growing in popularity. Banks also offer installment plans which can be paid off in six to 18 months.
“We are that technology infrastructure piece on top of which the merchants sit. It’s like building a highway into these markets and the merchant gets to choose whether they turn on Brazil or Indonesia. Big U.S. companies like Worldpay or Stripe typically will solve for this issue in the U.S. or Europe. We do it for emerging markets.”
Banks should be the backbone of payments, but they were extremely late to e-commerce payments and their lethargy allowed huge payments specialists to appear in their back yard, he said.
“I think payments were underestimated as a cool place to be, banks thought of the as a commodity business so they didn’t pay too much attention to the business.”
He made an exception for Citi which, he said has been a leader in payments.
Each country requires a specific solution, although both the countries and dLocal are learning as they go. Some regulators are borrowing concepts from countries that have earlier e-commerce experience.
They don’t look to the U.S. where state regulators add friction to the market he said, but they do look to Europe. All markets are trying to replicate what has worked elsewhere, although they may have different priorities. Some are concerned about funds being expatriated, others about funds being repatriated, while still others mainly want to support local companies.
dLocal collects the payment in the local currency and converts it to USD or euro, most commonly, to pay the selling company. It does the FX and handles the currency risk by applying a spread greater than the local currency’s fluctuation, and it closes out is positions daily in most countries — hourly in Brazil.
“You never have a boring day in this market,” he observed.
In an ideal world companies could sell and consumers could buy without all this friction — a user in India would have the same way to pay into a U.S. company as a user in New York and all these barriers would cease to exist.
But for now, dLocal is making a good business of helping sellers and buyers overcome these frictions.
“Our goal is to allow the merchant to be agnostic about where the end user is, and the consumer can get the same service in Morocco or India.”
|
d6e7af2f3e2a500d112db0b1360fc5e1
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2020/01/10/quality-assurance-is-critical-in-software-development-and-increasingly-automated/
|
Quality Assurance Is Critical In Software Development And Increasingly Automated
|
Quality Assurance Is Critical In Software Development And Increasingly Automated
As financial services grow more complex — think information delivery to tellers or brokers, call centers, web sites and mobile phones while checking available balances, confirming identity and tapping silos of data to build a better customer experience — firms are automating quality assurance (QA) to keep up.
Quality Assurance (QA) is important in software too. (Photo by: Universal Images Group via Getty ... [+] Images) Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“It’s hard to scale up manual exploratory testing,” said Antony Edwards, COO of Eggplant, which provides automated testing tools. “It’s hard to find good testers and they can’t keep up with DevOps. We need to find a way to combine the strength of exploratory testing with automation — a way to combine manual testing, which is smart but slow and expensive, and automated which is fast but stupid.”
Firms need customer-centered testing, he added. “The goal is a great user experience at speed.”
Pyramid Solutions, an Eggplant partner, did a survey of executives — 70% internal IT and 30% ISVs, to see where they were in automating QA. One surprise is that people with QA in their title didn’t necessarily do QA.
“For many IT professionals—even in multi-billion dollar global organizations—QA seems to be seen as a stepping stone to another position, or a place people go to retire,” wrote Carl Johanson, QA practice director at Pyramid. “To truly improve QA automation, organizations need to fill their teams with technically skilled professionals armed with deep business knowledge.”
Organizations have high hopes for automated QA but results fall short, he added. “At every layer, organizations want to achieve 80%+ automation in 2 years, but have only achieved about 30% automation to date. One of the largest gaps is on automating testing of the UI layer, which is surprising since this is where most companies begin their automation journey."
MORE FOR YOUTwitter To Launch Paid 'Super Follows' FeatureInside The Black Box: Designing Sensors To Decode B2B Buying SignalsWhat’s Biohacking? All You Need To Know About The Latest Health Craze
Companies that are successful in automating QA tend to have QA professionals with 20 years of experience or more and they have a professional QA testing function, rather than internal user testing teams. Johanson thinks companies need QA separate from development.
”Developers believe everything they write is gold and they have always been reluctant to put a lot of effort into testing.”
As software has become more complex, companies need experienced QA people who can see the entire app, not just the piece a developer knows well. They also need to know the business.
“QA can validate down to the database level not just the UI. It will be difficult for developers to become generalists on the entire end-to-end solution when the software has gotten very, very complex.”
Johanson said the survey was to learn what mainstream companies are doing, not companies like Google which may deploy new code multiple times a day. QA sessions that share knowledge about where companies are in the journey to QA automation are popular at conferences, he added.
“People like to see their company isn’t as far behind as they thought they were.”
When he started QA in the 80s, the leading uses were in nuclear or defense. Then in the 90s financial services and telecom came along. The stakes were high — a missing semicolon in some AT&T code shut down the nationwide network, he said.
“Finserv tends to be a little bit ahead; they always have been. In his book, “Thingalytics”, Eggplant CEO John Bates cites cases where errors in code were costly. In 2102 Knight Capital turned on a new trading code without first removing the old code. The code launched $440 million of trades in 45 minutes, driving the firm to the brink of insolvency. In June 2010 a Deutsche Bank trading algorithm in Japan took out a $183 billion stock sell position; the bank managed to unwind most of it and then shut down its Japan based proprietary trading group. Better testing could have avoided the massive sale, Bates said.
In the same year a currency-trading algorithm at Rabobank placed a $3 billion FX order. Better testing, real-time risk rules and trade monitoring could have prevented that, he added.
|
50df9a0b82fd5ad48d017247fa5976e0
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2020/04/08/deluxe-isnt-just-paper-checks-any-longer/
|
Deluxe Isn’t Just Paper Checks Any Longer
|
Deluxe Isn’t Just Paper Checks Any Longer
Although the death of paper checks has long been predicted, and has largely occurred in Europe, paper is still strong in the United States. So it’s no surprise that Deluxe Corporation continues to prosper — it ships 150,000 packages of checks a day, said CEO Barry McCarthy.
But those paper checks account for less than 38% of revenue at the 105-year old company, he added. Over the last decade Deluxe has diversified to payments, cloud services and promotional products — businesses each producing hundreds of millions in revenue. Rather than discuss the printed check business, McCarthy prefers to talk about how Deluxe supports small businesses, from their very beginnings — getting registered and obtaining any necessary licenses, to payments from payroll to treasury management and lockbox operations.
Barry McCarthy, CEO Deluxe Corp. Courtesy Deluxe Corp.
Before McCarthy moved from First Data to Deluxe, the company acquired Wausau Financial, which most lockboxes use, he said. In the fourth quarter of 2019 Deluxe took over the lockbox operations of Fiserv.
“We have massive scale that no one else has and we do it in a very efficient way so companies don’t have to do it themselves,” he added.
“Today the company supports about 4.5 million small businesses, 4,000 financial institutions (FIs) and processes $2.8 trillion in payments annually on behalf of billers. We have massive scale in payments and going forward have huge opportunity to provide additional solutions, especially in health care and disbursements.”
Through cloud services Deluxe offers everything from logo design to web hosting (4.5 million small business web sites) and logistics services. More recently it has grown its promotional business. Need coffee mugs with your logo for a trade show? Deluxe can do it.
MORE FOR YOUBrazil Tech Round-Up: Senate Passes Legal Framework For Startups, Dangers Of Privatization, Cost Of 5GProductivity In Remote Work: We Had Been Preparing For This For DecadesHow Technology Will Unlock New Ways Of Working In A Post-Covid World
“We can print logos on anything,” McCarthy said. That includes Mazda branded merchandise for dealerships. And when Mazda Racing goes to the track, Deluxe is there with uniforms for drivers and branded products for spectators to buy.
“In our go to market strategy we think about the lifecycle of a business rather than individual products, which is why all these pieces make sense to have in one company.”
Deluxe has acquired more than 50 companies over the last seven years but only recently focused on integrating them, McCarthy said.
Instead of running 50 different sales teams across the company, it can go to customer and ask about their problems and what they need.
“If they need data-driven marketing, promotional materials or payroll help, we can bring in experts.” In addition to providing paper checks, Deluxe has developed e-checks. “All you need to know is the amount and the recipients email address,” McCarthy explained. Then it lets the payer, such as a health insurance or property insurance company, send an email to the person it wants to pay. The recipient can print the check and deposit it like a normal check, put it on a Visa debit card, deposit it to a PayPal account or transfer the money directly to her bank account using an ACH transfer.
“I think we are moving to a time when the consumer has a choice in how they get paid,” said McCarthy. “We’re into our second year of the e-check product and have been relatively quiet about it, but when you think of the billions of non-recurring checks written each year by financial institutions, health care and insurance, it is a huge problem solver. We take out all the handling cost and can get the customer paid much more quickly.”
Small Business Revolution appears on Prime Video and Hulu Courtesy Deluxe
Deluxe has also become a video producer with The Small Business Revolution airing on Amazon Prime and Hulu, an eight-part series that is in its fifth season. The show goes to a small town, selected through a national competition, and invests $500,000 and a lot of expertise in revitalizing its businesses through improving web presence, financials and shop design. The show breaks out some of the advice in short videos on the Deluxe web site.
|
c393d14f4c13fefa7a6ee95b7fd68e4c
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2020/08/11/rellevate-enters-early-wage-access-market-with-a-full-digital-banking-program/?sh=549afb0a3d4f
|
Rellevate Enters Early Wage Access Market With A Full Digital Banking Program
|
Rellevate Enters Early Wage Access Market With A Full Digital Banking Program
A new fintech firm has launched to provide services to hourly wage workers, who make up almost 60% of employed Americans but tend to be under served by banks. Rellevate works with employers to let them provide their workers access to money they have already earned without requiring them to wait for their regular payroll check or direct deposit. That’s similar to services provided by several other firms such as PayActiv, ZayZoon and Branch. Known as early wage access companies, they offer an alternative to payday lenders, a $90 billion industry, or check cashers, an $11 billion industry. Payday lenders can charge 150% to 400% APR (annual percentage rate which includes interest and fees), he added.
Rellevate provides an alternative to payday loans Photo by Tom Groenfeldt
Stewart A. Stockdale, co-founder of Rellevate and its chairman and CEO, said it differs from other early wage access companies in the comprehensive services it offers. It provides an account that pays interest, a Visa debit card, electronic bill pay and a send money feature which now works domestically but will offer international money transfers at attractive rates later in the year. It also offers surcharge-free cash access with customers’ Visa debit card through Cardtronics’ Allpoint ATM network. It will add expedited bill pay in the fourth quarter to help customers who face a shutoff of utilities if they don’t pay a bill immediately.
“We have been building this for 18 months,” said Stockdale. “It requires pretty complex integration.” Users can access it through a computer or a smartphone.
Stockdale has extensive experience in senior roles in financial services firms. Most recently, he served as CEO of The J.G. Wentworth Company. a diversified consumer financial services company specializing in mortgages, structured settlements, payment systems, and personal loan options. Previously he was president at Western Union and ran its money transfer and consumer payments businesses across five global regions.
“I have worked in and around middle America for a while and thought there is a huge opportunity to change the paradigm and offer the right services at a really fair value,” he said.
Firms serving the lower end of the market have charged their customers a lot, he added. A Rellevate account will cost its owner $9.95 a month for up to four pay advances. To offer advances on payroll earnings it needs access to the employer’s records of an individual’s time worked and wage rate.
“When people need the money, since I know you worked those hours and will get paid in two weeks, I will advance you 50% today. Every day I tell you how many hours you accumulated and make 50% of it available. If you want it in your checking account, okay. Or if you are at a grocery store checkout and get an NSF notice, we can transfer the money to you immediately.”
MORE FROMFORBES ADVISORHow Checking Accounts WorkByRebecca LakecontributorBest Fintech Alternatives To Traditional BankingByDonna Fuscaldocontributor
The company maintains a warehouse line at Sutton Bank, an Ohio-based community bank which is invested in payments as a core product.
“They are entrepreneurial and innovative and they understand how to build these programs,” said Stockdale. “They understand our vision and the moving parts and were willing to take on the complexity of all these integrations, fund flows and the compliance,” he added.
“When an employee takes $50, that goes out of the warehouse to the consumer’s account. Then at payroll time the payment goes into the Rellevate account and we take it back. We charge no interest and no fee. The risk ends up being if the company goes out of business and can’t pay their employees; we carry that risk.”
The system of record for its Pay Any-Day service runs on Technisys, a Latin American firm which is making inroads into North American with its banking technology.
“They have been great, a phenomenal partner,” said Stockdale. “They understand what we are trying to build.” Rellevate will use Payveris for Bill Pay.
Employers see advance pay providers as a tool to help employees who may come up short when faced with unexpected bills and sometimes borrow directly from their employer.
Stockdale talked to a fast food company which has 125% turnover and figures it costs $2,000 to attract an employee.
“They saw this as helping to attract employees and improving retention, a really good benefit.” He’d just talked to staff at two midtown Manhattan hotels. They pay $10 to $25 monthly for their bank accounts, and $35 when they bounce a check. Rellevate provides immediate money when they need it.
|
9606abbdb0a8a476dffcb37cb234c7b6
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhager/2018/05/21/understanding-deemed-filing-rules-and-the-restricted-application/
|
Understanding Social Security's Deemed Filing Rules And The Restricted Application
|
Understanding Social Security's Deemed Filing Rules And The Restricted Application
Shutterstock
Are you familiar with the deemed filing rule? Many people preparing to claim Social Security benefits haven’t heard of this rule, but understanding it is critical to maximizing your benefit.
Now, who is affected by the deemed filing rule, and what does it do? The deemed filing rule affects your spouse, provided your spouse files for benefits for the first time before their full retirement age and you are receiving benefits. If your spouse files for their retirement benefit before full retirement age, they will be “deemed” to have filed for any and all benefits available to them. So, if spousal benefits are available, your spouse will receive spousal benefits in addition to their retirement benefit – whether they want them or not.
Not only will your spouse receive both benefits, but they both will be reduced permanently as a result of filing early. This decision can never be changed. The deemed filing rules apply to worker benefits, spousal benefits and ex-spousal benefits; however, they do not apply to survivor, children, child-in-care and disabled children benefits.
Is there a planning opportunity to be taken advantage of? The answer is yes – for a little while longer, anyway. If you were born before Jan. 2, 1954, and you wait to file for benefits at full retirement age, you have the option of filing what is called a “restricted application.” Put another way, anyone turning 66 years old before January 2, 2020, can employ this Social Security benefits strategy .
The restricted application is a planning tool, used at full retirement age, that allows you to restrict your application for spousal benefits only and delay your own retirement benefit to age 70. This allows you to accumulate delayed retirement credits, effectively increasing your retirement benefit up to 32%. Utilizing the restricted application eliminates the requirement of taking all benefits available and, later, allows you to apply for another type of benefit. The restricted application is normally thought of when applying for spousal benefits only, but technically you also need to use the restricted application when applying for survivor benefits only, or when you want to restrict being paid retroactive benefits if applying for benefits for the first time after reaching full retirement age.
The deemed filing rules were changed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The new rules require deemed filing for all people who turn 66 years old on or after Jan. 2, 2020. That means that 2020 is the first year deemed filing will affect everyone. With the new rules in effect, if you are receiving your retirement benefit and become eligible for spousal benefits because your spouse files for their retirement benefit, you automatically will be paid your spousal benefit. You will not have to apply for spousal benefits.
Prior to the new rules, you had the option of filing for spousal benefits and were not required to take them because the deemed filing rules only apply in the first month your benefits begin. Until then, deemed filing only affects people filing before full retirement age, and the restricted application is still available to them. The new law is designed to prevent you from collecting only spousal benefits while you earn delayed retirement credits on your retirement benefit.
A Team Effort
If you have a spouse, you must think of your claiming decision as a joint decision. What you decide to do will have a direct impact on your spouse and vice versa. The deeming rule is just one reason that looking at your claiming strategy as a joint decision is so important.
Let’s review the basics of spousal benefits. There are two key points relating to spousal benefits you need to know:
Generally, to receive a spousal benefit, your spouse must be receiving benefits. If your spouse is not receiving their retirement benefits, you cannot apply for spousal benefits. There is an exception to this rule for independently entitled divorced spouses. This article focuses on currently married individuals. If you have your own retirement benefit, you always are paid your retirement benefit first. If spousal benefits are available, they are layered on top of your retirement benefit. Effectively, spousal benefits are made up of two benefits. Many articles state you will be paid the higher of the two benefits, but really it is a combination of both benefits.
How is the maximum spousal benefit calculated? You are entitled to the difference between one-half of your spouse’s primary insurance amount less your full retirement age benefit. So, if your spouse’s full retirement age benefit is $2,500 and yours is $1,000, your maximum spousal benefit will be $250 ($1,250 - $1,000).
If you file for benefits at your full retirement age, you will receive your own retirement benefit of $1,000 and the spousal benefit of $250. This equates to 50% of your spouse’s full retirement age benefit, which is what most people think they will receive. If you file for benefits before full retirement age, both benefits are reduced individually.
There are not too many hard-and-fast rules when it comes to Social Security, but one of the few is that spousal benefits are at their maximum when you reach full retirement age. There is no advantage to be gained by deferring collection past full retirement age. If you do, you are leaving money on the table.
|
bc04ed1e5e194140575334503d59c692
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhager/2018/12/07/how-are-social-security-spousal-benefits-calculated/?sh=41d8b0296929
|
How Are Social Security Spousal Benefits Calculated?
|
How Are Social Security Spousal Benefits Calculated?
Credit: Getty Royalty Free Getty
Social Security spousal benefits are probably the most confusing benefit because they are considered a family benefit.
But even more confusing is how the benefit is calculated.
First, let’s determine if you are eligible.
To qualify for Social Security spousal benefits:
Both you and your spouse must be at least 62 Married at least 1 year The other spouse must be receiving their worker benefit
Most people think that they are entitled to 50% of their spouses’ benefit. That’s true only if you are filing for spousal benefits at your full retirement age.
Spousal benefits are determined at the age you, as a spouse, file. The only relevance your spouse has is the amount of their Primary Insurance Amount (PIA).
Spousal benefits are calculated using both your Primary Insurance Amounts and your spouse’s Primary Insurance Amount.
Spousal benefits are layered on top of any worker benefit you may have.
If you have your own worker benefit, you are always paid that benefit first, then any amount of spousal benefit is layered on top of that.
To determine if you are entitled to a spousal benefit, if your own Primary Insurance Amount is greater than 50% of your spouse’s Primary Insurance Amount, you are not entitled to a spousal benefit. For example, your PIA is $1,250 and your spouse’s PIA is $2,000. Since your PIA is greater than 50% of your spouse PIA, you will not receive a spousal benefit and be paid your own worker benefit because it is greater.
Since spousal benefits do not increase after your full retirement age, you should consider filing for spousal benefits at your full retirement age to receive the maximum amount .
Here is a Social Security cardinal rule: any time you take Social Security benefits before your full retirement age the benefit is always reduced and it’s forever. The reduction for worker benefits and spousal benefits are different.
Below is a chart as to how your spousal benefit is calculated assuming your full retirement age is 66. The percentages will vary depending on your full retirement age. The main point of the chart is to show how spousal benefits are layered on top of your own worker benefit and vary in amount depending on the age you claim at.
This chart shows how spousal benefits are layered on top of your own worker benefit and vary in... [+] amount depending on the age you claim at. Tom Hager
When filing for spousal benefits, you also need to keep in mind the following may also apply:
You cannot receive spousal benefits if your spouse exceeds the annual earnings limitation or voluntarily suspends their own benefit.
Both spouses cannot receive spousal benefits at the same time.
You must apply for spousal benefits; they will not automatically begin.
Generally, if you claim spousal benefits prior to your full retirement age, you will not be able to claim your worker benefit in the future. This is because prior to full retirement age, you are “deemed” to be filing for any and all benefits available to you. And remember, you are always paid your worker benefit first. The only way to claim your worker benefit in the future is if you file a “Restricted Application” for spousal benefits only at your full retirement age.
Annual Earnings Test: this goes away at full retirement age.
Deemed Filing Rules: this goes away at full retirement age.
Government Pension Offset: 2/3rds of what you receive from another government pension will reduce your Social Security spousal benefits.
Family Maximum Rules: limits total family benefits paid off one workers record to between 150% to 180%.
I hope this makes spousal benefits a little easier to comprehend. This article also applies to ex-spouses. The spousal benefit is not just one amount. It is a combination of your own worker benefit and an additional amount from your spouse, if applicable.
|
30c2bbc869dedd457237816bd76a2323
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhager/2019/01/21/put-thousands-in-your-pocket-by-taking-advantage-of-the-social-security-restricted-application/
|
Put Thousands In Your Pocket By Taking Advantage Of The Social Security 'Restricted Application'
|
Put Thousands In Your Pocket By Taking Advantage Of The Social Security 'Restricted Application'
Photocredit: Getty Getty
The topic of “restricted application” continues to be a popular one; I consistently get emails and calls on its use. This article isn’t necessarily geared as to how you qualify to use the restricted application, but how to apply the tactic to your best advantage.
To start with, please do not confuse the “Restricted Application” with “Claim & Suspend”. Many of the questions I receive on this subject confuse the two. To take advantage of either of these tactics, you must have reached your full retirement age.
To be eligible to Claim & Suspend, you needed to be born before 5/1/1950. The ability to “Claim & Suspend” ended on 4/30/2016. What this tactic allowed you to do was to let Spouse #1 claim their worker benefit and immediately suspend that benefit allowing it to grow by 32% using delayed retirement credits. This allowed Spouse #2 to apply for and receive spousal benefits. In this case, Spouse #1 was not receiving a monthly benefit and Spouse #2 was.
Now let’s talk about the restricted application. To take advantage of this tactic you need to have been born before 1/2/1954 and reached full retirement age. The restricted application is basically the same as the Claim & Suspend with one big exception – Spouse #1 needs to be receiving their worker benefit in order for Spouse #2 to be collecting a spousal benefit. As of today, in order for one spouse to be receiving a spousal benefit, the other spouse must be receiving their worker benefit, unlike the Claim & Suspend. Also, both spouses cannot be receiving a spousal benefit at the same time.
Below is an excerpt from the Social Security Program Operations Manual System relative to this issue:
D. Policy for Restricting the Scope of the Application
When a claimant is eligible for more than one benefit at the time of filing, he or she may, for any reason, choose to limit or restrict the scope of the application to exclude a class of benefits unless there is an exception. The reason may be to receive higher current benefits or to maximize the amount of benefits over a period-of-time, including the effect of delayed retirement credits (DRC). For additional information on DRCs, see RS 00615.690.
Deemed Filing Rule
A claimant who is eligible for both a retirement income benefit (RIB) and spouse’s (AUXSPO) benefits must apply for both and cannot restrict his or her application to only one benefit when he or she:
is born January 2, 1954 or later and eligibility for both benefits exists in any month, or is born before January 2, 1954, under full retirement age (FRA), and eligibility for both benefits exists in the first month of entitlement (MOET) to either benefit.
For more information on the rules for deemed filing, see GN 00204.035.
Using the restricted application works best if the low earning spouse claims their worker benefit when the high earning spouse reaches their full retirement age. Below is an example of this strategy. The “Mr.’s” Primary Insurance amount is $2,650 and his birthday is 6/15/1953. The “Mrs.’s” Primary Insurance Amount is $1,000 and her birthday is 6/15/1955. Because Mr. was born before 1/2/1954, he is eligible to use the restricted application when he reaches full retirement age. The Mrs. can never use the restricted application because she was born after 1/2/1954.
The Mrs. begins her own worker benefits based on her earnings record in the amount of $855 in June 2019 at age 64 when Mr. reaches his full retirement age. Note: The Mrs. benefit is lower than her full retirement age benefit of $1,000 because Mrs. is filing before her full retirement age. The Mr. files a restricted application for spousal benefits only in the amount of $500 in June 2019 at his full retirement age of 66. Note: The Mr. receives one half of Mrs.’s full retirement age benefit. The Mr. switches to his own worker benefit based on his earnings record in the amount of $3,498 in June 2023 at age 70. Note: TheMr.’s benefit is 32% higher due to earning delayed retirement credits. The Mrs. adds $325 in spousal benefits to her own worker benefit of $855 for a total amount of $1,180 in June 2023 at age 68. Note: Now that the Mr. has filed for his own worker benefit, the Mrs. can apply for her spousal benefit. Mrs. does not need to use the restricted application as she has already filed for her own worker benefit. Spousal benefits are added to your own worker benefit. You are always paid your worker benefit if you have one. In June 2038, Mrs. switches to survivor benefits in the amount of $3,498. Note: The Mrs.’s switches to survivor benefits which is the amount Mr. was receiving when he passed away. Mrs.’s spousal benefit of $1,180 goes away.
This strategy accomplishes the 3 goals you want to address:
Maximize the high earner benefit Coordinate the benefits between the spouses Maximize the survivor benefits
Total benefits received by using this strategy is $1,201,026. This assumes Mr. lives to 85 and Mrs. lives to 90 with no inflation factor. Does this amount surprise you?
Using this strategy increases overall Social Security benefits received by this couple by $132,070 as opposed to filing early, which about 50% of people do.
Using this strategy increases overall Social Security benefits by $106,576 as opposed to both Mr. & Mrs. filing at their respective full retirement age.
Now you know why it is so important to take the time to make sure you have explored all your filing options before making your decisions. Most couples will have an overall Social Security income stream of over $1,000,000. You can also see by this example that proper planning significantly increases your lifetime benefits.
It’s important for me to return to one of my core Mr. Social Security tenets: if you take the WRONG benefit at the WRONG time, it’s always SMALLER and it’s FOREVER. You basically get one shot to get this right – let’s make a plan!
|
e12d263a34ff9fb0b24fbfc45a4115d7
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2018/07/16/vermentino-italys-sleek-and-sexy-seaside-white-wine/
|
Vermentino: Italy's Sleek And Sexy Seaside White Wine
|
Vermentino: Italy's Sleek And Sexy Seaside White Wine
Just-harvested Vermentino grapes at the vineyards of Cantine Lunae Bosoni in Liguria. Photo courtesy Cantine Lunae Bosoni
There are hundreds of white grape types planted throughout Italy, many of them indigenous to one region or even one small district. These varieties work well in their particular locales, and tend to result in wines that have a special sense of place, based on factors such as climate, soils, and topography. Of all these whites, perhaps the one that is most perfectly suited to its settings is Vermentino, a dry white that is sleek, tangy and even a little bit sexy.
Vermentino is found primarily in three regions of Italy: Liguria, Sardinia and Tuscany, and in each of those territories, the plantings are very close to the sea. Simply stated, producing a Vermentino from seaside vineyards gives the wines a special character that you don’t find from a warmer, inland area. Vermentino from a maritime climate tends to display a minerality or saltiness in the finish – as though you are tasting the soils and/or experiencing the tanginess of the sea when you are enjoying the wine – and if that doesn’t appear too appetizing in print, wait until you pair a Vermentino with seafood antipasti or pasta with a pesto sauce!
Vermentino vineyards of Cantine Lunae Bosoni in the Colli di Luni territory of Liguria Photo courtesy Cantine Lunae Bosoni
In Liguria, Vermentino is one of the most important varieties in the region, along with another white known as Pigato (believed by some researchers to be the same grape). This crescent-shaped region, just south of Piedmont, is one of the smallest in Italy, but its white wines are among the most distinctive. At Giacomelli, located in the Colli di Luni area in eastern Liguria, not far from the border with northern Tuscany, and just north of the Ligurian Sea, proprietor Roberto Petacchi decribes Vermentino as having a “delicate bouquet of white flowers, aromatic herbs and white peaches, but also with some mineral notes. The best Vermentino are medium-bodied, fresh and quite round, with a floral aftertaste.” That freshness is the result of the natural lively acidity of the Vermentino grape, which provides balance as well as a marvelous affinity for pairing with a variety of foods.
At nearby Cantine Lunae Bosoni, proprietor Diego Bosoni notes the ideal climate in the Colli di Luni. “There is superb ventilation and optimal exposition to the sun during the day. The evenings are fresh and humid, always with moderate temperatures whether winter or summer.” Bosoni’s vineyards are sited within two to three miles of the sea, and his two versions of Vermentino, Etichetta Nera and Etichetta Grigia (black label and grey label, respectively) have been among the country’s most striking versions of Vermentino over the past decade.
The Riviera Ligure di Ponente zone in western Liguria, is another great area for Vermentino in the region. Bianca Rizzo, proprietor of the Laura Aschero estate, notes the terraced vineyards here, with mixed soils of white and red clay; the resulting wines in her words are “more structured with a greater aromatic profile” than versions from Colli di Luni. Whatever territory, the finest Vermentino from Liguria are highly expressive and delicious wines.
On the island of Sardinia, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Vermentino is grown in several areas, with the Gallura zone in the far northeast being the most notable. Renato Spanu, proprietor at Jankara, a relatively young estate (the first vintage here was 2010), notes the minerality of these wines; “almost 99% of the vineyards are planted in granite soils – Gallura is one big granite rock!” While there are subtle differences among examples of Vermentino di Gallura, depending on the specific sub-zone from where the grapes are sourced, Spanu comments that “one aspect that seems to be found in all is a slight almond-like finish that is typical of Vermentino.” Like most producers, Spanu does not use wood when vinifying this variety, perferring to let the exotic grapefruit and jasmine aromas emerge.
Vermentino also plays a role along the coastal zones of Tuscany, especially in Bolgheri as well as Montecucco, in the far southern reaches of the region. While most of these examples do not offer the intensity and structure of the best versions from Liguria and Sardinia, the best are fruit-driven with typical acidity and a pleasing spiciness. Look for the Collemassari Montecucco “Melacce,” the Col di Bacche Vermentino and the delicious Grattamacco Bolgheri Vermentino, arguably the best example of this variety in the region.
While the Jankara and other versions from Gallura display cellaring potential for up to a decade, most Vermentino should be enyoyed from three to seven years following the vintage. Food pairing is a treat with Vermentino, ranging from “simple plates such as delicate fish and crustaceans,” according to Bosoni, to “mussel soup or even sea bass or red snapper for the more complex examples of Vermentino,” opines Petacchi.
Vermentino is becoming more successful in the market, according to each of these producers. Petacchi notes the sudden interest in the wine in the US, as well as new markets such as Singapore and Brazil, while Bosoni notes “a great acceleration” in sales in recent years. He is quite pleased with these results. “We have set out to demonstrate that our territory is a historical one for the cultivation of Vermentino, and the public has responded in a very positive manner.”
***
Recommended new Releases of Vermentino
Liguria
Giacomelli “Pianacce” 2016 (Colli di Luni) Very Good
Medium-full, with aromas of Bosc pear, scrub brush and a hit of anise. Lemony finish with a light nuttiness. Very good overall balance; enjoy over the next 2-3 years.
Laura Aschero 2017 (Riviera Ligure di Ponente) Excellent
Striking aromas of melon and green olive. Quite delicious, ideal harmony and excellent ripness in a challenging vintage. Pair with a filet of meaty, herbal-influenced fish. 2-3 years.
Cantine Lunae Bosoni "Black Label" 2017 (Colli di Luni) Outstanding
Heavenly aromas of orange blossom, golden apple and pastry cream. So appealing now, but this will drink well for another 3-5 years. Classic Vermentino character and Ligurian style.
Sardinia
Pala “Stellato” 2017 (Vermentino di Sardegna) Very Good
Pineapple, mustard seed and green olive aromas. Excellent ripeness, tart acidity. Nicely balanced with very good varietal character; notes of green tea in the finish. Peak in 2-3 years.
Jankara 2016 (Vermentino di Gallura) Excellent
Lovely floral aromas of jasmine, orange blossom and honeydew melon. Beautifully styled with excellent varietal character. Ideal with sautéed shrimp. Peak in 3-5 years.
Tuscany
Pepi Lignana "Leopoldino" 2016 (IGT Toscana)
85% Vermentino, 15% Viognier. Aromas of tea leaf, basil and spearmint, Ripe and lush, with a distinct saltiness in the finish. Enjoy over the next 3-5 years with strong seafood.
|
b91cef13c382e04351fe1faf870fa58d
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2018/11/12/nebbiolo-the-king-of-piedmonts-wine-grapes/
|
Nebbiolo - The King of Piedmont's Wine Grapes
|
Nebbiolo - The King of Piedmont's Wine Grapes
Vineyards in the Gattinara zone planted to Nebbiolo Photo ©Tom Hyland
The wine industry of Piedmont, as with virtually every other region in Italy, is based primarily on indigenous varieties. There are several, from the white Cortese and Timorasso to the red Grignolino, Dolcetto and Pelaverga. But when we speak of the renown and world-class quality of Piedmont’s wines, there is truly only one grape that defines this region, and that is Nebbiolo.
The word Nebbiolo is dervied from the Italian word nebbia, meaning fog. This is an apt term, as Nebbiolo is a late ripening variety, often harvested in mid-October, some two to three weeks after other local grapes such as Dolcetto and Barbera. As fog permeates the vineyards in many parts of Piemonte in late September and October, Nebbiolo vineyards must be sited above the fog level, in order to receive as much sunshine as possible for ripening purposes
Nebbiolo is the basis of 17 different DOC and DOCG-regulated wines in Piedmont; a few, such as Barolo and Barbaresco, are famous, while others, such as Lessona, Carema and Boca, are far less known. Acidity levels vary from zone to zone, but the thumbprint of a wine made from Nebbiolo is the tannic level, as the variety is among the most tannic in the world. This translates into notable aging potential – as long as there is good acidity and depth of fruit – but high tannins can also mean a rough, bitter wine that needs time to settle down and lose its youthful bitterness. When done right, a wine made from Nebbiolo can delight after 15-20 years and even longer in the instance of a great Barolo or Barbaresco.
Let’s look at the major production zones for Nebbiolo in Piemonte.
Alto Piemonte
Alto Piemonte, or upper Piemonte, is a large area that is home to several excellent wines, in particular Gattinara and Boca. This is a territory that was planted to more acreage of vines than Tuscany some 60-80 years ago, but due to a number of reasons (production costs, lack of technology), wine production dramatically decreased over the years.
Today, there has been a rediscovery of this area, one with ideal conditions for growing Nebbiolo (small pockets of hillside viticulture being a major factor), and the wines are garnering new attention from the press and consumers. The most famous wine here is Gattinara, which is made from a minimum of 90% Nebbiolo (sometimes referred to locally as Spanna), though 100% versions are also allowed. The most famous producer is Travaglini, who also owns most of the zone’s vineyards. Their finest Gattinara is their riserva, matured for three years in large Slavonian oak casks known as grandi botti. Examples of this wine that are 12-15 years old (and sometimes older) are in great shape, again, thanks to very good acidity. Other recommended Gattinara producers are Antoniolo and Caligaris.
Another great red from Alto Piemonte is Boca, made from 70%-90% Nebbiolo, with local red varieties Vespolina, Croatina and sometimes Uva Rara included in the blend; these varieties add color, spice and acidity to the wine. There are only about ten producers currently making a Boca, with the finest version (by far) coming from Le Piane. This is the estate owned by Swiss native Christoph Künzli, who purchased the property in the 1990s from its former owner, and now produces one of Piedmont’s – and in reality – Italy’s greatest red wines. Boca is not the most powerful Nebbiolo-based wine, but it is one of the most stylish and complex versions and while it also shows beautiful Nebbiolo purity, it reveals greater complexities with time; Künzli’s choice of aging the wine in large casks ensures focus on the fruit, and the structure guarantees graceful aging. If you truly love Nebbiolo, do what you can to locare a bottle of Le Piane Boca. Other recommended producers of Boca include Barbaglia and Conti.
Other small production zones in Alto Piemonte include Lessona and Bramaterra, two wines that truly display local terroir. While these zones are not far apart, Lessona tends to be more floral with softer tannins than Bramaterra, while Bramaterra tends to be more fruit-driven and tannic. Made in a traditional style as with Tenute Sella, arguably the finest producer of these zones, these wines offer great complexity, although they do need time to be at their best. At Sella, the Lessona “Omaggio a Quintino Sella,” a blend of 85% Nebbiolo and 15% Vespolina, aged for four years in grandi botti is a stellar wine, one of the region’s most sublime. Other recommended producers of Lessona and Bramaterra include Le Pianelle, La Prevostura and Antoniotti.
One last Nebbiolo-based wine from Alto Piemonte to consider is Ghemme. This is a very small production zone – slightly more than 150 acres planted – and the wines are between 85% to 100% Nebbiolo. These are rustic wines, not fruit forward, and definitely need time to come around; when they do in 10-15 years with wines from the best years, they can be magnificent. The most famous – and arguably finest – producer of Ghemme is Cantalupo, managed by the passionate Alberto Arlunno, who notes the limestone soils here as a major reason for the wines’ character. Other recommended producers of Ghemme include Mazzoni and Francesco Brigatti.
Nebbiolo cluster in the Barolo zone Photo ©Tom Hyland
The Langhe – Barolo and Barbaresco
Now we come to the most famous examples of Nebbiolo: Barolo and Barbaresco, produced exclusively from Nebbiolo in the Langhe district in southern Piedmont. I’ll go into greater depth about these two wines in future articles, so for now, I’ll merely provide a thumbnail sketch.
Barolo – known as the “King of Wines and the Wines of Kings” – is produced from a zone comprised of eleven communes south of the city of Alba in the province of Cuneo. One of these communes, Barolo, lends its name to the wine, while other important communes include La Morra, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d’Alba and Monforte d’Alba. Traditionally, producers only aged their wines in grandi botti, but some producers in the 1970s and 1980s experimented with barriques, small French oak barrels. Today, only a few producers use barriques exclusively, as large casks as well as mid-size barrels known as tonneaux are regularly employed for the aging process.
Landscape of the Barolo zone Photo ©Tom Hyland
Regardless of aging, Barolo from a great site (or sites) from an outstanding growing season (as with 2010 and 2013) can age for 30-50 years, but even in an average vintage, a Barolo will drink well for 10-15 years. Aromatics are of red cherry, orange peel and tar, as well as notes of cedar (if aged in grandi botti), which change to balsamic as the wine matures after a few years in the bottle. These are powerful wines with rich tannins, yet the best examples offer finesse and elegance and are fine matches with foods such as rabbit, veal and lighter game.
There are so many great producers – too many to list here (I'll write about the best Barolo producers in a future article). I’ve recommended a few wines at the end of the article.
Barbaresco is produced from three communes east of Alba and tends to be more approachable – many would say more feminine in style – than Barolo. This is generally true, but you should not think that Barbaresco cannot age well. The best examples drink well for 20-25 years, perhaps even longer. As the soils are younger here than in Barolo, the wines are not as forceful as in the Barolo zone, but the best examples of Barbaresco offer great varietal purity as well as charm. Best producers include Ceretto; Gaja; Albino Rocca; Moccagatta; Bruno Rocca; Cascina delle Rose; Ca’ del Baio; Sottimano; Bruno Giacosa; Poderi Colla and Produttori del Barbaresco; the single vineyard offerings here are the essence of Barbaresco.
Also look for wines labeled Nebbiolo d’Alba and Langhe Nebbiolo, which producers of Barolo and Barbaresco craft as more approchable versions of Nebbiolo that are released sooner than their more famous counterparts. These wines are of notable quality and are very fine values.
Roero
Finally we come to Roero, a district located across the Tanaro River from the Langhe. Arneis, a white grape from Roero, has become extremely popular over the past two decades, but Nebbiolo is an important grape here as well; the best reds, simply labeled Roero (but commonly referred to as Roero Rosso) are exclusively Nebbiolo.
As soils here are not as old as those in Barolo, examples of Roero are generally not as tannic or as long lived as wines from that zone. Yet, they do age well – especially the riserva offerings – and display excellent complexity. Best producers include Malabaila; Matteo Coreggia; Monchiero Carbone; Malvirà; Deltetto and Marco Porello.
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Examples of Nebbiolo-Based Wines of Piemonte
Travaglini Gattinara Riserva 2012 - Aromas of roast coffee, balsamic, nutmeg, dried cherry and cedar aromas. Medium-full with a rich mid-palate, very good acidity, impressive persistence and complexity. Subdued and savoury! What a wonderful combination for roast veal or lamb chops with root vegetables. Enjoy now or over the next 7-10 years, perhaps longer. Outstanding
_________________________________________________________
Tenute Sella Lessona 2012 - A blend of 80% Nebbiolo, 20% Vespolina. Aromas of dried tobacco, cedar, sour cherry and sage. Medium-full with a rich mid-palate, this has youthful, but nicely balanced tannins, good acidity and a strong herbal influence. Needs food. Best in 5-7 years. Very Good
________________________________________________________
Tenute Sella Bramaterra “I Porfidi” 2010 - A blend of 70% Nebbiolo, 20% Croatina, 10% Vespolina. Beautiful deep garnet; red cherry, sage, nutmeg and tobacco aromas. Medium-full with a generous mid-palate, excellent persistence, very good acidity, marvelous complexity. Texbook style of this wine in a traditional style with notable spiciness in the finish (tobacco, dried figs). Enjoy over the next 7-10 years. Outstanding
________________________________________________________
Luigi Pira Langhe Nebbiolo 2016 - 100% Nebbiolo. Aromas of cedar, dried marascino cherry, tar and dried brown spice (cumin). Medium-full with very good concentration, this is a complex Langhe Nebbiolo with very good varietal character, good acidity and a distinct spiciness in the finish, with notes of cumin, tobacco seed and sage. Approachable now, this will show greater complexities in 3-5 years. Very Good
_________________________________________________________
Paolo Manzone Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d'Alba 2014 - Aromas of red cherry, tar, orange peel and cedar. Medium-full, this has outstanding varietal purity, subtle wood notes, elegant tannins and very good acidity. Quite stylish! Approachable now, but best in 7-10 years. Very good value. Excellent
_________________________________________________________
Renato Ratti Barolo "Marcenasco" 2014 - Aromas of orange peel, tar, red currant and black plum. Medium-full, this has a subtle spiciness that adds to the overall complexity of the wine. Nicely integrated wood notes, very good acidity and excellent balance. Peak in 10-12 years. Excellent
_________________________________________________________
Ceretto Barbaresco "Asili" 2015 - Aromas of red cherry, thyme and cocoa powder. Medium-full with excellent richness on the palate, good acidity, subtle wood notes and young, balanced tannins. A bit more forward than recent vintages, but otherwise, this is a very well made Barbaresco. Peak in 10-12 years. Excellent
_________________________________________________________
Albino Rocca Barbaresco "Ronchi" 2014 - Lovely perfumes of rose petals, dried cherry and cedar. Medium-full with a rich mid-palate, this has a lengthy finish with a distinct spiciness, excellent persistence and outstanding harmony. Peak in 10-12 years. Outstanding
_________________________________________________________
Malabaila Roero Riserva "Castelletto" 2012 - Inviting aromas of tar, orange peel, dried cherry and oregano. Medium-full, this has very good acidity, excellent ripeness, elegant tannins and impressive persistence. Great varietal purity, this is one of the most consistent and complex versions of Roero produced today. Peak in 12-15 years. Outstanding
|
f3517311be7c7766ba0ce2392ddfdc0c
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2018/11/26/nanni-cope-one-of-italys-greatest-and-least-known-wine-producers/
|
Nanni Copè: One Of Italy's Greatest And Least Known Wine Producers
|
Nanni Copè: One Of Italy's Greatest And Least Known Wine Producers
Giovanni Ascione, proprietor/winemaker, Nanni Copè, Campania Photo ©Tom Hyland
There are countless producers and wines that rank among the very best in the world, yet many of these are so limited in production and/or come from a territory that's not famous. That's often the case with the Italian wine industry and these hidden gems can be found in virtually every one of the country's 20 regions.
One of my favorites is a red wine called Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco from Nanni Copè, a producer located in the province of Caserta in northern Campania. The proprietor is Giovanni Ascione - Nanni is a nickname for Giovanni - and this is the only red wine he produces (he also crafts a tiny amount of Fiano), but what a wine!
Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco - the name refers to the fact that the vineyard is situated above a forest - is made primarily from a local indigenous variety called Palagrello Nero; there is also a small amount of Casavecchia, another indigenous variety, blended in the wine (the vineyard sourced for the Casavecchia is 125 years old!). From time to time, a small percentage of Aglianico, Campania's most famous red variety, is also included in the blend.
This wine has become something of an obsession for Ascione, and when you listen to him talk about his vines, it's as though he knows every detail about every plant; he can tell you about the differences in pruning, leaf management, and harvesting techniques for every plot.
The wine was first produced from the 2008 vintage, and it was an immediate success; Italian wine critics heaped praise on the distinctiveness and complexity of this wine. The raves for this wine have not stopped, and the newly released 2016, which I tasted recently, is another superb wine. Medium-full with excellent ripeness and flavors of black raspberry, black cherry and licorice, the wine has a rich mid-palate and outstanding persistence; the finish goes on an on. There is good acidity - this has been true for every release of this wine - and the tannins, which are quite rich, are well managed, as they do not overwhelm the fruit. The complexity is simply amazing, as is the overall harmony.
This is, without a doubt, one of the top 25 wines in Italy, and I'm probably being conservative with that ranking, as for me, it's a top 10. There isn't much made, but the Nanni Copè Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco is a stunning wine that will drink well for 15-20 years (it can be enjoyed upon release, but it is a bit of a crime to drink it so soon). If you love the distinctiveness of Italian wines, here is evidence of what a talented vintner can do with Palagrello Nero, a red variety few outside of the Campania region have ever heard of.
It's also a great wine, period. Do what you can to locate a bottle.
|
ccaab79ca1987c402313c3ede17128c5
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2019/05/02/italys-best-sparkling-wines-part-one-franciacorta-and-prosecco/
|
Italy's Best Sparkling Wines - Part One - Franciacorta and Prosecco
|
Italy's Best Sparkling Wines - Part One - Franciacorta and Prosecco
You may not realize it, but Italians love sparkling wine, especially Champagne. There are several famous houses in Champagne that have Italy as their largest (or second largest) export market. I've personally enjoyed so many great Champagnes in the Piedmont region, from famous and not so famous producers, and it's also a popular item in the regions of Veneto and Tuscany.
Well there's only so much Champagne to go around, and given the ingenuity of the Italians, they love to make as many types of wine as possible, so you'll find sparking wine from just about every one of Italy's 20 regions. Most of the finest are made in the classic method, as in Champagne (known as metodo classico in Italy), while there are some made in a less expensive and time consuming method known as Martinotti or Charmat, which still results in high quality bubblies, as with most examples of Prosecco.
There are a lot of sparkling wines in Italy, so let's get right to them, starting with this post, in which we'll discuss Franciacorta and Prosecco. (Part two, the next post, will deal with sparkling wines from Piedmont, Campania and Marche.)
Franciacorta - As Franciacorta is made in the classic method and two of three grapes used - Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (Pinot Nero) that are used in Champagne are also employed in Franciacorta (Pinot Bianco is the other variety used in Franciacorta) - this sparkling wine is often compared to Champagne. It also doesn't hurt that the average quality level of Franciacorta is quite high, resulting in another comparison to Champagne.
Yet the producers of Franciacorta don't want their products compared to Champagne, which is understandable as they want consumers and critics to appreciate the wines on their own. Franciacorta - the word applies both to a place - we are in the province of Brescia in the region of Lombardia, a one hour drive from Milan - and the wine, was first made in the late 1960s, as a few producers thought this territory on low-lying hills would be a fine place to craft sparkling wines.
The finest wines, especially Riserva, which must be aged for a minumum of 67 months before release, offer impressive depth of fruit and a distinct yeasty character. The Extra Brut category, those with a minimal amount of dosage, are very dry and offer great complexity. There is also a category of Franciacorta known as Satén (literally, satin or "silky") which is made only with white grapes - many versions are 100% Chardonnay - and are bottled under less pressure, giving these wines a silky, round finish, with flavors of melon, lemon and white and yellow flowers - these are very sensual and delicious examples of Franciacorta.
A few of my favorites include: Ca' del Bosco, founded in 1968, making it one of the initial Franciacorta producers. Proprietor Maurizio Zanella has been one of the driving forces of this appellation, and his passion and unwavering sense of what he wants, is evident in the overall quality of his wines. Everything he produces is of at least excellent quality, especially the Vintage Collection wines (the Dosage Zero and Dosage Zero Noir are full-bodied, very dry and outstanding), while the two Annamaria Clementi wines - named in honor of Maurizio's mother - are two of the very finest sparkling wines in the country. The 2009 Brut, a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero from vineyards with a median age of around 25 years, is powerful with a distinct yeasty character and amazing complexity; this will drink well for another 7-10 years. The Annamaria Clementi Rosato is also superb; the 2008, crafted entirely from Pinot Nero, is an oak-aged rosato of uncommon depth and intense strawberry and currant fruit flavors, and is extremely dry. It is a great sparkling rosé - this will be at peak in 7-10 years.
As for Satèn, there are many examples that shine including Ricci Curbastro (the 2014 is outstanding), Mosnel and Cavalleri, while my current favorite is the 2013 from Ferghettina, 100% Chardonnay sourced from 20 vineyards, that was aged on its lees for 36 months. There is great freshness and very good acidity, with perfumes and flavors of lemon peel, honey, green apples and almond. This offers excellent varietal character, with a richness on the palate, lovely finesse and a round, elegant finish. This cuvée is typical of the extremely high quality of Franciacorta produced by Roberto Gatti and his family at this estate.
Other wines I love include the Bellavista Vittorio Moretti Riserva, a full-throttle cuvée that has become a Franciacorta classic, and the Contadi Castaldi "Zero," a blend of 50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Nero, partially barrique aged, and with zero dosage; extremely dry, this has a powerful entry on the palate and offers outstanding complexity.
I'm also a fan of the Guido Berlucchi "Nature 61," a millésimato (vintage dated) cuvée made from Chardonnay and Pinot Nero that is very dry and offers great complexity and power with a lengthy finish. Finally the Antica Fratta "Essence" Rosé (2014 vintage), offers delicious berry fruit on the palate, ideal harmony and refreshing acidity. Dry, with a lengthy finish, this would partner well with many preparations of duck or pork.
Detail of vineyard in Asolo Prosecco zone Photo ©Tom Hyland
Prosecco - Examples of Prosecco, especially those from the Conegliano Valdobbiadene area in nothern Veneto (province of Treviso) have become wildly successful in many countries with consumers looking for a moderately priced (usually $12-$16 a bottle in US retail outlets) sparkling wine that is not too dry and not too rich. A well made Prosecco is a fine aperitif, but the reality is that there are simply too many innocuous offerings of Prosecco available today, products that are churned out to make money rather than offer much in the way of character. Yes, most producers make Prosecco using the Charmat or Martinotti method, rather than the classical method (metodo classico) process per Champagne, but that doesn't automatically mean that the wines should be simple and lacking complexity. The principal grape used is Glera, although other local varieties such as Verdiso and Bianchetta are also incorporated into numerous Prosecco cuvées as well.
So spend a few more dollars and discover what a well-made Prosecco can deliver. Among my favorites are the Adami "Bosco di Gica," Bisol "Crede," Le Vigne di Alice "Doro Nature" and the Nino Franco "Rustico." A category of Prosecco from Conegliano Valdobbiadene that has become more popular as of late are wines labeled as Rive, meaning the grapes are sourced from a single commune; these wines are usually quite dry and have great weight on the palate. A few of the finest include Bortolomiol "Rive San Pietro di Barbozza," Merotto "Rive di Col San Martino" and Le Colture "Rive di Santo Stefano Gerardo." Note that the Rive offerings are vintage dated (millesimato).
Finally the most highly regarded category of Prosecco from Conegliano Valdobbiadene is Cartizze, which refers to a large hill planted to vines owned by several dozen producers. A well made Cartizze has more complex perfumes - white fruit along with flowers such as chamomile and magnolia - and is usually Extra Dry, or with a light touch of sweetness. Recommended offerings of Cartizze are those from Mionetto, with appealing aromas of white peach, golden apple and lilac, along with the Villa Sandi "La Rivetta". This latter wine is sourced from one of the highest locations of the Cartizze hill and the 2016 version is extremely refined with jasmine and peach perfumes, backed by excellent persistence; this is a Prosecco of great elegance and harmony!
There is a second DOCG Prosecco zone that is also in the province of Treviso known as Asolo Prosecco. As this is much smaller than the Conegliano Valdobbiadene area, the wines are not as well known, but the quality here is excellent, and to be honest, overall of a slightly higher median than Conegliano Valdobbiadene.
Several producers here make a Prosecco known as Col Fondo, which has sediment on the bottom of the bottle (a few producers, such as Le Vigne di Alice, also practice this is Valdobbiadene). This type of Prosecco is often cloudy, so many consumers stay away from it, yet the wines have such wonderful character and complexity, and can be compared in certain ways to a natural wine; best yet, they age well, as 7 to 10 year-old bottlings are usually in fine shape. Look for Bele Casel and Case Paolin. Other highly recommended examples of Asolo Prosecco include Ida Agnoletti "Selva N. 55" Frizzante (slightly sparkling), Montelvini Extra Dry, Pat de Colmel Extra Dry (an outstanding Prosecco Extra Dry), Tenuta Amadio Extra Brut and Loredan Gasparini Extra Brut "Metodo Classico."
|
1b049192bbbe438f9bb5bb730e1ae436
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2019/05/29/recent-barolo-vintages-2014-2015-and-the-promise-of-a-memorable-2016/
|
Recent Barolo Vintages - 2014, 2015 And The Promise Of A Memorable 2016
|
Recent Barolo Vintages - 2014, 2015 And The Promise Of A Memorable 2016
The town of Barolo surrounded by vineyards Photo ©Tom Hyland
Barolo producers are quite content these days, and it's easy to understand why. The last twenty years have witnessed beneficial weather almost every growing season - with 2002, 2003 and 2017 being notable exceptions - and there have been a few truly outstanding vintages, such as 1999; 2001; 2004; 2006; 2008 (particularly exceptional for true Piemontese character), 2010 and 2013. Critical praise has been heaped upon these wines, resulting in loftier pricing for many single vineyard selections, especially from particular cru (known as MGA in this region) such as Cannubi, Brunate, Cerequio and Lazzarito. This has created greater demand in the market, meaning the value of the land has greatly increased in a short time frame. It's a golden time for Barolo producers to be sure.
Climate change certainly plays a part in the Langhe district where Barolo is produced, and there have been many warm growing seasons over the past two decades; harvest for Nebbiolo destined for Barolo now starts about ten days earlier on average than it did in the 1970s and 1980s. In his book Barolo MGA, Volume II, Alessandro Masnaghetti, writes about this subject, assembling several detailed graphs of exact starting dates for the harvest over am 18-year period. The average starting date for harvest in 2013, a warm year that produced ripe, powerful wines - a vintage that is thought by many to be outstanding - was October 11, four days later than average these days, while for 2012, a vintage with elegant, graceful wines that are a bit lighter than the 2013s, the average starting date for harvest in the Barolo zone was Oct. 6. As a comparison, in 2017, a brutally hot year that recorded some of the highest summer temperatures ever, the typical starting harvest date was September 25! Given that Nebbiolo was typically harvested in the 3rd week of October back in the 1960s and 1970s, this prompted several producers to tell me that year that their grandfathers would never have believed they would have seen the day when this took place.
Clearly 2017 will not be a vintage to remember. The wines will not be released for two more years, so while it's safe to say there will be some good wines from the best producers, 2017 will be a lesser Barolo vintage. So let's look at the last few vintages after 2013, as the wines from 2014 and 2015 are currently on the market, while the 2016s, which are the talk of almost every Barolo producer, will be released in 2020.
Vietti Barolo Ravera 2014 Photo ©Tom Hyland
2014 - Recently, I wrote an article about this vintage for Barolo and Barbaresco, the basis being that while the early word was all about the cool weather and ample rain of that year, the wines would be well below average. Well things turned out quite differently, as the 2014 Barolos are quite successful, as they are wines with excellent structure and very good acidity; this is more of a Piemontese vintage, and definitely not an international one. "The 2014 Barolo is a Nebbiolo based on finesse," remarks Gianluca Grasso, winemaker at Elio Grasso in Monforte d'Alba. "The wines are elegant and show the beauty and nobility of this grape varietal."
Matteo Molino of the Mauro Molino winery in La Morra also has high praise for the 2014 Barolos. "Without any doubt, we can say that for historical vineyards such as Conca (a small vineyard in La Morra) have perfomed at their best in 2014. Our Barolos in 2014 are elegant with balanced tannins and with a great purity in terms of aromatics."
Among the best examples of 2014 Barolo are these:
Vietti Ravera
Vietti Lazzarito
Vietti Rocche
Mauro Molino Conca
M. Marengo Brunate
Elvio Cogno Ravera
Paolo Manzone "Comune di Serralunga"
Marchesi di Barolo Cannubi
Rocche Costamagna Rocche dell'Annunziata
Renato Ratti Conca
Pio Cesare Ornato
______________________________________________________________________________
Paolo Scavino Barolo Bric del Fiasc 2015 - one of that year's finest Barolos Photo ©Tom Hyland
2015 - 2015 is an unusual year for Barolo. While there were heat spells, it was not as hot as 2017 or 2003. The wines are rich, but not over the top, and while this is not a great year, there are numerous impressive, even excellent wines. "At the beginning of spring, we had sun but also rain," recalls Elisa Scavino of the Paolo Scavino winery in Castiglione Falletto. "We had beautiful humidity and the vineyards weren't stressed." She remembers that the little bit of rain at the end of September was "ideal for perfect phenolic ripeness," and that because of these rains, "the wines were not over extracted in 2015 ... the 2015 Barolo are elegant and graceful."
For Molino, "the 2015 Barolos have a great concentration supported by a good freshness and elegant tannins. This is for sure a rich vintage, with a fantastic potential of aging, while they are very enjoyable at the moment." For Grasso, "2015 Barolo is much more based on structure ... it has more shoulder and less acidity than 2014. Finally, at the Paolo Manzone winery in Serralunga, Paolo Manzone notes that the 2015 Barolos are "balanced and soft. This very unusual for the expectations of the harvest. After a dry summer, we expected dry, strong tannins."
Among the best examples of 2015 Barolo are these:
Elio Grasso Casa Maté
Paolo Scavino Ravera
Paolo Scavino Bric del Fiasc (outstanding)
Elio Grasso Casa Maté
Vietti Ravera (outstanding)
Vietti Rocche di Castiglione
Mauro Veglio Castelletto
Ettore Germano Prapò
Cascina Amalia Le Coste di Monforte
Cavallotto Bricco Boschis
Francesco Rinaldi Cannubi
Gianni Gagliardo Mosconi
Mauro Molino Conca
Ceretto Bricco Rocche (outstanding)
Ceretto Prapò (outstanding)
Giacomo Fenocchio Cannubi (outstanding)
Giacomo Fenocchio Villero
Poderi Oddero Brunate
______________________________________________________________________________
Vineyards in the commune of Serralunga d'Alba in the Barolo zone. Photo ©Tom Hyland
2016 - We now come to 2016, which is promising to be one of the all-time great vintages for Barolo. The wines won't be released until the late spring or summer of 2020 at the earliest, but according to every winemaker I've spoken with over the past year and a half, these wines are going to be very special.
For Molino, "2016 has been characterized by a long cycle of vegetation, with some rain storms during the spring and mild temperatures during summer and fall. Fundamental in this year has been the green harvest to achieve the perfect maturation of the bunches." Everything looks perfect, according to Molino. "It was a late harvest with perfectly ripe grapes. The 2016 Barolos are fresh with outstanding complexity and minerality, wines that have a great tension on the palate. For us it’s been a fantastic vintage."
Grasso is equally praiseworthy of the 2016 Barolos. "2016 has only one word - spectacular!!! It was the longest vegetation cycle, best weather conditions each single month, and 100% phenolic maturation. Every single detail at the right place!!!"
______________________________________________________________________________
Some words of advice. Drink the 2015s now and over the next 10-12 years (or longer with a few wines). Wait a few years for the 2014s, and next year, save money to purchase the 2016 Barolos, the next great vintage.
|
fc9e2ef430e8fc2fe1e3fa3b74f4b3c8
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2019/08/08/the-pleasures-of-dry-riesling/?sh=596572d41a0d
|
The Pleasures Of Dry Riesling
|
The Pleasures Of Dry Riesling
Wehlener Sonnenuhr Old Vines Dry Riesling, S.A. Prum Photo courtesy Taub Family Selections
Image is everything, let's face it. So when the subject of Riesling is addressed, many wine lovers - whether consumers or members of the trade - think sweet. It's what many of us were taught about Riesling when we first tasted the wine, that it's a sweet wine, ranging from lightly sweet (or off-dry) to very sweet, the latter style meant to be paired with dessert or on its own after a meal.
Riesling is undoubtedly one of the world's great wine grapes, and the finest examples of Riesling offer great complexity along with notable aging potential. Quite often the finest examples of very sweet Riesling that are considered remarkable, such as Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese from Germany or vendanges tardives from Alsace, drink well between 15-25 years after the vintage.
Yet, while sweet versions of Riesling are well known, the dry versions too often get lost in the shuffle, as other dry whites, such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, are more familiar to consumers. If they need to choose a dry white for dinner, it's one of these latter two wines they'll usually opt for, and Riesling - again because of its image as sweet - is ignored.
But dry Riesling is a marvelous choice for so many styles of food, from Asian and fusion cuisine to specific seafood dishes or pork and chicken entrées. It's also nice that there are more and more options when it comes to dry Riesling, as there are notable offerings from Germany, Austria, the Alsace region of France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and also the United States. Dry Riesling may not be trendy just yet, but it's not an exaggeration to think that it will be soon.
Many German producers, such as Dr. Thanisch, a Mosel estate best known for their glorious wines from Bernkastel, certainly hope that dry Riesling will become much more popular. Estate Manager Maximilian Ferger remarks that "the demand for dry Riesling has become more and more popular in the past years." He notes that the best known examples of Dry Riesling have been the high quality wines known as GG - Grosses Gewächs - that are, in the words of Ferger, "Grand Cru vineyards of the estates with their own definition and quality qualification such as low yields, hand harvest that receive the highest and best scores defined of terms by the German wine law."
MORE FOR YOUThe Canned Wine Spritzer Trend Just Got Another Cool Cat: An Interview Rocco VenneriInside Kentucky’s Rise Of New School Bourbon And RyeFast-Growing Kodomo Shokudo Provides Children With Food And A Coveted Community In The Pandemic
The word trocken on a German label means that the wine is dry; Thanisch produces a Riesling Spätlese Trocken, a wine that is harvested late, but produced as a dry wine, as the winemaker stops the fermentation at the proper time. Producers all throughout Germany also make examples of trocken wines, although Ferger notes that in his opinion, the focus today in Germany is more about wines known as Feinherb that are off-dry; the Feinherb category replaces the former halbtrocken (half-dry) moniker. Interestingly, Ferger comments that "everyone speaks and means they want to have only dry wines. If you mention off-dry or semi sweet Feinherb or halbtrocken people nearly feel insulted and do not want to try the wines. Otherwise if you don’t mention any analytics, people always prefer the wines with at least a bit residual sugar in the wines."
While dry Riesling is becoming a more important part of the German wine scene, Australia has been famous for its dry Rieslings for decades. The finest examples of dry Riesling from Australia are from the Clare and Eden Valleys in South Australia, where Riesling plantings outnumber those of Chardonnay (by more than two to one in Eden Valley). These dry Rieslings are a bit different than their German counterparts, as they offer perfumes of lime and melon, as opposed to the apricot and pear aromas from Germany, while there is also distinct minerality in the Australian versions. Among the most famous Rieslings from these areas are Grosset "Polish Hill," Henschke "Julius" and Pikes "Traditionale."
Riesling has taken on importance in America over the past few decades. There are several excellent dry Rieslings from the Finger Lakes region of New York State that have received notable press, along with a few examples from California that you may not have heard about. Two of the latter include lovely wines from Smith-Madrone in Napa Valley and Dutton-Goldfield in Sonoma.
Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone, Napa Valley Photo by Meg Smith
Stuart Smith, founder and enologist at Smith-Madrone in the Spring Mountain District of Napa Valley, decided upon Riesling when he founded the winery in the 1970s, as "there was no breakaway varietal," as he puts it, at that time in California. He noted that after a few years, his brother Charles and he "were doing a bang up job with Chardonnay, Cabernet and Riesling. Quite frankly we really liked—-loved—-Riesling. It’s one of the most versatile, fun, go-with-anything wines that’s out there."
Their Riesling is dry and has great complexity as well as notable varietal character, harmony, and perhaps most importantly, an outstanding sensation of pleasure; much of this derives from the sourcing of the grapes, between 1400 and 1900 feet above sea level, assuring small yields along with moderate temperatures, even during a hot spell in Napa. "My brother and I have spent our entire adult lives making great Riesling and promoting it," Smith remarks. "We make a great one, there’s no question about that. In addition it ages, matures, evolves and develops in ways that 90% of wines don’t. Also, with Riesling you get the pure expression of the grape. If there’s such a thing as terroir, Riesling is 'it,' because it’s fermented in stainless steel, aged in stainless steel, clarified and bottled right out of stainless steel. There’s no interference with the purity and the expression of the grape.
"There’s no French or American oak, no lees, no batonnage, no malolactic, no micro-oxygenation or like type of manipulation. This is the purest expression and form that a grape can give. It’s why I think Riesling isn’t one of the great white grapes of the world, it’s one of the great wine grapes of the world (along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay)."
At Dutton-Goldfield, winemaker Dan Goldfield sources Riesling from a vineyard in the Petaluma Gap appellation in Marin County, south of Sonoma County. The vines here are more than 25 years old and the vineyard is now completely dry farmed at this very windswept spot. "This whole combination of factors causes the fruit to ripen very slowly," says Goldfield. Noting the later harvest dates for this Riesling - November 1 in 2018 - the winemaker points out that the fruit never becomes overripe, while maintaining its naturally high acidity. "This is wonderful for what I love in Riesling," comments Goldfield. This is a sleek, low-key Riesling that is akin in style to the finest examples from Austria.
At the beginning of this article, I mentioned how Riesling is one of the world's greatest grapes, and I have touched upon examples from a few countries. But there are many more classic examples of dry Riesling available, from Alsace in France, Austria, New Zealand and elsewhere. Dry Riesling is an amazing wine, displaying its brilliance on its own or with food, as Smith comments. "When it comes to pairing Riesling it is without a question the most versatile of all grapes. It literally can go with anything anytime anywhere … even for breakfast, maybe Champagne has an edge over it, but not by a lot. Fresh fish, saltwater fish, white meat, soup, fusion, Asian, it goes with it all!"
An added benefit is its capability to age for a long time, as long as many of the world's great red wines, and usually for less money. "You simply cannot buy a better or higher level of wine quality than what you pay for in a bottle of Riesling," notes Smith. "You can spend $60/70 for a mediocre/lousy bottle of Cabernet, and for $35 you can get a great bottle of Riesling."
Notes on recommended versions of dry Riesling
Germany
Nik Weis St. Urbans Hof Riesling Dry 2018 (Mosel) - Aromas of yellow peach, apricot and buttercups. Medium-bodied, this has very good varietal character, good acidity and freshness. Straightforward, enjoy this over the next 2-3 years. Very Good
R. Prum Riesling “Luminance” Dry 2018 (Mosel) - Yellow peach, apricot and melon aromas. Medium-bodied, this has appealing varietal fruit and finishes dry to off-dry. Nicely balanced and well made, this is a fine introduction to Mosel Riesling. Enjoy over the next 2-3 years. Very Good
Clemens Busch Riesling Trocken 2016 (Mosel) Aromas of dried apricot and pear with notes of parafin and lemon peel. Medium-bodied, this offers excellent freshness and complexity, impressive complexity and a nice sense of finesse and harmony. Dry finish with very good persistence. Enjoy over the next 2-3 years. Excellent
Weingut Spreitzer Estate Riesling Trocken 2017 (Rheingau) - Peach, lime and yellow poppy aromas. Medium-bodied with very good depth of fruit, good acidity, excellent varietal character and impressive harmony. Beautifully balanced and delicious! Enjoy over the next 2-3 years. Excellent
Dr. Thanisch Riesling Spatlese Trocken 2014 (Mosel) - Classic cat’s pee, petrol and ginger aromas. Medium-full, very good concentratoin. Rich mid-palate, slightly oily. Notes of peach and lime on the palate. Good acidity, notable complexity, dry finish and impressive persistence. 3-5 years. Outstanding
S.A. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Dry “Old Vines” 2010 (Mosel) Bright, deep yellow; classic aromas of yellow peach, apricot and yellow crocus. Medium-full with excellent concentration. Rich mid-palate, lovely texture, very good acidity, excellent persistence; notes of saffron and ginger in the finish. Dry, elegant finish with excellent fruit persistence. Quite delicious, this offers beautiful freshness and will drink well for at least another 5-7 years. Superb
Alsace, France
Domaine Ostertag Riesling "Fronholz" 2016 - Lemon custard, parafin and dried peach aromas. Medium-bodied, this has very good varietal character and has a dry finish with good acidity, although the finish is a bit short. Enjoy over the next 2-3 years. Excellent
Trimbach Riesling 2016 - Beautiful varietal aromas of apricot, pear and melon with a hint of dried yellow flowers. Medium-bodied, this has good acidity and persistence and is nicely balanced. Very well made, and a fine value. 3-5 years. Excellent
Domaine Weinbach Riesling "Cuvée Theo" 2017 - Lovely aromas of pear, melon and orange blossom. Medium-bodied, this is clean with delicious varietal fruit and a dry, elegant finish with very good persistence. 3-5 years. Excellent
Trimbach Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg 2015 - Aromas of apricot, honey and yellow crocus. Medium-full with excellent concentration. Rich mid-palate, excellent complexity, lengthy finish. Notes of honey on the palate. Clean finish, great fruit purity finishes dry, but not exceedlngly so. Excellent ripeness, a bit forward. Enjoy now and over the next 10-12 years. Outstanding
Trimbach Riesling "Cuvée Frédéric Emile" 2011 - Aromas of apricot pit, quince and orange poppy aromas. Medium-full with excellent concentration. Rich finish with excellent fruit persistence, good acidity and a light nuttiness. Wonderful complexity- enjoyable now, but will be at its best in another 5-7 years. Outstanding
Austria
Rudi Pichler Riesling "Federspiel" 2016 (Wachau) - Aromas of apricot, petrol and saffron. Medium-full, this has a generous mid-palate and is ripe with great complexity. Dry with a distinct minerality and excellent persistence. Appealing now, this will improve for another 7-10 years. Excellent
Loimer Riesling Ried Steinmassl 1 OWT 2016 (Langenlois Kamptal) - Light yellow with copper hues. Lovely aromas of apricot, heather and orange roses petals. Medium-full with a rich mid-palate. Outstanding persistence, very good acidity, subtle nuttiness in the finish, and wonderful complexity. Very subdued wine with excellent structure. Enjoyable now- peak in 7-10 years, perhaps longer. Outstanding
Italy
Ettore Germano Riesling "Herzu" 2018 (Piemonte) - Most people don't think of Riesling from the Piedmont region, but this is a standout example, and arguably the finest Riesling in all of Italy. Expressive aromas of lime, jasmine, orange blossom and a hint of passion fruit. Very good acidity, excellent persistence and great complexity, along with superb varietal purity. Enjoy over the next 5-7 years. (Note: I tasted this wine from the tank, just prior to bottling back in June. The wine will be released over the coming months.) Outstanding
Australia
Pike’s Riesling “Traditionale” 2017 (Clare Valley) - Melon, lime, peach and orange blossom aromas. Medium-bodied with beautiful varietal purity, this has very good acidity, good persistence and lovely harmony. Enjoy over the next 3-5 years. Excellent
Henschke Riesling “Julius” 2017 (Eden Valley) - Aromas of red apple and honeyscuckle. Medium-full, this is clean and finishes dry with very good persistence and has notable complexity. A subdued style of Riesling that will pair well with a variety of foods. Enjoy over the next 2-3 years. Excellent
Pewsey Vale Dry Riesling 2017 (Eden Valley) - Straw/light yellow; aromas of green apple, jasmine and pear jelly. Medium-full, this has ideal ripeness, very good ripeness, a light touch of minerality and yellow spice in the finish. Very appealing and delicious. Enjoy over the next 3-5 years. Outstanding
California
Dutton-Goldfield Riesling “Chileno Valley Vineyard” 2017 (Petaluma Gap) Straw with green tint; aromas of yellow peach, apricot and crocus. Medium-bodied, this has delightful varietal character, very good ripeness and acidity and a dry, but not exceedingly dry finish. Impressive harmony, this is clean and delicious with very good complexity. Enjoy over the next 2-3 years, perhaps longer. Excellent
Smith-Madrone Riesling 2015 (Spring Mountain, Napa Valley) - Bright yellow with a touch of amber. Aromas of yellow peach, apricot and orange blossom. Medium-full, this has excellent ripeness with very good acidity, and finishes dry with excellent varietal persistence. Great freshness and complexity, this is delicious, and is one of the great versions of dry Riesling from the United States. Enjoy over the next 3-5 years. Outstanding
|
84c4662c683ed1d358ed2c6c52ca754a
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2019/08/19/italys-indigenous-varietiespart-three/
|
Italy's Indigenous Varieties - Part Three
|
Italy's Indigenous Varieties - Part Three
This is the third part of my series about indigenous varieties in Italy.
Cantina Tramin Winery in the villages of Tramin. Excellent examples of Lagrein are produced here. Photo courtesy Cantina Tramin/ Winebow
Lagrein (red) - One of the most important varieties of Alto Adige, Lagrein has deep purple color and effusive fruitiness, with aromas and flavors of blackberry, black plum and blueberry. There are often very strong tannins, so the wines are best after a few years in the bottle, although they are rarely meant for aging more than a decade, unlike Nebbiolo or Aglianico. Many producers aim for a ripe, flashy, fleshy style and age in barriques, while others try to tame the tannins and mature their Lagrein in mid-size oak casks. Among the best producers of Lagrein are Cantina Terlano (their Porphyr bottling is outstanding), Cantina Tramin (Urban), Elena Walch (Castel Ringberg), Tenuta Waldgries and Cantina Bolzano (Taber).
Montepulciano (red) - Here we are referring to the Montepulciano grape, and not the wine Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. The best-known offerings of the Montepulciano grape are those from the Abruzzo region - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The wines have rich color, medium-weight tannins and distinct black spice; for years, many examples of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo were simple, short term reds produced by the large cooperatives in the region, but the last 20 years have seen many changes, as artisan producers in the area such as Valentini and Emidio Pepe have elevated Montepulciano d'Abruzzo to one of Italy's finest reds. Other recommended producers of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo include Marina Cvetic, Valle Reale (Sant'Eusanio), Illuminati (Zanna) and Zaccagnini.
Montepulciano is also planted in Marche, where is it used for production of two famous wines: Conero Rosso and Offida Rosso. These wines tend to be medium-bodied and display the charming fruitiness of the variety. Among the best producers of these wines are: Santa Barbara (Rosso Picheno Maschio da Monte), Saladini Palastri, Maurizio Marchetti and Umani Ronchi (Rosso Conero San Giorgio).
Cluster of Nebbiolo Grapes Photo ©Tom Hyland
MORE FOR YOUThe Canned Wine Spritzer Trend Just Got Another Cool Cat: An Interview Rocco VenneriInside Kentucky’s Rise Of New School Bourbon And RyeFast-Growing Kodomo Shokudo Provides Children With Food And A Coveted Community In The Pandemic
Nebbiolo (red) - Arguably, Italy's great variety, red or white. Piemonte is home to more than 85% of the world's Nebbiolo plantings, so it stands to reason that the greatest examples of Nebbiolo-based wines are made in the region. Barolo and Barbaresco are the two most famous examples, with other stylish and excellent offerings including Roero Rosso and Carema, along with several examples from Alto Piemonte that are based upon Nebbiolo, such as Boca and Gattinara.
Nebbiolo is one of the most tannic varieties in the world, which is an important reason why the finest examples of Nebbiolo-based wines age for several decades. Yet the color is relatively light - not deep ruby red or purple, but rather garnet. This combination of firm tannins and light color add up to a powerful red with a feminine side - great Barolos and Barbrescos have a lovely sense of finesse.
I have written several articles on Nebbiolo at these pages, explaining in greater detail the glories of this variety. Here are links to my articles on the best producers of Barolo; for the best Barbaresco producers, click here.
Nebbiolo is also planted in the neighboring regions of Valle d'Aosta (slightly north and west of Piemonte) and Lombardia (east of Piemonte). The most singular Nebbiolo-based wine from Lombardia is Sforzato (sometimes referred to as Sfursat), a 100% Nebbiolo that is made in the appassimento process, as with Amarone della Valpolicella from Veneto. Best producers of Sforzato include Nino Negri (5 Stelle), Ar. Pe. Pe., Aldo Rainoldi, Sandro Fay and Mamete Prevostini.
Negroamaro (red) - Most famously planted in Puglia, the name of this grape translates literally as "dark" and "bitter." There are versions that are relatively light, meat for early consumption (within their first three or four years); these wines have a only a slight bitterness. The more structured examples that are at their best 5-7 years (or more) after the vintage tend to be riper, richer and display more bitterness when young. The most famous wine made from Negroamaro is Salice Salentino, which is arguably Puglia's greatest red, along with Castel del Monte (see below) and Primitivo di Manduria. Excellent examples of Negroamaro come from producers such as Cantine Paolo Leo (Orfeo), Tenute Girolamo, Cantine Due Palme (Salice Salentino Selvarossa Riserva), Castello Monaci and Leone de Castris (Salice Salentino Donna Lisa Riserva).
Note that Negroamaro is sometimes produced as a rosato, clearly among Italy's finest.
Nero di Troia (red) - If Negroamaro is the varietal that is the source of many of southern Puglia's finest reds, then Nero di Troia earns that title for northern Puglia. Though Nero di Troia is sometimes bottled as a stand alone variety, it is typically part of a blend, as with Castel del Monte Rosso (which often employs the Montepulciano grape). Tannins are rich as is the color of Nero di Troia based wines. Another northern Puglian red that uses Nero di Troi is Cacc'e Mmitte, which is made by a handful of producers. Among the best examples of Castel del Monte wines are Giancarlo Ceci, Rivera, Conte Spagnoletti Zeuli and Tormaresca. For Cacc'e Mmitte, look for the version from Alberto Longo.
Nerello Cappuccio / Nerello Mascalese (red) - These two complementary varieties are planted in the Etna district of Sicily; while both varieties can be part of an Etna Rosso blend, it is Mascalese that is by far the most important, as Cappuccio has become a smaller part of the final blend, while in some cases, it is not used in the wines.
Nerello Mascalese has rich color and tannins, with distinct black spice, and while even young vines produce wines of impressive complexity, older vines - some more than 150 years old - are the source for some of Italy's finest reds. Many have called the best examples of Etna Rosso "Italy's Burgundies," yet I find many examples to be more reminiscent of Nebbiolo-based wines from Piemonte. Best producers include Tenuta delle Terre Nere, Pietradolce, Tenuta di Fessina, Passopisciaro and Cottanera.
As for Nerello Cappuccio, the variety has fallen out of favor in many Etna Rosso blends. On its own, the wines are quite tannic, with distinct spiciness and are often more floral than wines made from Nerello Cappuccio. There are a handful of producers that craft a 100% version; these include Benanti and Tenuta di Fessina (Laeneo).
|
184523b733b9dbeba5bae23b86f60beb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2019/12/17/best-italian-wines-of-the-year/
|
Best Italian Wines Of The Year
|
Best Italian Wines Of The Year
Cantina Fratelli Pardi Montefalco Sagrantino "Sacrantino" Photo ©Tom Hyland
It’s that time again for my choices for the best Italian wines released in 2019. From beautiful white wines from regions such as Campania, Veneto and even Tuscany to brilliant reds from Piedmont, Umbria, Tuscany and several others, I’ve tried to organize a list that celebrates both the iconic wine types as well as others not as well known as they should be.
Whites
2018 Giovanni Almondo Roero Arneis “Bricco delle Ciliegie” - A classic offering, the 2018 is among the finest ever made; exotic aromas, pristine varietal character.
2018 Mainente Soave Classico “Tovo al Pigno” - Lovely harmony and light minerality with outstanding complexity. A little-known producer that deserves greater attention.
2018 Bibi Graetz “Testamatta” Toscana Bianco - 100% Ansonica from the island of Giglio; barrique fermented, lovely texture. A wonderful surprise.
2018 Pietracupa Greco di Tufo - Another brilliant effort from Sabino Loffredo; the champion of Greco di Tufo. Stunning varietal purity, and great aging potential.
2018 Antonio Caggiano Greco di Tufo "Devon” - Best known for his beautiful examples of Taurasi, this producer’s Greco di Tufo “Devon” is a lovely wine and is as impressive as ever in 2018. Great varietal purity, complexity and harmony.
MORE FOR YOUWith Chicken Under Its Belt, McDonald’s Moves On To McPlantThis San Diego Distillery Makes Vodka From Unwanted BeerDogfish Head Founder Sam Calagione Discusses New Oat Milk IPA, Craft Beer Innovation
2018 Petilia Greco di Tufo - A perfect combination of varietal character, floral perfumes and charm. Superb harmony, great elegance. This wine traditionally ages beautifully; this 2018 version should drink well for 7-10 years.
2015 Mastroberardino Fiano di Avellino “Stilema” - I love the approach Piero Mastrobeardino takes with Fiano and Greco, as he is constantly experimenting. 10% of this wine was aged in used barrique; great texture and richness on the palate; melon, pear and dried yellow flower aromas. I’d love to taste this again in 10 or so years.
2018 Ciro Picariello Fiano di Avellino - From a master of the variety, a classic offering of Fiano di Avellino. Great complexity, excellent persistence and impressive texture. Peak in 7-10 years.
2018 Donnachiara Fiano di Avellino “Empatia” - A selection of the best grapes; lush, with great complexity. A new path for Fiano di Avellino that should open many eyes.
2018 Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina “Serrocielo” - A Falanghina of uncharacteristic richness and persistence from a high altitude vineyard in the Benevento area. Simply delicious!
2017 Arnaldo Caprai “Cuvée Secrete” - From one of the best-known producers of Montefalco Sagrantino comes this beautiful white, a blend of several grapes including Spoletino, Fiano, Grechetto and Sauvignon. Barrique aged, this has impressive richness on the palate, superb complexity and outstanding persistence. A singular achievement!
2018 Alois Lageder Pinot Grigio “Porer” - Yes, there are a few examples of outstanding Pinot Grigio produced in Italy each year, and this is one of them. Lageder applies several techniques to this wine, as a portion of the grapes are pressed immediately, some are given 15 hours of skin contact, and some are in contact with skins and stems for about a year. Extremely rich with great texture, superb persistence and complexity. I’ve enjoyed this wine for several years; the 2018 is the finest I have enjoyed to date! Enjoy now and over the next 3-5 years.
2018 Ettore Germano Riesling “Herzu” - Italy’s best Riesling year in and year out. Lovely floral and fruit perfumes with ideal harmony, varietal purity and complexity. This 2018 is one of the producer’s best examples of this wine.
2018 Elvio Cogno Anas-Cetta - From the most famous producer of Nascetta in Piemonte, one of his best offerings ever of this wine. Beautiful texture, superb varietal character; this should drink well for 7-10 years.
2015 Paolo Bea “Arboreus” - 100% Spoletino from one of Umbria’s greatest producers. 22 days of skin contact, no added sulfur. Intriguing aromas of heather, honey and mandarin orange. Great complexity, lovely texture, outstanding persistence.
Paolo Scavino Bric dël Fiasc Barolo 2015 Photo ©Tom Hyland
Reds
2018 Burlotto Verduno Pelaverga - Elegant and delicious, a lovely example of this distinctive Piemontese red from a great producer.
2016 Elio Grasso Barbera d’Alba “Vigna Martina” - Always one of the finest examples of Barbera each year, the 2016 is particularly notable. Aromas of blackberry, black plum and violets. Excellent persistence and super delicious!
2018 Reva Dolcetto d’Alba - 2018 is a great vintage for every varietal in Piedmont (and much of Italy). Here is a marvelous Dolcetto that offers juicy cranberry and red plum fruit, moderate tannins and excellent persistence. Great typicity!
2015 Paolo Scavino Barolo “Bric dël Fiasc” - My favorite Barolo this vintage from one of the most consistent producers of this wine type. A touch of balsamic, sour cherry and thyme in the aromas. Very rich on the palate, lengthy finish, excellent complexity.
2013 Paolo Manzone Barolo Riserva - From the producer’s Meriame estate vineyard; aged an additional year in anforae. Powerful with a great structure.
2013 Giacomo Fenocchio Barolo Bussia Riserva “90 Di” - The latest offering of this wine from a great traditional producer. “90 Di” refers to the 90 days of maceration the Nebbiolo grapes receive. Remarkable richness on the palate along with outstanding persistence. Peak in 25 years plus.
2016 Rizzi Barbaresco “Pajoré” - A combination of a great site, a superb traditional producer and an outstanding vintage. Expressive red cherry, currant and strawberry fruit, subtle wood notes, outstanding persistence, very good acidity and notable finesse and charm. A great Barbaresco! Peak in 12-15 years.
2016 Rizzi Barbaresco “Rizzi” - Beautiful red cherry fruit along with subtle notes of oregano and red poppies. Great richness on the palate, very good acidity and amazing harmony. Beautifully managed tannins. Rizzi is always one of the reference points for Barbaresco, yet still does not receive the praise it deserves. Perhaps this will change with the release of these 2016 Barbaresco.
2018 Montalbera Grignolino d’Asti “Grignè” - Grignolino is one of Piemonte’s most distinctive reds, and I love what Montalbera does with the variety. Wild strawberry fruit and plenty of spice in this version from the great 2018 vintage.
2015 Fontodi Chianti Classico Gran Selezione “Vigna del Sorbo” - Fontodi is one of the greatest of all Chianti Classico producers, and this is always one of his finest wines. Great depth of fruit and persistence.
2016 Fontodi “Flaccianello della Pieve” - A selection of the finest Sangiovese from Giovanni Manetti’s Fontodi estate. This has been a great wine for more than a decade, and the 2016 displays remarkable structure and superb varietal character. A classic!
Francesco Ricasoli in his estate vineyards at Castello di Brolio. His "Ceni Primo" is one of the ... [+] year's best wines. Photo ©Tom Hyland
2016 Ricasoli Chianti Classico Gran Selezione “Ceni Primo” - 100% Sangiovese from a single vineyard at this remarkable estate in Gaiole in Chianti. Superb statement of terroir; a beautifully balanced wine structured for peak drinking in 12-15 years. A great Sangiovese! After only two releases, “Ceni Primo” is one of Tuscany’s finest reds!
2015 Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico Gran Selezione “Sergio Zingarelli” - Beautifully structured Chianti Classico with ideal structure. Lovely morel cherry and red poppy aromas with excellent complexity. Sleek and absorbing! Superb harmony, a signature of the excellent 2015 vintage.
2015 San Felice Chianti Classico Gran Selezione “Il Grigio” - As pure a representation of Sangiovese as you will find. Great persistence and harmony - a classic from beautiful vintage. San Felice is as consistent a producer of Chianti Classico as there is.
2016 Felsina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione “Coloni” - Ideal ripeness, lovely harmony and great persistence, with sleek, young tannins and classic Sangiovese character. 2016 is a great Chianti Classico vintage and Felsina delivered beautifully with this wine and their “Vigneto Rancia” as well.
2016 Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore - Another stellar effort from this great Bolgheri producer. Rich fruit and floral perfumes, long, long finish, firm, but not aggressive tannins. 20 years plus.
2016 Sassicaia - Simply put, one of the finest versions ever of this wine. Tremendous depth of fruit, very good acidity, impeccable balance. Structured for 25 years plus.
2015 I Vigneti di Ettore Amarone della Classico Valpolicella - For those who believe that Amarone has to be a powerful, over the top wine, I invite you to try this version from I Vigneti di Ettore, a wine aged only in large oak casks. Beautiful harmony and impressive complexity. Plenty of staying power - peak in 15 plus years.
2016 Cantina Tramin Pinot Nero Riserva “Maglen” - Alto Adige is home to most of the finest examples of Pinot Noir in Italy; the cool climate is ideal for this variety. Just amazing perfumes of bing cherry, turmeric, nutmeg and allspice. Excellent persistence and velvety tannins, along with great varietal purity and notable complexity. Lovely wine! Peak in 7-10 years.
2015 Fratelli Pardi Montefalco Sagrantino “Sacrantino” - Sagrantino is one of the tannic varieties in the world, so producers in Montefalco, Umbria face the challenge of taming these tannins. This special offering from a very underrated producer is about as harmonious a Sagrantino as you will find. Attractive red plum, red poppy and blackberry aromas and superb harmony with graceful tannins. Peak drinking in 15-20 years, if you can wait that long!
2013 Tenuta Bellafonte Montefalco Sagrantino “Collenottolo” - Established in 2007, Tenuta Bellafonte is one of the newest producers of Montefalco Sagrantino, and is in my mind, one of the finest. Proprietor Peter Heilbron grew up in Umbria and has loved these wines for years. He is a traditionalist, maturing the wines in large oak and crafting wines with gorgeous texture and impressive fruit persistence. The 2013 is marked by elegant tannins and excellent complexity - peak in 10-12 years.
Dessert
2009 Rocca di Montegrossi Vin Santo
2007 Felsina Vin Santo
2007 Badia a Coltibuono Vin Santo “Occhio di Pernice”
Three outstanding versions of Vin Santo from Chianti Classico. The Montegrossi is a classic, made in almost an extreme style with deep color and intense honey and apricot flavors with some oxidative qualities. The Felsina is a bit lighter on the palate, with hazelnut and almond notes that lend superb complexity to the wine. The Badia a Coltibuono is an “Occhio di Pernice” (”eye of the partridge”) as it is produced entirely from Sangiovese, instead of white grapes (Malvasia, Trebbiano) as in most local versions. Lovely perfumes of fig and cherry.
Each of these versions of Vin Santo is an outstanding wine that are unlike almost any other dessert wine produced in Italy; they are dry to off-dry and offer excellent aging potential, from 12-15 years, or even longer.
2011 Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Sagrantino Passito - For several centuries, the passito version was the classic offering of Montefalco Sagrantino. At their best, as in this version from one of the great veteran estates of the area, the wines offer light sweetness with delicious fruit flavors of blackberry and red cherry, along with notes of rosemary and red poppies. Long, satisfying finish and excellent complexity.
2016 Cantina Tramin Gewürztraminer Passito “Terminum” - A few years ago, I wrote that this wine was perfection; I’ll say the same for the 2016 vintage. Bright, amber gold; heavenly aromas of dried apricot, orange blossom and honey with a hint of banana. Excellent concentration. very good acidity and an extremely lengthy finish that finishes dry. Simply amazing! Peak in 7-10 years.
Sparkling
Marcalberto Brut Nature - I did not taste as many Italian sparkling wines this year as I usually do, so I thought about not including this category in this article. However, this wine is so remarkable, I had to feature it. A blend of 85% Pinot Nero and 15% Chardonnay with no dosage, this metodo classico displays a distinct yeastiness in the aromas along with excellent richness on the palate, exemplary harmony and outstanding persistence. Piedmont’s finest sparkling wine producer!
|
394afe3ca9d885a8b770244a847fa040
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2020/12/24/sancerrethe-worlds-greatest-white-wine/
|
Sancerre - The World’s Greatest White Wine?
|
Sancerre - The World’s Greatest White Wine?
Bottles of Pascal Cotat and Domaine Vacheron Sancerre Photo ©Tom Hyland
The argument has raged for decades and no doubt, will continue for decades more. What is the greatest white varietal, and what is the world’s greatest white wine? The answer depends on who you talk to.
Naturally, Chardonnay is the response from many wine critics and lovers. It’s planted seemingly everywhere there are wine regions, and when you taste a complex Chardonnay from an artisan producer in California or a sublime white Bugundy, it’s hard not to favor this grape as the world’s finest.
Riesling has a lot of die-hard fans who claim that this varietal makes the best white wines. When you taste an example that is 10-20 years old (or older), you can certainly understand their opinion. Given the natural acidity of Riesling, these wines not only age beautifully, but display a wide variety of characteristics as they age.
I love Gewürztraminer, whether from Alto Adige or Alsace (where is it spelled Gewurztraminer, without the umlaut), for its remarkable perfumes of lanolin, yellow roses and grapefruit. I do realize that given these aromas as well as its spiciness, Gewürztraminer is somewhat limited in its ability to pair with many foods, so that is a strike against it being the greatest of all white grapes. But I love the wine nonetheless.
So I’ll nominate Sauvignon Blanc as arguably the world’s greatest white grape, for its richness, herbal notes, complexity, minerality and aging potential. And while there are notable examples of Sauvignon Blanc produced in New Zealand, northern Italy, California and Chile (as well as a few other nations), my pick for the greatest example of Sauvignon Blanc is Sancerre.
MORE FOR YOUSovereignty And The Soil: Chief Richard Currie And The Rising Of The Maroon Nation In JamaicaPilgrim’s Pride First To Plead Guilty In Chicken Price-Fixing SchemeWith Chicken Under Its Belt, McDonald’s Moves On To McPlant
Sancerre is a district in the Loire Valley wine territory in north-central France, named for the Loire River. Sancerre itself is a medieval town in the Upper Loire where Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are planted; Pinot Noir is used here to produce Sancerre Rouge and Sancerre Rosé.
But it is the white Sancerre, made entirely from Sauvignon Blanc, that is the most famous wine of in this district. Style vary according to producer, but a typical Sancerre features aromas and flavors of stone fruit (apricot), white flowers and especially notes of freshly cut hay or a light herbaceous quality, such as yellow pepper or even asparagus. The wine is medium-full to full-bodied with many examples made without the influence of wood, although there are numerous oak-aged versions that are dazzling. The finish is often one with distinct mineral notes, as well as the same herbal character found in the aromas; the wines produced from flinty soils known as silex are especially singular in their flavor profiles. These are wines to be paired with rich seafood, game birds (pheasant) or goat cheese.
Recent vintages of Sancerre have been notable, especially 2018 and 2019. Pascal Cotat of the eponymous estate in Sancerre, remarks that “2018 and 2019 vintages are very similar, as both have high alcohol and low acidity.” For Jean-Laurent Vacheron of Domaine Vacheron, “2019 is a super year, very healthy, very ripe grapes. It is a precocious vintage, the acidity is not high and the alcohol is rather high. However the wines are very balanced and juicy.”
Continuing Vacheron comments, “2018 and 2019 are very similar in the way they are constructed even if the alcohol is slightly higher in 2018. The two vintages tend to show that it is possible to make wines that have good freshness despite low acidities (the minerality superseded the acidity). 2018 is without a doubt a vintage that will mark people’s memories, and will remain a reference in Sancerre. It’s the kind of vintage that helps grow a heighten a generation of wine makers and their appellations.”
How would Vacheron describe the characteristics of a well made Sancerre? “Sancerre has evolved towards more complex wines with stronger identification from the terroirs,” he remarks. “The freshness is still being sought, but it comes more from its minerality than from its acidity. Sancerres are now riper, deeper and are becoming more than ever very nice wines to age.”
What are these producers looking for in their wines? “I am looking for authenticity and ageability in my wines,” says Cotat. For Vacheron, “at Domaine Vacheron, beyond freshness and complexity, today we are looking for beautiful textures in the mouth for augmented pleasure. “Our Lieux Dits (single vineyards) illustrate this desire to get as close as possible to the truth that is the terroir.”
Domaine Vacheron Sancerre 2019 - Brilliant straw/light yellow; textbook aromas of stone fruit (apricot), lemon zest and basil. Medium-full with very good to excellent concentration. Rich texture, lively, lip-smacking acidity, lengthy, extremely appealing finish. This is a quintessential introduction to Sancerre. Enjoy now and for the next 5-7 years. Outstanding
Domaine Vacheron Sancerre “Les Paradis” 2018 - Light yellow; aromas of stone fruit, orange blossom and elderflowers. Medium-full with very good to excellent concentration. Lovely ripeness with slightly juicy fruit, lively acidity and distinct notes of minerality in the finish. Beautiful varietal purity and elegance. Very appealing now, this will drink well over the next 5-8 years. Outstanding
Domaine Vacheron Sancerre “Les Romains” 2018 -Brilliant light yellow; aromas of grapefruit, flint and acacia. Medium-full with excellent concentration. Rich mid-palate, very good acidity, rich finish with distinct minerality and smokiness. Excellent complexity. The soils at this vineyard are pure flint, making this a more intense style of Sancerre, as compared to the winery’s “Les Paradis” offering. Enjoy over the next 5-8 years. Superb
Pascal Cotat Sancerre “Les Grands Damnés” 2019 -Les Grands Damnés (“the damned mountains,” named because of the steepness of this hill) is one of the most famous vineyards in the Sancerre production zone. Straw; aromas of pear, light flintiess, chervil. Medium-full, very rich on palate, great varietal purity. Very good acidity, lenghty finish, distinct flint and mineral notes in the finish. Excellent complexity and persistence. Enjoy over the next 5-7 years. Superb
Pascal Cotat Sancerre La Grande Côte 2019 - Straw/light yellow; aromas of green pea, Anjou pear and basil. Medium-full with very good to excellent concentration. Rich mid-palate, very ripe, amost sweet fruit. Excellent complexity, lengthy finish, notable intensity. Quite intense, the vines here are more than 50 years old. Enjoy over the next 5-7 years. Outstanding
|
81a0f47e3608dcc3b53791fa783c474b
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2021/02/03/italian-wine-values/?sh=7a722a266e06
|
Italian Wine Values
|
Italian Wine Values
Estate of Tenuta di Tavignano, Marche Photo credit Tenuta di Tavignano
There are so many different varieties planted throughout Italy, some famous, others not well-known. Combine that with all the different types of wines produced in 20 regions of the country and multiply that by the thousands of wine estates, and you have a dazzling array of products, many of which don’t receive the attention they deserve. The end result is that there are countless Italian wine values that are out there waiting to be discovered.
I’d like to highlight just a few current releases that are worth your attention.
Tenuta di Tavigano Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi “Villa Torre” 2019 - If there is one Italian white wine type you can consistently rely on to deliver notable quality with reasonable pricing, it’s Verdicchio from Marche. There are two major types, Verdicchio di Matelica and the better known of the two, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi.
What’s great about this wine are its characteristics of freshness and longevity; even an entry level Verdicchio drinks well for five to seven years, while most offerings are lovely at age 10 or even older. That these wines are so reasonably priced - $15-$22 in most cases - makes you wonder why they aren’t more recognized.
There are several excellent producers of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, including Bucci, Santa Barbara, Andrea Felici and Montecappone. For this article, I have selected the “Villa Torre” bottling of Verdicchio from Tenuta di Tavignano, a beautiful estate (almost a redundant term in this splendid area), that has been producing top-quality Verdicchio since the 1990s.
MORE FOR YOUSovereignty And The Soil: Chief Richard Currie And The Rising Of The Maroon Nation In JamaicaFormer Matchmaker Launches Snacks Brand BelliWelli Amid Soaring Interest In Low-FODMAP DietAutomat Kitchen Opens In Jersey City And There Could Be More
There are several examples of Verdicchio produced here; the “Villa Torre” is typical of what classic Verdicchio is all about, with its gorgeous aromas of melon, spearmint and yellow flowers. There is no oak aging here - why mess with the enticing perfumes? - along with very good acidity, a signature of the excellent 2019 vintage in Marche (and most of Italy, for that matter), and a lengthy, satisfying finish. This is delicious at present and should be in fine shape for another three to six years. Expect to pay between $15-$19 for this wine on retail shelves, making this a marvelous value.
Maurizio Zanella, proprietor, Ca' del Bosco, Franciacorta Photo ©Tom Hyland
Ca’ del Bosco Franciacorta “Cuvée Prestige” Brut (NV) - Ca’ del Bosco has been one of the leaders of Franciacorta, the famed metodo classico sparkling wine produced in Lombardia. Proprietor Maurizio Zanella produces one of the zone’s most brilliant cuvées, Anna Maria Clementi, a wine that spends between nine and ten years on its lees. His Vintage Collection line is first-rate, while it is his Cuvée Prestige non-vintage Brut that is his best value.
The most current release, disgorged in the Winter of 2019/2020, is a blend of 84% Chardonnay, 14% Pinot Nero and 2% Pinot Bianco. Medium-full with a steady stream of fine bubbles, this offers flavors and aromas of tropical fruit, Anjou pear and notes of magnolia. There is lively acidity, a very dry, richly flavored finish and excellent overall harmony. This is an excellent introduction to Franciacorta and at about $30-$35 a bottle, this is an excellent value.
Pasqua Passione Sentimento Rosso Photo courtesy Pasqua
Pasqua “Passione Sentimento” Rosso 2017 - Pasqua is a noteworthy Veneto producer, best known for their various examples of Valpolicella and Amarone. Here is a red made in the Amarone style (hence the name of the wine derived from the appassimento technique of Amarone production) that is a blend of native varietals Corvina and Corvinone, along with a small percentage of Merlot.
Unlike some wines made in this style, this is clean, without the raisiny or earthy character one finds in other wines. This is all about black plum fruit along with black flower (black peony) aromas and elegance, as the medium-weight tannins are silky. If you enjoy Amarone, but can’t afford it, try this Pasqua Passione Sentimento red as a value alternative; retail price between $12-$15. You’ll love this paired with many pastas as well as just about any red meat. (You’ll also love the label, a take off on the famed “Romeo and Juliet” wall in Verona that is replete with all sorts of inspired graffiti.)
Bottles of Palladino Barolo from the 2016 vintage Photo ©Tom Hyland
Palladino Barolo - Barolo is one of the two or three most famous red wines of Italy, celebrated for its richness, complexity and aging capability (40-50 years from the finest sites in the best vintages). As you might imagine, it is priced accordingly, so why have I included Barolo in this article on value wines? The answer is simple - value is a relative term, and even a bottle that sells between $40-$70 can be considered a value.
There are more Barolo values than you might imagine; two that immediately come to mind are the “Castiglione” from Vietti, a blend of fruit from their finest vineyards (such as Ravera and Rocche), priced between $45-$50, and the Poderi Oddero, again a blend of vineyards from various communes in the Barolo zone. Both of these wines are excellent introductions to classic Barolo (Barolo classico), wines that drink beautifully upon release four years after the vintage, yet have the stuffing and structure to age well for at least a decade, and usually another five to seven years more (even longer in the instance of Oddero, whose classic Barolo is often best at 20-25 years of age; at $40, this is an outstanding value!)
I also want to note the work of the Palladino family in Serralunga d’Alba, one of the essential locations for the production of Barolo. This is a traditional producer that craftes elegant Barolos that favors subtlety over power, all the while making wines that offer sublime varietal purity and superb harmony.
Three of their wines are values in my opinion, with two single vineyard offerings - Ornato and Parafada - from sites in the commune of Serralunga - and one a blend of fruit from several vineyards with the commune, known as Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d’Alba. The single vineyards retail for approximately $55-65, while the Serralunga wine carries a suggested retail price between $40-$45.
A note on the category of Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d’Alba. Several producers in this town, such as Paolo Manzone and Ettore Germano also make this wine, and every version I taste impresses me with its price/quality ratio. There are other communes where these wines are also crafted (as in Barolo del Comune di Barolo or Barolo del Comune di La Morra) and consumers would be wise to grab these wines as often as they can, as they are classic Barolos in the best sense of the word, with beautiful Barolo character, backed by elegant tannins and the structure to drink well for a decade; these are wines to enjoy over the short term, while you wait for the single vineyard examples of Barolo to shed their tannins.
A few notes on the Palladino Barolo del Comune di Serralunga d’Alba from 2016. This was clearly an outstanding vintage, one of the finest in the last 20 years. The wines are rich and will age for many years, but the real treasure of this vintage is how elegant the tannins are. Of course, Barolo is always better after several years in the bottle, but the 2016s, especially the comune wines, are remarkably approachable now. The Palladino 2016 offers sumptuous aromas of red cherry, red poppy and rosemary, is medium-full with excellent ripeness, refined tannins and excellent persistence. Displaying wonderful varietal harmony, this is the best comune Barolo I have tasted from the 2016 vintage; enjoy it tonight or lay it away for another 8-12 years.
|
eee3fe8892c9ea1f9f048e3c6a2b96eb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomhyland/2021/02/20/italian-red-wines-that-should-be-better-known/
|
Italian Red Wines That Should Be Better Known
|
Italian Red Wines That Should Be Better Known
Post-harvest Sagrantino vines, Montefalco, Umbria ©Tom Hyland
Among Italy’s most celebrated reds, there are many that define greatness; such wines include Barolo and Barbaresco from Piedmont, Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany, Amarone from Veneto, and Taurasi from Campania.
These iconic wines are among the world’s most famous and help Italy maintain its status as one of the world’s most important wine producing nations (as if that was ever in doubt).
But while these wines grab the headlines, there are dozens of other reds from around the country that are underrated; wines that consistently deliver excellent quality and typicity, often at very reasonable prices. So let’s get right to it, as I’ll praise some the best Italian reds that don’t get the attention they deserve.
Cantina Fratelli Pardi Montefalco Sagrantino "Sacrantino" Photo ©Tom Hyland
Montefalco Sagrantino - In central Umbria, not far from the cities of Spoleto and Assisi, the territory around the town of Montefalco is the home of one of the country’s most distinctive reds, Montefalco Sagrantino. Produced entirely from the Sagrantino grape, a varietal that is only found in this area in Italy (with limited exception), Sagrantino is one of the most tannic varieties not only in Italy, but in the world.
This quality clearly has cost Montefalco Sagrantino a great deal of positive publicity, as the image many people have in their minds about this wine is its youthful bitterness. To be honest, numerous examples of this wine made twenty and thirty years ago were rough and lacked elegance. Thankfully that has changed, as the area producers have learned how to better manage the tannins, both through work in the vineyards and cellars. One taste of the Antonelli “Chiusa di Pannone” or the Cantina Fratelli Pardi “Sacrantino” bottlings is evidence of how the best producers of this wine have made refined, harmonious examples that offer excellent complexity, power and yes, even finesse. Look for the best examples from recent vintages such as 2013 and 2016 (as well as the upcoming 2018s). Top producers: Antonelli, Adanti, Paolo Bea, Cantina Fratelli Pardi, Bocale, Arnaldo-Caprai (look for the “Valdimaggio” offering), Bellafonte, Tenute Lunelli and Scacciadiavoli.
MORE FOR YOUSovereignty And The Soil: Chief Richard Currie And The Rising Of The Maroon Nation In JamaicaFormer Matchmaker Launches Snacks Brand BelliWelli Amid Soaring Interest In Low-FODMAP DietCanopy Growth Launches ‘Quatreau’ CBD Drinks In U.S.
Morellino di Scansano - Tuscany is so famous for its red wines, such as Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino, so it’s easy to overlook the other noteworthy reds produced in this region. One of the best wines that flies under the radar is Morellino di Scansano, produced in the Grosseto province in the southwestern reaches of the region. Morellino (”little morel cherry”) is the local name for Sangiovese; the wine is required to have a minimum of 85% of that varietal, a higher minimum percentage than Chianti Classico. Some examples are pure Sangiovese, but most examples are blended with one or several other varietals such as Ciliegiolo, Canaiolo, Colorino or even international varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Styles range from medium-bodied, ready to drink examples to more full-bodied wines that are better after five to seven years of aging after release. The Scansano area is rather warm, meaning that Sangiovese has little problem ripening here, unlike in other areas of Tuscany. This factor has lead to several famous producers from elsewhere in the region to purchase land in the Sacansano production zone and craft their own examples of Morellino di Scansano; these estates include Poliziano from Montepulciano and Castello di Poppiano from Chianti Colli Fiorentini.
While few of these wines are meant for long-term cellaring, that is an advantage, as far as pricing, as most offerings are priced at no more that $25 or $30 a bottle. You could insert one of the best examples of a Morellino di Scansano in a tasting of other Tuscan reds (such as Chianti Classico) and the wine would hold its own. Top producers: Moris Farms, Fattoria Le Pupille, Podere 414, Belguardo and Provveditore.
Grignolino - Yes, there are other excellent red wines in Piemonte not named Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera or Dolcetto. Grignolino (pronounded green- yo- lee- no), most frequently produced in the Casale Monferrato zone in the northern province of Alessandria or in Asti (Grignolino d’Asti) is one of the region’s most distinctive reds, combining enticing strawberry and raspberry fruit with delicate red and brown spice notes, very good acidity and refined tannins. Most examples of Grignolino emphasize the fruit, so many examples are aged in steel or cement tanks, and not in wood. This is the Piemontese red to opt for when you’re enjoying red meat and don’t want the power of a Nebbiolo-based wine such as Barolo and Barbaresco. Another plus for these wines is the price tag, as most examples cost between $18 and $22 a bottle. Best producers: Gaudio Bricco Mondalino, Accornero, Pio Cesare, Castello delle Uviglie, La Casaccia.
|
ffb0515380d1c68d9405c98f75a64037
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/04/08/blinkx-acquires-burst-media-for-expanded-reach/
|
Blinkx Acquires Burst Media For Expanded Reach
|
Blinkx Acquires Burst Media For Expanded Reach
Video search company blinkx has agreed to acquire advertising network Burst Media for $30 million in cash and stock in a tie-up of two U.S.-based, London-listed companies.
San Francisco-based blinkx will pay 85% of the $30 million in stock and 15% in cash.
Blinkx will acquire reach through Burst Media's 130 million uniques, increasing its audience through embedding video or links to video on Burst's publisher sites. Because Burst mostly focuses on display ads, adding video will bring the higher ad rates which video provides. Burst will maintain a separate brand for now, said Suranga Chandratillake, chief executive of blinkx.
"In Burst Media we acquired a large audience of users across the network they've built over the last 15 years," said Chandratillake. "We can integrate a video experience across all those sites and drive more video views and sell more advertising."
Burlington, Vt.-based Burst's display ads sell at an average of $1.49 CPM whereas Blinkx's standard pre-rolls were priced at $20 in 2010.
Separately, Blinkx has also been working to develop its video search engine across multiple platforms, including mobile devices, tablets and connected televisions, Chandratillake said.
Blinkx, founded in 2005, also just announced that it expects to report revenues of more than $65 million in its current fiscal year, up 90% from last year, along with $6.7 million in operating profit before costs associated with this acquisition. The company had $52.8 million in cash on hand as of the end of March.
|
bd91d5c95635fcdc6bf092443efcd7b3
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/04/facebook-of-china-renrens-ipo-pricing-delayed-until-wednesday-reuters/
|
'Facebook of China' Renren's IPO Prices Wednesday After Delay: (Updated)
|
'Facebook of China' Renren's IPO Prices Wednesday After Delay: (Updated)
China-based social network RenRen priced its IPO at the top of its range Wednesday morning, raising about $743 million.
Renren's IPO was expected to price Tuesday night and begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, but that has been pushed back one day, according to Reuters, which cited anonymous sources.
The highly-anticipated RenRen (NYSE: RENN), which has been dubbed the "Facebook of China," planned to offer 53.1 million shares priced between $12 and $14.
It's unclear what caused the delay. The company had two untimely news events hit right before the IPO. The company's head of its audit committee, who is also a board member, quit after allegations of fraud against Longtop Finanicial Technologies, where Derek Palaschuk is CFO, WSJ reported. That came a week after the company revised down its unique user numbers to a rise of 19% compared to what it originally said was 29%.
Renren's net revenues were $76.5 million in 2010, up 64% from $46.7 million in 2009 and up from $13.8 million in 2008. Renren had a net loss in 2010 of $64.1 million, down from $70.1 million in 2009.
So underwriters are expecting a valuation of more than $4 billion for a company with $76.5 in revenue. That's 67 times sales, compared to 25 times for Facebook's last funding from Goldman Sachs. That's not cheap, as Kenneth Rapoza points out. Most of China's Internet stocks like Baidu and Sina trade at 50 times forward earnings, Rapoza notes.
Reflecting strong investor demand, Renren raised the range of the offering last Friday from a range of $9 to $11 to a range of $12 to $14.
Even with 117 million users, Renren still has room to grow in China's massive Internet market. Investors will be looking for strong growth from the company. In December China Internet stocks Dangdang and Youku were hot IPOs.
"Seeing that Facebook is not allowed in China, it's the closest facsimile to Facebook that the Chinese government will allow," said Scott Sweet, senior managing director at IPOBoutique.com. "Renren has a tremendous user base that use it on a daily basis."
Still Renren is not the only social network in China--see Sina Corp.'s Sina Weibao--the "Twitter of China" with more than 100 million users. One major difference of Renren from Facebook is that Renren does not make most of its revenue from advertising the way Facebook does. Only 42% of Renren's 2010 revenue came from ads, while 45% came from online games.
Major investors in Renren include Softbank Corp's SB Pan Pacific Corporation, with 39.6%, venture firm DCM, with 8.6%; and growth equity firm General Atlantic LLC with 5.3%. Renren founder and Chief Executive Joseph Chen, is selling 13 million shares to take his ownership from 28% to 23%.
Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are lead underwriters on the offering.
|
ee2e2066380087c5b867fa55baa04dca
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/05/google-launches-google-earth-for-android-tablets-new-panoramic-business-photos/
|
Google Launches Google Earth For Android Tablets, New Panoramic Business Photos
|
Google Launches Google Earth For Android Tablets, New Panoramic Business Photos
Google today launched two new products on the local and mobile fronts. Marissa Mayer, Google vice president of products, introduced them at "Social Loco," a conference on social networking and location based services in San Francisco.
First is Google Earth for Android tablets. The service includes the ability for people to search on a place like the Taj Mahal from a satellite view. Then people can click, or zoom to fly around high resolution images, and click to view user-submitted photos. The service includes data that can be overlaid, such as Google Places of Interest, Panaramio photos, and Wikipedia.
The app, which is available now, also includes slick 3-D modelling of buildings such as the Taj Mahal.
Google already had Google Earth for iPad but this offering adds support for Android, its own home turf. Just as with the iPad version, Google Earth on a tablet with the touch interface brings a different experience than Google Earth on the desktop.
Google is also releasing a new photo feature for Google Places: Google Business Photos, which gives panoramic photos of the interior of businesses. (Update: The service officially launches on Monday May 9.)
Small businesses give their permission for Google to come and take these photos, which are similar to the 360-degree Street View photos but are inside. The photos show more information about a restaurant or other business than was previously available, Mayer said. This interior panorama feature is available in US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Google Places now has more than 5 million reviews and ratings, according Mayer. Mayer gave the keynote today at "Social Loco," a conference on social networking and location based services in San Francisco.
An interesting factoid Mayer mentioned is that more than half of Google Maps usage on the weekends is now on mobile devices, as people leave their PCs and get out during the weekends.
Google recently rolled out a test of its local deals service in seven local areas.
See also: my interview with Marissa Mayer here.
|
c976977d801d9ee9a2262fd365ceb1d2
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/05/googles-marissa-mayer-checks-in-on-latitude-social-and-local/
|
Google's Marissa Mayer Checks-in On Latitude, Social And Local
|
Google's Marissa Mayer Checks-in On Latitude, Social And Local
Google is building out offers from businesses for its Latitude check-in service and is "reaching out" to businesses about its Google Offers daily deals service, said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of location.
Check-ins and daily deals are both key areas as companies like Foursquare, Groupon and Facebook build out services that take advantage of specialties in geo-location, local e-commerce and social networking.
Google has two main "pillars" for location: Google Maps and Google Places, Mayer in an on-stage interview and follow-up Forbes interview today at the “Social Loco” conference in San Francisco. Everything related to location falls under these two categories. I asked Mayer about Google Latitude, which recently added check-ins and deals from national brands like Macy’s and Radio Shack, and how that fits into Google’s local strategy.
It's interesting how Google positions check-ins within Maps, since I think of check-in apps (sharing location with friends) and map apps (how do I get somewhere?) in different contexts. It shows how Google sees leveraging its existing services for social mobile products.
Latitude, with 10 million users, is used to share location with close friends, Mayer said. It has seen friend numbers similar to Foursquare, which has seen an average five to eight close friends for each person sharing geo-location data, she said.
“One thing we see generally is people have the same circle of people they’re willing to share their location with all the time,” Mayer said in an interview. “It’s less about the breadth of sharing and more about the level of engagement.”
Mayer wants to make the Latitude check-in service more engaging and more useful.
“Now it’s very passive,” Mayer said. “Can we make it more engaging to get people checking in? So that people find new deals or offers--to make sure if people are sharing their location that people get a big value out of it.”
One way Google is trying to do that is integrating Latitude with other Google services such as Google Maps. Many people already check-in using Google Maps, Mayer pointed out. When you have an Android phone, Google Maps, Latitude and Places are all one app. But how can Google make Latitude stand out from others in the field like Foursquare or Faecbook's Places?
“We want to make user check-ins deliver value,” Mayer said. “So that friends can see it or so that you can get an offer or deal tied to it, or loyalty offer."
Google's massive advertising base could help with that. The Latitude deals that Google has set up are not just national chains, where Google can sign big deals, but are also with small businesses in cities like Austin and Portland, Mayer said. Google has more than 60 local businesses participating in Austin. These deals have all been human ad sales deals, not automated. But can this scale? Groupon for its part, has a massive local salesforce to set these kinds of deals (not for check-ins, but for daily deals). Mayer said it can scale.
“Sure, if (Latitutde) offers have a self-serve tool,” Mayer said. “It’s easy to imagine these types of offers scaling.”
That sounds like an area that Google is interested in building out on its automated, self-serve AdSense model, which would make sense for Google. But what about an automated self-serve tool for Google Offers or daily deals, which recently started testing in seven areas, as Google's answer to Groupon? Mayer declined to talk about it.
“It’s uncharted territory," she said. “We’re reaching out to merchants to understand what kind of things we can build,” Mayer said.
Mayer said that if Google daily deals were a movie production, Google would still be in the "casting" phase of the production.
Despite all of Google's scale and various products, it still faces tough challenges from Facebook in social. In an interview on stage, Mayer said Google's social strategy is to build off its existing services such as email and search and make them more social.
"Our social strategy is help users connect with each other," Mayer said, citing Gmail, GChat and social search service, +1. "We're just getting started in our social strategy," Mayer said. "In many ways we already have a social strategy."
Mayer also said that despite speculation, her role has not changed through Google's recent reorganization under new CEO Larry Page. About four months ago, Mayer switched from her long-time role in the search group to heading up local for Google.
"My role has remained pretty much unchanged through the reorg," Mayer said.
Mayer also spoke earlier in the day announcing Google Earth for Android tablets and new panoramic photos for businesses on Google Places.
|
7183d8884122b9914e8d1840ff008cc7
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/18/will-linkedins-ipo-open-the-floodgates/
|
Will LinkedIn's IPO Open The Floodgates?
|
Will LinkedIn's IPO Open The Floodgates?
LinkedIn is preparing to price its IPO Wednesday and begin trading on the NYSE Thursday, in what could be a very big day for the company as well as investors and other shareholders.
Will the offering also open up a flood of new IPOs from Internet and social web companies that have been waiting for a "Netscape moment?"
LinkedIn upped its price range Tuesday to $42 - $45 from $32 - $35, a sign of what appears to be very strong demand for the IPO. At the top of the new range, LinkedIn would have a market cap of $4.25 billion.
LinkedIn will be the first social networking company to go public except for China-based Renren, which went out earlier this month, so it will set a public benchmark for the entire category. SecondMarket and Sharespost enable people to grab shares of companies like LinkedIn but up until now no company has gone public to prove that the prices trading on those platforms would stand up in public markets.
For Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Pandora and others that are poised to test the public markets, a strong LinkedIn IPO will provide more confidence that they can move forward with their own offerings.
"I think it provides a lot of optimism, not just a little," says Kevin Covert, founder of tech investment bank Covert & Co. "It really opens up the IPO market. When you look at all the IPOs lined up. Just that optimism hasn’t been around for a really long time--since the last tech bubble."
The LinkedIn IPO will also be a boost for smaller start-ups with a social bent--which is virtually anything in Internet or mobile these days-whether they are seeking a venture round, an acquisition or just hope for the future, says Covert. From what I've been hearing about early stage financing, the deals will only get crazier from here.
"This will set a good benchmark for those other companies," Covert said.
Bankers will be firing up their spreadsheets once LinkedIn officially prices, because they'll have something to really compare to in the public markets, rather than unofficial secondary market valuations.
"That’s what every other IPO banker is going to point to when they file their IPOs," Covert said. "They'll use that for pricing and the performance afterwards."
For start-ups, LinkedIn not only provides a high valuation benchmark, it also now will be flush with cash and a new major acquirer, Covert said.
In the past many had talked about Facebook being the first to go public and usher in a new wave of IPOs the way Google or Netscape once did. But LinkedIn could end up being that company.
The ironic thing is that LinkedIn makes money in a variety of different ways, whereas many social web companies rely purely on advertising. And with its business focus, LinkedIn is different in many ways from most of the consumer-oriented social web start-ups today.
|
4ee6a6fecbc42db8f912be0d9ff96aa4
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/24/what-y-combinators-paul-graham-looks-for-in-founders/
|
What Y Combinator's Paul Graham Looks For In Founders
|
What Y Combinator's Paul Graham Looks For In Founders
The smartest founders are not necessarily the best ones, according to Paul Graham of Y Combinator.
Graham talked with Charlie Rose at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference about four things he looks for in a company (as mentioned in a Forbes cover story on Graham): determination, flexibility, imagination and naughtiness.
Graham said he's looking for entrepreneurs that are not just intelligent but have other characteristics. "There are plenty of smart people who get nowhere," Graham said.
Instead he looks for determination. "Some people just get what they want in the world," Graham said. "You can't be passive and wishy washy."
But he said it's hard to spot determination in ten minutes, which is how long each interview is for finalists applying for YC. "It's hard to tell if someone's determined in ten minutes," Graham said. "People often fool us."
On flexibility, Graham says he asks entrepreneurs if they would consider a different related idea. If they say no, that is a bad indicator. Imagination is similar to flexibility, he says.
"We say, 'Have you tried this, or thought of that?'" Graham says. "Sometimes the answers are not only being able to grasp what we're saying but they're able to take it further."
He also looks for "naughty" entrepreneurs. "Startups often have to do dubious things," Graham says. "You don't want the kind of people who are obedient employees. You want people who understand and are willing to do stuff that's stuck together by duct tape."
Graham discussed Sam Altman, founder of Loopt, who applied for YC when he was a sophomore in college. Graham rejected him, mistakenly thinking Altman was a freshman, and telling him to come back later. Altman wouldn't take no for an answer.
"He said, 'I'm a sophomore. And I'm coming,'" Graham recalls.
The most interesting factoid Graham mentioned was that he and his five partners interview each applicant for only ten minutes.
Y Combinator has shaken up the venture industry not just with its incubator but more recently with the $150,000 no-questions-asked investments its companies have received from SV Angel and Yuri Milner's Start Fund.
|
265ceba001b6b822d39d9a71178b180a
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/26/project-slice-organizes-your-online-shopping/
|
Project Slice Organizes Your Online Shopping
|
Project Slice Organizes Your Online Shopping
Managing online purchases can be the digital equivalent of digging through a scattered pile of paper receipts.
A new company, Project Slice, seeks to help people organize their online purchases. The company scans emailed receipts and then organize them on the Slice website. People can then see when items are scheduled to be delivered, as well as information about when warranties expire and how long they have to return an item.
More importantly perhaps, it provides a broader view across all of a consumer's different merchants, such as Amazon.com, eBay, Groupon and LivingSocial, so that consumers do not have to check a number of different websites to find purchasing information. That is not only good for consumers to keep track of all their purchases, but also presumably a bonanza for Slice to market products and services to its users.
The technology sounds somewhat similar to Tripit, which organizes travel information by scanning email itineraries. It's also in the online personal finance space as companies like Intuit's Mint, which tracks spending, and Pageonce, which tracks bills.
The company's first product is an app within Yahoo Mail called All My Purchases, which analyzes any email receipts within a person's inbox. Slice has further products coming soon, which presumably include integration with other email providers.
Project Slice has raised $9.4 million in Series A financing led by DCM and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from former Bebo CEO Michael Birch, Floodgate, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors and Rick Thompson.
|
fd8e2833c658a651f1fcc922bb69ecd6
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/05/31/openx-grabs-20-million-led-by-sap-ventures/
|
OpenX Grabs $20 Million Led By SAP Ventures
|
OpenX Grabs $20 Million Led By SAP Ventures
Online advertising company OpenX has raised $20 million in Series D financing led by SAP Ventures as it expands internationally.
Also participating were AOL Ventures, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment and Sumitomo Corp.'s Presidio Ventures. Existing venture firms Accel Partners, Index Ventures and DAG Ventures also participated.
SAP was interested in OpenX because SAP is increasingly interested in real-time enterprise products, and OpenX has been growing its real-time ad server and ad exchange products, says Tim Cadogan, chief executive of OpenX. SAP also sees enterprise software and digital advertising increasingly overlapping in different areas, Cadogan says.
OpenX Market, its ad exchange product, has increased revenue close to 600% in 2010, Cadogan says. It has been growing even faster in 2011 so far, he adds. Overall, company revenue has gone from zero about two years ago to "tens of millions" on an annual basis.
OpenX is increasingly moving into international markets and the two strategic Japanese investors will help with that. In addition to Asia and the U.K., OpenX is interested in big markets in Germany and Brazil, Cadogan says. The new funding will also be used for potential acquisitions.
With display ads growing twice as fast as search ads according to a recent IAB report, there has been more innovation on both the buy and sell side for display ads, Cadogan says.
"A few years ago display was kind of broken and lagging behind search," Cadogan says. "The last couple of years it has begun to shift. There's a lot of supply in display and a lot more insight and a lot more technology to execute in real time. Exchanges are fueling a renaissance in how this part of the industy works."
OpenX has its origins as an open source ad server before turning into a company. It started off focusing on small to medium sized businesses but has increasingly going after everyone in the market, including Google's DoubleClick.
|
27fa9fa0674b2f02c57036297f0f0a12
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/06/06/square-takes-aim-at-payments-point-of-sale-and-personal-finance/
|
Square Takes Aim At Payments, Point of Sale And Personal Finance
|
Square Takes Aim At Payments, Point of Sale And Personal Finance
Plastic In Your Phone: Square Card Case
Start-up Square is not just content to transform the payments industry, it also wants to change how small businesses operate and how consumers manage their personal finances.
That's a lot to accomplish, especially when your CEO Jack Dorsey is also the chairman and head of product at Twitter. But Square has recently rolled out a slew of new technology that makes me wonder if Dorsey has cloned himself--if he's as active in both companies as he says he is.
While Google just launched a mobile wallet service for Android phones, and others such as Apple and PayPal are said to be building their own solutions, Square has rolled out its own full set of payments products. I caught up with Square Chief Operating Officer Keith Rabois to talk about the launch of its two new products and the company's larger ambitions.
Square originally in October 2010 launched a dongle that plugs into iPhones that enables small businesses--actually virtually anyone--to accept credit card payments. That service has been popular among small businesses.
But the new services Square has launched have much larger ambitions. One product called Square Register is an iPad app that is designed to replace the cash register and point of sale credit card equipment and processing. Square Register also aims to give businesses a much deeper relationships with customers. (The service is iOS only now, though it plans to launch on Android.)
"As we noticed what users were doing with the (first) product--although we were generally targeting small businesses and sole proprietorship businesses--some were growing and becoming, quote unquote, real businesses--up to 5 or 10 person operations," Rabois says. "We said, how can we enable businesses to grow even faster to support that growth?"
This is how it works. Once customers pay once with a credit or debit card at participating businesses, they can get an email to download the Square app, Square Card Case. Once consumers add that business to their Card Case, and click a button, they no longer have to take out a credit card to pay. When customers go to that store and order something, the store clerk can see on the Square Register, via location based services, that the customer is in the store.
Since the credit or debit card information is on file, the clerk can just click to charge the customer. For security purposes, the Square register will have a picture of the customer for verification. Consumers can add as many participating businesses to their Card Case as they want.
Because the merchants now have a direct connection with customers, customers can pull up menus from restaurants, the special of the day, or loyalty offers that the business has offered to targeted customers. Square Register acts a CRM tool for small businesses, Rabois says.
The new service is now active in 200 businesses in the U.S., with plans to scale up. The service is free for merchants to sign up and Square charges a flat 2.5% fee on transactions. Square is being transparent about its fees, Rabois says, whereas other card processors charge a number of hidden fees.
Square Register
Rabois knows about the payments industry, having been an early employee at PayPal, which also looked to make it easier for small businesses to launch their businesses. But unlike PayPal, which took on the online payments industry, Square is looking to transform offline payments, which represents 95% of transactions--to online payments' 5% of total transactions. Rabois was also an executive at LinkedIn and Slide and he's an active angel investor.
The Square Card Case compiles all of a consumer's emailed receipts paid for through Square--goodbye paper receipts. So why not just launch a Mint-like personal finance service as well? The Square Card Case already does what services like Mint do not, Rabois says. Mint only displays the total amount purchased at any location, whereas Square can give each item purchased, which is more useful for budgeting, he adds.
These types of detailed analytics are also available to merchants. They can quickly pull up data they may have never tracked, such as how many customers paid in a day, how many cappuccinos were sold in a day, or how certain products sell when it rains or is sunny.
Ultimately the goal for Square, backed by $37.5 million from First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Visa, is to reinvent the experience of payments from end to end, Rabois says.
"There's no inherent reason payments can't be an enjoyable experience," Rabois says. "Historically that hasn't been the case. There's no reason we can't reinvent it to be pleasant."
It'll be interesting to see how merchants adopt the service, since consumers will need to see merchants using it in order to sign up.
|
607a420ef816d2e7d4ab5e6315b9f9ae
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/06/10/ipo-watch-which-song-will-investors-sing-for-pandora-bankrate-next-week/
|
IPO Watch: Which Song Will Investors Sing For Pandora, Bankrate Next Week?
|
IPO Watch: Which Song Will Investors Sing For Pandora, Bankrate Next Week?
Will investors next week be singing "It's All About The Benjamins" or "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)?" We'll see when Internet radio company Pandora and online financial data company Bankrate start trading next week.
The IPO of the past week was Fusion-io, which priced 12.3 million shares at $19 each above the top of its estimated range of $15. The stock then jumped above $25 Thursday and is trading at $24.20, Friday afternoon EST.
Looking ahead to next week, the largest one will be a return to the public markets for Bankrate, which recently filed an updated S-1, stating that it plans to offer 20 million shares priced between $14 and $16 per share, or $320 million at the top of the range.
Apax Partners, which acquired Bankrate in 2009 in a $571 million deal after ten years as a public company, is selling most of the 12.5 million shares from existing stock holders. Apax will still hold more than 70% of the company's stock after the IPO
North Palm Beach, Fla.-based Bankrate (NYSE: RATE) operates a number of personal finance websites including Bankrate.com, which provide information and comparisons on mortgage rates, insurance, and credit cards. The company's data and content is licensed or co-branded on websites with companies such as Yahoo, AOL, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and others.
The company would have a market cap of $1.5 billion at the midpoint of the range, which looks to be a nice return for Apax. Bankrate plans to use proceeds of the offering to pay down debt, among other uses.
In the most recent March quarter, Bankrate generated $99.1 million in revenue with a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $4.2 million. For 2010, the company had pro forma revenue of $300.9 million and a net loss of $21.5 million.
SWEET IPO MUSIC?
Showing the continued investor interested in social media IPOs, Internet radio company Pandora is also scheduled to go out next week--and begin trading on Wednesday, according to IPOBoutique.com and IPOScoop.com.
The company (NYSE: P) on Friday increased its expected price range from $7-$9 a share to $10-$12, while increasing its deal size by 1 million shares to 14.68 million shares. Pandora is selling 6 million shares and existing stock holders are selling 8.68 million shares. Underwriters have an option to sell up to 2.2 million more shares. If all shares are sold the company would have a market cap of $1.77 billion at the midpoint of the range. Is that price too high? One analyst thinks so.
Pandora recently updated its financials, showing $51 million in revenue for its most recent April quarter, up 136% from $21.6 million in the year-ago period. Pandora’s net loss increased to $6.8 million, up from $3.0 million in the year-ago period.
Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora had 94 million registered users as of April, up 77% from 53 million a year ago. Active users were 34 million, up from 18 million a year ago. The company generated 86% of its revenue from advertising and 14% from ad-free premium subscriptions and other services.
As Forbes' Nicole Perlroth noted, the Pandora IPO is a turnaround story for Pandora, which struggled in the past.
Shareholders holding more than 5% of the company include Crosslink Capital, Walden Venture Capital, Greylock Partners, Labrador Ventures, Hearst Corp. and GGV Capital.
OIL AND GAS
Also expected to float next week is Compresso Partners LP, which provides wellhead compression services to natural gas and oil exploration and production companies.
Compresso (NASDAQ: GSJK) is planning to offer 2.5 million shares at $19-$21 a share. The company expects net proceeds fo $39.2 million, of which $28.9 million will be used to retire debt.
The company posted $21.8 million in revenue in its April quarter, up slightly from $20.3 million in the year-ago period. Net income was $2.7 million in the recent quarter, up from $0.7 million in year ago period, though the company changed its company structure over that period.
QUIET PERIODS ENDING
Also next week are the end of quiet periods for recent IPOs China-based social network Renren, Boingo Wireless and patent company RPX Corp. Analyst coverage should start for these companies which could bring moves in their stock. Of the three, RPX is the only one whose stock is up since the IPO, while Renren (which I covered here) and Boingo (which Eric Savitz covered here) have been trading down.
Sources: IPOBoutique.com and IPOScoop.com and Renaissance Capital.
|
f4a4b63d06777b18d607204a08a7a904
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/06/27/gsv-capital-investment-values-facebook-at-70-billion/
|
GSV Capital Investment Values Facebook At $70 Billion
|
GSV Capital Investment Values Facebook At $70 Billion
Main Street investors can now grab a piece of Facebook thanks to Global Silicon Valley Corp., a publicly-traded, closed-end mutual fund, which has bought shares of Facebook.
GSV Capital bought 225,000 shares of the social networking giant at an average price of $29.28 per share or a valuation of about $70 billion. The $6.59 million purchase in a "private secondary transaction" makes up about 15% of GSV's portfolio, according to a spokeswoman.
While retail investors wait for the eventual Facebook IPO, GSV could act as a very loose proxy for public valuation of Facebook shares--at least for now, since GSV only has Facebook and start-up Kno in its portfolio. So far investors like the deal, with GSV's stock shooting up 28.82% or $2.96 to $13.23 Monday morning.
Facebook has traded above $80 billion recently in secondary markets. An auction for Facebook stock last week on Sharespost closed at $35 per share, or $84 billion, assuming there are 2.4 billion shares outstanding.
Investors don't get publicly-disclosed information from Facebook or any of GSV's privately-held portfolio companies. But GSV provides research through an affiliated company, NeXtup Research.
GSV is headed by Chief Executive Michael Moe, who was co-founder and former chairman of tech investment bank ThinkEquity Partners.
GSV told me in an interview recently that GSV will invest in about 15 to 30 start-ups in secondary deals as well as primary direct investments. It will target companies between $100 million and $1 billion in valuation, with revenue growing at more than 40% annually.
Facebook clearly falls out of that valuation range, but adding Facebook to GSV's roster will certainly bring the firm some attention. GSV received very little media coverage when it first launched, but has garnered much coverage this morning. Will Facebook provide a halo effect for the rest of GSV's portfolio? That will become clear when company announces more investments, which it plans do to in the next 30 days.
“We intend to invest in the most important, fastest growing companies,” Moe told me in May. “It’s a new normal of companies staying private longer. We’re investing in companies that would’ve historically have gone public… This not only will give start-up companies and their investors big paydays but also give retail investors access to new high growth tech companies.”
In April GSV quietly raised about $50 million through a public offering, pricing 3.33 million shares at $15 a piece.
GSV will pass on profits through a dividend to its investors when its portfolio companies liquidate through an IPO or M&A deal. GSV is organized as a closed-end fund, which is a publicly-traded company. GSV is managed by the affiliated NeXt Asset Management.
Moe has been thinking about the problems with the IPO market for years. He was co-founder and CEO at ThinkEquity from 2001 to 2008. Prior to that he was head of global growth research at Merrill Lynch from 1998 to 2001, and before that he was head of growth research and strategy at Montgomery Securities from 1995 to 1998. He also is on the board of Sharespost.
See my previous stories on GSV Capital:
"With GSV Fund, The Little Guy Can Shoot For The Next Facebook"
"GSV Capital Makes Its First Investment In Kno"
|
545faa46ae080811d1a67bc2f696b2cd
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/08/04/why-so-many-shopkick-users-walk-around-in-stores/
|
Why So Many Shopkick Users "Walk Around" In Stores
|
Why So Many Shopkick Users "Walk Around" In Stores
Cyriac Roeding, co-founder and chief executive of mobile shopping app Shopkick, doesn't think much of most check-ins. At least not the deals connected with them.
When you check-in at a business with other mobile apps like Foursquare, you don't actually have to be in the store. That's because the GPS technology in most phones is not very accurate. You can just be driving by a business when you check-in, for example.
That's an important issue for brick-and-mortar marketers, because they want their customers to actually walk in the stores. Once customers physically walk in, they often buy something. But a check-in without a walk-in is useless to them. And many businesses give deals to people for checking-in to a store--with the understanding that they are actually in the store.
Shopkick's app, now with 2 million active users, is much more accurate than other check-in apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, says Roeding, because it doesn't use the phone's GPS. Instead, Shopkick uses a different technology. It plugs in a small box inside each participating store. The box emits a high frequency sound that humans can't hear. When the Shopkick app is opened, it recognizes the sound so that it knows that the person is actually in the store.
Shopkick gives rewards to customers when they are actually in the stores. But it also gives rewards for walking around a store to a specific department or part of the store. For example in Best Buy, a customer could get an extra reward for walking to the gaming department of the store.
These "walk around" rewards have been redeemed by more than 45% of Shopkick users who open the app in the store, Roeding says. That's a pretty high number and shows the engagement levels with the app. But is only possible given current phone technology by placing boxes in the stores.
With these deals, Shopkick is making its own claim to be the leader in location-based loyalty deals. Foursquare is looking to own loyalty rewards as well. But Foursquare has gone after merchants with a self-serve model, bringing in a large number of small independent businesses. Shopkick, meanwhile, has done the opposite, going after a smaller number of big national chains, though it is now going after smaller retailers through a program with Citibank.
The majority of actual shopping foot traffic from local apps is in large national chains, Roeding says, though that may not be obvious since most people only mention smaller independent businesses that expresses their individuality.
Shopkick customers include large retailers such as Best Buy, Macy's, Target, Sports Authority, West Elm, and Crate & Barrel.
(See Elizabeth Woyke's story: "Shopkick CEO: We're Growing Faster Than Foursquare.")
|
22d69d196c0d559acf83540d3285860d
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/08/11/zyngas-valuation-in-march-11-15-billion/
|
Zynga's Valuation In March: $11.15 Billion
|
Zynga's Valuation In March: $11.15 Billion
Social gaming company Zynga valued itself at $11.15 billion in March, according to a new SEC filing.
Zynga obtained the third-party valuation report one month after it raised $490 million in Series C financing, as pointed out by TechCrunch. That deal sold Series C stock for $14.03 per share. The $11.15 valuation was based on fully-diluted shares outstanding.
Zynga's IPO could place the company's valuation much higher, by the time it hits public markets. Zynga filed its S-1 to go public in July.
What is the status of that IPO with the current market turmoil? Will IPOs slow down? (See Eric Savitz's and my stories on this.) Zynga is closely watched as one of the largest consumer Internet companies on file to IPO.
Observers I talked to think the biggest and best companies will still get out--unless the market turns much worse. We'll see how things shake out the rest of this month and into September.
With Zynga's third party analysis, management estimated the probability of an IPO at 80%, a strategic sale at 5% and "continued operations" at 15%.
Zynga has also secured $1 billion in a new credit facility, according to the SEC filing. Zynga paid upfront fees of $2.5 million in the credit deal and is required to pay fees up to $625,000 per quarter.
|
56bc097bfcef4e31f62eafc93cbea1eb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/09/12/posterous-is-now-spaces-a-photo-focused-app-for-private-sharing/?feed=rss_home
|
Posterous Is Now 'Spaces,' A Photo-Focused App For Private Sharing
|
Posterous Is Now 'Spaces,' A Photo-Focused App For Private Sharing
Start-up Posterous, best known for its simple blogging service via email, has revamped the company around a new product called Posterous Spaces.
Posterous Spaces is designed to help people easily privately share photos and videos with friends or family. It's available for use as an iPhone app, on the Posterous website, or via email. The move makes Posterous less in competition with blogging platforms such as Tumblr and more of a private photo sharing service along the lines of Path.
People can create individual Spaces for each of their social groups, such as family, rooommates or friends, or for special events such as weddings or parties. The groups can be public or private, but will likely be attractive to people who want to create their own private photo sharing groups. The service is designed to be simple to use, with clear designations of what is private and what is public, says Sachin Agarwal, founder and CEO of Posterous.
The new Posterous mobile app--which is the focus of the new service--has a Facebook-style stream of content from the various Spaces that the user is following. It includes the standard "Like" and comment features. When posting photos from the app, which Agarwal believes will become a major use of the app, people can quickly geotag a photo, snap a photo from the iPhone or select an existing photo from iPhone albums without even leaving the app. People can also still use Posterous as it has been used--to share text or photos to multiple services such as Facebook, Twitter or Flickr.
The Y Combinator-backed company is still keeping the ability to use Posterous as a public blogging platform. But the Spaces product seems to place Posterous more in the realm of private photo sharing app Path, founded by former Facebook executive Dave Morin. "Blogging is definitely one use case for Posterous," Agarwal says. "We've found that the overwhelming amount of what people want to share is photos and video, especially from the iPhone... That absolutely is where we see sharing going in the future. But we don't define it as a photo app, because you can use it for long form text documents."
The feature that will make Posterous Spaces easy to connect with non-technical friends or family members is email. When a Posterous user shares photos with family members who are not registered on Posterous, those family members will still receive the photos via email. In addition, those family members can email in photos to the service to add to that Posterous Spaces group, even if they're not members. This will make it easy to onboard people. "The way it's designed is we think about the 'Mom use case' as a normal user," Agarwal says. Unlike photo apps such as the popular Instagram app, with Posterous you can post multiple photos in one post, and you can create private groups.
The organization of the service around following groups instead of people is designed to provide more control than other services such as Facebook. As for any similarity with Path, Agarwal didn't want to talk about other competitors directly, but says Posterous is trying to differentiate by making it as simple as possible and not "inventing problems." "We've found it exciting that a lot of companies in the past year have been trying to solve the problem of how can people share more safely and privately," Agarwal says. "We're trying to figure out solutions that are simple and mapped to real life. Some others try to invent new problems, with solutions that are difficult to understand and explain for normal users. That's why we created the simplest model possible."
The market for photo apps is crowded, with services from Instagram to Google to Facebook. Posterous will try to carve out a space for people who do not want to share on Facebook and would prefer a more simple private option.
|
98ae19d452a9c5894e0a92290c79a292
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/09/26/former-googler-asks-obama-please-raise-my-taxes/
|
Former Googler Asks Obama: Please Raise My Taxes!
|
Former Googler Asks Obama: Please Raise My Taxes!
Former Googler Doug Edwards, who asked Obama to raise his taxes.
Former early Google employee Doug Edwards had a message for President Obama today: Raise my taxes, please.
Edwards, who was employee #59 at Google and is now not working, asked the question in Mountain View, Calif. at the Town Hall event today Obama held with LinkedIn to discuss job creation.
"My question is would you please raise my taxes?" Edwards said from the audience during the question and answer period. "I would like very much for our country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants, infrastructure, job training--programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am. It kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of tax cuts that have been benefiting so much of us for so long."
After asking where Edwards formerly worked (to which Edwards replied coyly, "a search engine"), Obama said that the U.S. needs to invest in education and other infrastructure that makes people successful.
"We’re successful because somebody invested in our education," Obama said. "Somebody built our schools. I went to school on scholarship... We all benefited somewhere from somebody making an investment in us. If we make those investments how do we pay for it?"
Obama went on to say he wants to take tax rates back to the rates of the 1990s, when the economy was strong and all socio-economic sectors improved. Obama is locked in a battle with Congressional Republicans over job spending and taxes.
Edwards, a former employee at the San Jose Mercury News and Markeplace, recently wrote a book entitled I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59.
|
5f4dc1f51e652a5c9c07f1ec0154cfe9
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/10/11/live-from-the-dog-house-zynga-unleashed-event/
|
Live From The Dog House: 'Zynga Unleashed' Event
|
Live From The Dog House: 'Zynga Unleashed' Event
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus
Zynga is holding an event called "Zynga Unleashed" for press today at its new headquarters in San Francsico. We're live blogging the event from the social gaming company's "Dog House" cafeteria/event space.
Zynga filed its S-1 for an IPO in July and much speculation has swirled about when the company will price its initial public offering. As it preps for its IPO, Zygna has rolled out a number of new games in recent months, including Mafia Wars 2, Adventure World, Pioneer Trail, Zynga City in China with partner Tencent and Words with Friends on Facebook.
10:30: Zynga is playing a video with players talking about how much they love Zynga games. 10:37: Zynga CEO Mark Pincus takes the stage. He's talking about the new building. "It always bothers me that lobbies are empty and quiet. We're a gaming company. It should be loud and rockus in here." 10:41: Zynga is launching 10 new products today. The company has been working on this for a year. 10:43: "We try to answer the question every day: how can we get you guys to play?" Everyone is busy, so how can we fit our games into 5 to 15 minute sessions. A big plus: Pincus is a "Breaking Bad" fan. 10:47: Zynga is launching Zynga Direct today, a new platform for games, which has been developed for two years. 10:48: Zynga is launching 3 new HTML5 versions of games today. He shows a slide: "HTML5Ville." 10:49: Launching a new puzzle game called Hidden Chronicles today. 10:50: Zynga is launching new mobile titles today as well. 10:51: Zynga CTO Cadir Lee takes the stage. Talking game engine and infrastructure. We've been known to deploy more than 1,000 servers in a week for a new launch. 10:52: Zynga's working on HTML5 games and working on new standards so that games can run in the browser. 10:53: Personalization is another key area, i.e. analytics, to connect players with similar players. 10:56 Roy Sehgal, VP and GM: Launching a new genre of hidden object games: The game is called Hidden Chronicles. In the Ramsey Manor you will build customize and express. Play with friends and see who can find the most hidden objects. He's showing a scene at a cafe in Paris and then an underwater treasure hunt. "A new and unique art style for Zynga." They're bringing it to Facebook soon. 11:00 VP Erik Bethke takes the stage: He's talking Mafia Wars 2, the "edgiest" Zynga game ever. You make "mad stacks of cash" in the game. You blow up casinos asynchronously with friends. Killing bosses is a big part of the game. You can't advance in the game until you kill the bosses. 11:06: Mafia Wars 2 just launched on Google Plus. Are all new Zynga games going to launch on Google Plus? It was previously reported that Zynga's older games on Facebook could not be launched on other platforms due to an agreement with Facebook. But new games aren't tied down. 11:08: Lo Toney, GM, takes stage. Zynga Poker launched in 2007. Now it's launching Zynga Casino, as well as Zynga Bingo, which is part of Zynga Casino. 11:11: Bill Jackson, creative director, is talking CastleVille, the new game in the FarmVille franchise. Build a castle and kingdom. Craft your armor, potions, art. 11:16: The game has personalized story telling. Every person has a unique path through the game. "Zynga is bringing massively multiplayer role playing games to the mass market." 11:23: David Ko, chief mobile officer: Zynga has brought games such as Words with Friends to Facebook, iPhone, Android, iPad, tablet. 11:25: Zynga is launching five new mobile games today. Three are HTML5 games: Words with Freinds, Zynga Poker and FarmVille Express. All three available tomorrow. 11:27: Fourth game: Mafia Wars ShakeDown: Mobile version of Mafia Wars. You can steal from your friends. This game is coming soon. 11:28: Fifth game: Dream Zoo, Zynga's first game in zoo genre. Raise exotic animals in zoo with no cages. (There are a number of other zoo social games on the market.) 11:30: John Schappert, COO, is talking about Project Z, a new Facebook connect-enabled game platform. "A social gaming playground." Sounds like a new Zynga social network. You can start a game on Facebook and continue on Project Z or vice versa. Project Z isn't launching today. But today players can reserve their own "zTag" or handle. 11:34: Pincus is thanking everyone for coming. Stay tuned for more on the news.
|
7af76324b4344db76ad1947dd5deceed
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/11/03/doxo-adds-auto-bill-pay-adds-att-as-partner/
|
Doxo Adds Auto-Bill Pay, Adds AT&T As Partner
|
Doxo Adds Auto-Bill Pay, Adds AT&T As Partner
Doxo dashboard
Online file cabinet doxo has added a new twist to its online bill payment service to make paying bills online easier.
Doxo is a free service for people to store all their bills, statements and documents. The service is designed to be an all-in-one place to store important paper--in digital format. It also has a bill payment service, doxoPAY. Now doxo has added an auto-billpay feature that includes a limit on how much will be paid. For example, consumers can choose to automatically pay their electric bill as long as it doesn't exceed $100. Doxo's payment system includes an inbox so that people can see all their bills that are due and click on them to see the full details.
Doxo has landed AT&T as a new partner in its bill pay system. That means that AT&T, with its 100 million subscribers, will agree to send bills electronically to consumers via doxo and that people can pay them directly from doxo. The idea is to make paper bills obsolete. "AT some point we hope you feel comfortable ignoring your (regular) mail," says Steve Shivers, doxo cofounder and CEO. "At that point business will quit sending it."
AT&T on doxo
Other bill payment partners include Sprint, Puget Sound Energy, Oregon Federal Credit Union, Kansas City Power & Light. Doxo takes a small fee from the bill senders, though it is much less than the cost of sending snail mail, says Shivers.
Doxo also can sync people's files on the hard drive of their computer and with services such as Dropbox, Box.net or Evernote, a feature many people wanted for insuring a back up copy, Shivers says.
Doxo, which is backed by Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Sigma Partners, also has a mobile app so that people can take a picture of a document or receipt while on the go and store it to their doxo accounts.
Others in this general space include PageOnce and Intuit's Mint.
|
971f7e34161d6126647a89fcf30f8f37
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/11/16/coupa-cafe-where-startups-meet-work-and-test-products/
|
Coupa Cafe: Where Startups Meet, Work And Test Products
|
Coupa Cafe: Where Startups Meet, Work And Test Products
Coupa Cafe
This story (in a very different form) appears in the Dec. 5, 2011 edition of Forbes magazine.
In early 2011, Qasar Younis started testing his customer service tool for restaurants called Talkbin. One of his early customers was Coupa Cafe, a favored meeting spot for entrepreneurs just off University Ave. near Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Jean Paul Coupal, the 26 year-old co-owner of Coupa, gave Younis feedback on the product, such as a feature that enables a manager to oversee multiple store locations--since Coupa has five in town. Y Combinator-backed Talkbin was acquired by Google in April 2011 just ten months after its founding. Coupa wasn't the only business to test the service, but it was an important early tester.
There are many people and institutions in Silicon Valley willing to help new startups, including incubators, universities, angels, venture capital firms and big tech companies. But local small businesses like Coupa that are willing to give new startups a shot are another important part of this ecosystem. Coupal has become a popular place for local entrepreneurs to test a product. Coupal estimates he's worked with more than 40 startups in total, including Five Stars Card, Mixtent, Reference.me, Bling Nation, Bump Technologies, RewardMeApp, CheckPlus, Mizoon, Ourtisan.
Coupal particularly liked Talkbin, which was cofounded by Michael Ma and Sunny Dhillon. "I thought this one, of all the startups I've seen, this was the most useful idea," Coupal says. He's able to use Talkbin across his locations so that he knows what's happening quickly even if he's not there. "It's really practical. I'd much rather get a negative review so I know I can respond."
While startups pound the pavement and ask businesses all over the Bay Area--and elsewhere--to test new products, merchants that are within walking distance in Palo Alto, where many startups are based, are especially popular. Another popular small business is nearby Fraiche Yogurt. "Jean Paul, from when I first made contact with him, I could tell he was curious and wanted to learn," says Ricky Yean, cofounder of startup Crowdbooster, which also worked with Coupal early on. "It's a huge difference from everyone else." While building his company, Yean hit up Coupal, asking if he could develop Coupal's Twitter strategy. Yean used that data to build his Crowdbooster product, which helps companies manage their social media.
Tech entrepreneurs also work and meet venture capitalists at Coupa. The late Steve Jobs dropped in occasionally. Paul Graham and Marc Andreessen are also spotted. Having a product seen by someone important can help a startup early on. "VCs said, 'I saw Talkbin (at Coupa), can we talk?'" says Younis. Also, Coupal received text messages from VCs through Talkbin--not for customer service, but asking if he liked the product. Younis himself worked on his laptop at Coupa regularly before asking Coupal to use the product--and he still works there today. "Even now I was there for hours last night," Younis says. "As an entrepreneur your apartment is your office. It gets tiring."
The place has become so popular that finding a table isn't easy. "It's a great place to see and be seen," says Jules Maltz, venture capitalist at Institutional Venture Partners. "A table is so difficult to get there. But people still flock there. Whenever I meet an early stage company selling to restaurants or small businesses I always tell them the best place to demo it is Coupa because of all the VCs there."
Because of the benefits for startups, Coupal has become a popular guy. Over the summer, he received about 10 emails per day from different startups pitching ideas. So like many venture capitalists, he'll often meet startups through an introduction of someone he knows. He doesn't invest in or get paid from any companies he tests. He'll work with a company if he is impressed by the team, more so than the idea itself. That doesn't mean all the ideas he sees are great. "I've seen a lot of horrible ideas getting money," Coupal says.
Coupal and his sister and mother opened the first cafe here just off University Ave. in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2004. They later opened another location in Beverly Hills and four locations on Stanford's campus. That has made Coupa more well-known among Stanford's students who go on to create tech startups.
The Coupal family intended to open a cafe focused on bringing their Venezuelan coffee and cuisine to the U.S. Coupal's father already had a coffee roasting business and the original Coupa Cafe in Venezuela. Coupal, who graduated with an Economics degree from Stanford University in 2007, didn't quite expect the Palo Alto cafe to become such a tech magnet. But he has encouraged it, adding a zippy 50 megabit WiFi network and encouraging people to camp out with their laptops. "Since the beginning we wanted it to be a place where you aren't kicked out," Coupal says. "At a restaurant, they bring you the check and you feel you have to leave. We didn't want that. We wanted people to feel at home."
|
51d0a770ae2eb561919e0287aa312a32
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/11/21/shopkick-teams-up-with-visa-for-in-store-rewards/
|
Shopkick Teams Up With Visa For In-Store Rewards
|
Shopkick Teams Up With Visa For In-Store Rewards
Collecting Shopkick rewards from American Eagle
Just in time for the Black Friday rush, mobile location-based shopping app Shopkick is announcing a partnership with Visa that will provide in-store deals for consumers tied to Visa card purchases.
With the new "Buy & Collect" service, users link their Visa credit or debit cards to Shopkick, then when they are in stores at participating merchants they get special deals by paying with their Visa cards, such as “Spend $20, get 400 kicks.” (Kicks are Shopkick's rewards points.) Merchants participating at launch include American Eagle Outfitters, Arden B., Old Navy, Toys "R" Us and Wet Seal.
Shopkick has a location-based service that recognizes when consumers are actually inside of a store, which is different than some other apps such as Foursquare. Once the Shopkick app recognizes that the person is in the store, it serves up offers and deals to the consumer for entering the store. Shopkick also can give rewards to customers for walking to a particular part of a store.
The additional deals through the new "Buy & Collect" service are optional and users only get them if they choose to link up their Visa accounts with Shopkick. Visa is providing real-time messaging technology to enable the rewards to be added once people bring their Shopkick apps into a store. Shopkick is the only company that Visa has using this particular type of real-time rewards technology.
There are a number of companies working on getting rewards to consumers for in-store purchases. Visa rival American Express has done deals with Facebook, Foursquare (story) and LevelUp (story) to provide deals when consumers use their Amex cards.
|
aa364905913a7fc99a154324de33fe0e
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/12/14/starbucks-names-hearsay-socials-clara-shih-to-board-of-directors/
|
Starbucks Names Hearsay Social's Clara Shih To Board Of Directors
|
Starbucks Names Hearsay Social's Clara Shih To Board Of Directors
Starbucks has named Clara Shih, CEO and cofounder of social media startup Hearsay Social, to its board of directors.
It's a big move for Shih, 29, who wrote a book about Facebook and social media marketing, “The Facebook Era.” She also previously created an early Facebook business application for Salesforce.com while she worked there.
"I’m so excited and humbled to be joining what I think is one of the most impressive organizations in the world," Shih said. "It's not only a personal milestone for me, but I can think of no greater validation for the social business imperatives we've established at Hearsay Social."
Hearsay Social, backed by venture firms including Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, provides tools for large companies to manage social media across many local branches and agents. National managers use Hearsay to push content to local social media managers, as well as analytics tools for national managers to understand which local branches are driving the most social media engagement on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
Hearsay announced today that it has increased its customers six-fold since launching ten months ago. The company didn't release specific customer numbers but says it has had 5 million customer interactions on social sites and manages more than 16,000 social business pages.
Hearsay has also been staffing up, now with 60 people. The company just added Rob van Es, from IBM and Fortify Software, as vice president of global sales and Amy Millard, from Netscape and MarketTools, as vice president of marketing.
|
6869571427ecf25357012743378699ce
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/03/super-bowl-on-madden-nfl-superstars-launches-on-pokki-desktop/
|
Super Bowl On: Madden NFL Superstars Launches On Pokki Desktop
|
Super Bowl On: Madden NFL Superstars Launches On Pokki Desktop
Just in time for the Super Bowl, Electronic Arts is launching its Madden NFL Superstars game on the Pokki desktop app platform. (I'm probably not watching since the 49ers are out, but I digress.)
That means that people who were playing the Madden game on Facebook can now also play in on their desktop PCs. Pokki, which I've previously covered, is an app platform for desktop PCs. The service is designed to bring apps that have the functionality and feel of mobile apps to the desktop. That functionality includes real-time notifications and always-on functionality from the desktop without having to log-in to Facebook or other platforms.
Pokki has drawn game developers as a key vertical. Previously, hard-core social gaming company Kabam launched its game The Godfather: Five Families on Pokki's platform. Gaming makes perfect sense for Pokki's platform. For gamers who want to be always connected to their game to mine their resources or slay their dragons, Pokki keeps the game very accessible on the desktop and keeps it always running.
In addition to the nice score for startup Pokki, the Madden game on Pokki shows EA's aggressive strategy of moving beyond its traditional console game space. The target here being Zynga.
The Pokki version of Madden will be the same as the Facebook version. You can download it here.
|
a6811b5b735cbf2bf6ad73579ed6339e
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/09/branchout-reaches-300-million-profiles-and-10-million-users/
|
BranchOut Reaches 300 Million Profiles And 10 Million Users
|
BranchOut Reaches 300 Million Profiles And 10 Million Users
BranchOut, the professional jobs network that runs on top of Facebook, announced that it has reached 300 million profiles in its network.
That's many more profiles than what exists on rival LinkedIn, which has about 135 million members. However, it's important to note that, apples for apples, that 300 million is BranchOut profiles--not users. BranchOut has about 10 million registered users, so it's still much smaller than LinkedIn by that count. When a user joins BranchOut, that user brings all of his or her friends' publicly available information to BranchOut--thus the large 300 million profile number.
Despite its smaller user base, the fact that BranchOut has that many profiles in its system makes it possible for users and recruiters to access a vast amount of profiles that they couldn't otherwise on LinkedIn. People can use BranchOut to search for jobs and see which of their friends have a connection at a prospective company to help them get hired. BranchOut also recently released a new recruiting tool that runs on Facebook. Companies that have used BranchOut include Microsoft, Yahoo, Salesforce, VMWare, Pfizer and State Farm.
BranchOut has been ramping up in growth recently. BranchOut benefits from being on Facebook's growing platform, which has 845 million users. In just the last two months, BranchOut added 50 million profiles. "In December we hit a tipping point," says BranchOut CEO Rick Marini. "We were at 200 million profiles, then all of a sudden... people decided that's the place where I need to be." BranchOut now has 3.4 million monthly active users, according to AppData.
LinkedIn, meanwhile, reports quarterly earnings tomorrow.
|
869af354e4314c1849322884939b05f6
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/29/justin-kan-launches-exec-for-real-time-mobile-jobs/
|
Justin Kan Launches Exec For Real-Time Mobile Jobs
|
Justin Kan Launches Exec For Real-Time Mobile Jobs
Justin Kan
Justin Kan is back with a new startup and a new approach.
Kan was known as the guy who popped up around Silicon Valley with a camera on his hat, live-streaming his life online for all to see. Kan turned that idea into Justin.TV, a Y Combinator-backed startup that became a popular online live video website.The company also spawned two others, Socialcam, a mobile video app, and Twitch.TV, a gaming video site. Meanwhile, Kan, now more experienced after learning how to build his startup on the fly, is an advisor to startups and a part-time venture partner at Y Combinator.
Now he's started a new company called Exec with cofounders Daniel Kan, Kan's brother and former head of sales and business development at UserVoice, and Amir Ghazvinian, a Stanford Masters in Bioinformatics graduate. The Y Combinator-backed company (more on that below) is a mobile app and website designed for people to find others to complete jobs for them in real-time.
Sound like other services like Zaarly, TaskRabbit? Exec is different, Kan says, because all the tasks are designed to be done in real-time. The jobs could be anything from the mundane: buying and delivering coffee; to the practical: buying, assembling and delivering Ikea furniture; to the bizarre: getting gas for a scooter that ran out of gas and driving it to the owner's office (true story). One person requested the planning of Valentine's Day with dinner, flowers and chocolate.
Exec dispatches the job requests to individuals who are nearby, have good ratings and skills in that area. Jobs are designed to pay at least a $25 hourly rate. The requests are sent automatically to the top person on the list, who has a couple of minutes to reply. If he or she doesn't say yes, Exec goes down the line to the next person. The ideas is to find someone really quickly, in the way that car service Uber finds a nearby car quickly. To be able to do jobs on Exec, people have to complete three rounds of interviews, so that they can be trusted, Kan says. While jobs are posted in real-time, people can also schedule task requests ahead of time.
The service has been in beta for about a month in San Francisco. Kan hopes that Exec can provide flexible work for people who are freelancers, writers, designers or just unemployed. "Our goal is to provide flexible work for someone who wants to make extra cash for a few hours per day, or even all day," Kan says.
Exec, which has a four-person team, is in the current crop of Y Combinator companies that will be pitching to investors in March. Kan, however, is also a Y Combinator "part time partner," helping existing new startups. So Paul Graham, cofounder of YC, jokingly tells Kan to "do office hours for yourself" for his startup.
Kan didn't necessarily need to go through Y Combinator again. He has some knowledge of how to run a startup and could probably tap other startups for help. But he says he likes building a company as part of the incubator. "I think it's such a great environment for founders," Kan says. "I want my cofounders to go through it. Also there's an immense focus with three months working on a product and not being distracted... And there's nothing more fun than working with other startups."
Now that he's got some more experience, Kan says he's taken one lesson, by just focusing on the things that are really important for the company and deferring decisions on everything else. This enables the company to move faster. With Justin.TV Kan and his team generally figured things out as they went along. He remembers an hours-long Justin.TV argument about whether to include "time stamps" in the chat window. To simplify things, Exec has one person in charge of each part of the company and that person is in charge of just building it. One person is on the iPhone app, another is in charge of operations and Kan developed the back-end technology. This time Kan is trying to be more pragmatic and building as few features for the service as possible and trying to make each one great for customers' experiences. "Our focus is customer experience. That's it. Everything else is secondary."
|
071dc98296e073474b6ea104b1d0a1dc
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/12/will-highlight-be-this-years-foursquare-at-sxsw/
|
Will Highlight Be This Year's Foursquare At SXSW?
|
Will Highlight Be This Year's Foursquare At SXSW?
What will be the break-out app at the South By Southwest conference this year?
Highlight, an app which helps you find strangers nearby, has been the popular app of the moment at the annual event in Austin. South By Southwest has become a spring board for popular social and mobile applications. In past years Twitter (2007) and Foursquare (2009) have enjoyed rapid adoption among the technology crowd at the conference. Will Highlight be a breakout hit this year?
The Highlight app, once you sign in through Facebook, automatically notifies you when friends or friends of friends are nearby. It also tells you what mutual Facebook friends you have in common with someone, as well as other mutual interests. The idea is to help you find people with similar interests or simply meet random strangers. Once Highlight notifies you that someone is nearby, you can then send that person a message or bookmark that person for later reference.
Paul Davison, cofounder of Highlight
We caught up with Highlight cofounder Paul Davison to talk about the app and the future of location-based services. He's riding a wave of interest and says people have been coming up to him and telling him stories of how they've used Highlight at the conference, from hitching a ride with a friend from the airport to meeting random interesting people. "We've been working so hard just getting ready to launch," he says. "We've been heads down working with Photoshop and coding. It's been great to come up for air. We're hearing great ridiculous things and random things" people are using the app for.
Davidson worked for a summer at Google and then worked at semantic data startup Metaweb, which was later acquired by Google. After three years, he left to join Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. After thinking about five to ten ideas, he and his cofounder decided to work on the concept of how to meet people through a mobile app.
The ways people find other people that are important in their lives are "horribly inefficient," Davison says. He says there are many possible uses for Highlight, from someone who moves to a new city and has trouble meeting people, to finding dates. "There are so many situations that if you only had bird's eye view of the world it could make the world so much better," Davison says. "In a city of 800,000 strangers, we don’t know anything about anyone we see. But if you think about it in the context of how we interact online, we love talking about ourselves."
Reducing "friction," or making it extremely easy to share your location, is the key to Highlight. "When you can reduce the friction, the sharing goes up by orders of magnitude," Davison says. In Davison's view of the world, auto-sharing your location and your Facebook friends and likes will eventually be as common as having a Facebook account.
"I'm completely convinced that in ten to fifteen years, all of this will just exist," Davison says. "You'll walk into a room and know (people's) names, where they work, what neighborhood they live in and other stuff you have in common with them. You'll just have this sixth sense." You no longer need to "check-in" using an app.
Instead, apps will just give you context about everything and everyone around you. But is this creepy? Davison says Highlight has privacy controls and people only have to share with friends of friends. The other question is, after this conference, will people still use Highlight when they go home? In other words, people love to meet random people while they're at a conference but do they want to meet random people in their everyday lives? Check out the video interview above for more from Davison.
|
580181c82169083e409370da7d60e864
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/28/zynga-prices-secondary-offering-at-10-per-share/
|
Zynga Prices Secondary Offering At $12 Per Share
|
Zynga Prices Secondary Offering At $12 Per Share
Social gaming company Zynga priced its secondary offering Wednesday in a deal totaling $515.6 million.
The company priced 42,969,153 shares of Class A common stock at $12.00 per share, above its IPO price of $10 per share. All the shares are being sold by existing shareholders and Zynga is not receiving any funds from the offering.
Underwriters also have an option within 30 days to purchase up to 6,445,373 shares of Class A common stock. All selling stockholders, and officers and directors, extended the lock-up period for their stock at least 90 days after the offering.
In its IPO, Zynga priced its shares at $10 per share, and the stock then dropped below its offering price. The share price was boosted in February after Facebook filed its S-1 for its own IPO and revealed that Zynga makes up 12% of Facebook's revenue.
Zynga has said that the purpose of the secondary offering is to increase the company's public float and for an orderly distribution of shares.
Zynga stock closed down 5.99% Wednesday at $12.24.
Zynga last week bought smaller social gaming company OMGPOP for $180 million.
|
67704fbb282e569610ef0b909f508055
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/04/30/top-tech-incubators-as-ranked-by-forbes-y-combinator-tops-with-7-billion-in-value/
|
Top Startup Incubators And Accelerators: Y Combinator Tops With $7.8 Billion In Value
|
Top Startup Incubators And Accelerators: Y Combinator Tops With $7.8 Billion In Value
Image via CrunchBase
With Reporting By: Ryan Mac
Incubators have become an increasingly important part of the tech startup scene in recent years.
A number of hot startups have emerged from these programs, encouraging more new entrepreneurs to apply. They’ve become so popular that about one accelerator a day launches these days, says David Cohen, head of TechStars. Not only are they popping up in many cities, but also in specific verticals, such as education. These incubators have been called alternatives to MBAs. Emphasizing that concept, Y Combinator now even accepts applicants who don’t even have a startup idea.
These programs provide new entrepreneurs with mentorship, advice and practical training on technical, business and fundraising topics to help them get from idea to product to launch and beyond. They typically take a small piece of equity in exchange for a small amount of cash and entry into the program.
As part of our Midas List coverage this year, FORBES created a list of the top U.S. incubators and accelerators. The rankings (see the chart below) are based on a number of factors, focusing on the value of the incubators' companies. In other words, we took the exit prices or the last priced equity valuation of the companies that have gone through each program. We also took into account other measures, such as how much venture funding their companies have raised, what percentage of their companies have raised funding and what percentage of their companies have been acquired or gone out of business. (Note: some firms provided us data for the rankings on condition that we not publish it.) The Midas List, which ranks the top 100 venture capitalists in the world, launched Wednesday, May 2.
Tech's 100 Best Investors Meet the moneymen getting rich in Silicon Valley.
The top incubator in our analysis is Y Combinator. When taking into account the 172 companies that have been acquired, shut down or raised funding, the total value is $7.78 billion, for an average of $45.2 million per company. It’s a remarkable figure, considering the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm has been in existence for seven years. The data is of course skewed by certain large companies. Y Combinator did not identify individual companies’ valuations in data that they provided, but Dropbox and Airbnb are very large. Still, even if you remove the two, the firm still has a strong hit ratio and number of absolute hits. Some of its biggest exits include: 280 North, Heroku, OMGPOP, Loopt, Cloudkick, Zecter, Wufoo and Reddit. For comparison, last June, Y Combinator said its top 21 companies were worth $4.7 billion.
Rank Incubator/ Accelerator City Note 1 Y Combinator Mountain View, Calif. Dropbox and Airbnb are just the biggest names in portfolio. Investors fight to invest in YC companies at sky-high prices. Founded in 2005. 2 TechStars Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, San Antonio Founded in 2007, it has grown to five cities, but keeps batches small to give each startup extra attention. Has broader impact by helping other incubators. 3 DreamIt Ventures Philadelphia, New York, Israel Founded in 2008, it has programs in Philadelphia, New York and Israel, with 65 portfolio companies, including SCVNGR/Level Up. 4 AngelPad San Francisco Founded by seven ex-Googlers in 2010; hot portfolio, but too early to value many of the companies. 5 Launchpad LA Los Angeles Founded in 2009, 23 companies have gone through program, 19 have been funded, 5 acquired. 6 Excelerate Labs Chicago Founded in 2010, the firm has graduated 20 companies so far. Mentors include local Groupon investor Brad Keywell. 7 Kicklabs San Francisco Stage-agnostic accelerator focuses on helping startups close first deals with large brands and agencies. 8 500 Startups Mountain View, Calif. Founded in 2010. Also has seed fund in addition to incubator. Focus on startups from overseas as well as US. 9 TechNexus Chicago Doesn't have time limits on companies it accepts. Invests in its companies on case-by-case basis. Founded in 2007. 10 Tech Wildcatters Dallas New incubator, but has some promising startups Others considered: The Brandery, Capital Factory, ERA Accelerator, LaunchBox Digital, NYC Seed Start
Y Combinator has a natural perhaps unfair advantage over others because it has been around longer than many others. Therefore, its companies have had more time to grow. Y Combinator has also been popular among investors, judging by the types of deals that are getting done for its companies. For its most recent batch of companies that pitched to investors in March, a select few startups were trying to raise convertible notes at caps of $10 million, $12 million or even $15 million.
Y Combinator established itself by bringing in talented technical founders and encouraging them to build a startup and launch it in three months. (Some already have a product built before starting.) The best way to find out if a product will work is to launch it, Y Combinator Cofounder Paul Graham tells his entrepreneurs. Y Combinator has since expanded, to seven partners.
Sequoia Capital invested in Y Combinator’s funds, and later, Yuri Milner, Ron Conway and Andreessen Horowitz provided $150,000 in guaranteed funding to each startup. The biggest value of the program now, though, may not be the programs, advising or even introductions the firm makes. It’s the network. Y Combinator now has hundreds of founders in its tight network who are known to go to bat for other Y Combinator companies.
The other top firm in our ranking is TechStars. Founded in 2007, the firm is Boulder, Colorado-based, but has expanded nationally, in a kind of franchise model to New York, Seattle, Boston and San Antonio, Texas. A total of 114 companies have gone through the program, and 98 are still active. Of those, 73 are receiving funding and have raised $134 million total in venture capital at last count. The companies have 714 total employees. TechStars is also very popular, with only 1% of 4,000 applications each year to all locations being accepted. About 80% of TechStars companies go on to raise venture capital or a significant angel funding round. Companies have raised an average of $1.1 million upon finishing the program, across all the TechStars locations. About 40% of startups come from areas near the city of each program. TechStars founder David Cohen has hired directors at each of the other locations to run the programs.
“The venture community has started to see high quality accelerators as a filtering mechanism,” Cohen says. “It’s become a new college for entrepreneurs because we’re so selective on front end.”
TechStars’ model is to bring in mentors to help its startups, and has a 10-to-1 mentor to startup ratio to make sure each company gets focused, deep attention from several mentors. TechStars has also tried to disseminate information about its model to others, by creating a “Global Accelerator Network” in partnership with Startup America. By open-sourcing its model, TechStars has helped launch other accelerators. Cohen has also emphasized transparency among incubators. He has published a list of all the companies that have gone through TechStars, including how much funding they've raised, and how many employees they have. He’s encouraging others to do the same, so that entrepreneurs can make informed decisions about which program to attend.
“There should be transparency so that you can look at the data and make an informed decision [based on] who was funded and the amount and the success rate,” Cohen says.
TechStars is different because it keeps its incubator batches small and tries to give ample amount of attention to each of its startups, Cohen says. In its last batch in summer 2011, TechStars Boulder had 12 companies. It generally only holds one session per year, whereas others have two sessions. “For us we focus on quality over quantity,” Cohen says. “We want all companies we fund to be successful. We’ve kept our class sizes small.” TechStars also differs from some others in that Cohen also invests in startups, having recently closed a $28 million second fund. Companies that have gone through the program include SendGrid, Occipital, Orbotix, CrowdTwist and OnSwipe.
DreamIt Ventures, founded in 2008, has had 65 companies go through its program. DreamIt has expanded from Philadelphia and now offers a program in New York and one in Israel. DreamIt’s most well-known company is SCVNGR, which last year raised $15 million at a $100 million valuation, according to TechCrunch. DreamIt also recently launched a year-long program for minorities called DreamIt Access backed by Comcast Ventures, which plans to fund 15 companies.
AngelPad was founded by seven former Google executives in 2010. The San Francisco firm’s founders include Thomas Korte and a number of other specialists. AngelPad has had a competitive advantage grabbing former Googlers who start companies. But it doesn’t limit its focus to them. The program differentiates by keeping its program small, with no more than 15 startups per batch, which provides for personalized mentoring. AngelPad also emphasizes product development. Also provided is office space, where companies work but also help each other out. Many of AngelPad’s startups are still fairly new, but there are a number that have already raised venture rounds.
LaunchPad LA, founded in 2009 by GRP Partners’ Mark Suster, has had 23 companies go through the program. Of that group, 19 have raised funding, 10 of which were “significant VC funding.” And five have been acquired, two of them for more than $30 million. Recently, LaunPad LA-backed Sometrics was acquired for a reported $30 million by American Express. Others such as GumGum, MovieClips and GameSalad have raised significant funding. Los Angeles may not be as well known as a tech hub as Silicon Valley, but there is substantial talent and startups in the area and new players such as Science.
Excelerate Labs was founded by Sam Yagan, who sold OkCupid to IAC for $50 million in 2011 and Troy Henikoff, who sold SurePayroll for $115 million in 2011. Founded in 2010, the Chicago-based firm, which operates an annual summer program, has graduated 20 companies so far. Excelerate has brought in a slate of mentors including Groupon investor Brad Keywell. In addition to the $25,000 that each startup gets in exchange for 6% in common stock, local venture firm New World Ventures has committed $50,000 to each Excelerate company. The firm has moved into a new space at 1871, a new digital startup center.
Stage-agnostic accelerator Kicklabs focuses on helping its startups close their first deals with large brands and agencies. That’s often the hardest part for startups, says Chris Redlitz, head of the San Francisco firm. Kicklabs has a pool of 27 brands it works with to connect to startups. It doesn’t compete with Y Combinator, TechStars or other incubators, Redlitz says, because it seeks to help startups after they’ve finished other programs.
Note on the rankings: FORBES is using value of incubators’ companies as a measure for the rankings. Still, some may argue that even though other incubators haven’t created billion-dollar companies as Y Combinator has, other incubators may be more helpful for certain entrepreneurs. We used value of companies as a basic metric with the logic that entrepreneurs would want to be at the place where the highest valued companies are created. Still, entrepreneurs can determine which would ones be the best for their own particular interests and circumstances. Also, there are many relatively new incubators that we considered but didn’t include on this list because there wasn’t enough data to evaluate them.
|
4fb1ee3d3216b309f47703c684763686
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/05/03/facebook-targets-85-billion-to-95-billion-value-in-ipo-report/
|
Facebook Targets $85 Billion to $95 Billion Value In IPO: Report
|
Facebook Targets $85 Billion to $95 Billion Value In IPO: Report
Facebook plans to price its initial public offering with a market capitalization of $85 billion to $95 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On a per share basis, that would be in the "high-$20s to mid-$30s," the Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.
The social networking giant plans to begin its roadshow to pitch the offering to Wall Street investors on Monday, the newspaper said.
The actual IPO is expected to price on May 18 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The deal is expected to be one of the largest technology IPOs ever.
Facebook is expected to update its S-1 filing with the SEC later Thursday, according to the New York Times.
Facebook recently posted first quarter 2012 revenues of $1.058 billion, up 45% year over year from $731 million. Facebook's net income, however, dropped to $205 million, from $233 million in the year-ago period. The company cited seasonality and stock options expenses as reasons for the net income drop.
Facebook also in a recent filing showed an increasing user base, with 901 million monthly active users as of March 31, 2012, up 33% from the year-ago period. Daily active users were 526 million on average in March, up 42% from 372 million a year ago. Facebook users generated an average of 3.2 billion Likes and Comments per day in the first quarter of 2012. On mobile, Facebook had 488 million monthly active users in March.
|
d69b75ecd2dce043db5fd411a65bd0a9
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/06/27/airbnb-launches-wish-lists-redesigns-with-focus-on-images-social/
|
Airbnb Launches Wish Lists; Redesigns With Focus On Images, Social
|
Airbnb Launches Wish Lists; Redesigns With Focus On Images, Social
Airbnb is launching its biggest changes to its design and product since its original launch, along with a new feature called Wish Lists.
The new image-focused Wish Lists allow people to browse and discover destinations, see their friends' lists and save lists for future trips. It's the first of more expected moves towards making the peer-to-peer house and apartment sharing service much more social.
The lists are meant to help people plan a trip, but also can be used for storing lists of places for future dream getaways. They can also be used, for example, by someone who travels to New York City often to save a list of places for regular visits. Airbnb also has created celebrity or influencer lists, from the likes of designer Yves Béhar and actor (and Airbnb investor) Ashton Kutcher. The company has also curated Wish Lists and popular Wish Lists trending among users, such as Private Islands, Airstreams, Ping Pong Pads and Gardens.
While adding the Wish Lists feature, Airbnb has also completely redesigned its website and mobile app, focusing on images and the photography of Airbnb locations. "When you go to the (old) site it's very transactional," says Shaun Modi, Airbnb lead designer. "We want you to feel like you are actually in the listing. We've already tested this and we've seen substantially more time on the site now."
Two of Airbnb's three founders are designers by training, so design has been a focus from the company's start. Airbnb has long focused on photography--it has hired professional photographers to photograph about one-fourth of its total locations and has more than 1 million total photos. But with the new design, the lists of Airbnb spaces are highly visual, with photograph tiles of each location that scroll down the page infinitely. The design looks somewhat like Pinterest. With the new design, Airbnb has seen a 20% jump in engagement.
The purpose of the design and website, however, is for people to book spaces for travel, not just for browsing, Modi says. With the new design, people who are searching for a location can now click to save a location to a Wish List rather than clicking back and forth between spaces. Then people can send quickly a message to all the hosts on the list--at the same time--to request information or try to book a location.
The new design also emphasizes social networking. People can browse their friends' Wish Lists in the way they could browse their friends pins on Pinterest or Tumblr blogs. And when users save a location to a Wish List, that will be posted to Facebook, if Facebook is connected. The Airbnb app on Facebook now also features these Wish Lists. All these changes are expected to drive up engagement and traffic on the Airbnb site.
The Wish Lists are the first in more coming moves towards making Airbnb much more social, with future features to make, for example, group travel easier, Modi says. "This is just the very beginning," Modi says. "What you'll see is our strategy move towards social travel. Think of all the things you can do. If you want to travel with a group of friends and split the bill, (for example)."
The idea is to provide unique and authentic travel experiences that are those that couldn't be had at large hotel chains. Airbnb has already done that by providing homes and apartments of individuals for rent. Now with more social features, the service would be more personalized and unique for travelers.
About a year ago, Airbnb raised $112 million at reportedly above a $1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from DST Global and General Catalyst Partners.
|
6737eedeaf25cf4018e127c6861355f8
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/07/02/dog-sitter-site-dogvacay-expands-nationwide-as-kennel-alternative/
|
Dog Sitter Site DogVacay Expands Nationwide As Kennel Alternative
|
Dog Sitter Site DogVacay Expands Nationwide As Kennel Alternative
Startup DogVacay takes the concept of the "sharing economy" and throws it to the dogs. Unlike other companies that help people rent out their houses, like Airbnb, or their cars, like RelayRides and Getaround, Dog Vacay is a marketplace for people to find others to take care of their dogs.
DogVacay, which raised $1 million in seed funding March, has added venture firm Andreessen Horowitz as an investor. The amount was not disclosed. Existing investors include First Round Capital, Science Inc., Ben Ling, Ted Rheingold, Quest Venture Partners and Baroda Ventures. Andreessen Horowitz also last year invested in Airbnb's $112 million funding round.
Launched in March in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the company has "tens of thousands" of users and more than 4,000 hosts, and is now moving into a number of other U.S. cities and Canada. The service is designed to provide a cheaper alternative to kennels, as well as a more friendly environment for four-legged friends.
Dog owners can choose from different host options: some hosts offer 24/7 supervision, while other hosts will go out to work during the day. Some hosts also have other dogs for the guest dog to play with. "Would you rather spend $55 a night to put your dog in a cage with 50 other yapping dogs with not a single person consistently taking care of them?" Hirschhorn says. "Versus $25 a night in a real home with a family and 3 walks a day?"
DogVacay has shades of TaskRabbit and Exec in that sense as well, by providing flexible gigs for people--in this case people who like dogs and have a place to house them. For some hosts, DogVacay is not only a way to make some extra cash but a way to "have" a dog for those can't own a dog full-time. Since there is a living animal involved, there's a premium on providing trustworthy hosts. DogVacay screens all hosts and does reference checks to make sure the hosts are serious and understand how to take care of dogs.
Aaron Hirschhorn and his wife came up with the idea when they had to take a trip and couldn't find a good place to house their dog Rocky. Putting a dog in a kennel to be plaed in a cage was not appealing. So the pair started off with their own "dog boarding" business taking care of other peoples' dogs. After the business took off, Hirschhorn's wife quit her job to join him in the business. "We stumbled on to something bigger than watching puppies," he says. "We have bigger dreams here of creating a nationwide alternative to kennels."
As for local laws, Hirschhorn says the company works with users to make sure they're following local laws. In general, Hirschhorn says, as long as you have less than three dogs you aren't considered a business that requires licenses, he says. DogVacay takes a 5-10% fee from hosts. The more hosts work on the service, the lower the rate they have to pay.
|
aa062532fadedaa474822c7d3b3875fd
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/07/25/foursquare-launches-first-revenue-product-promoted-updates/
|
Foursquare Launches First Revenue Product: Promoted Updates
|
Foursquare Launches First Revenue Product: Promoted Updates
New Promoted Updates
Foursquare is rolling out its first revenue product as the company moves from focusing on user growth to generating cash.
The new Promoted Updates enables businesses to send promoted content to users. These updates will appear at the top in a prominent position in the "Explore" tab in Foursquare. That's the section of the app that is for users to find businesses nearby. The Promoted Updates, like Google search ads, there is "intent" there while users are looking for a restaurant, bar or other business nearby, says Steven Rosenblatt, Foursquare's chief revenue officer. Businesses pay on a "cost per action" performance basis for these ads. In some ways these updates are also like Twitter's promoted Tweets.
About 20 brands are participating including small businesses and large chains such as Gap, Old Navy, Hilton, Butter Lane, Standard Miami, BR Guest, B&B Hospitality Group, jcpenney, 'wichcraft, Best Buy, Hertz and Walgreens.
Companies can choose what types of actions they want to pay for. It could be check-ins, unlocking specials, syncing an Amex Card to Foursquare. Old Navy is testing an offer where users can get $15 off when they spend $75. An Italian restaurant in New York gives users the ability to get a special omelette dish that no one else can get. "There's lots of ways to use it," Rosenblatt says. "It can vary depending on all the different ways merchants want to use the platform."
The Promoted Updates product is different from Local Updates, which Foursquare just launched last week. Local Updates, which appear in the main friend activity stream on Foursquare, are updates that businesses can send for free. Those updates only appear for users who have check-in at a business a certain number of times or if their friends have checked-in there. They are like organic search in Google or updates from a company's Facebook page where a user has already indicated that they Like the brand. Both the Promoted Updates and Local Updates are rolling out on top of Foursquare's recently released redesigned app that added more social features and the ability for users to more easily find businesses.
Foursquare for some time has had a free self-serve system for business to create check-in deals for consumers. But that feature, while bringing about 1 million businesses onto Foursquare's platform, does not generate revenue. The new Promoted Updates product is designed as a revenue product. It will be a key test for Foursquare, after the company raised $50 million in new funding last year. Meanwhile a number of other companies such as Groupon, Square, LevelUp, Belly and others are working on app-based loyalty tools. While Foursquare was one of the major companies to popularize location-based apps, there have always been questions about whether it could turn the popular app into a massive business.
|
14eb87f4fc2971beacf00a157bc9c08c
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/09/06/facebook-officially-closes-instagram-deal/
|
Facebook Officially Closes Instagram Deal
|
Facebook Officially Closes Instagram Deal
Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Facebook has finally closed its deal to acquire Instagram, the companies announced today.
When Facebook announced in April that it would acquire Instagram, the price was $1 billion, including $300 million in cash and the rest in stock. Since then, Facebook went public, and its stock price has plunged. With Facebook's stock trading at $18.92 Thursday, the deal price is about $736 million.
"So many of us at Facebook love using Instagram to share moments with our friends," said Facebook vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer in a blog post. "And for so many people, sharing photos with friends is an important part of the Facebook experience. That’s why we’re so excited to bring Instagram to Facebook and see what we can create together."
Schroepfer reiterated Facebook's commitment to maintain Instagram as an free-standing service. For Facebook, closing the deal will give Facebook the ability to now integrate Instagram more tightly. Despite Schroepfer's insistence that Instagram will be independent, it will be interesting to watch what hooks Facebook adds for Instagram. Facebook can also now draw on Instagram's expertise in mobile, a key area that Mark Zuckerberg is focusing on as users increasingly shift to mobile devices.
Instagram has now shared more than 5 billion photos.
|
d1ffc3397f55e48ad922836c35ac4885
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/09/06/rakuten-ceo-hiroshi-mikitani-on-amazon-pinterest-and-fixing-japanese-business/
|
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani On Amazon, Pinterest And Fixing Japanese Business
|
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani On Amazon, Pinterest And Fixing Japanese Business
Hiroshi Mikitani is the outspoken CEO of Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten. The billionaire is well-known in Japan for his critiques of the Japanese business establishment, but he's less well-known in the West. That may be changing as Rakuten takes on global powers like Amazon.com. As part of a magazine profile for FORBES' Most Innovative Companies list, we recently caught up with Mikitani in San Francisco, while he was getting photos taken for his forthcoming English-language book. The following is an edited version of our interview. See also the two videos in this post.
In 2010, you announced Rakuten's "Englishnization"--total conversion to English--to give the company a global focus. How was it received by your employees?
When we first announced it they were kind of shocked. They were surprised. There was culture shock and they were kind of lost.
Has it become more accepted now?
Initially I was a little more optimistic. Once we started doing it realized this more challenging and complex issue than purely language issue. People get stressed and sort of lost their dignity. We have to (give) lots of help, consultation, coaching so they can keep motivation.
How have you bring your model for Rakuten to different markets and can you integrate it with local markets and cultures?
Our model is very different from most of our competitors. We’re trying to really empower our merchants. We provide three things: the system, the traffic, and the expertise. Selling products online is not so simple and easy. You need to be very active you need to really put 100% of your effort to create a very live and attractive web store and also take good care of the customer. So this is not just a pure technology play. We're a combination of technology and the people.
So this people factor is something we built in Japan. This is the really the critical key success factor for the business. So those kinds of expertise we’re now basically exporting. And people who are good at basically consulting the merchant--those are the people who not very good at English--they’re very local--they took care of the merchants they’re very good and communicating in Japanese. But they’re not necessarily the international global people. Those people now can communicate in English and we’re bringing the hands-on experience--teaching in Paris, US, UK and so forth.
How do you compete in these different markets?
Our "B2B2C" model we call a shop-based marketplace is very different from our competitors. We found out we can make it work in most of the countries. So we bought Buy.com but basically strengthening their marketplace business so as (also) play.com and price misters used to be pure c2c now b2b2c model now as big as (their) c2c.
You want to become the world's leading e-commerce company, even taking on Amazon?
Of course, yes. But I think our approach is very different from Amazon. I really respect what they have achieved and they’re a great service. But our service is more or less like a true bazaar or shopping arcade or a shopping mall where our merchants are live, and they are curators. It’s more discovery shopping. We are just representatives of 40,000 merchants in Japan. We are the administrator of the corporation of the merchants. As an aggregated team we basically compete against other e-commerce players, including Amazon.
You led a $100 million investment in Pinterest. Why did you invest and how can it help your company? Again I think shopping is not just about convenience and efficiency. It's about communication, getting connected with local, regional retailers. It's about discovering new products and your interests. We’ve primarily been doing that through emails by our merchants. And now social networks are becoming more and more important. We have been looking for solutions and we found Pinterest and it just hit on me. I truly believe Pinterest will open up new opportunities for e-commerce players. Of course we’re just minority investors. However because of the relationship with them we can learn so many things. Also I think we are going to have a strategic tighter integration with Pinterest in many countries. Can you talk about your history and why you started Rakuten? I used to work for a Japanese bank called the Industrial Bank of Japan. It was really one of the very prestigious financial institutions. They had been leading the development of Japanese industries in the really booming years of Japan. I was selected to go to Harvard Business School in 1991 and came back in 1993 and was doing investment banking. Two things I found out in in U.S.: Starting your own company or being part of small companies or a venture company is highly respected in the U.S.. So I was kind of thinking maybe I want to do that. Two, I felt we need some new industry, high growth industry in Japan. In order to do so, we need to have new ventures, new companies. Without having a very concrete business plan I decided to just jump off from the cliff and start my own company.
In 1995--I’m from Kobe--we had a big earthquake on Jan 17. That was the turning point of my life. I just felt, OK. I lost my relatives and friends. That was a turning point of my life. You decided to do your own thing? Yes, I was doing business consulting. It was doing okay. But one, I was getting really tired; and two, I just wanted to do something more structured. Everybody was talking about Internet businesses. But many people felt the Internet may grow and maybe there’s some advertising business (there), portals may do well. But Internet shopping? No way, people will never buy anything from the Internet. That was the conventional wisdom. But I had different thinking. I thought e-commerce was going to be the most important and center of Internet businesses. We felt also by providing the systems, and expertise to small to medium sized merchants--that has huge social value in itself. So we’re socially motivated. We had a mission. You’ve talked about how it’s important to have broader social mission? For myself and the staff and employees, you need to have a very good social mission or responsibility. You need to feel that you’re contributing to the society in order to just keep going. Otherwise people will question what are we doing. It's not purely for consumers. We can create new demand through the Internet. Which should help the local, regional small-to-medium-sized shops. You’ve been outspoken about the Japanese business community? You left Japanese business group? Keidanren is considered the leader of the industries in Japan. I joined them when my mentor Mr Okuda, who is honorary chairman of Toyota now, was chair of Keidanren. At that time Keidanren was the symbol of reforms. But after several years it became really the conservative guard of what I call the ancient regime of Japan. I started to realize this is not where I should belong. It’s not limited to the nuclear electric generation issue, but they have been trying to protect the specific interests of particular companies and industries, which is not good for Japan. We need to be more open and more global. So I decided to basically leave and create a more future-looking, more open, more global lobbying group.
Why’s that openness important for Japan’s future and growth? Japanese are very good and famous for manufacturing excellence. We have been inventing so many things: CDs, DVDs, optical fiber, (technology for) mobile phones. We were way ahead of Apple, Android, what have you. But because we didn't have openness, and were really inward-looking, which we call the "Galapagos effect," all these Japanese products became extremely high-quality, but didn't really comply with global standards. Maybe the only exception is the Japanese automobile. I think we need to make our domestic standards more global ones. Now all these configurations are so different from global standards. Many business processes or public government processes are very domestic. For example, accounting rules. We have our own accounting rules, which really don’t make sense at all. And many, many regulations don't make sense. These Keidanren, Keizai Doyukai--I’m still a member of Keizai Doyukai--are sort of trying to protect those old rules and we need to get rid of it and become a globally compliant country.
Do you think traditional Japanese companies (electronics companies) haven’t been as successful lately, because of that? I think so. They’re not so active in deciding global standards. They’re trying to protect the Japanese domestic market, not necessarily be active in other markets and try to be competitive in those markets. They have been just relying on manufacturing excellence and design excellence. Those years are over, I think.
That’s what you been focusing on. Software and services? Not hardware as much? Yes, although we bought Kobo. We tried to (make) an e-reader business in Japan by ourselves but two things: we want be a global company, so we want to do a digital book business all over the world. And also the digital book business is very important for an e-commerce business. It’s a different type of product, but it's e-commerce, so we had to do it one way or another. And we found a company called Kobo in Canada and we took a look at it. And they were not doing so well in US at that time because they partnered with Border’s, and Border’s went bankrupt. We did further study and found this company was extremely entrepreneurial, fast and international. They are the number one in Canada, number one in France; they’re ahead of Amazon in Japan, partially because of us, and Australia and New Zealand as well. You need to have a global platform and global content in order to succeed in the respective regional book markets. For example, in Japan most people just buy Japanese content, but a significant portion of people also buy English books. So it’s going to become more and more global.
This means you're doing digital content as well as digital books, eventually? Yes. We also bought company called Wuaki in Spain. They do streaming (content) and smart TV as well. So we need to do video, we need to do music, we need to do books, we need to do games. And Kobo has the Vox multimedia device? Yes it's an Android (device). We’re going to keep basically updating it.
What happened with your joint venture in China and what's your view of that market?
When we opened our service there was a political issue between Japan and China for this Sengaku island issue. Because of that we couldn’t do any promotion for the first half of the year for our services. That was very very unfortunate. Two, we found the Chinese market is very different from other markets. One, a good portion of the products sold on e-commerce are counterfeit products. And the market itself was overheated. There’s so much money flowing in from Silicon Valley VCs to China.
|
90ebd707c53d0c599534792437067068
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/10/29/quora-highlights-top-writers-from-movies-to-cops/
|
Quora Highlights Top Writers, From Cops To Venture Capitalists
|
Quora Highlights Top Writers, From Cops To Venture Capitalists
Quora is recognizing the top contributors to its question and answer website through a new Top Writers program--and they are not who you might expect.
The program recognizes its best contributors--who provide the lifeblood of the site--based on three criteria: best quality contributions over the past year, and best contributions overall, and topic expertise in a specific area. While some of them are professional writers or journalists, most of them are not. The group includes 493 people from 30 countries, including lawyers, doctors, police officers, pilots, prison inmates, professors, engineers and venture capitalists.
The five top subjects among them are Movies, Food, Startups, Psychology and U.S. Politics. The median in the group has posted more than 350 answers.
"Over the last six months we've really seen an explosion of content on the site," says Marc Bodnick of Quora. "We've seen so many people: high school and college students policemen, military, photographers, and pilots. So we decided to create a program to recognize some of the best writers on the site."
Those who make the list will get recognized with a special badge on their Quora profile page.
With its Silicon Valley roots--the company is most famous for its founders who came from Facebook Charlie Cheever and Adam D'Angelo--Quora started out with content that focused on technology, but much of the site is outside of geek content, Bodnick says. The Top Writers program will help highlight writers in a number of non-tech, mainstream categories. "I do think the right goal is to keep driving forward to more and more areas and more across the spectrum of human interest and knowledge," says Bodnick, a former cofounder of Elevation Partners.
Quora in May raised $50 million at a $400 million valuation led by former Facebook investor Peter Thiel. The company has not added advertising or other monetization yet.
|
b46534689d16c6324ad58ba6c2024bf5
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/11/08/groupon-shares-crushed-after-missing-q3-earnings/
|
Groupon Shares Crushed After Missing Q3 Earnings
|
Groupon Shares Crushed After Missing Q3 Earnings
Groupon shares are trading down after posting third quarter 2012 earnings that missed analysts' expectations.
Groupon posted a net income that was flat or zero, on revenue of $568.6 million. Groupon was expected to post earnings of 3 cents per share on revenue of $590.1 million. Revenue in the year-ago period was $430.2 million.
Groupon shares are trading down $0.50 or 12.76% to $3.42 in late trading. This after the company's stock his an all-time low last week. In explaining the earnings miss, Groupon cited weakness internationally, where revenue grew just 3% year-over-year, compared to 81% growth year-over-year in North America. North America growth was driven by the new Groupon Goods, which is the sale of physical goods. Gross billings were $1.22 billion in the third quarter, up 5% from a year ago. However, that's down sequentially from $1.29 billion in the second quarter. Groupon however noted that excluding foreign exchange, gross billings growth was 11% year-over-year. Operating cash flow was $42.1 million, down 35% from a year ago at $64.4 million. Free cash flow was $26.1 million. At the end of the quarter, Groupon had $1.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents. On mobile, in October 2012, about one-third of Groupon's North American transactions were done on mobile devices, which is an increase of close to 30% from a year ago. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason in a call with analysts emphasized mobile as an area of strong growth for the company. For guidance, fourth quarter revenue is expected to be $625 million to $675 million, up 27%-37% from a year ago. Income from operations is expected to be $0 to $20 million, compared with a loss from operations of $15 million a year ago. A bright spot: the company's new Groupon Goods product hit an annual run rate in the third quarter of close to $1.5 billion in billings and close to $500 million in revenue. Groupon is the merchant of record for these products, unlike its traditional Groupons, which sell services for third-party merchants. In August Groupon posted second quarter revenue of $568.3 million up 45% from the year-ago period but below expectations of $573.1 million. Non-GAAP net income was 8 cents per share above estimates of 3 cents. Those results however included 4 cents a share in non-recurring gains. On a GAAP basis Groupon earned 4 cents per share.
One troubling sign in the second quarter was gross billings of $1.29 billion, down 4% sequentially from the first quarter, though still up 38% from the year-ago period. That raised questions about the core coupons business. Revenue from coupons sold on behalf of merchants was $503 million in the second quarter, down from $540 million in the first quarter. Groupon attributed some of that to foreign exchange and weakness in the European economy. The company's Groupon Goods which sells physical products was still relatively small in the second quarter but will be watched as a potential for new growth.
Groupon closed in regular trading on Thursday up 4.26% or $0.16 to $3.92.
Stay tuned for Groupon's earnings call with analysts at 5pm ET.
[Updatings this post]
|
ab4873b459a405861b497766c506c46a
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/11/14/airbnb-neighborhoods-brings-travel-guides-to-hyper-local-level/
|
Airbnb Launches Neighborhoods For Hyper-Local Travel Guides
|
Airbnb Launches Neighborhoods For Hyper-Local Travel Guides
Airbnb launched a new product called Neighborhoods Tuesday that gives travelers in-depth guides to local neighborhoods in cities.
The new product highlights one of the best reasons for using Airbnb when traveling: the unique neighborhoods that travelers might never otherwise see. In addition, that activity from travelers provides more revenue to a variety of local businesses, according to a study the company recently released..
It also shows Airbnb's direction in turning into a full-featured travel service, not just a site to find a place to crash for a night. It’s not hard to imagine the company adding a variety of other services and features on top of its platform, such as cleaning services, deals with small businesses and other travel services.
The new Neighborhoods product--now live in New York, Paris, London, San Francisco, Washington DC, Berlin, and Rio de Janeiro--gives travelers information about little-known neighborhoods where they will be staying. Unlike traditional hotels, which are typically concentrated in certain areas of a city, Airbnb spots are often in diverse parts of cities. Since travelers using Airbnb are often looking for unique local experiences, the new product will help them find those places.
Using the Neighborhoods product, people can search for neighborhoods in which to find a place to stay that match their specific interests. People can search by “artsy” “peace and quiet” “nightlife” “loved by San Franciscans,” “shopping” or “dining.” After selecting categories they’re interested in, people can see the neighborhoods that match and then see the Airbnb listings in those neighborhoods.
The Neighborhood guides are visually focused, giving large photos that are intended to give a real sense of what the area is like. Also included are location information, maps, transportation information and quotes from Airbnb travelers and hosts about what to do in the area.
Airbnb also Tuesday launched an offline and small business service called Local Lounges, a partnership with local cafes in San Francisco. Airbnb has selected unique cafes in different parts of the city that it will promote. The cafes will provide free WiFi and local guidebooks for Airbnb travelers.
Airbnb, now with 250,000 properties listed in 30,000 total cities worldwide, was recently reported to be in talks to raise $150 million in new venture funding.
Gallery: The Peer Economy 10 images View gallery
|
0b469affa309b1c9881955052a346595
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/11/29/livingsocial-confirms-layoffs-of-10-of-staff/
|
LivingSocial Confirms Layoffs Of 10% Of Staff
|
LivingSocial Confirms Layoffs Of 10% Of Staff
In a sign of the continuing struggles in the online deals sector, LivingSocial has confirmed that it has laid off 400 employees or about 10% of its global staff.
About a "couple dozen" of the cuts were international while the rest are in the U.S., company spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. Reports of the layoffs surfaced yesterday.
LivingSocial is backed by more than $800 million from Amazon.com as well as other venture investors. According to a story in the Washington Business Journal, LivingSocial lost $566 million in the third quarter, including $496 million of acquisition-related write downs. Revenue was $124 million, compared to $138 million in the second quarter.
LivingSocial said in a statement that the moves will put the company on track for "long-term growth and profitability."
The cuts come amid reports that LivingSocial's larger rival Groupon was considering replacing CEO Andrew Mason with a new top executive. Groupon has struggled since its IPO and its stock price has plummeted. The company's core deals product has not been growing strongly and the company has been seeking to build out a new service selling physical products that it is selling directly instead of using third-party merchants.
Here's the statement provided by Livingsocial:
"After two years of hyper-growth from 450 to more than 4500 employees, these moves will align our cost structure against our 2013 plans and will help us set the company on a path for long-term growth and profitability. Specifically, they will us to allow us to invest more in critical priorities like marketing, mobile, and the hiring of additional technology staff."
|
483af28e90a4b2374bb524dac202b032
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/12/03/topis-social-app-connects-conference-goers/
|
Can Topi's Mobile App Make Conferences Social?
|
Can Topi's Mobile App Make Conferences Social?
Trying to make it easier to connect with others at conferences is still a challenge, despite all the tech conferences that happen every year.
A new startup Topi, aims to solve this problem with its mobile app for iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile.
The app, founded last year by former Google engineering manager David Aubespin, makes it quick for conference participants to find and connect others. Once they connect with Facebook and LinkedIn, conference-goers can get a view of all attendees sorted by who are most relevant based on a person's Facebook and LinkedIn interests.
People can also see others at the conference who are from the same company, the same hometown, or the same university. They can also see who has similar interests, as indicated by Facebook Likes or LinkedIn groups.
The app automatically creates chat rooms around these interests, such as "Stanford", "Paris", "Startups," and the like. While group chat apps like Groupme are popular at events, Topi is designed to create groups specifically to make it easier to meet people and connect at conferences. The app also pulls in tweets in real time about the conference into its chat streams. And if people see others they want to contact privately they can also send a private messages through the app. Aubespin sees the app as useful for people to connect with others even after a conference ends. "They can keep Topi to continue to communicate and use the other features after the conference ends," Aubespin says. "This could be when someone met at a conference but doesn't necessarily want to be Facebook friends."
American Express has been using Topi for 1,500 of its marketing staff certain events, according to a statement from Andrew Der, senior manager, digital strategy & innovation at American Express.
Conference organizers, meanwhile, can use Topi's web dashboard to manage conference activity. There's a geo-fencing tool so that anyone who downloads the app in a particular area near the conference can get access to the conferene information. The geo-fencing can also work in multiple locations for remote conferences.
As a result, there is no set up required by users as long as they're in the geo-fenced location. Conference organizers can also schedule notifications in the app about events at the conference. Other features include real-time polling during a conference session, and audience analytics about attendee backgrounds, interests and demographics. There's also the ability to add sponsor information in the app.
While many companies are trying to provide apps for conferences, surprisingly no one has quite solved this problem yet. Topi is a new one to watch.
|
208038d0df59ccf969c57698fe14eefb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/12/10/nike-tech-accelerator-aims-to-fuel-health-fitness-startups/
|
Nike Tech Accelerator Aims To Fuel Health, Fitness Startups
|
Nike Tech Accelerator Aims To Fuel Health, Fitness Startups
Nike is the latest to jump into tech incubation with its Nike+ Accelerator, for helping the latest health-related startups. The program, organized by TechStars, focuses on startups in areas such as training, coaching, gaming, data visualization and the quantified self.
Accelerators are the new business schools, at least in the tech startup world. These programs, which typically involve a small amount of funding and mentorship and connections in exchange for a small amount of equity, have exploded in popularity.
The ten week program, which will accept ten companies, will begin in March 2013 in Portland, Ore. The program will conclude with demo days at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. and Silicon Valley. Nike is providing the office space, technical support and access to Nike's APIs. TechStars, which is organizing the program, has much experience in the area, having launched its own program in a number of cities as well as helping others build their own accelerators. TechStars already has another vertical accelerator, TechStars Cloud.
For Nike, the program gives it access to new entrepreneurs and technology in this space. The company has been pushing technology in health and fitness with its Nike+ running app and more recently its Nike+ Fuel Band, which records and measures people's daily activity.
Mentors in the program include Stefan Olander, Nike’s vice president of digital sport; David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars; Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of Foursquare; and quantified-self guru Tim Ferriss.
Consumer health is a popular area for startups, with everything from devices such as the Fitbit and Jawbone Up to apps such as Runkeeper that help people keep track of their exercise routines.
|
b408de9d9246d8d143496c4252b578b6
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/12/13/yahoo-adds-max-levchin-to-board-two-members-step-down/
|
Yahoo Adds PayPal Cofounder Max Levchin To Board, Two Members Step Down
|
Yahoo Adds PayPal Cofounder Max Levchin To Board, Two Members Step Down
Yahoo has named former PayPal cofounder Max Levchin to its board of directors, as two other board members are stepping down.
The addition of Levchin, a well-known Silicon Valley technology executive, is another move towards Marissa Mayer's efforts to revamp Yahoo with a technology focus.
Levchin cofounded PayPal and was the company's CTO. PayPal employees later spawned a number of other startups such as YouTube and Yelp. Later Levchin founded early social gaming company Slide, which was a major presence on Facebook, before it was later eclipsed by others such as Zynga and later acquired by Google. Levchin then became a vice president of engineering at Google.
Currently Levchin has an entity called HVF, which is "focused on solving big problems and improving lives by extracting insights from the vast quantities of data around us," Yahoo's press release says. Levchin was also the first investor in Yelp and is currently on the boards of Yelp, Kaggle and Evernote.
Yahoo also announced that two board members are stepping down: Weather Channel Chief Executive David Kenny and Intuit Chief Executive Brad Smith.
"Max is someone I've admired throughout my career for his phenomenal sense for great products and keen focus on user experiences," said Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, in a prepared statement. "I'm confident that his strong product and technology expertise will be a tremendous asset to Yahoo! as we work to transform the world's daily habits."
Yahoo shares are up $0.06 or 0.31% to $19.44.
Reports of the news surfaced earlier today.
|
f706c60c45684893ae9afb597d9f9858
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/15/sevone-lands-150-million-from-bain-capital/
|
SevOne Lands $150 Million From Bain Capital
|
SevOne Lands $150 Million From Bain Capital
SevOne, which provides technology infrastructure monitoring services, has raised $150 million in venture financing led by Bain Capital.
Founded in 2005, the company has been largely bootstrapped until now, having raised $3.5 million previously.
Last year, consumer Internet companies reaching their IPOs, such as Facebook, were closely watched, but enterprise software companies ended up having large exits in the IPO market.
SevOne's technology helps enterprises or technology service providers manage vast amounts of data and elements on a network. Customers include large communications providers and financial institutions. Existing customers have shown an 85% increase in their monitoring with SevOne. In one example, SevOne worked with a large insurance company on its VoIP deployment. But since SevOne's system is already active, later on the insurance company could easily turn on monitoring of cloud or mobile services as well.
SevOne, which has 140 employees, plans to use the money for international expansion and to expand its focus on federal government customers and middle market companies. SevOne has up until now focused on larger companies.
SevOne has a different business model than other companies. It charges $5 for each element it a company monitors. Those could be network interfaces, laptops, mobile devices or any other elements of a network. "It's just an easy way for customers to have control," says SevOne CEO Mike Phelan of the business model. "They can decide what they want to turn on and off minutes after they deploy."
|
9f9c9fdfe5f6fcec1834b4586f4daf80
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/30/dropbox-adds-photo-sharing-document-viewing/
|
Dropbox Adds Photo Sharing, Document Viewing
|
Dropbox Adds Photo Sharing, Document Viewing
Dropbox became popular as a simple way for people to sync files across mobile, desktop and a variety of devices.
Now the company is adding a new layer of photo and document features to give its users much more things they can do with their files. In other words, Dropbox is aiming to be more than just a file syncing or file storage service but a full-service way for people to use their digital files--which these days is increasingly in the cloud, not just on devices.
For documents, Dropbox is adding a feature called Documents Preview that enables people to view the documents such as PDFs or Word files on the Dropbox website. This makes it easier, for example, if a user is accessing her Dropbox from a friend's computer and doesn't want to download a file and worry about deleting it. Now they can just view it on the website.
For photos, Dropbox users can now share their photos from the Dropbox website to Facebook (via Facebook wall post or Facebook private message) or Twitter (as a Twitter "card") or via email.
In addition, Dropbox is providing a new way for people to organize their photos into albums. In other words, they can create albums ("Hawaii Vacation") to access their photos outside the traditional file structure where they are stored on their computers. This move is about focusing on the content that users have as opposed to just the files, says Ruchi Sanghvi, head of operations at Dropbox. (This is a feature that other photo apps such as Adobe Lightroom and Apple iPhoto have.)
Also added are larger photo previews in a view of all photos in a user's Dropbox at Dropbox.com/photos. This makes Dropbox's website more of full-featured photo application. While not a direct competitor to desktop photo applications, the new features make Dropbox a more useful service so that people may not have to use their photo applications--at least if they don't have to do photo editing.
Overall, these moves are intended to make it easier for users to manage and use their files, says Sanghvi. For example, as users have moved to shooting photos on mobile phones, Dropbox previously added camera auto-upload over Wi-Fi so that users do not have to plug their phones into computers to save them.
"People use the technology in new and different ways," Sanghvi says. "We need to keep up to date with how they use the technology. They view, curate, organize, share and access (files). We need to make all those things easier."
Because people are storing so many things on Dropbox, the company is focusing on making it easier for users to use their files in everyday use. "It should just work," Sanghvi says. "That's our mantra."
Dropbox recently announced the hiring of Google Exec And Python programming guru Guido Van Rossum.
|
bd3f4a2b6b0cd2d87e67caf2f6342e13
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/02/26/san-quentin-prisoners-learn-technology-pitch-startups/
|
San Quentin Prisoners Learn Technology, Pitch Startups
|
San Quentin Prisoners Learn Technology, Pitch Startups
This was a different kind of demo day. It was inside San Quentin State Prison.
While most demo days in Silicon Valley feature young entrepreneurs worrying about problems like customer acquisition, the participants in The Last Mile program have other hard realities to think about.
The Last Mile is a six-month, twice-weekly program for prisoners to learn entrepreneurship while developing their own startup idea. In that way it's like other accelerators like Y Combinator or TechStars. But in other ways it's very different. San Quentin is the oldest California prison and houses the state's only death row and only gas chamber.
The most striking thing about the program is that participants created tech startup ideas without ever having used the Internet, mobile apps or smart phones. That's because the prison doesn't allow that access. To figure out how to conceive mobile apps or websites the participants have to rely on education from outside experts or whatever they can read about technology. Considering that, the ideas were relevant, and, overall, well-geared to their markets. The members learn about social media tools such as Quora by answering questions from people on the site--even though they can't directly use the service.
In the prison's chapel, six prisoners presented their ideas Friday in front of a group of investors and media, as well as other prisoners. The presentation included a live jazz band performance and spoken word and rap performances by inmates. For the prisoners, it was clear that this was an important milestone for them. Whether their companies will succeed won't be known for some time. For some, it could take years to get their ideas off the ground. But the participants had already done more than many could have expected.
The Last Mile program was created by Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, who also run a more traditional incubator, KickLabs, but started this program to apply their knowledge to help prisoners. They've gotten a number of other technology investors and entrepreneurs--such as Guy Kawasaki, Josh Kopelman, Patrick Collison, Marc Bodnick and MC Hammer --to speak to the group or provide assistance. Participants selected for the program were asked to come up with an idea that they were personally passionate about that would make some social impact, including a tech angle. They were told not not to worry about cost concerns. The Last Mile demo day was different from the typical tech demo day in that the entrepreneurs were not asking for investments--not yet anyway. This was the second batch in this program--the first one was last year.
The presentations were polished, and in some ways better prepared than many demos I've seen at the top incubators and accelerators in Silicon Valley. Chris Schuhmacher spent days memorizing and giving his talk at all hours in the days leading up to the demo day. It showed. He smoothly described his company, Fitness Monkey, a mobile exercise application to help drug and alcohol addicts avoid relapsing. Since exercise reduces depression and helps people physically feel better, they're less likely to relapse, he says. The app includes a personal trainer that can be contacted through the app. Schuhmacher, who is doing 16 years to life for second-degree murder, says he was inspired by his own experience with fitness.
Darnell Hill's idea is InterventionOutlet.org, which is designed to help young people in urban communities deal with traumatic experiences such as violence, and many of whom have PTSD. People could use the app to get help anonymously from peers or could contact professionals. The service includes guides who would visit local schools to educate students.
Jorge Heredia, who has been in San Quentin 15 years and is serving 13 year to life for attempted murder, previously sold produce before going prison. Now his company, Funky Onion, aims to buy second-tier produce--that is, visually unappealing to large supermarkets but still edible--from farms and sell it for a lower price to restaurants and other retailers. Heredia did something similar on his own prior to going to prison but says after the Last Mile program he is better prepared to run the business.
Tommy Winfrey's Artfelt Creations is a program to connect artists in prison with buyers on the outside. The service would help sell the art through sites such as eBay, Etsy or DeviantArt. Winfrey, 34, came up with the idea as an artist himself. He has been in San Quentin more than 13 years on a second-degree murder charge.
Heracio Harts' Healthy Hearts Institute aims to address the obesity epidemic, which is particularly troublesome in urban low-income communities. Hart wants to set up projects like community gardens and exercise classes, as well as a mobile app for monitoring exercise activity. Hart, who has been in for 8-and-a-half years for voluntary murder, expects to be released from prison in about two weeks. He hopes to get the idea up and running once he is out.
Larry Histon's TechSage would train formerly incarcerated individuals in technology skill through a six-month training program. The idea is to help those former prisoners find employment. The difficulty finding a job is one of the major factors contributing to the high recidivism rate. Histon worked in computers for a number of years prior to going to prison and hopes to apply that knowledge to helping others find jobs. He's serving 29 years to life for first degree murder.
Eddie Griffin's At The Club is an app to provide live streaming of live jazz performances. The streaming is designed to be provided by the company or crowdsourced by users. Griffin is serving 27 years to life for cocaine possession under California's "Three Strikes" law.
|
dd2b3e77ca348de9ef17ee39c8439f29
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/03/06/nasdaq-and-sharespost-form-private-company-exchange-in-joint-venture/
|
Nasdaq And Sharespost Form Private Company Exchange In Joint Venture
|
Nasdaq And Sharespost Form Private Company Exchange In Joint Venture
Nasdaq OMX is forming a marketplace for private companies in a joint venture with startup Sharespost.
The Nasdaq Private Market will provide a platform for buying and selling private company shares. For Nasdaq this will provide a way for the firm to get into a growing private company market. It will also give it a way to connect earlier with companies that will later go public, which is important as it competes with other stock exchanges.
Sharespost has had to retrench its own secondary business after the Facebook IPO. The company did brisk business in Facebook prior to its IPO but has had to look for broader revenue sources after the IPO. In October the company launched a stock option loan program for employees who need cash to exercise their stock options.
The secondary market more generally has slowed down since the Facebook IPO. At the same time, startups are still looking for secondary liquidity for their founders, early investors and employees. That's because companies are staying private much longer.
SecondMarket, another secondary outfit, in a statement said the news is validation of its model: "We congratulate Nasdaq on the joint venture. Coupled with the recent reports that Nasdaq itself was considering going private, this announcement is a telling admission that companies increasingly wish to avoid the casino-like atmosphere of the U.S. public markets.
Sharespost founder Greg Brogger will be president of the joint venture.
Nasdaq will have a majority stake in the joint venture. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
|
8222242e4f8fe0a4fdb12418eeb832a3
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/03/25/sherpa-the-latest-personal-assistant-app-focuses-on-location/
|
Sherpa, The Latest Personal Assistant App, Focuses On Location
|
Sherpa, The Latest Personal Assistant App, Focuses On Location
Personal assistant apps are the latest flavor of utopian vision from tech startups. The promise of these services is to sift through people's deluge of emails, documents and calendar events to extract actionable insights, and provide that information exactly when they need it.
The latest is Sherpa, which has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners. The app, which is available in beta today, uses the phone's location data to provides alerts and information before users need to search for it.
Sherpa gathers users' location data, such as commuting routes over time. Then the app can check traffic and notify users if there is bad traffic on their routes and suggest alternatives. The app can also remind you when it's time to leave for your next meeting, based on the distance to the location and the traffic. When users go to the airport, Sherpa will gather all relevant information, such as airline tickets, hotel and rental car, for quick access. It also tells you if a rain storm is coming. To use Sherpa, people have to connect their email and calendar to the service.
Where Sherpa gets really interesting is its use of location without requiring any user input. Because Sherpa focuses on location, it can identify locations and actions, even when addresses are not entered into a calendar. For example, if you have a piano lesson every week at a certain location (and you have marked it in your calendar) Sherpa knows the general location of that lesson. Then it can remind you to leave for your piano lesson without you having ever entered the address in your calendar or in Sherpa.
As far as privacy concerns: Sherpa only records the general location of events, not the exact location, says founder Bill Ferrell. Also, Sherpa keeps as little information as necessary to run its algorithm, he says. It does not keep a history of every time you have visited the piano lesson, for example. Also, it would only keep the last several instances, not all of them and it only records "counts" of the number of time you've visited, not the exact times and dates.
"We're building a map of the world for each individual user," Ferrell says. "Our mission is simplifying your life. There's so much trapped inside your phone for so long. We're actually just making use of that information."
How is Sherpa different from Google Now, or other new apps such as EasilyDo and calendaring app Tempo (which I love for help with meetings and conference calls, by the way)? Google Now is more about "ambient search," he says. Sherpa is more focused on pushing information that users need to their phone, he says. Other apps such as Tempo are more focused on the calendar, while Sherpa focuses specifically on location, he says. "Our larger vision is working on predictive intelligence through location," he says. "We're enabling a platform where people can provide content to you or actions to you in the real world."
Sherpa wants to be a larger platform for personalized location data, to which many other businesses could connect. Ferrell envisions a world, for example, where your routine morning coffee would be automatically ordered at the exact time to have it waiting for you at your local cafe on the way to work.
Ferrell previously worked at Google for four years focusing on search ad quality. In that job, he worked on predicting relevant ads for searches. So he sees Sherpa's focus on prediction as a more personal, location-focused version of the predictive analytics he did at Google. The idea for Sherpa came from his frequent trips between Seattle and San Francisco for work. He wanted to find a way to get personal travel information and traffic and flight delay data automatically delivered.
Predictive analytics is not easy, especially for actions that are not written down. How does Sherpa know that you have a regular piano lesson if it's on different days of the week? Or how does it know your gym routine if you don't write "gym" in your calendar? Ferrell says he's filed for a patent on this. The algorithm continually learns based on what a person does and classifies the person into different models. For example, if a person falls into the "morning gym before work" routine, the app will learn that and set reminders accordingly.
Based on what Sherpa is doing already, this looks like just the beginning for these personal assistant apps.
|
dc0438e027d3464b2f2e34e1c79a56cc
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/07/01/report-microsofts-don-mattrick-to-leave-microsoft-considering-zynga-role/
|
Updated: Microsoft's Don Mattrick Leaves Microsoft To Become CEO Of Zynga
|
Updated: Microsoft's Don Mattrick Leaves Microsoft To Become CEO Of Zynga
Don Mattrick, Microsoft 's head of its Interactive Entertainment division that includes XBox, is leaving Microsoft to take over as CEO of social gaming company Zynga.
Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus announced the move in a blog post and email to employees Monday, saying that he has the "greatest impact working as an entrepreneur with product teams." As a result, Pincus is staying on at Zynga as chairman and chief product officer to focus on products.
"I’ve always said to Bing and our Board that if I could find someone who could do a better job as our CEO I’d do all I could to recruit and bring that person in. I’m confident that Don is that leader," Pincus wrote.
News of the move was broken earlier today by AllThingsD.
Pincus' move to bring in Mattrick to be CEO at Zynga is a major change for Pincus, who holds controlling ownership in the company because of the Zynga's dual stock structure. In short, Pincus couldn't be moved out of the CEO spot without his own agreement. Now, Mattrick's job is to figure out a way to turn Zynga around.
Mattrick has a long history in gaming at Electronic Arts, where he worked with Zynga board member Bing Gordon, and Microsoft. He also founded Distinctive Software when he was 17.
Zynga has struggled since its 2011 IPO to shift to mobile and real money gaming after it had trouble sustaining earlier hits on Facebook desktop games. Zynga rose to prominence building hit games on Facebook's platform but has not been able to replicate that success in recent years. Zynga recently laid off more than 500 employees and closed outside offices in a cost-cutting measure.
Zynga shares closed Monday up 10.43% to $3.07 on AllThingsD's report and were up about 5.21% to $3.23 in after-hours trading.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer responded to the news Monday in an email to employees published on the company's website:
"Zynga announced today that Don Mattrick would be its new CEO, effective July 8. This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. Don’s directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday."
|
6593fd03578d7edf2b6729de7dd50cb3
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/07/09/cvent-files-for-100-million-ipo-for-event-planning/
|
Cvent Files For $100 Million IPO For Event Planning
|
Cvent Files For $100 Million IPO For Event Planning
Cvent, which provides cloud-based software to manage events, has filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million.
The McLean, VA-based company provides a cloud-based service for planning and managing events and has 30,000 event planners using the service, including free and paid users.
The software is integrated with hotels so that planners can send requests for quotes directly through the platform. Cvent has more than 200,000 hotels and other service providers listed on its supplier network.
Cvent generated revenue of $83.5 million in 2012, up from $60.9 million in 2011. Net income was $4.3 million in 2012, compared to a loss of $0.2 million in 2011.
In the first quarter of 2013 revenue was of $24.4 million, up from $18.3 million in the year-ago period. Net income was $0.3 million, down from $o.87 million in the year-ago period.
Founded way back in 1999, the company now has more than 1,300 employees in the U.S. and India.
Major venture capital investors are Insight Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates with 26% and 22%, respectively, of shares prior to the offering.
The company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "CVT".
Competitors include Active Network and Eventbrite, according to the filing.
The lead underwriters on the deal are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
|
d89f77f2704febaaa43a3aa1e1ea935a
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/07/24/facebook-q2-earnings-beat-street-shares-rise/
|
Facebook Q2 Earnings Beat Street, Shares Soar On Growth, Mobile
|
Facebook Q2 Earnings Beat Street, Shares Soar On Growth, Mobile
Facebook posted second quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates, sending shares up sharply in after-hours trading.
The social network posted earnings per share of 19 cents on revenue of $1.813 billion. Facebook was expected to post earnings per share of 14 cents on revenue of $1.62 billion.
Facebook shares are trading up $3.99 or 15.05% to $30.50 per share in after-hours trading.
In the closely-watched mobile user number, Facebook had 819 million mobile monthly active users as of the end of June, up 51% from the year-ago period. Mobile daily active users were 469 million on average in June 2013.
In the prior first quarter, mobile monthly active users were 751 million, up 54% from the year-ago period and up sequentially from 680 million in the fourth quarter.
Facebook's daily active users were 699 million in June 2013, up 27% from the year-ago period. Monthly active users were 1.15 billion, up 21% from the year-ago period.
In the (previous) first quarter, daily active users were 665 million in March, which was up 26% from the year-ago period. Monthly active users were 1.11 billion, up 23% from the year-ago period. In the fourth quarter of 2012, daily active users were up 28% year-over-year and monthly actives were up 25% year-over-year.
Mobile advertising revenue, a closely watched number, was 41% of total ad revenue for the second quarter, or about $656 million.
Total advertising revenue in the second quarter was $1.60 billion, which is 88% of total revenue and up 61% from the year-ago period. Payments and other fees revenue was $214 million, up 11% from the year-ago period.
In its prior first quarter, Facebook had posted earnings of 12 cents per share, up 20%, on revenue of $1.458 billion, which was up 38%. Mobile ad revenue was 30% of total ad revenue, up from 23% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Average revenue per user was $1.60 in the second quarter, up from $1.21 a year ago. That growth was mostly in advertising which was $1.41, up from $1.07 a year ago.
Stay tuned for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the team on a call with analysts at 5pm ET.
|
675b82ec570ef5eb7526c92256d402e4
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/09/03/startup-homejoy-works-with-cities-to-find-workers/
|
Startup Homejoy Works With Public Sector To Find Home Cleaners
|
Startup Homejoy Works With Public Sector To Find Home Cleaners
Aaron Cheung and Adora Cheung, cofounders of Homejoy
Home cleaning services are a decidedly real-world, offline business. Cleaning floors and toilets would not be the first thing you think of when you think tech startup. But Y Combinator startup Homejoy is bringing a technology angle to the industry.
Launched last October, Homejoy has grown quickly into 26 cities nationwide including New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston and Boston, with its efficient model for finding talented cleaners and matching them to customers. The San Francisco company, which has raised $1.7 million in seed financing from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Resolute.VC and Max Levchin, provides home cleaning services through an online platform.
Homejoy also has a new means for finding cleaners: city governments and non-profits, such as the Urban League. In Chicago, Homejoy started working a month ago with Employment & Employer Services Inc., which works with Chicago mayor's office. For many people in the program, they have to show proof of employment to receive government assistance, so the Homejoy program is important to them. The employment program has found quality candidates to apply for Homejoy. “The candidates they screen for us are real go-getters,” says Cesar Perich, Homejoy’s city operations manager in Chicago.
The government/non-profit partnership is a relatively rare for tech startups, which typically avoid government agencies. Many sharing economy startups have faced questions from governments about regulation, taxes and other issues. But for Homejoy city agencies and nonprofits are an untapped source of new cleaners. The partnerships help Homejoy reach people who might not have heard about it otherwise—they may not read tech blogs. “Having the Homejoy platform introduced us to a variety of people who would not have gone through the normal channels,” says Perich, who is a former hospitality manager at a Las Vegas casino. “The majority of them would not have found out about us.”
Perich is interested in talking to other non-profits and is meeting with the Goodwill Workforce Connection Center to see if a similar partnership can be set up. Homejoy has had a similar partnership with Baltimore's Office of Economic Development for three months. The company is also talking to officials in cities including San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and Austin.
In Chicago, which launched five months ago, Homejoy is still relatively small—it has 29 cleaners, while other cities are larger. As of July, there were 500 individuals and businesses on Homejoy's platform nationwide. “Since I started we added 14 or 15 cities,” Perich says.
Homejoy is not an open platform—it heavily screens cleaners before matching them. All workers and businesses on its platform must have past experience doing professional cleaning--so it's not for everyone. Workers on the platform are independent contractors—they aren’t Homejoy employees.
The extensive screening process includes an online application, criminal background check, a phone interview and an in-person interview with the city manager of that particular city. The applicant must pass the requirements, including authorization to work in the U.S., English fluency, and physical ability to perform the work.
If they pass, applicants perform a test home cleaning to pass what says Homejoy's Marlo Struve calls its high standards. Once accepted, the person’s first cleaning is also checked by Homejoy’s operations manager for quality. “A lot of people say I’ve cleaned in the past, but they can't describe how to professionally do something,” Struve says.
The idea for Homejoy came from cofounder Aaron Cheung, who was in Y Combinator with sister and now Homejoy CEO Adora Cheung. They started with a service for helping people find therapists and life coaches online, then tried other ideas including enterprise SEO software, a paid question-and-answer site and online marketing software. Then last summer Aaron was looking for a cleaner for his apartment, which was a disaster zone—like any good young bachelor. But he couldn’t find one online that was affordable, convenient and safe. That became the goal of Homejoy.
How has Homejoy grown so quickly? The company is “ruthless” in looking for ways to be faster and more efficient. For example, the company tries to schedule in-person interviews in the mornings so that those who pass can do their test cleaning in the afternoon. “There’s a number of ways the team has been creative in speeding things up," Struve says. "There’s a constant analysis and changing of the process. Each (city) launch is smoother and faster and faster.”
Despite the thorough screening process, Homejoy’s process is more efficient than that of other companies, Perich says. “The main difference is the screening process. The candidates we ultimately get to speak with have already gone through a great screening process (online and on the phone).”
In his previous jobs Perich did interviews with all candidates individually, which would take a lot of time. “Here we speak to everyone at once. So when we have one-on-one time, they’ve already had a ton of information so they ask me some good questions, the nitty gritty. We can just really get down to brass tacks quickly.”
Homejoy’s growth in each city starts with operations managers like Perich. This person usually has 10 years or more experience managing a housekeeping business or cleaning business. “They know exactly what to look for,” Struve says.
Homejoy typically costs $65 to $75 for a three to four hour cleaning of a 2-bedroom, 1-bath apartment. Of this the worker keeps $12 to $15 per hour, depending on experience--and Homejoy keeps the rest. A national competitor doing the same type of thorough professional cleaning could charge up to $250, Struve says.
For workers, many are looking to supplement their income, Struve says. In Chicago, some of the workers previously worked at hotels or hospitals, and about half were previously working while half were unemployed, Perich says. Some were previously working in a seasonal job.
The benefit for workers is they can set their own hours and geographical areas where they want to work. Homejoy pays “much more” than minimum wage in most of its cities, Struve says. “A lot of people use it as a flexible option to bring in extra earnings to a family and sometimes supplement another part-time opportunity. A lot of times it’s part of a bigger picture for them and their families.”
|
aac7001d9a643afc92a13a4bf1c27719
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkemp/2011/08/23/securitys-inside-jobs/
|
Security's Inside Jobs
|
Security's Inside Jobs
Image via Wikipedia
The security market was abuzz last week with reports of another “insider threat” incident. This time it was a disgruntled ex-employee of a pharmaceutical company creating chaos at his former employer’s firm by logging in from a McDonald’s in Georgia and wiping clean 88 mission-critical servers located in the company’s New Jersey data center. In the end this highlights a significant new IT security need that analyst groups are calling “superuser privilege management.”
As reported by technology publications such as PCWorld, the U.S. Department of Justice reported in court filings last week that Jason Cornish, a former IT worker “at the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese drug-maker Shionogi, pleaded guilty Tuesday to computer intrusion charges in connection with the attack on Feb. 3, 2011.” eWeek also reported that “the attacks were severe enough to freeze Shionogi's operations” for a number of days and that the “breach affected Shionogi's corporate email, BlackBerry servers, order-tracking system and financial management software.” The pharmaceutical company estimated that total damages to be $800,000 for this insider attack.
How did Cornish cause so much damage? From the court filings it was clear that Shionogi did a poor job of disabling passwords for terminated employees and contractors, and months after Cornish was let go he was still able to log into the Shionogi corporate network with a privileged network account. The actual attack was from a McDonald’s in Smyrna, Georgia using a free public WiFi hotspot. Fortunately per eWeek it turns out that “authorities were able to trace the attacking IP address back to the McDonald's and located Cornish, thanks to the $4.96 charge on his Visa credit card just five minutes earlier.”
This “Big Mac Attack” of the security kind follows a string of other notable “insider threat” attacks, including United States soldier Bradley Manning leaking State Department cables to Wikileaks, an insider breach at Bank of America costing the firm over $10 million, and a former employee at Fannie Mae setting up a computer program “logic bomb” that was set to blow up over 4,000 servers. It is not surprising that a recent survey of 200 security executives found that over 70% of respondents admitted their organization had experienced a significant insider breach at least once in the last two years.
Clearly there will always be disgruntled former employees who will try to get back at their former employers and/or current employees who can’t resist the temptation to steal sensitive information from the inside and try to make a profit. So as these types of insider threat incidents gain more awareness, the next question becomes how to minimize this risk? IT organizations and analysts are now spending more time focusing on technology called “superuser privilege management” that can help minimize this growing threat.
So what is superuser privilege management? It has to do that with the fact that most mission-critical systems, applications and databases have an administrative username and password (i.e. a privileged account) to enable installation, configuration, administration and management of those platforms. And it turns out that most large IT organizations have hundreds of people that need to administer Windows or UNIX systems (“the sys admins”), their databases (“the DBAs”), their networks (“the network admins”) as well as multiple personnel who either develop applications (“the developers”) and/or administer applications (“the app admins”).
These are in effect the “superusers” in one’s IT organization whose privileges need to be managed. And it means that the more superusers an organization has, the more people that have “keys” (i.e. administrative access) to these “kingdoms” (i.e. systems and applications) and the valuable information that reside behind the kingdom doors. The point is that it is not the average end user who can cause a major insider breach, as their accounts tend to have limited access to critical data; it is the “superuser” who has the keys to the proverbial kingdom who can potentially do the real damage.
Given this awareness, key security concerns that IT organizations are now focusing on include figuring who within the organization actually has administrative access, are IT staff sharing these privilege accounts and how can they better control and audit what those accounts can do.
So where is an IT organization to start? First of all I definitely think the motto “trust but verify” should apply. The vast majority of IT staff are dedicated and trustworthy individuals, but the impact of a few bad apples with this type of power cannot be ignored, and safeguards need to be put in place.
After that, probably the first step is to avoid handing out shared privileged accounts and instead get IT staff to use personal accounts, i.e. have IT users always login as themselves vs. share the “root” account. This can lead to better accountability and traceability of actions. And the more an IT organization can consolidate identities into an authoritative identity store the better, making it even easier to de-provision the accounts of a terminated employee or contractor.
The next step is to implement the concept of “least privilege,” i.e. put into place the ability to limit what superusers can access (i.e. reduce the number of keys) and once they have been securely given a key (i.e. access to a system), grant in a granular manner the privileges required for them to perform their duties.
Finally, as discussed in a prior blog post, IT organizations need to consider adding software that can monitor all activity taken by privileged users, to complete the trust but verify.
So there are my suggestions: have privileged users login in as themselves vs. sharing accounts, provide centralized authorization management to control what privileged users can do, and audit their activity. Doing those three things should go a long way in addressing the risks associated with these superuser accounts, but in the end it is continued awareness of the threat of insider attacks that will hopefully lead to steps being taken to contain the damage that can be caused.
|
fb4dc27f69ad68aa54ea14ffeecd7aee
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2011/04/25/wste-not-want-not/
|
WSTE Not, Want Not
|
WSTE Not, Want Not
Image via Wikipedia
A truly sustainable economy would produce no waste: everything would be recycled or reused for some productive purpose. We're a long way from that ideal today, but the rising cost of commodities makes recovering used material through recycling increasingly economic. Further, the rising cost of energy makes converting municipal and industrial waste into advanced biofuels or combusting it to produce electricity an increasingly economic option.
Attempting to guess which advanced biofuel technology will be successful strikes me as a fool's errand. Why not instead invest in the owners of the feedstock? While I don't know which technology will achieve commercial success, I do know that a technology which can turn trash into fuel will make the trash more valuable, benefiting the companies that haul the trash today.
Trash is already being turned into energy. Companies like Waste Management (NYSE: WM) have been installing turbines to convert captured methane gas from landfills into electricity for years. Companies like Covanta (NYSE:CVA), which operates more than 40 Energy-from-Waste facilities throughout the United States. The commodities boom have makes metals and electronics recyclers like Sims Metal Management (NYSE:SMS) more profitable as raw materials become more expensive.
ETFs
If you're interested in investing in this trend, you now have two choices. Global X Funds recently launched the Global X Waste Management ETF (NYSE:WSTE), which joins the Van Eck's Market Vectors® Environmental Services ETF (NYSE: EVX), which was launched in October 2006. WSTE has a slightly more diversified portfolio, with 28 holdings, compared to EVX's 22 holdings, although their top holdings are practically identical. EVX has a lower expense ratio (after a contractual cap which expires on May 1, so it may rise), compared to WSTE's 0.65% expense ratio. Neither has great liquidity, with EVX's trading $150,000 worth of shares on an average day over the last 3 months, while WSTE traded about the same amount on a recent day this week. Prospective buyers should probably use limit orders.
If you're interested in trash as an investment, which should you choose? For short term trades, I'd look to the one which settles out with the most liquidity after a few months. For longer term holding you might do better by picking a few of the stocks most likely to benefit from rising commodity and energy prices: Each firm's top holding is medical waste company Stericycle (NASD: SRCL) which seems to have less potential to profit from these trends than Waste Management, Veolia (NYSE:VE), Covanta, Darling International (NYSE:DAR), and Sims, which appear just a little farther down the lists.
Building a sustainable energy future sometimes requires is to get our hands dirty. To do anything else would be a waste.
DISCLOSURE: No positions.
|
0195672a9b6e057f829b43eee234b615
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2011/06/13/224/
|
Is Energy Sourcing the Gateway Drug to Energy Efficiency?
|
Is Energy Sourcing the Gateway Drug to Energy Efficiency?
I recently interviewed Richard Domaleski, CEO of World Energy Solutions (NASD:XWES). World Energy is a comprehensive energy management services firm whose core offering is extremely price competitive energy sourcing (that is, finding an energy provider to supply all of a client's energy needs at the lowest possible cost.)
They achieve competitive sourcing using an electronic energy exchange designed to achieve much better price discovery in what is traditionally a very opaque market. According to Domaleski, a recent KEMA study showed that only 7% of large commercial, industrial, and government customers are sourcing their energy online; the rest are using traditional brokered or paper-driven deals. World Energy currently has about 5% of the market, leaving plenty of room for growth. Among their current customers are the General Services Administration (the Federal Government's procurement arm), several state governments, General Dynamics Land Systems, and Brown University, to name a few.
They also partner with Energy Service Companies (ESCOs). ESCOs sign energy customers up to a "Performance Contract" under which the ESCO is paid a fixed fee in order to deliver a defined set of energy services (lighting and temperature levels, for example), and the ESCO makes energy efficiency improvements using their own capital to reduce energy use while still delivering the defined energy services. The lower energy use quickly repays the ESCO's out of pocket capital cost, leading to lower (and stable) energy bills for the customer, and a healthy profit for the ESCO.
Domaleski says that 143 such ESCOs and other procurement companies now use World Energy's procurement platform to source their energy. When I asked for names, he cited non-disclosure agreements but was able to say that one prominent one was SAIC (NYSE:SAI). Yet adoption of World Energy's platform is not universal. One prominent ESCO they pitched but did not convince is the leading pure-play publicly traded ESCO: Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC).
Is it Green?
Getting electricity and natural gas at lower prices may be a compelling proposition for World Energy's customers, but environmentally concerned investors should think twice before calling it green. A lower price for energy is more likely to discourage than encourage energy conservation, and hence lead to higher, not lower energy emissions. Energy sourcing may or may not include the sourcing of green power or Renewable Energy Credits (RECs.) A REC is a way of accounting for all the green or environmental attributes of a MW of electricity.
World Energy draws a distinction between "physical green power" and RECs, with the former being produced from renewable sources on the same ISO as the customer, and the RECs often produced somewhere else in the world. I don't think this is a very useful distinction, since the actual power produced is often not the same as the power consumed due to both proximity and timing issues. A simple example of why this is so can be seen in the case of a supermarket that signs up for 100% locally produced wind power. While a nearby wind farm will indeed be producing the same number of kWh as the supermarket consumes, the supermarket keeps its lights on and continues to run its refrigeration even when the wind is not blowing at the local farm. In this sense, "physical green power" is just normal electricity with bundled RECs.
What really makes a REC (or "physical green power") green is additionality. If the price of the REC is enough to ensure that a wind farm that would not otherwise have been built is indeed built, then the REC is additional. World Energy's ability to extract the lowest possible price for RECs may work to undermine the additionality of those RECs. After all, which is more likely to increase the chances of a wind or solar farm being built: a $10 REC, or a $20 REC?
Low Price as a Gateway Drug
Yet it's hard to see saving money as a bad thing, and I find World Energy's numerous ESCO partners very encouraging. If World Energy's procurement platform enables ESCOs to offer potential customers performance contracts at lower prices, more such customers will sign up, and receive the energy efficiency improvements that are the ESCOs' bread and butter.
World Energy also offers energy efficiency improvements to their direct customers as well as helping those customers capture the utility incentives available for energy efficiency and Demand Response programs. Demand Response companies like Comverge (NASD:COMV) and EnerNOC (NASD:ENOC) may use World Energy's demand response exchange, but also compete with them to sign up customers directly. As with ESCOs, World Energy does not say which Demand Response providers use their exchange, but they did say that they have 20 leading providers signed up.
One of the most significant barriers to energy efficiency is simply the complexity of options on offer. Although the internal rate of return on efficiency investments is very high, the absolute number of dollars available from energy efficiency is seldom enough to sell a facilities manager. Facilities managers seldom have an incentive or expertise to save energy, although this is improving as companies become more energy aware and make changes to employee incentives to fit the new goals. Yet it is still generally difficult to get most facilities managers to give energy the attention it needs in order to capture the available energy savings. Lower energy prices, on the other hand, are easy to grasp and communicate to higher-ups. If World Energy and ESCOs working with them can offer a facilities manager a one-stop shop for both lower energy prices and additional energy savings, they'll be much more willing to take action, even with weak internal incentives. One step World Energy has recently taken to make this decision much easier is their strategic investment in Retroficiency a company whose technology will allow World Energy to conduct virtual energy audits for clients based on the detailed energy usage data they are already collecting. This will allow facilities managers to easily identify the particular buildings in their portfolios most likely to benefit from more detailed energy audits and retrofits.
Other Businesses
World Energy also runs other trading platforms, most notably the platform for trading carbon credits under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). With New Jersey pulling out of the ten-state RGGI climate initiative, I thought it would be interesting to get Domaleski's perspective, but he was unable to comment due to a confidentiality agreement with RGGI. This exchange is part of their Green green product line, which accounts for approximately 5% of World Energy's business and includes other environmental commodity trading as well as RGGI.
At the urging of a utility, World Energy has also recently launched a wholesale energy exchange. This exchange enables utility and municipal customers to find the best price for power from World Energy's 500 suppliers. This must be a useful service, because in the four years since the exchange was launched, they have signed up 70 large customers. The company's Wholesale division accounts for roughly 15% of revenues.
Conclusion
The move to internet based energy sourcing seems like an inevitability, and World Energy has a powerful first mover advantage. While online procurement of energy may not be green in and of itself, the savings on offer serve to get building managers in the door. If World Energy or its ESCO partners can then include significant energy efficiency and green power in the mix, we have the formula for a significant shift towards a more energy efficient economy.
In this sense, World Energy may be a lot like Wal-Mart. Customers come in the door for low prices, but then find it easy to buy energy efficient products as well.
DISCLOSURE: Long ENOC,COMV.
|
0da4dea2a6d51df9c1765b7514bb2a09
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2011/07/18/comverge-diverge-or-merge/
|
Comverge, Diverge, or Merge?
|
Comverge, Diverge, or Merge?
Comverge (NASD:COMV) has a great residential demand response business. The company lacks focus, but the stock has significant upside as an acquisition target.
As part of my ongoing series on energy management companies (see these articles on World Energy Solutions (NASD:XWES) and EnerNOC (NASD:ENOC)) I spoke with Comverge CEO Blake Young.
The Comverge Advantage
Comverge is the strong leader in residential demand response (DR,) one of the most cost effective grid stability solutions. Even within demand response, residential DR is an excellent niche, because working in the market for residential DR is much more difficult than for that commercial and industrial (C&I) DR. For instance, World Energy Solutions CEO Rich Domaleski told me that his company leverages their market based energy sourcing platform to sell the other energy services, such as efficiency and DR. Yet World Energy has no interest in entering the residential space: their focus is on large customers where they can make a significant profit from a single transaction. DR leader EnerNOC likewise focuses on large C&I customers for similar reasons.
Yet there is strong demand for Residential DR as well. Although it's cheaper to achieve large reductions in peak demand at large electricity customers, many utility regulators have a mandate to allow all classes of customers to participate in utility programs. In practice, this means that many utilities will pay more per MW for residential DR than they will for C&I DR, leading to higher margins for those companies able to provide residential DR cost competitively. According to Young, Comverge ended 2010 with 41% gross margins on their residential business (57% of sales), but only 33% gross margins on their C&I business (43% of sales.)
In residential DR, Comverge places a switch and transmitter/receiver on mainly air conditioners and pool pumps, gathering DR capacity a kilowatt at a time. It takes 1000 houses to get 1MW. In commercial applications, one single steel mill’s DR capacity could be 50MW, the equivalent of 50,000 houses. Residential is harder to deploy, but once deployed, it is distributed and easily cycled. Commercial is bigger, but the DR company needs to deal with professional energy managers who are liable to shop around for the best deal, compressing margins. And just like distributed generation, distributed DR has advantages for utilities in that they can address local stresses on the grid with local demand reduction.
Comverge's expertise in Residential DR grew out of 30 years of history selling equipment to utilities used in DR programs. They launched their program to provide Demand Response as a service in 2003, and went public in 2007. They've been able to achieve their leadership as a residential DR provider because they have a large number of scalable residential DR contracts.
The Stock Price
Given Comverge's leadership in the highest margin DR niche, it is rather surprising that the stock has performed so horribly since Young took the reins in February last year. When I asked him to what he attributed the fall in the stock price, he told me that Comverge has "trended virtually the same as other companies in the space."
A quick look at the graph below will show you that that is an overly charitable description of the stock's performance, at best. The only other pure-play DR company is EnerNOC, and while the two companies followed the same trends closely from their IPOs in mid 2007, a significant gap has opened up over the last two years.
Image source: Yahoo! Finance
Since February 2010, EnerNOC shareholders have lost roughly half of their money, while Comverge shareholders have lost three-quarters of their investment. If Young believes Comverge has trended "virtually the same as other companies in the space" during his tenure, he must consider Comverge's "space" to be companies in severe financial trouble.
Fear of Dilution
Comverge is not yet in severe financial trouble, so why has Comverge fallen to the level reached only in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis? The answer, most likely, is shareholders' fear of further dilutive offerings. Selling new stock to raise money is not always bad, but it is a problem if shareholders think it will be invested in less profitable businesses than the current one.
Young's apparent complacency about the stock price seems to extend to a general complacency about the use of shareholder funds.
Where does the capital go? Young gave me the example of the recent PJM (a regional electricity transmission organization in the Eastern US) auction for the 2014-15 capacity year. Comverge bid for and won 20% more capacity in that auction than they won in the 2013-14 auction. Meanwhile, the market is becoming more competitive, with prices in the PJM auction having fallen 20% over the previous year, meaning that Comverge's expected revenue from the PJM market will be 4% lower in the 2013-14 year than in 2012-13, while they have to acquire 20% more MW. Growth is good, but in this market Comverge is running just to stand still. Those contracts tie up capital in the form of collateral which will be paid in penalties if Comverge does not meet its obligation to deliver those megawatts. What's particularly ironic about this is that PJM introduced a new mechanism in this most recent auction to allow smaller players to bid without putting up as much capital, which Comverge did not take advantage of because they consider it too complex.
Comverge has been investing in a lot of things other than what they are best at, which is residential DR. Young told me that the company is aggressively pursuing C&I customers (the C&I share of revenues has been growing much faster than the Residential), as well as investing heavily in their IntelliSource software platform. They recently also moved their former CFO to a newly created position as head of international operations, where Young says they are "looking very hard" at the Middle East, Africa, China, and South America.
While any of these strategies might make sense for a profitable company expecting maturation of its core business, Comverge is not profitable, and residential DR (as well as DR in general) has plenty of room for growth according to Young himself.
Comverge's experience with small residential customers might serve to give the company an advantage when working with smaller commercial businesses, but they don't have any obvious advantage with the large C&I clients, and they are pursuing those as well.
When I asked Young what competitive advantage they have in the C&I market, he spoke of their close relationship with their customers, and IntelliSource, which incorporates large amounts of data about the electricity use and control on the system to better predict how many MW of capacity they can deliver at any time. He also says that many utilities like to work with a single demand response provider. IntelliSource seems like more of an advantage with smaller customers. Large customers' power usage naturally comes in larger blocks, so such detailed data, while useful, will be less relevant than with large numbers of smaller customers. Yet the argument that utilities like to work with a single provider is a strong one, and justifies Comverge's presence in all parts of the DR market, even if they do not have a competitive advantage in large C&I.
Yet that argument does not justify the company's expensive participation in the competitive PJM market, which does not differentiate between DR sourced from residential customers, nor does it justify a move overseas.
What I'd prefer to see is a focus on growing the core business of working with utilities that do want a significant portion of their DR megawatts to come from residential customers, in order to maintain the company's profit margins at least until Comverge achieves profitability and there is a significant recovery in the stock price, which would lower the company's cost of funds. Moving into more and more new businesses adds to overhead and moves this date out further and further.
Shareholder Discontent
The plummeting stock price and lack of focus have drawn the attention of a group of activist shareholders called SAVE, led by Brad Tirpak, whose provocative ideas about distributed solar's effect on utilities I wrote about in February. Comverge's 2006 S-1 registration statement states that the certificate of incorporation "provide[s] for a classified board of directors, [which] could discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a change of control." SAVE first needed to remove Comverge's classified board structure in order to gain influence at Comverge.
Tirpak sponsored a proposal on Comverge's 2010 Proxy which instructed the board to repeal the classified structure of the board and "complete transition from the current staggered system to 100% annual election of each director in one election cycle unless this is absolutely impossible," and also requested "that this transition is made solely through direct action of our board if feasible." The proposal passed with 72% of the vote.
In response, the board placed an amendment to Comverge's articles of incorporation on Comverge's 2011 Proxy Statement, which was designed to "implement over a period of three years the stockholder proposal to declassify the Board," and recommended that shareholders vote for the change.
SAVE saw this proposal as "a thinly veiled attempt to entrench Alec G. Dreyer as the Chairman of the Board for a further three years," because the board did not declassify through direct action (which would have been immediate) and implemented the proposal over three years, rather than immediately.
The 2010 proposal was clear that legal constraints were the only valid reason not to declassify the board immediately and completely, so I asked frequent AltEnergyStocks contributor and IPO attorney John Petersen and Charles Knight, an attorney with Venture Law Advisors in Denver for their opinions. Both told me that the board would not be able to declassify by direct action and a second vote would be required if the staggered system arose from the firm's certificate of incorporation, which Comverge's S-1 confirms is the case. Knight also told me that companies often declassify "over time as the prior directors were elected for longer terms and are generally entitled to serve out their remaining terms if elected prior to declassification under a company’s bylaws."
In other words, declassification over a period of three years, although slow, was declassification "in the most expeditious manner possible, in compliance with applicable law, to adopt annual election of each director." Possibly the board could have called a special election of shareholders to declassify the board in 2010, shortly after the shareholder proposal passed, but that possibility was ruled out by the text of the 2010 proxy, which stated that the proposal would run on the 2011 ballot.
SAVE was successful in defeating the 2011 proposal to declassify the board over three years, urging the board to declassify immediately and "explore all strategic alternatives" (i.e. put the company up for sale.) But this was a Pyrrhic victory, as the board cannot legally declassify immediately.
By lobbying against the implementation of its own proposal, SAVE has damaged their own credibility, which makes management less likely to listen to them regarding potential mergers with other companies which might lower Comverge's cost of funds and produce an immediate return for Comverge's shareholders. In our interview, Young was quite dismissive of SAVE and Tirpak, whom he seems to regard as minor annoyances.
Value
Although I understand management's dismissal of Tirpak's efforts, I also agree that there would be significant benefit to shareholders in the company pursuing all strategic options.
Despite the lack of focus, Comverge has significant value, and at current prices would make an attractive takeover target for other companies in the space. There is a clear appetite from large players for companies in the Energy Management space. For instance, Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) recently purchased the formerly OTC-listed EnergyConnect. These companies have a lower cost of capital, and so can more easily afford the capital needed to participate in the DR space for large customers.
On measures of cash and current assets, Comverge appears well-capitalized, but much of this money is tied up as collateral. The most recent quarterly report states that Comverge committed $17.9M in advance of the 2014-15 auction, funded from cash on hand and a revolver loan. Young told me that they got "some" of this back after the auction, so call it $15M. But Comverge's most recent balance sheet shows less than $27M in cash and $24M debt. Was that a good use of so much of the company's liquidity?
Yet the company does have a strong backlog, including $532 million worth of future revenues through 2024 under existing long term contracts, and a contractual backlog for the coming year of $128 million as of the end of Q1. At 35-40% gross margins, that's about $50M per year before overhead costs, but at $3.30 a share, Comverge's market cap is only $82 million. Comverge would be worth a lot more to an acquiring company like Johnson Controls, or Siemens (NYSE:SI), or ABB, Ltd. (NYSE:ABB) that have strong balance sheets and have shown appetites for acquisitions in the smart grid space. EnerNOC, which is profitable, could also see instant gains by eliminating much redundant overhead and gaining valuable expertise in the residential market.
Comverge Should Merge
At the current price of $3.22, Comverge is an attractive acquisition target, and would probably have $6-$8 worth of value to a better capitalized acquirer. But investors who buy now are taking a real risk. Although Young told me that he intends to break even in 2012, such predictions have an unfortunate habit of slipping, and have slipped at Comverge in the past. The company seems to be aggressively investing in less profitable businesses that diverge from its main business and are not justified given Comverge's current high cost of funds resulting from the lack of profitability and the low share price.
Perhaps Comverge will achieve break-even in 2012 and profitability in 2013, as Young expects. But I don't see how that will happen without either further diluting existing shareholders, or merging with a larger company that has a lower cost of capital. Since Young and many of the board members are significant shareholders, I hope they see that it's too their own benefit to take the latter course.
DISCLOSURE: Long COMV, ENOC, JCI.
|
96bb2124329ad93274670172c1d66538
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2011/10/28/lime-energy-delivering-energy-efficiency/
|
Lime Energy: Delivering Energy Efficiency
|
Lime Energy: Delivering Energy Efficiency
Tom Konrad CFA
The high upfront cost of efficient buildings (and efficiency in general) is more than offset by the significant long term rewards, as you can see from the McKinsey chart below.
Despite the long term benefits, the upfront cost is often a barrier, especially to government entities in today's tight budgetary environment.
Performance contracting offers them a way to square the circle between the long term budget benefits of efficient buildings and the often significant capital cost. This works by funding the capital improvement with debt secured by future energy savings. An Energy Service Company (ESCO) guarantees a certain level of energy savings and performance (hence the term Performance Contracting.)
Yet performance contracting comes at a cost. No ESCO puts its balance sheet behind a promise of energy savings solely out of a desire to green the economy. That ESCO has a cost of funds just like everyone else, and in the case of a performance contract, this cost of funds is built into the contract price. Entities which understand what needs to be done and can borrow at reasonable interest rates or have cash can wring greater savings out of energy efficiency services by avoiding performance contracts.
ESCO Business
That's where Lime Energy Co (NASD:LIME) comes in. Lime (a name derived from "Less Is More Efficient") has been providing energy efficiency services for 20 years, both directly to clients and also as a subcontractor to ESCOs. Lime does not have the balance sheet to guarantee performance contracts itself, but it does have significant expertise in delivering the energy efficiency services that make performance contracts work.
In a recent interview, Lime CEO John O'Rourke told me that his current ESCO clients include Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), Honeywell (NYSE:HON), Constellation Energy(NYSE:CEG), Clark Energy, and PEPCO (NYSE:POM). According to O'Rourke, Ameresco (NYSE: AMRC), the publicly traded pure-play ESCO firm that was profiled in the most recent part of this series, "would probably never use us," because of overlap in certain in-house capabilities and (I suspect) a bit of inter-company rivalry.
In its 20 years of business, Lime has worked with many ESCOs and directly with public sector or institutional customers which do not need performance contracts. One such example is the United States Postal Service (USPS), which issued competitive solicitations for multiple regions where the USPS financed the work directly instead of a traditional performance contract. Lime was awarded several of these IDIQ contracts with achieved savings in excess of 30 million kWh per year.
While the ESCO business is becoming more competitive, the business of actually delivering energy efficiency has become somewhat less competitive. In Lime's core Northeastern market, several energy efficiency contractors have recently gone out of business or shrunk their operations significantly. These businesses were unable to weather the trough that the ESPC industry experienced over the last three years. Lime survived by re-directing their focus to other areas, and found growth opportunities in the private sector.
Utility Business
Lime has carved out a niche for itself managing Demand Side Management (DSM) programs for utilities. This is the fastest growing part of Lime's business, which O'Rourke expects to reach about 40% of revenues in 2011. Part of the reason for the rapid growth is likely Lime's track record, in which the company has "blown savings goals out of the water" over the last three years.
Utility DSM targets tend to be conservative, since the utility itself usually plays a very large role in setting the regulatory process, and utilities have a vested interest in setting targets low to keep them easily achievable, so Lime's track record may not be as impressive as O'Rourke makes it sound. On the other hand, targets for delivered savings have increased dramatically over the last few years, and utilities face penalties for failure to meet these goals.
The urgency and market opportunity vary widely between utilities and state regulators, but according to O'Rourke, utility spending on DSM programs is increasing consistently by over 20% per year, and he's not exaggerating. I checked O'Rourke's numbers with Howard Geller, the Executive Director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, and he told me that “Based on data collected by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, utility spending on programs that help their customers save electricity and natural gas has been increasing by more than 25% per year in recent years.”
In addition to this rapid growth, the utility business brings two main benefits to Lime. First, it is a source of earnings stability, since contracts tend to be multi-year and not seasonal like much of Lime's energy efficiency business. (The energy efficiency business is back-loaded towards the end of the year when many commercial and industrial (C&I) clients decide if they should go forward with energy efficiency projects depending on budget constraints.) The second benefit of the utility business is as a way to reach new C&I clients. Lime may initially contact a C&I client as part of a DSM program, but then go on to provide energy efficiency measures for the client beyond those in the utility program.
Current utility clients include the Long Island Power Authority and National Grid (NYSE:NGG), but O'Rourke hopes to win additional contracts this year.
LEAD
Finally, Lime has recently introduced a new division (called Lime Energy Asset Development, or LEAD) to develop its own energy projects in-house. These projects involve the development, design and construction of larger alternative energy projects where the clients purchase the energy produced, rather than the asset itself. These larger projects will be limited by Lime's ability to finance them, but doing project development in-house should allow Lime to maintain strong margins on the projects, and Lime need only undertake them when it will not put undue pressure on Lime's balance sheet.
Financial Metrics
Lime is not yet profitable, but O'Rourke says the company has enough capital to grow 30% for the next two years and achieve profitability in 2012 without raising additional capital “anytime soon.” Analyst consensus earnings are for a loss of 8 cents a share this year, and a profit of 21 cents next. The company has $6 million in net cash on the books, no net debt, and a free cash flow of negative $9 million over the last 12 months. Since the third and fourth quarters tend to be the most profitable, cash should increase over the next two quarters, and so O'Rourke is probably right that current assets and credit lines should be sufficient to bring Lime to consistent profitability.
With the stock currently trading at $3, and expected earnings of $0.21 next year, Lime seems quite reasonably valued for a company growing at 30% a year. However, given the current climate of uncertainty, the back-loaded C&I business may turn out to be a little disappointing this year, and possible earnings misses caused by C&I clients deferring energy efficiency projects in order to conserve cash may lead to a somewhat lower stock price in the next few months. The C&I business has been falling as a percentage of revenue, so any such earnings misses are unlikely to be dramatic, but investors are taking any excuse to sell alternative energy stocks in the current climate.
Conclusion
I like Lime's business, and think the company is fundamentally strong, and the valuation is quite conservative. However, I expect the current stock market rally to be short-lived. A renewed market decline, along with a possible earnings miss caused by C&I clients hoarding cash in the climate of uncertainty could easily lead to a lower stock price in the coming months. I'll be watching the stock closely and buying cautiously if either of these comes to pass.
DISCLOSURE: Long AMRC. No position in LIME, but I may initiate one at any time.
|
427946edf1093d6ea5e383da46b30065
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/03/01/offshore-wind-power-penny-foolish-dollar-wise/
|
Offshore Wind Power: Penny Foolish, Dollar Wise
|
Offshore Wind Power: Penny Foolish, Dollar Wise
Image via Wikipedia
Sticker Shock
As I discussed in my article on investing in offshore wind power, NSTAR ( NYSE : NST ) recently agreed to buy 27.5% of Cape Wind's 420MW planned output. Since National Grid (NYSE: NGG) has had a power purchase agreement (PPA) to buy 50% of the farm's output since 2010, Cape Wind now has enough capacity contracted to raise money for construction.
The Nstar PPA has yet to be negotiated, but prices the PPA with National Grid specifies prices starting at start at 18.7 cents per kWh, and increasing 3.5% annually. That's quite expensive, when you consider that the 2010 average wholesale price of power on the New England ISO was 4.5 cents per kWh.
Looking at those numbers, you would expect that when Cape Wind comes online, National Grid and Nstar customers will be seeing rate increases. But it's not that simple.
Auction Dynamics
Electricity prices on the New England ISO are set in hourly auctions, with each generator bidding the price at which they would be willing to generate power. All generators receive a payment equal to the benchmark price, which is the marginal cost of production for the most expensive generator needed to meet demand.
Since the most expensive dispatched generator sets prices for all generators, lowering the marginal cost of generation by adding Cape Wind to the mix (since wind's marginal cost of generation is zero) will have the effect of lowering the price for all power on the New England market, an effect known as price suppression.
How much lower? A 2010 Study by Charles River Associates [pdf] found that Cape Wind would lower prices on the New England wholesale market by 0.122 cents on average. Since Cape Wind itself would be producing about 1% of all power on the New England market, the extra 14 cents per kWh on that power would be offset by a savings of .122 cents per kWh on all other power. By my calculations, the combination of price suppression and the increased direct price of power from Cape Wind, the net effect on the average price of power in New England of Cape Wind would be an increase of only $0.0002 (0.02 cents) per kWh, assuming the Charles River Associates study is accurate. Put another way, even if customers pay a 12.2 cent per kWh premium for power from Cape Wind, the net effect on utility bills would be zero because of price suppression.
The December 2010 New England Wind Integration Study [pdf] (NEWIS), reached a similar result, finding that if 20% of the New England ISO's energy were supplied by offshore wind, it would reduce the average annual Locational Marginal Price for power by $9 per MWh, or 0.9 cents per kWh. This effect alone would justify a 4.5 cent per kWh price premium for offshore wind up to a 20% penetration. although 4.5 per kWh cents is a much lower premium than the 12.2 cents per kWh that the 1% penetration of Cape Wind would justify, these two results are similar because the first offshore wind farms built would have larger effects on the power market for each GW added.
Timing of Offshore Wind
One of the reasons offshore would do so much to reduce wholesale electricity prices is that offshore wind tends to be available when demand on the New England Grid peaks. While we're used to onshore wind being poorly correlated with load. In the Great Plains, where most US wind has been built, the wind blows strongest at night and in the winter, and is often nearly still on the hottest summer days when demand peaks. In contrast offshore wind sites in New England have much higher summer capacity factors, according to NEWIS.
NEWIS also looks at the capacity value of wind under various scenarios. Capacity value is the percentage of wind's nameplate capacity that is available when system load peaks. In other words, capacity value is the percentage of capacity that is actually available when it is most needed. In the Great Plains, capacity values are usually in the 15% to 20% range, but NEWIS found that capacity values for wind New England to be in the low 20% range for scenarios dominated by onshore wind, while the best scenarios analyzed had capacity values in the low 30% range, when about half that wind was offshore.
Image Source: Bill Henson NEWIS overview
Dollar Wise
While it might seem foolish to pay over 18 cents per kWh for new offshore wind generation today, wind power is not nearly as expensive as it seems. Because of price suppression, the extra cost to New England customers of Cape Wind is likely to only be a fraction of a cent per kWh on their electricity bills. As the offshore wind industry in the Northeast develops, the cost of developing offshore wind farms is also likely do decrease, since current prices are predicated on relying on expertise and equipment imported from Europe and the offshore oil industry in Gulf of Mexico.
According to several speakers at Offshore Wind Power USA in Boston last week, the surest way to develop a local offshore wind industry and gain the benefits of lower offshore wind prices, economic development, and lower pollution and carbon emissions, is to give industry certainty that there will be consistent building of offshore farms for several years to come.
Will it be worth it? If we continue to rely on cheap fossil powered electricity generation in the Northeast, we're likely to end up like the guy who buys the cheapest furniture he can find, only to have it break within a few months, leaving himself still needing furniture and having a pile of trash to get rid of. Not only will we eventually have to buy renewable power like offshore wind, we'll have more pollution caused by mining, drilling, and burning fossil fuels which we'll have to clean up. Anyone worried about how wind turbines might look cluttering up our coastal waters might pause to consider what is in our water now: the mercury we worry about in seafood all comes from burning coal. Just because something is out of sight does not mean it's not causing problems.
The British have a phrase for buying something cheap only to spend more money in the end: “Penny wise, Pound foolish.” Perhaps that's why the British are so far ahead of us in developing offshore wind.
|
c92e7018af80de8740895d8af2c122dd
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/05/03/lime-energy-utility-centric-strategy-validated-by-award-from-central-hudson/
|
Lime Energy Strategy Validated by Award from Central Hudson
|
Lime Energy Strategy Validated by Award from Central Hudson
Lime Clean Energy Solutions
Lime Energy (NASD:LIME) has been a star in the very competitive energy services space recently because of its ability to maintain margins in what has been a very competitive environment. While competing small efficiency companies have been closing up shop in the Northeast, Lime has been growing revenues at 30% a year, while maintaining a gross margin of around 20%.
Recently, Lime sold off due to an earnings miss arising from a big write-off and less than expected revenues in the company's Commercial and Industrial (C&I) division. This was the buying opportunity I was waiting for since I first wrote about the Lime last October.
Central Hudson Award
The stock has not yet recovered, but today's announcement of the award of Central Hudson's direct install program may change that.
Lime anticipates that the contract will be worth up to $25 million over a four year period, which should add about 5% to the company's 2011 revenues for the next four years. With gross margins of approximately 20%, it should also add $500 thousand to $1 million (2 to 4 cents a share) to earnings, depending on how much extra overhead the program requires.
Lime's Strategy
But the earnings impact is likely to be much bigger than 2 to 4 cents a share. To understand the true impact of this announcement, you have to understand the key to how Lime has maintained margins in the current tough environment, and why they took that big write-off to restructure their C&I division.
While large C&I projects are extremely competitive, and have led to shrinking margins for most of the industry, Lime has been able to leverage their utility contracts to do follow-on business with small to mid-size C&I customers. Most efficiency companies have trouble reaching these smaller customers because of the high acquisition costs for projects that only produce moderate revenue.
In the context of a utility program, the utility pays Lime to contact the businesses and implement a menu of energy efficiency measures. Lime can then offer the business a number of additional efficiency measures which will be profitable to both the business and to Lime.
The recent restructuring was intended to better align Lime's C&I business with these utility programs, and to take advantage of the selling opportunity afforded by Lime's utility programs.
That's why today's announcement is big news. The award of additional utility programs is key to Lime's strategy. Today's announcement tells us that strategy is working.
Disclosure: Long LIME
|
31c43f382e7dd81b16f17b9416ef0dd3
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/10/09/solar-reits-a-better-way-to-invest-in-solar/
|
Solar REITs: A Better Way to Invest in Solar [Updated]
|
Solar REITs: A Better Way to Invest in Solar [Updated]
A solar power facility in Chicago, Illinois. (Image credit: Getty Images North America via @daylife)
The last day for a solar developer to submit an application for the Treasury's 1603 grant program was September 30th, and only for grandfathered solar projects which broke ground before the end of 2011.
Solar panel prices have continued to drop this year, but solar project development remains a capital-intensive business. The 1603 program allowed solar developers to monetize the solar investment tax credit (ITC) much more quickly than they could otherwise, and this essentially reduced their cost of capital. As the rush of projects begun before the end of 2011 are completed, developers are looking for new ways to finance their next projects, especially since traditional forms of financing have been harder to come by since the financial crisis.
Jan Schalkwijk, CFA, a portfolio manager with a focus on sustainable investments at JPS Global Investments based in San Diego, CA says, "Any solution that further improves financing of solar projects should be of interest to investors; especially if returns come in the form of dividends, from financial structures that are collateralized."
The Solar REIT
Currently, the only way a small investor can invest in solar is by buying stock in solar manufacturers. I have long argued that solar manufacturers are unattractive as an asset class because of the fiercely competitive nature of the solar industry. The massive decline of solar stocks over the last several years has convinced most investors of the danger of investing in solar manufacturers, even when solar installations are skyrocketing. Since inception in April of 2008, the Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) has fallen 93%, while solar installations have risen six-fold with rapidly falling costs.
While those rapidly falling costs destroy solar manufacturer margins, they improve the opportunities for profitable solar farms. Yet stock market investors find themselves shut out of this opportunity. The two layers of taxation for public companies make common stocks a less than ideal investment medium for solar farms, unlike the private equity investments and LLCs used by large investors.
What sort of structures might be attractive? Master Limited Partnerships, or MLPs come immediately to mind, since they combine the tax structure of a limited partnership with the liquidity of public exchanges. MLPs allow the investor to avoid the two layers of taxation by passing their tax liabilities (and benefits) through to their limited partners (shareholders), which leads to a level of tax complexity most small investors are unaccustomed to.
In addition, MLPs are limited by law to specific businesses, mostly fossil energy extraction and transport. While extending MLPs to solar and other renewable energy has a certain appeal on the basis of fairness, such an extension would require an act of Congress.
Sen. Chris Coons introduced the Master Limited Partnership Parity Act on June 7th
Senator Chris Coons (D) of Delaware introduced The Master Limited Partnership Parity Act to allow MLPs to invest in renewable energy on June 7th, and Representative Ted Poe (R) of Texas introduced identical legislation in the House September 19th. Unfortunately, the chances of these bills becoming law seems low. Govtrak.us puts their chances at only 4%.
A second appealing structure is the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). Like MLPs, REITs avoid the double taxation of traditional corporate structures, and are limited to investing in certain asset classes, which in the case of REITs means real property. REITs pass through their income, rather than their tax liability to investors: REIT dividends are treated as ordinary income to the investor.
As Jim Hansen, a financial consultant at Ravenna Capital Management in Lake Forest Park, Washington and publisher of the Master Resource Report notes, "for retail investors the REIT would be the simplest and could be used in IRA’s which MLP in many cases cannot" because a certain portion of MLP income may be taxable, even if the MLP is held in an IRA. Indeed, Congress first enacted the REIT model in the 1960s to enable small investors to "secure advantages normally available only to those with large resources."
Garvin Jabusch, Cofounder and CIO of Green Alpha Advisors in Boulder, CO and manager of the Sierra Club Green Alpha Portfolio also thinks REITs would be a good structure for solar investments.
"Making PV [photovoltaic solar] a REIT eligible asset class will give investors access to what is currently the best value in solar, the annuity of electric power sales agreements. Currently investors can mainly invest in panel manufacturers (and to some degree BOS [balance of system] providers such as converter manufacturers), which is not these days the most profitable way to play solar. Buying a piece or pieces of solar PV projects on the other hand is profitable right now but is currently the province of private equity investors. Utility scale solar on a project basis is very attractive because, unlike a coal or other fossil-fuels based plants, once the solar plant is running it produces electricity which can then be sold essentially indefinitely without risk of the price of its fuel increasing (or indeed ever costing anything at all), with very low risk of plant failure (and if it does fail, it's likely only offline for a short time, no risk of explosion), and relatively low overhead in terms of maintenance.
Legal Considerations
"The IRS could declare that solar assets were REIT-safe with a stroke of the pen."
Joshua Sturtevant has done extensive research on the legal requirements to allow REITs to focus on... [+] solar investments.
The other potential advantage of REITs as an solar investment structure is that it would not require an act of Congress for PV to become a REIT-qualified investment class. Joshua L. Sturtevant, an Associate with solar aggregator, financier, and developer Distributed Sun of Washington, DC, has done extensive research on the changes which would allow REITs which would generate all or most of their income from solar generation.
He found that "the IRS could declare that solar assets were REIT-safe with a stroke of the pen. Because of the broad authority it has been granted to regulate REITs, it could bring solar assets into the fold simply by issuing a ruling to that effect. ... [I]t wouldn’t require legislation or huge changes to the tax code." Getting a favorable IRS ruling might not be easy, but it would almost certainly be easier than getting legislation through Congress.
Sturtevant says that an IRS ruling might take the form of a "private letter ruling" or through a "revenue ruling." The IRS grants a private letter ruling in response to a taxpayer asking for clarification on an aspect of the tax code applies to them. A private letter ruling does not have broad applicability, in that it is only binding on the requesting taxpayer and the IRS. However, private letter rulings "often end up having some trickle-down influence on business decisions as they are generally accessible to tax lawyers and accountants."
A revenue ruling is "often issued at the prompting of a government official. To the extent that an issue might be a close call, it is better for the request for clarification to come from within the government as there is a better chance of obtaining a favorable (from the perspective of the requestor) outcome."
The Wheels of Government Turn Behind the Scenes
No one was able to tell me anything definite, but there are rumors that a request for an IRS revenue ruling is imminent. In June, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issued a report, "The Technical Qualifications for Treating Photovoltaic Assets as Real Property by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)." The report concluded that PV meets many of the important criteria to be considered "real property" and hence a proper asset class for investment by REITs.
The fact that NREL issued this report suggests that someone in the government is working to prepare the way for a favorable revenue ruling. David Feldman, an NREL analyst and co-author of the report, said "We're not trying to make the decision — the Internal Revenue Service will do that. We're giving them the technical information they need to make the decisions." But somebody asked them to write the report.
Sturtevant says, "My pulse of the situation suggests that there are parties who are moving to place a request to the IRS by election time. If such a request were successful, it could be less than two quarters before a company claiming REIT status is developing solar."
Jabusch has also heard rumors predicting everything "from year end this year to Q2 2013."
UPDATE: The Renewable Energy Trust Capital, Inc., a San Francisco, CA based mission-driven company founded in 2011 to "facilitate the transition to a clean and sustainable economy" apparently already has ruling request "on file with the IRS." I'm seeking an interview with RET to determine if this is a request for a private-letter ruling (most likely since this is not a government entity) and when the request was filed. 10/12: I've published an article about Renewable Energy Trust's request based on my interview here.
Will the IRS Rule in Favor of Solar REITs?
If there has already been a request to the IRS for a revenue ruling on PV as real property, the the odds are good that the ruling will be favorable for those of us who would like to see Solar REITs. According to Sturtevant, enough political will would be sufficient to guarantee a favorable ruling. The political will is likely to depend on the outcome of the election on November 6th.
Giving solar a similarly advantageous investment structure to the MLPs enjoyed by investors in fossil fuels should be a "politically neutral concept," as Sturtevant puts it. Obama has long been in favor of leveling the playing field between alternative energy and fossil fuels, while allowing Solar REITs is seemingly in line with Romney's expressed belief that alternative energy should sink or swim on its own merits: Investors would evaluate each deal on its investment merits, as both Hansen and Schalkwijk implied above. On the other hand, Romney has repeatedly called green jobs "fake" or "illusory" while championing the fossil industries, and has plans to sharply cut funding for clean energy: He may have already concluded that PV has no "merits," and hence might see little point in giving it similar privileges to the extractive industries he promises to promote in the name of energy independence.
The First Solar REITs
Even if there is a favorable ruling, it may take a while for the first REITs dedicated to solar to emerge. The first movers are most likely to be traditional REITs that are already thinking about renewable energy investments.
A few REITs have dabbled with solar already as a revenue enhancement. IRS rules allow them to generate up to 25% of their income from sources other than real property, and this allows some scope for solar on REIT-owned buildings, for instance. Some solar developers are even specifically targeting the traditional REIT market. However, few REITs are likely to use this option to obtain more than a few percent of their income from solar because " the IRS tends to be very wary of anything that doesn’t smell right in the context of REITs" and " leads to wariness and conservatism by many REIT managers," according to Sturtevant. REIT managers generally feel that a little extra revenue is not worth risking greater IRS scrutiny.
ProLogis Global Headquarters, Denver, Colorado (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The conservatism of REIT managers has most likely already proven a barrier to some potential solar installations on REIT property, and a positive revenue ruling would have the added advantage of giving a green light for existing REITs to install solar on their property.
ProLogis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) is one of the few REITs not waiting for a ruling. ProLogis had installed 75 MW of solar on its buildings by the end of 2011, and claims to be "just getting started." According to my calculations (using aggressive assumptions of a 20% capacity factor and $0.10 per kWh electricity price), even 75 MW of PV would generate only $13 million in annual revenue, or 0.85% of ProLogis's 2011 total revenue.
Another REIT which might be expected to take advantage of a positive revenue ruling in a big way is Power REIT (NYSE:PW). Power REIT invests in the embedded real estate of transportation infrastructure and renewable energy installations. PW currently owns only railroad real estate, but its CEO, David Lesser plans to acquire real estate underlying renewable energy generation (most likely a wind or solar farm) in the near future.
Talking 'Bout a Revolution
ProLogis and Power REIT will undoubtedly continue investing in renewable energy in any case. Lesser says, "We believe that that there is an attractive investment role for Power REIT to play in the renewable energy space with or without a clarification of PV being included as a real estate asset for REIT purposes."
But for both investors and solar developers, the IRS could completely revolutionize the solar investment landscape by classifying PV as real property. That revolution could be upon us before year-end.
Disclosure: Long PW
|
1acc4d73a99fc6b82427a97c432d012c
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/12/11/why-i-sold-half-my-rockwool-shares/
|
Why I Sold Half My Rockwool Shares
|
Why I Sold Half My Rockwool Shares
4# rockwool insulation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Earlier this year, I bought Rockwool International A/S (COP:ROCK-B, OTC:RKWBF) with the intention of holding it for the long term.
I chose Rockwool because it was expanding in the US, provides excellent international diversification, has a strong balance sheet with no net debt, and (not least) is a leader in the greenest part of the construction sector: insulation.
Most other major insulation industry players are divisions of large conglomerates like Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B, BRK-A), and Saint Gobain (Paris:SGO). Berkshire Hathaway owns Johns-Manville while Sain Gobain owns CertainTeed.
US-based Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) is the only pure-play exception, but trades at a premium. With a trailing P/E of almost 50, and a forward P/E of 17, OC is still only slightly above book value because of the slow housing sector. With a debt to equity ratio of 60%, OC has significant although not unmanageable debt, and pays no dividend. At the current $34/share it simply is not very attractive to a value investor.
While Rockwool was no bargain basement stock, it looked relatively attractive compared to Owens Corning this spring when I bought it. But a recent price run-up from DKK450 to DKK620 over the last year has mosty closed the gap. The company expects full year earnings of at least DKK700 million ($5.57/share or a forward P/E of around 19.) The dividend yield is only 1.5% - better than nothing, but not exactly large, and the company trades at 1.6x book value, slightly higher than Owens Corning's 1.14.
Conclusion
While I continue to value Rockwool for the exposure to building insulation and good international diversification, the 25% price increase since I last added to my position this spring (and consequent higher valuation and lower dividend) has led me to reduce my holdings. It's also been one of the best performers in my 2012 annual Clean Energy model portfolio, but I'm unlikely to include Rockwool in the portfolio for 2013.
While I think the North American housing market recovery will continue, I currently see much more attractive sector players, such as Waterfurnace Renewable Energy (TSX:WFI, OTC:WFIFF) and PFB Corporation (TSX:PFB, OTC:PFBOF).
Disclosure: Long RKWBF, WFIFF, PFBOF
|
6f7fb25cadb48407fe6bed5540041891
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/12/30/valuing-finaveras-deal-with-pattern-reveals-excellent-buying-opportunity/
|
Valuing Finavera's Deal With Pattern Reveals Excellent Buying Opportunity
|
Valuing Finavera's Deal With Pattern Reveals Excellent Buying Opportunity
Finavera's Wildmare Wind Energy Project is one of three projects in Bristish Columbia to be sold to... [+] Pattern Renewable Energy Holdings Canada for C$40M. An earlier sale to of Wildmare Innergex Renewable Energy fell through in September. Photo source: Finavera.
On October 1st, following the failed sale of Finavera Wind Energy's (TSX-V:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) 77 MW Wildmare Wind Energy Project to Innergex Renewable Energy Inc (TSX:INE, OTC: INGXF), Finavera announced that it was in talks with three potential bidders and would review all offers for the company. Finavera did not have much choice in the matter: the proceeds of the Wildmare sale had been needed to repay an overdue note to GE.
While Finavera talked about its plans as a "Corporate Transaction," most investors (including me) assumed the process would conclude with a sale of the company. The stock promptly shot up approximately 70% from the 20-25 cent range where it had been trading to the 35-40 cent range in anticipation of a sale.
Market Reaction
As it happened, after reviewing the offers, Finavera decided to accept a financing deal and project purchase agreement from Pattern Renewable Energy Holdings Canada. According to Finavera CEO Jason Bak in an interview, what sealed the deal was Pattern's willingness to refinance the GE note immediately, and provide financing at 10% for project development going forward once shareholders approve the deal. While there were offers for outright purchase of the company on the table, none of the bidders would have been able to perform as quickly as Pattern and satisfy GE. As a result, Finavera's board, which contains four of the company's ten largest shareholders and collectively owns 35% of the company's stock, chose to sign the deal with Pattern.
Since many investors had been anticipating an outright sale, the announcement of the deal sent some scurrying for the exit. Thin trading over the holidays compounded the problem, and Finavera's stock plummeted from near $0.40, where it had been trading before the announcement, to the low 20 cent range, which created a tremendous buying opportunity. I personally nearly doubled my holdings on Thursday and Friday.
Valuation
While the Pattern deal does not provide immediate liquidity for shareholders, it does make the company much easier to value. Over the last year, investors' biggest concern about Finavera has been the lack of financing, a problem which the Pattern deal will solve. In addition, the deal sets a price for Finavera's project portfolio in British Colombia, to be paid when the projects reach financial close (i.e. all permits are in place and the project is ready for construction.) Bak estimates that this will be achieved for the more advanced projects in 2013, and the later projects in 2014.
Hence, Finavera should receive approximately C$40 million for its projects from Pattern before the end of 2014, in addition to C$9.3 million for reaching financial close on its Cloosh wind farm in Ireland in 2013. Offsetting this against Finavera's existing liabilities of C$18.3 million (about C$2-3 million of which Bak says are likely to be renegotiated) we have a net cash value of Finavera at the end of 2014 of about $30 million. This assumes that the renegotiated liabilities and the residual value of Finavera's 10% stake in the Cloosh project mostly cover ongoing development costs. With roughly 40 million diluted shares outstanding, that places the value of a Finavera share at roughly C$0.75 at the end of 2014.
Some allowance needs to be made for the time value of money, as well as the possibility that site development will not go as smoothly as Bak expects. If we use a 50% discount to cover that risk, we still arrive at a value of C$0.375 per share., or 67% more than the current price of C$0.225. I expect Finavera to quickly rebound to at least the C$0.30 range over the next few days or weeks, as liquidity returns to the market, and investors revalue the stock based on the agreement with Pattern.
Disclosure: Long FVR
|
89b4724e0eac16c7860e44ae618ee7fb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/01/31/why-has-finavera-wind-energys-stock-crashed/
|
Why Has Finavera Wind Energy's Stock Crashed?
|
Why Has Finavera Wind Energy's Stock Crashed?
A month ago, I was convinced that Finavera Wind Energy's (TSX-V:FVR, OTC:FNVRF) stock was only temporarily trading at depressed levels in the low 20 cent range because investors were disappointed at the deal with Pattern Energy. Many shareholders had been hoping for an outright sale, and were selling into the thinly traded holiday markets. I predicted that Finavera stock would "quickly rebound to at least the C$0.30 range over the next few days or weeks, as liquidity returns to the market, and investors revalue the stock based on the agreement with Pattern." (My valuation based on the Pattern deal put the present value of a Finavera share at C$0.375, and its value at the end of 2014 at C$0.75.)
My valuation has not changed significantly, but the stock has fallen, after an initial rally. Yesterday, I was able to add to my Finavera position for a mere $0.18 a share. What happened?
There have been only two news items over the last month.
Conference Call
First, Finavera held an investor conference call on January 9th to explain the Pattern deal. My takes from the conference were first, that the Pattern deal would definitely win shareholder support, since there was not going to be any buy-out offers forthcoming, and the consequences of rejecting the deal would be dire.
Second, I had misunderstood the Pattern deal originally. Finavera will be getting funds from Pattern in the form of $9M in debt forgiveness as soon as the deal is approved by shareholders, and many of Finavera's development costs will be charged to the projects (and hence, effectively, to Pattern.) This increased my expected value of Finavera slightly.
Option Grant
Last week, Finavera cancelled all outstanding employee and director options (most of which had strike prices of C$1 or above), and re-issued them with new options exercisable at C$0.205 per share. The grant (1,783,800 options or 4.5% of outstanding shares) seemed large to me, and may have also turned off other shareholders, contributing to the heavy selling this week.
I asked Jason Bak, Finavera's CEO, to give his justification of the option grants by email. He responded with the following points:
Finavera is operating within its registered stock option plan, which was approved by shareholders in September of last year. There have been no significant option grants in three and a half years. Finavera's directors have been working entirely without compensation since 2007, and have been significant investors in the company over that time. The option grants are in line with similar Toronto Venture listed companies.
I thought he made good points, especially regarding director compensation, and so my governance concerns were alleviated. The option grants do change my per diluted share valuation of the company marginally (see below.)
New Valuations
My new understanding of the Pattern deal means that a significant portion of the deal's value will be realized sooner than expected. The debt forgiveness along with the expected $9.3 million payment for bringing the Cloosh wind farm to financial close should be sufficient to substantially eliminate all Finavera's liabilities by the end of the year. This will give Finavera a book value per diluted share of C$0.45 after the receipt of the Cloosh payment.
If Finavera is then able to bring its Canadian projects to financial close by the end of 2014, as expected, the payments for those projects should give Finavera C$0.77 worth of net assets, most of which will be in the form of cash (the balance will be their remaining 10% stake in the Cloosh wind farm.)
Given these valuations, I continue to see Finavera stock as an easy double over the next year, with the potential to double again in 2014.
That is why I'm buying more. I still have no idea why anyone is selling.
Disclosure: Long Finavera
Finavera's Wildmare wind project. Photo source: Finavera
|
05454d494679d18367b8fa2c9bc0ffee
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/02/13/why-im-accepting-brookfields-offer-of-2-60-a-share-for-western-wind/
|
Why I'm Accepting Brookfield's Offer of $2.60 a Share for Western Wind
|
Why I'm Accepting Brookfield's Offer of $2.60 a Share for Western Wind
Yesterday, I was quoted in Western Wind Energy's (TSX-V:WND, OTC:WNDEF) press release saying "C$2.50 a share was too low a price for Western Wind in 2011, and C$2.60 is too low for a stronger Western Wind today."
It was a good line, and I still believe it, but I've decided to accept Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners' (TSX:BEP.UN, OTC: BRPFF) extended offer for Western Wind at C$2.60 a share anyway.
What changed my mind?
Yesterday, I talked to a fund manager who had changed his mind. I've been talking to this fund manager off and on about the Western Wind story for several months. He's given me some valuable insights into the compensation of Western Wind's CEO Jeff Ciachurski, and until recently agreed with me Ciachurski was serious about selling the company. Recent events changed his mind, and since I know his information has always been more in depth than mine, I gave him a serious listen.
In the day since, I've interviewed Ciachurski, other fund managers who own the stock and have changed their minds, and Brookfield's head of media relations. I had hoped to speak with Brookfield's CEO or CFO, but they have been unable to talk today before Brookfield issues an upcoming press release (see below). Each conversation served to solidify my conviction that the best alternative is to accept the offer and persuade as many of my readers as possible to tender their shares as well, so that the bid is successful.
The Situation As I Now See It
While there may be potential bidders willing to pay over C$2.60 per share, none are willing to pay C$3 or more. Ciachurski and the board have already paid themselves the change of control bonus for selling the company, and no longer have that incentive to sell. Bringing the Yabucoa project to financial close will not add significant value for potential bidders. If Brookfield's offer expires unsuccessfully, WND will decline significantly in the short term. Ciachurski has a habit of alienating possible buyers. This reduces the potential pool of bidders, and lowers the price that shareholders can expect for their stock. Brookfield is very close to succeeding; the readers of this article are likely to make the difference.
The Details
Why not more than C$3?
If there were another bidder willing to pay more than C$3, they would have bid already. Ciachurski says that they are deterred by Brookfield's large stake and hostile bid, but the board has the ability to entice a competing bid by offering a break-up fee if the bid is unsuccessful. They can also offer matching rights giving the bidder preferential treatment if Brookfield were to increase its hostile bid. Ciachurski argues that "no one wants to bid just for a break-up fee," but I think it's pretty clear that Brookfield would not pay much more than the current offer, and a bidder willing to pay C$3 would win the support of shareholders.
As portfolio manager Jan Schalkwijk, CFA of JPS Global Investments, put it, "If the deciding factor becomes 'It's too much work and I don't want to be outbid,' how interested are you in the first place?" (Jan does not own Western Wind or Brookfield. I ran my ideas by him for an unbiased opinion.)
Ciachurski's Compensation
As disclosed on page 9 Western Wind's Q3 2012 filing, the board has approved an early payment of the change in control bonus for Ciachurski and other executives, even though they have not presented an offer to shareholders. Ciachurski has already been paid $2,983,000 for a sale that he's telling us will now take another three to four months, and may never happen at all.
With the bonus for selling for more than C$3 off the table because of the lack of bidders willing to go that high, and the change of control payment already in his pocket, Ciachurski's interests are no longer aligned with shareholders'. Now he is likely most focused on the change of control payment he will receive if the company sells, or he is voted out at the next annual meeting. That is equal to his total compensation for the last three years. This effectively doubles the lure of the incentive payment for bringing Yabucoa to financial close.
Hence, Ciachurski's top priority is no longer selling the company, but closing financing for Yabucoa, and we've already paid him for a sale he's been, at best, fighting to delay for the last three months.
Financing Yabucoa
Ciachurski is quite proud of the fact that he finances projects entirely with debt, and does not dilute shareholders by issuing additional equity. There is a cost to this in that banks will want higher interest rates in order to take on the additional risk of financing entire projects.
There is a reason most companies finance projects partly with equity: Overall, it's usually cheaper to do it that way.
Any potential bidder for Western Wind is likely to have a much lower cost of capital than the company, so securing bank financing for Yabucoa will be much easier for them, and likely to be achieved at a lower overall cost of capital. Hence, by bringing Yabucoa to financial close, shareholders would end up paying Ciachurski a bonus for not increasing (and possibly decreasing) the overall value of the company.
The Stock Will Fall
As we saw when Brookfield's previous offer for Western Wind expired without competing offers, as well as when they announced they were ceasing discussions with Western Wind, the stock fell. I don't see any reason to think that this will not happen again.
In December, Western Wind extended $25 million in short term debt, all of which will again be due by April. That means it will come due before the "three to four months" Ciachurski is asking for in order to close the Yabucoa project. The search for alternative financing in the absence of a bid is likely to further depress the share price.
Alienating Buyers
Ciachurski takes a confrontational and unprofessional approach to hostile bids for his company. It's not for nothing that, even when I supported him, I compared him to a rock diva, saying that he displayed a "thin skin and hot temper." In our interviews, he runs through his set spiel, answering the questions he thinks I should be asking. He has answered my real questions, but only after I've heard him out about everything he wants to say.
Yesterday, when I asked to speak with him (and before I'd said anything to imply I was no longer wholly supportive,) he replied that he would speak with me on the condition that I make reference to a Wall Street Journal article regarding unproven bribery charges faced by Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) in Brazil. BAM has a controlling stake in Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. He claimed that this article "explains BEP's conduct."
I think the article is irrelevant. BAM says the charges are only allegations of a disgruntled former employee. Regardless, BAM's conduct in Brazil is not relevant to the question of if I want to accept Brookfield's money in Canada. All that is needed to explain Brookfield's conduct as a hostile bidder is the fact that they want to get the lowest possible price for Western Wind, and Ciachurski is unwilling to accept anything less than $3 a share.
Using bloggers like myself in attempts to smear Brookfield, and similar tactics he has used in the past, does not win Ciachurski any friends. Despite offering C$2.50 a share for Western Wind in 2011, Algonquin Power and Utilities (TSX:AQN, OTC:AQUNF) declined to participate in this round. They simply find Ciachurski too difficult to deal with. Brookfield is having a similar experience, and is unlikely to return to the table for another round. Brookfield and Algonquin are the two largest pure-play publicly traded owners of renewable energy projects in North America. Their wind expertise and relatively low financing costs make them excellent fits as buyers for Western Wind. The list of potential buyers is not so long that we should be alienating any of them.
Our Decision Makes a Difference
Brookfield tells me they are about to issue a press release regarding the number of shares that have been committed to their tender offer. They were not willing to tell me the number before issuing the release, but we can be confident that they would not be issuing it at all if they were not very close.
The fund mangers I spoke to think that they have about 44% of independent shareholders (i.e. not counting their own stock.) Since Western Wind is widely held by retail shareholders (especially my readers,) it seems likely that we control enough of the 3.4 million shares or fewer they need to make the difference.
Conclusion
Ciachurski is asking for "three to four more months" to bring Yabucoa to a financial close and sell the company. The timeline has a lot more to do with Yabucoa than the sale, since he told me we could see a bid "within a month" after Brookfield removes itself from the process.
I don't believe that closing on Yabucoa will significantly increase the value of anything except Ciachurski's compensation package, and I don't think a future bid three to four months from now will be C$3.10 or more as he claims. If another bid emerges, it's unlikely to be more than C$2.80. Given his track record and the fact that he has already paid himself for arranging a sale which hasn't happened, there is a very real chance that Ciachurski would alienate that bidder as well.
I'm not willing to wait another four months for only 5-8% more than the C$2.60 currently on offer from Brookfield, especially when I'm far from certain that there will be a higher bid forthcoming.
It's not as if I or most of my readers are selling at a loss. Since I started writing about the company shortly before the Algonquin bid in 2011, Western Wind has traded mostly in the $1 to $2 range, so we're all looking at gains between 25% and 100%. It's time to declare victory and go home.
If the Brookfield bid succeeds, I'll be able to invest my money and my time into opportunities with the potential to double or triple, such as Finavera Wind Energy (TSX-V:FVR, OTC:FNVRF), rather than waiting around for another five or even ten percent from Western Wind.
I suggest you do the same.
Disclosure: I own shares of Western Wind, Brookfield, Finavera, and Algonquin, as I have throughout the bidding process. I have not received compensation from any party related to my change of opinion, although I hope to receive C$2.60 a share from Brookfield in compensation for my shares of Western Wind.
|
2fe4d9182344f6c5cf2f6a6177117acb
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/05/31/kandi-technologies-weighing-the-evidence/
|
Kandi Technologies: Weighing The Evidence
|
Kandi Technologies: Weighing The Evidence
Last year, I brought Chinese off-road vehicle and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Kandi Technologies (NASD:KNDI) to readers' attention. I like Kandi because the company was already profitable and trades for a tiny fraction of what a US-based EV maker would.
The Strategy
I also like Kandi's electric vehicle strategy, which focuses on inexpensive commuter vehicles combined with battery-swapping. While this sounds a lot like the the strategy of recently bankrupt Better Place, Kandi's strategy avoids one of the biggest problems with Better Place's strategy: Kandi does not have to bear the expense of extra sets of batteries or swapping infrastructure. The batteries are owned by the local utility, which can use them when they are not in cars to provide stabilization and ancilliary services to the grid. Kandi just (profitably) manufactures the cars and licenses the battery swapping IP.
With the Chinese government in Beijing pushing hard for more "New Energy Vehicles" as the Chinese call EVs in order to cope with its horrific problem of urban pollution, even China's largest privately owned automaker, Geely (HKEx: 175, OTC:GELYF) got religion, and has signed a 50-50 joint venture to produce EVs with Kandi.
The Valuation
With Kandi already profitable based on its legacy ATV business, I and other Kandi shareholders have long been frustrated that Kandi does not trade at a much higher multiple of earnings and revenue. Kandi has a trailing P/E ratio of 20, and trades at less than 2 time trailing revenue. Meanwhile EV high-flyer Tesla (NASD:TSLA) is trading at 13.5 time revenue, and 100 times next year's expected earnings (Tesla lost money last year, and is expected to only break even in 2013.)
The China Price
There are several factors contributing to Kandi's low valuation:
Kandi got its Nasdaq listing through a reverse merger, a strategy which was followed by a number of other Chinese companies, many of which were later found to have fiddled their books, absconded with shareholder funds, or otherwise been frauds. As a result of its small market capitalization and the general wariness of Chinese stocks, no analysts follow Kandi. A number of negative articles, many of which were written by investors who were short the stock, have highlighted irregularities in Kandi's listing process and past reporting.
Although the negative articles about Kandi have been disturbing, none of them have turned up anything wrong with Kandi's financial accounting. I've generally taken this as a good sign. When the same group of people who made good profits by shorting Chinese stocks and then exposing their accounting frauds have been unable to turn up anything so serious about Kandi, I have to wonder if there is anything to find.
With this in mind, I set out last month to parse through the novel-length and rather dense Kandi-bashing articles to demonstrate that there was nothing there for investors to worry about. I failed, and instead found myself doubting the judgement and/or honesty of Kandi's management. I'd like to emphasize that there is no proof of wrongdoing, but investors who wish to hold on to their money don't have the luxury of waiting until their suspicions are confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt.
Sharesleuth
The most in-depth articles looking into irregularities surrounding Kandi were written by Chris Cary of Sharesleuth. Carey is a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Sharesleuth is funded by Mark Cuban, who often trades on the information Carey digs up before he publishes his articles. Some people find this business model distasteful but as Carey puts it, "If Sharesleuth.com exposes fraudulent companies and Mark Cuban uses profits from trades to finance more investigative reporting, then I’m OK with that." I'm also OK with it. I don't see the difference between Sharesleuth and any mutual fund manager who goes on CNN to talk about his portfolio. Or between Sharesleuth and a blogger writing about stocks he owns on Forbes or Seeking Alpha, for that matter.
The controversy about Sharesleuth's business model mostly seems to arise because most of Cuban's trades are on the short side. But in the case of Kandi, Cuban was never short. I asked Carey about this in an interview, and he responded that Kandi is a very difficult stock to short. For a billionaire like Cuban, the money he could make shorting a tiny stock like Kandi is hardly enough to move the needle. Carey uncovered the information in his articles in the course of investigations into the people who brought it public, along with ten other Chinese reverse merger companies, including New Oriental Energy (OTC:NOEC), Telestone Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: TSTC); and Orsus Xelent Technologies Inc. (OTC: ORSX). Many of these have since been delisted, and Kandi is virtually alone among them for not trading well below its initial offering price.
Price chart of four Chinese Reverse Merger Companies. Source: Barchart.com
Clearly, Kandi should not be indited based on guilt by association, and the scrutiny the company has been under because of these associations should give us some confidence that any past misdeeds are either very well buried or have already been revealed. Nor do any of those misdeeds reach the level of the outright accounting fraud found in many of the Kandi's reverse-merger brethren. Kandi has not been accused of anything illegal.
My distillation of the Sharesleuth revelations is:
A number of people made millions off Kandi's reverse merger, and these people were never properly identified in the company's SEC filings. From 2009 to 2011, Kandi significantly overstated the number of EVs it sold. After Sharesleuth showed that Kandi's claimed sales of EVs were not supported by the number imported or sold by Kandi's dealers, the company quietly revised its financial statements, revealing that many of its claimed EV sales were actually sales of gas powered vehicles.
The Defense
Kandi's defenders dismiss the first point as old news, saying that what should really matter to investors is Kandi's current prospects. To the second point, they say that Kandi has admitted its mistake, and the miscategorization of sales of gas powered cars as EVs made no difference to Kandi's revenue or earnings in any of the affected years.
They also emphasize that Kandi is not accused of any criminal act or fraud, and attempt to undermine the credibility of Kandi's detractors by calling the negative articles paid hit pieces. Of course, Kandi's defenders are long the stock (as am I), which is at least as much of a bias as being short.
My Take
I'm certainly happy that Kandi has not been accused of fraud, and I do prefer to focus on Kandi's future than on events which occurred before I was ever a shareholder. On the other hand, when we're trying to predict how management will behave in the future, our best evidence is how they have behaved in the past.
In the case of unknown individuals profiting from the reverse merger, this was at best bad judgment on the part of Mr. Hu, Kandi's President, CEO, and largest shareholder. The reverse merger process seems to have needlessly diluted existing shareholders, and also shows Mr. Hu working with a number of unsavory characters, perhaps unwittingly. At worst, Mr. Hu and his associates may have directly benefited from the transactions in ways which were not disclosed.
Either way, the incident undermines my faith that Mr. Hu will do everything in his power to protect the equity of the company's current small shareholders.
In terms of the misreported EV sales, the best case scenario is that it was simply a translation mistake. I find this scenario unlikely, because the exaggeration occurred repeatedly over a couple years. Nor does the fact that the mis-categorization of EV sales did not affect reported sales or revenues mean that the number of Kandi's EV sales was not material to investors' investment decisions. The Kandi "story" depended on the growth of its EV business even then: Here's an article from 2010 making the link explicit: Kandi Tech Reports Strong Results, But Future Depends on Electric Car Growth.
Other Evidence
After couple of my picks recently revealed that they would have to restate their financial accounts because of misreported revenue, I began using the Beneish M-Score as an early warning system for earnings manipulation. I calculated Kandi's M-Score based on annual accounts from 2010 to 2012, and on quarterly accounts for the last three quarters. The M-Score combines factors which might give a company an incentive to manipulate with factors which pick up the distortions caused by common forms of earnings manipulation. Details about how to calculate M-Score and a spreadsheet can be found here. For nearly all the periods I tested, M-Score indicates that Kandi has a moderate chance of having performed some earnings manipulation. Exactly what this probability is is hard to say, but the M-Scores are a long way from giving an "all clear.". The 2010 annual report looks most likely to have been manipulated, mainly because of a high level of receivables growth relative to sales growth. Note that this period coincides with the inflated EV sales numbers.
Companies can have high M-Scores without having manipulated earnings, but a high M-Score says "proceed with caution." Maxwell Technologies (NASD:MXWL) had an M-Score in the third quarter of 2012 that was similar to Kandi's annual 2010 M-Score, and the next quarter they announced that they had been misreporting revenue since 2011. (I suspect Maxwell's mis-reporting may be greater in extent than has yet been revealed.) M-Score will not flag all earnings manipulation, but it may flag some honest companies as well.
Reading through Kandi's filings, I noticed that Kandi's largest shareholder at the time of its listing was ExcelVantage Group, a fund controlled by a Chinese retiree Tim Ho Man. In 2010, Mr. Tim transferred control of ExcelVantage to Kandi's CEO, Mr. Hu, "pursuant to a Transfer of Equity Agreement" between them. Kandi's listing documents made no mention of any connection between Mr. Hu and Mr. Tim. While it is possible that Mr. Hu bought ExcelVantage from Mr. Tim in an arms-length transaction, it seems more likely to me that the two men had an undisclosed agreement between them which gave Mr. Hu effective control of ExcelVantage all along.
Once again, there is nothing illegal about this, but it had the effect of obscuring the fact that Mr. Hu retained a controlling stake of Kandi at the time it went public. That's something I would have wanted to know had I been considering investing at the time.
Conclusion
There are a number of instances and red flags about Kandi's management that lead me to want to proceed with caution. At the very least, the company has not been forthcoming with relevant information that investors would have been interested in. A company looking to build a reputation for good shareholder relations would have disclosed this information. At worst, the company may have intentionally misled investors regarding its EV sales at a time when its accounts also showed signs of possible distortion. If that's the case, it would be reasonable to assume that they will do something similar in the future.
On the other hand, the evidence of Kandi's current progress at building acceptance for its EVs is based not only on the company's statements, but a large number of articles in the Chinese press, and agreements with Geely and a number of Chinese cities and provinces. My feeling from this is that Kandi will continue to rack up good press and increasing EV sales for the rest of the year. The fact that Kandi also recently filed an S-3 to allow it to sell additional securities also leads me to believe that, if the company is likely to exaggerate its results, it will do so in the coming months in order to boost the share price.
If you would like to read the full bull case for the stock, the best place to start is to read these three recent articles by Art Porcari.
After weighing the evidence, I no longer consider Kandi a long-term hold. That said, my concerns about management are long-term in nature, and I think Kandi's short term trend will be up. This article itself may cause a downward blip, but Kandi's shareholders are so used to negative articles about the stock that I doubt this one will have any long term effect, and I expect Kandi's upward momentum will soon resume. I intend to maintain my reduced holding to take advantage of that trend.
Disclosure: Long KNDI, Short MXWL.
|
c56202b8cb14e11e75481ecc6c5738d9
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/09/16/finavera-wind-energy-the-calm-before-the-storm/
|
Finavera Wind Energy: Slow Progress
|
Finavera Wind Energy: Slow Progress
Without a press release since June, and the stock price in the doldrums, investors have been looking for updates on Finavera Wind Energy (TSXV:FVR, OTC:FNVRF. Disclosure: I own this stock.) In fact, there has been an update: Finavera's second quarter interim report, filed on August 28th on SEDAR, but without a press release or news articles, many investors seem to have missed it.
Despite the lack of updates, progress continues behind the scenes, although Jason Bak, Finavera's CEO is yet not able to say much about the ongoing initiatives. On Friday, he told me, "I’m keen to get more news out to shareholders, towards the end of September or early October may be appropriate." Until then, we'll have to make due with what we can glean from the interim report.
Selling wind projects to Pattern
The timeline for the sale of Finavera's Canadian wind projects to Pattern has slipped slightly, although progress continues. According the the interim report, "Closing of the Pattern Transaction is now dependent upon the receipt of various required consents and regulatory approvals; performance of the Company’s covenants and obligations under the PSA Agreement; assuming no Material Adverse Changes and other standard closing conditions."
In particular,
Finavera expects to receive between C$11.7 and C$18.7 million, net of loan repayments, depending on the final project sizes (see below.) It anticipates between C$3 million and C$5 million in additional development costs to bring the projects to financial close, the first $2 million of which will be paid by Pattern. The Q2 MD&A was not clear if the C$3-C$5 million was in addition to the the amount covered by Pattern, or inclusive of it, but I have confirmed with the company that the latter is the case, and the expected development costs payable by Finavera range between C$1 and C$3 million. Finavera has internally budgeted $2.7 million (at the upper end of the range) for these development costs. The company has received shareholder approval and consent from the Toronto Venture Exchange. There has been some delay submitting the Meikle project for environmental review. When I last spoke to Bak, he expected this in July, he now says it will be submitted in mid September. Finavera has been collecting wind data on which the final project sizes and payments will depend. Bak tells me a decision on project size is "imminent." The company is in the process of obtaining preliminary assent from BC Hydro for the transfer of the Power Purchase agreement to Pattern. According to the interim report, "Such preliminary consent is expected imminently" as of August 28th. Bak was not able to give me any further information about the timing. Financial close of the transaction is "expected mid-2014 to early 2015." This was previously expected in the second half of 2014.
Cloosh Valley Wind Farm
This 105 MW estimated capacity wind farm is still anticipated to close on project financing in late 2013. At that point, Finavera expects to receive €7.14 million (C$9.79 million.) It is considering options for its remaining 10% stake in the farm.
Use of proceeds from the Pattern transaction
Data in C$ million, except for shares (millions) and per share data.
caption-side="bottom"
Item Worst Case Expected Best Case Pattern Proceeds $20.9 $22.7 $27.9 Future Development costs ($3) ($2.7) ($1) Cloosh Payment $9.8 $9.8 $9.8 Sale of 10% Cloosh Stake $3 $3 $4 8/28/13 Net Liabilities ($23.9) ($23.9) ($23.9) Totals $6.8 $8.9 $16.8 Diluted shares 39.6 39.6 39.6 C$ per share $0.17 $0.22 $0.42 Data in C$ millions except shares (million) and per share data. Sources: Finavera Q2 2013 MD&A, Jason Bak interviews.
After repaying all its obligations after the close of the Cloosh and Pattern transactions, Finavera should have between C$6.8 million and C$16.8 million in cash on hand, or between 17 and 42 cents per share (see table.) This is less than my previous estimates. Ongoing development costs have risen from my previous estimates. My most recent estimates are shown in the table to the right.
Finavera plans to give shareholders a say in the use of these proceeds, and the company is currently working on the terms of a future development deal to present to shareholders. When the terms of this deal are finalized, it will be presented to shareholders. An alternative use of the funds will be to simply return it to shareholders.
Conclusion
With timelines slowly slipping, costs inching up, and an earlier revision to the deal with Pattern which greatly reduced the potential payoff, I'm very disappointed. Other shareholders are, too, which is why the stock is currently trading at C$0.15, and has traded as low as C$0.13 recently.
With only a 50% expected gain left after another year which could produce yet more timeline slippage, I'm not in a rush to buy more, although the potential gains are easily enough to keep me around at this price.
|
777ea1e57ffb60f2cf8eb3fe5a8b534f
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/10/23/nrg-yield-a-little-green-a-little-income/
|
NRG Yield: A Little Green, A Little Income
|
NRG Yield: A Little Green, A Little Income
Disclosure: Long BEP, HASI.
NRG Yield (NYSE:NYLD) was spun out of its parent, NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) in July, and has since been greeted with enthusiasm by investors. The stock priced at $22, 10% over the mid-point of its expected range, and the underwriters exercised their full over-allotment option.
NRG Yield presents itself as an owner and operator of contracted renewable and conventional electricity generation, as well as thermal infrastructure assets. (Thermal infrastructure provides heat or cooling to businesses for use in their operations.) The company has a green tinge because of its wind and solar generation, and seems to be designed to appeal to green investors who also like the green of a substantial dividend yield.
How Green Is It?
Data: NRG Yield SEC filings
Although I manage green portfolios professionally, I was not particularly interested, mainly because the company does not seem all that green. Renewable energy only accounts for 30% of revenues, or 43% of assets and income (see chart.) This is greener than most independent power producers, but there are many income stocks with greener portfolios available.
Show Me the Green
That said, most income investors care more about the green an investment pays out in dividends than the greenery of how it makes that money. NRG Yield has yet to pay a dividend, but the most recent quarterly report states: "NRG Yield, Inc. expects to declare and pay a dividend of $0.23 per Class A common share during the fourth quarter of 2013."
At the IPO price of $22, this would have amounted to a less than stunning 4.2%annual yield, but since then, investors have bid the stock up to $34.60, reducing the yield to 2.7%. However, analysts at Goldman Sachs expect NRG Yield to raise its dividend further. They recently issued a new price target of $41 based on a 3.5% dividend yield (corresponding to a $0.36 quarterly dividend.)
Comparables
Even the 4.2% yield offered by Goldman's future dividend estimate at the current price of $34.60 seems low to me.
Completely green income alternatives such as Pattern Energy Group (NASD:PEGI), Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (NYSE:BEP), and Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE:HASI) all compare favorably on yield. Pattern Energy owns a portfolio of wind farms, and expects to start paying a $0.3125 quarterly dividend (5.4% annual yield) in the fourth quarter, when NRG Yield will only be paying 2.7%.
Brookfield Renewable is already paying a $0.362 quarterly dividend (5.3%) and owns a portfolio of hydropower, wind, and solar generation.
Hannon Armstong's business is less comparable, since it invests in energy efficiency projects and other sustainable infrastructure. As a REIT, dividends may be subject to higher tax rates than the other three, but its CEO has said that it will declare a dividend in excess of $0.219 for the fourth quarter (7.4%), and will eventually ramp up to $0.234, or 8% based on the current $11.76 share price. Even if we adjust Hannon Armstrong's expected dividend down by 15% to reflect a 35% income tax rate rather than the 20% rate on qualified dividends, it's expected yield is 6.8%, 2.6% higher than the yield Goldman is predicting for NYLD. Such an adjustment would not be necessary for an investor in a lower tax bracket or one investing through a retirement account.
Conclusion
Given the other green income options available on US exchanges (not to mention more attractive yields available in Canada,) I fail to see the attraction of NRG Yield.
Looking at recent news articles, I can only guess that investors are giving the company a "green" premium based on frequent mentions in articles about solar. That would be ironic, given that NRG Yield's greenery is even less compelling than its yield.
|
3e3f8c5abb24d3673c14961309c886da
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2013/10/31/maxwell-technologies-in-the-balance/
|
Maxwell Technologies In The Balance
|
Maxwell Technologies In The Balance
Will Chinese hybrid bus subsidies be renewed? The answer will be crucial for Maxwell Technologies (NASD:MXWL) in the coming months.
I, and most analysts following ultra-capacitor manufacturer Maxwell Technologies, (NASD:MXWL) were considerably surprised at the strength of its third quarter earnings. China had failed to renew subsidies for hybrid buses in the third quarter, and Chinese hybrid bus manufacturers have long been a significant part of Maxwell's business. Disclosure: I own puts on MXWL.
Hybrid bus sales, even without subsidy, ended up better than I expected, accounting for 30% of Maxwell's ultra-capacitor sales in the quarter. Also helping results were strong ultra-capacitor sales to the wind industry (25%) and a large contribution from their distribution channel (22%.)
Going forward, sales from the distribution channel will be falling, as this is previously deferred revenue from Maxwell's recent earnings restatement. $3.9 million of deferred revenue remains in this channel, most of which is likely to be recognized in the fourth quarter, but significantly down from this quarter, when it amounted to $11.3 million.
China Hybrid Bus Subsidies
The big question mark for the fourth quarter is when and if Chinese hybrid bus subsidies are renewed.
This renewal has been expected for some time, but the Chinese government clearly marches to its own tune. China did release its "New Energy Vehicle" subsidies in September, but these did not include subsidies for hybrid buses. According to a 2009 World Bank report on electric vehicles [.pdf], New Energy Vehicles were previously defined as "vehicles that are partially or fully powered by electricity." But the new program includes only fully electric vehicles (EV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and Fuel Cell vehicles (FCV).
My estimates of Maxwell's revenues and earnings per share with and without renewal of Chinese hybrid... [+] bus subsidies.
Maxwell's bus manufacturing customers expect that hybrid subsidies will be released separately. The catch is, these subsidies have been expected for months, and the delay is leading many investors to question if they will be released at all. As you can see in my projections above, the impact of subsidy renewal on Maxwell earnings and revenues is likely to be significant. If the subsidies are not renewed soon, Maxwell's management is predicting that total revenues could fall 30% ($16 million) in the fourth quarter, although approximately $7-8 million of that decline is likely to come from falling ultra-capacitor sales through the distribution channel.
While I don't have any special insight into the Chinese government's plans, the impetus for the new energy vehicle and hybrid subsidies is two-fold. The goal is partly to combat China's horrible urban pollution problem, and partly to foster Chinese leadership in what they consider an strategic industry. When it comes to assessing the likelihood of renewal for the hybrid subsidy, cleaning up air pollution is likely to be helped more by hybrid subsidies than the existing PHEV subsidies alone. On the other hand, when it comes to nurturing new industries, the current subsidies for PHEVs, EVs, and FCVs are likely to be more effective than a renewed subsidy for hybrids.
Hybrid subsidies are more effective at reducing pollution because hybrid vehicles are typically much more cost effective. While each PHEV could reduce local pollution twice as much as a hybrid would, some of that pollution reduction would simply be moved from the city where the bus is operating to the coal plant which generates its power. Further, the incremental cost of a hybrid is a fraction of the incremental cost of a PHEV, so many hybrids could replace conventional buses for the same cost as a few PHEVs.
On the other hand, hybrid technology is fairly mature, and a foreign company (Maxwell) is the leading supplier of the crucial untra-capacitors for hybrid buses. In contrast, PHEV buses will use a large number of batteries, and China has many leading battery manufacturers, meaning that China is more likely to favor subsidies (such as those for PHEVs) which help the battery industry than the ultra-capacitor industry. Further, PHEV and EV technology is still developing, so China is likely to have an easier time becoming a leader.
With these countervailing forces, I find it impossible to predict when or if China's hybrid subsidies will be renewed. Given this uncertainty, I have closed out my former short position in the stock, and now only retain a few puts which are too illiquid to sell for what I consider a reasonable price.
Analyst Reaction
Several of Maxwell's analysts are much more confident than I am that subsidies will be renewed. Since the earnings announcement, Ardour Capital and UBS have both upgraded the stock from "Hold" to "Accumulate." I can't imagine they would have made these upgrades if they did not expect hybrid subsidies to be announced soon.
It also may be that, if the analysts are more familiar with ultra-capacitor technology than hybrid vehicle and PHEV technology, they could expect that Chinese PHEV buses could go a long way to replacing lost revenue from Chinese hybrid buses.
The Difference Between Hybrids and PHEVs
In the quarterly conference call, Maxwell's COO and interim CEO, John Warwick painted the PHEV bus opportunity with an optimistic brush. To create the first generation of PHEV bus, Maxwell's customers are "basically taking the diesel hybrid using ultra-capacitors and adding a battery power to it for propulsion for the first 30 plus kilometers." Hence, each first generation PHEV bus will use the same number of ultra-capacitors as a hybrid bus.
He did not discuss what the second generation might look like, most likely because they are likely to require fewer ultra-capacitors. The reason hybrid buses use ultra-capacitors rather than batteries is because batteries have low power, but high energy capacity: While batteries can hold a lot of charge, they are not very good at delivering and accepting a large amount of charge in a short period. The large mass of a bus means that much of the energy recovered while braking would be wasted if it had to be absorbed by a reasonably sized battery pack for a hybrid.
In contrast, ultra-capacitors have high power but low energy capacity. They absorb and discharge electricity quickly, but can store very little of it. This makes ultra-capacitors suitable for a hybrid bus, but not for a PHEV bus. A PHEV needs to store a significant portion of its fuel as electricity so requires a large battery pack.
Although batteries have low power capacity on a unit basis, the large bank of batteries required by a hybrid bus will still be able to deliver and absorb a significant amount of power in a short time. This means, as manufacturers seek to cut the cost without sacrificing the performance of future PHEV buses, it will be relatively easy to significantly reduce the number of ultra-capacitors per bus. Depending on the type of batteries used, it's quite possible that a PHEV bus will require no ultra-capacitors at all. American start-up ePower has developed a hybrid drive-train suitable for class 8 diesel trucks using only lead-carbon batteries from Axion Power (OTC:AXPW.) BAE Systems (LSE:BA) sells a hybrid bus drivetrain using only lithium-ion batteries. Allison Transmissions (NYSE:ALSN) has been selling hybrid bus drivetrains since 2003 using nickel-metal hydride batteries. If ePower, BAE, and Allison do not need ultra-capacitors to make a bus-sized hybrid work, surely Chinese companies can do the same with a PHEV bus.
One other reason PHEV buses are unlikely to replace hybrid buses for Maxwell is simply the size of the market. Given the higher cost of PHEV buses arising from the large battery pack, fewer PHEVs are likely to be sold, even under the new subsidy regime.
Conclusion
If Chinese hybrid bus subsidies are renewed in the near future, I expect Maxwell's stock to rise rapidly because of its much improved near term prospects. While I'm far from certain that this will happen soon, if ever, I feel the chance is significant. Therefore, I decided to close my short position in the stock, and retain only a few puts which I had bought in anticipation of the third quarter's earnings being considerably worse than they were.
Going forward, the very real possibility of no hybrid subsidy renewal makes me unwilling to recommend the stock, either. If I were to have any position, it would be to bet on a big move in one direction or the other with long calls or puts.
|
ca8b5fae421b1d1229bd6cb713a78efd
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2014/01/29/are-green-infrastructure-companies-priced-efficiently/
|
Mispriced Green Infrastructure Stocks
|
Mispriced Green Infrastructure Stocks
Disclosure: Short NYLD calls, PEGI calls. Long HASI, BEP.
It looks to me that the rapidly evolving market for income-oriented green infrastructure investing is not yet efficiently priced. The largest companies are trading at much lower yields than the smaller (and presumably lesser known) ones. Including a company's leverage (debt/equity) in the diagram as a rough measure of risk adds no explanatory value.
If I'm right, as the industry matures, prices of the higher yield stocks (Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE:HASI) and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (NYSE:BEP) should rise to close the yield gap with the better known, lower yield, larger companies (NRG Yield (NYSE:NYLD) and Pattern Energy Group (NASD:PEGI).
Of course, investors could be pricing in expected dividend growth, but NRG Yield would have to almost double its dividend to bring it in line with Hannon Armstrong's current dividend ($.88/year or 6.7%). And that's before any dividend increase at Hannon Armstrong. HASI's management expects to raise its dividend an average of 15% per year over the next two years, so NYLD will have some of catching up to do.
According to this article, NYLD plans to increase its dividend to $1.45 from $1.20 (20%) by the third quarter, and then increase the dividend quarterly by 1%. At $38, $1.45 is a 3.8% yield. That's a start, I guess.
|
2c05a223eb4f7ec2493c62489f6bcf61
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2014/02/10/two-of-four-still-mispriced-a-little-less-so/?partner=yahootix
|
Two Of Four Still Mispriced, A Little Less So
|
Two Of Four Still Mispriced, A Little Less So
Disclosure: Short NYLD calls, PEGI calls. Long HASI, BEP.
On January 29th, I posted a chart illustrating the mispricing of four green infrastructure companies. Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure's (NYSE:HASI) current yield of more than twice NRG Yield's (NYSE:NYLD) stuck out. A couple colleagues emailed me to say that they'd bought a little Hannon Armstrong because of that post.
If the last week and a half is any indication, they're unlikely to regret the decision.
I noted that including the debt to equity ratio as a rough measure of risk had no power to explain the apparent mis-pricings:
A Couple Edits
Since then, it occurred to me that I had probably not been careful enough with my data. All four of these are new companies are newly listed in the US, and so it's not surprising the data provider I was using did not have the most accurate numbers. I have updated the data using numbers directly from the companies' most recent quarterly earnings statements and a couple news releases from NRG Yield. I found I had understated Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners' (NYSE:BEP) size, and overstated Pattern Energy Group's (NASD:PEGI) debt. Neither of these changes affect my observation that debt to equity ratios don't explain the relative pricing of these companies.
Stock Moves
In contrast, the stock price movements have been dramatic:
All four stocks have converged. NRG Yield (NYSE:NYLD) raised its dividend 10%, although not nearly enough to bring its yield up to the roughly 5% now paid by the others. Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners and Pattern Energy Group no longer seem mispriced relative to each other. They have converged, with Brookfield's stock rising 8% and Pattern's falling 11%.
Coming Up
Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE:HASI) remains the most undervalued, despite a slight stock price increase. I expect Hannon Armstrong will continue to increase over the coming year, while NRG Yield may start to decline. Changes in interest rates will also affect these stocks, but should not affect this relative convergence.
|
cd51bedfb4cdb4c3a0e2f770fd48569e
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2014/03/13/the-pros-clean-energy-picks-solar-dominates-emerging-markets-drag/
|
The Pros' Clean Energy Picks: Solar Dominates, Emerging Markets Drag
|
The Pros' Clean Energy Picks: Solar Dominates, Emerging Markets Drag
Disclosure: I am long ACCEL, SBS, MIXT, ANGRF, EBODF and HASI. I have sold puts on FSLR (a net long position.)
In December, I asked my panel of professional green money managers for their top three stock picks for 2014. You can find the full list and descriptions of the companies here.
Three months have passed since I asked them for their picks, and given the popularity of my regular updates on my own 10 clean energy picks for 2014, I decided to ask them what to tell us what they thought of the performance of their picks (shown in the chart below:)
3 month total return for the picks from my panel of professional green money mangers. The blue "Avg"... [+] bars are for each manager's three picks, while the red/brown "Fund" bars show the returns of the publicly traded mutual funds or ETFs they manage, if any. Robert Wilder (PBW) is also on my panel, but as an indexer, he does not pick stocks.
Individual Stocks
Here is what each manager had to say about their picks, in the order they got back to me:
Shawn Kravetz
Shawn Kravetz is the solar expert on my panel. He is President of Esplanade Capital LLC, a Boston based investment management company one of whose funds is focused on solar and companies impacted by the emergence of solar. He says,
"Solar stocks have enjoyed a sensational start to 2014, reminiscent of 2013. We expect more bumps than in 2013, with both long positions and short positions offering opportunity. Meyer Burger (Swiss:MBTN) is up a whopping 50% year-to-date as investors have suddenly embraced the emerging turn in the equipment cycle that we have been discussing for several months. We have sold our holdings of this stock. Hannon Amstrong (NYSE:HASI) is up a bit in 2014, after digesting strong returns in Q4 2013. Their solid dividend and business performance in Q4 set the stage for what should be a solid year in 2014 as they continue to execute and grow their dividend. Renewable Energy Trade Board (OTC:EBODF) is also up a bit in 2014, after digesting strong returns in 2013. I believe it is like a jet burning off a bit of fuel before climbing higher. Its core holding United Photovoltaics Group Ltd. (formerly known as Goldpoly) just announced a partnership for crowd-funding solar projects. EBODF is a partner in this venture. This appears to be an outstanding business opportunity and it further reinforces EBODF’s standing in high potential ventures poised to add substantial incremental value for shareholders. This remains the quirkiest and yet most compelling opportunity we have seen in our decade investing in solar. With asset value ($22) nearly 4 times the current ($6.50) stock price and emerging business ventures starting to gain traction, I would not be surprised if EBODF were our largest winner in the remainder of 2014."
Garvin Jabusch
Garvin Jabusch is cofounder and chief investment officer of Green Alpha® Advisors, and is co-manager of the Shelton Green Alpha Fund (NEXTX), and the Sierra Club Green Alpha Portfolio. He says,
"First Solar (NASD:FSLR) - up 2.69% YTD through 3/7/14 - First Solar has had a volatile year, swinging down on a Goldman downgrade, back up on project news, and most recently down on what some felt was a disappointing earnings report (on February 25th). For me, the bottom lines are that FSLR continues to lead the solar industry by providing panels at a manufacturing cost of $0.48 per watt of generation capacity, with plans to and a track record showing ability to decrease costs further, potentially rapidly (e.g. their thin film tech is gaining conversion efficiency faster than silicon PV tech is). This has and will continue to make FSLR the go-to for utility-scale projects both in the US and abroad. The shares will continue to be volatile, and demand and pipeline visibility will vary, but overall, FSLR will grow in proportion to the economy's growing use of solar both for new electricity demand and to replace coal and other fossil fuel based generation. Solar City (NASD:SCTY) - up 36.92% YTD through 3/7/14 - After last year's outrageous run, some folks thought I was crazy to keep SCTY in portfolios for 2014. But this is simply one of my favorite stories. SolarCity buys the least expensive quality panels they can, installs them on home and commercial properties, signs a 20-year lease or maybe a PPA with a business or other enterprise like a utility, and collects revenues for decades with little further capex. The only thing limiting SCTY's growth potential is in raising enough capital to grow as rapidly as they'd like, but we've so far seen them come up with some very creative and relatively inexpensive ways to do that. To those who object that SCTY is still negative EPS, I say that every penny they spend growing now represents essentially unlimited recurring revenue in the future, and that if they wanted to be positive EPS today, they easily could, simply by slowing growth to less than current revenues. So, it's not like they're negative EPS because they're failing. On the contrary, rapid growth now is the obvious move while the industry is still in its infancy. Digi International (NASD:DGII) - down 17.49% YTD through 3/7/14 - Obviously a disappointment so far this year, DGII missed on both revenue and EPS for Q4 (Q1 in DGII's world), and guided lower for 2014 in their report of Jan 23. Digi International works in the mobile Internet and machine-to-machine Internet space, by all accounts and anecdotal visibility one of the the fastest growing pieces of telcom and IT and even commerce. I picked DGII because it is profitable and showing good growth (even with the revised, lower numbers), it has no debt, its products have a good reputation and it was (and still is) trading below book value. Moreover, as DGII is a smaller firm (mkt cap $256mm), I liked the potential for rapid growth or even possible takeover. It is unfortunate that the company has not been able to grow revs or earnings as fast as I had hoped, but I think the long term prospects are still in place, and the recent decline therefore represents a more attractive entry point."
Rafael Coven
Rafael Coven is Managing Director at the Cleantech Group, and manager of the Cleantech index (^CTIUS) which underlies the Powershares Cleantech ETF (NYSE:PZD.) Coven's three picks are MiX Telematics (NASD:MIXT), Opus Group (Stockholm:OPUS), and Control4 (NASD:CTRL). Due to some extensive back and forth in my initial request for picks, I originally included Trimble Navigation (NASD:TRMB) and Kurita Water (JP:6370, OTC:KTWIF) which I kept in the list because they conveniently brought the total picks up to a nice fourteen for the year 2014.
MiX Telematics (NASD:MIXT)
Coven thinks the main thing keeping MiX's stock back is that currently emerging markets are greatly out of favor, including MiX's home base, South Africa. Despite this, company's fundamentals are good, and the company should benefit from its aggressive global expansion but particularly in fast-growing Africa, where the company is well established and faces little competition.
This is an orphan stock – mostly unknown outside South Africa, with a small float, it only recently listed in the US and has little analyst coverage other than from the banks that underwrote the offering. What it needs is a few more big contract wins and to keep meeting earnings estimates.” He expects most surprises to be on the upside, given management’s conservative projections.
The main risk he sees is that the company is trying to expand rapidly in a variety of markets Brazil, the US, Gulf Region, and Europe simultaneously. Its Software-as-a-Service model allows it to expand into new areas with relatively little capital, but it could still prove to be a strain on management resources.
Even without an upside surprise, Coven expects the company to grow earnings at 15% to 25% for at least the next five years.
Trimble Navigation (NASD:TRMB)
Trimble has been going from strength to strength this year, with new products, strategic acquisitions, and growing cash flow, and this has been reflected in the stock price up over 20% in last 3 months and 700% over 5 years. It’s not a cheap stock, but I think it’s a quality company that will continue to reward long-term investors. I think that there are a lot of strategic acquisitions to be had and that we’ll likely see a dividend established within the next 12-24 months, too. Over the longer term, the company should continue to grow at 12% to 15% annually.
Kurita Water (JP:6370, OTC:KTWIF):
Kurita was a potential turnaround play which Coven had not initially intended to put in his top three, and he has since cooled on it further. He says,
I thought that this stock was only attractive as turnaround play, stock was up about 10%, but as long as Japan is mired in its economic malaise, I don’t think there’s more to Kurita than the 2% yield and to pray for a pick up in Japan’s economy. Kurita certainly hasn’t been able to capitalize on booming Asian markets for clean water – or at least sufficiently so to offset its heavy exposure to the Japanese market.
Opus Group (Stockholm:OPUS)
He has also cooled somewhat on Opus Group, but still thinks it's a good long term pick.
Opus was up 20% within a month of selection: a trader should take his profits, but an investor is better holding on to Opus. While I don’t expect a repeat of 2013 when Opus stock rose 50%, I think it it’s going to steadily year after year by taking share from weaker competitors and realizing cost savings from the recent merger. Opus has the best, most experienced management in the business who has a significant equity stake. From a macro viewpoint, Opus also benefits from overall market growth as governments increasingly outsource non-core services, emissions regulations are increasingly enforced as the growth in the vehicle fleets in developing nations goes hand-in-hand with higher pollutions levels. It’s a major drag on their economies and I don’t see gasoline or diesel engines going away anytime soon. We may also see more on-board diagnostics and emissions testing of off-road vehicles and power boats which would be great given their disproportionately high emissions levels. Long term, I think Opus will be acquired by an industry heavyweight like SGS SA (Swiss:SGS) or a company like Veolia (NYSE:VE). The inspection and certification business is very attractive to a lot of players, and the Europeans tend to dominate it.
Jan Schalkwijk
Jan Schalkwijk CFA is a portfolio manager with a focus on Green Economy investment strategies at JPS Global Investments in Portland, OR. I co-manage his JPS Green Economy Fund.
"Alter NRG Corp (TSX:NRG, OTC:ANGRF) So far, I am pleased with the 2014 performance of AlterNRG. True to its character as a volatile stock, it has a beta of 3.17, but the good news is that it is up 21% in 2014. The company recently reached a $15 million equipment & services agreement with BGE Limited, who is developing a large scale Waste to Energy project in China. If executed on time, the company would meet its stated goal of turning cash flow positive in 2014. Accell Group NV (Amsterdam:ACCEL, OTC:ACGPF) So far this year Accell Group has not disappointed with a 12% return, of which 3% came from euro appreciation. E-bikes continue to be the high growth product line, though it is mostly concentrated in Northern Europe. For those hoping for an explosion of e-bikes in the US, I would not hold my breath. I believe biking is still mostly an athletic pursuit in our country, even for those who ride their bike to work, judging by the speed of riding and the tight clothing I witness during my Portland morning commute. E-bikes are inherently less athletic and require a different ridership, which is not yet present in significant numbers. Luckily, Accell has enough going for it absent US e-bikers. Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paolo (NYSE:SBS) Down 18% year-to-date, owning SBS has been somewhat frustrating. About 8% of that decline can be chalked up to the fact that Brazilian stocks as group are in the red. It’s P/E ratio is half of that of its peers at 6.9x and its ROE is 50% higher than its peers at 17.6%. A positive news flow with regards to its rate case would be a much welcomed tail wind for SBS. Expect some news on that front in the next month or two."
My Thoughts
Part of the reason I go through the exercise of asking my panel for their stock picks is probably the same reason you're reading this article: They are a great source of investing ideas.
Not all great ideas are equal, however. Also, as Coven pointed out in his comments about Meyer Berger, timing of both buying and selling can be very important. I like to buy stocks when they've taken a hit due to market sentiment or short term results that don't detract from the long term story.
Kravetz clearly thinks his 100% gains in Meyer Burger are enough, and has sold his fund's holdings. Readers should take that as a signal that it's too late to get in on this ride. Readers who did get in should probably take profits as well. Hopefully some of you also took profits in Opus Group at €14.60, as Coven says he would have done. (Coven's Cleantech Index and the ETF tracker PZD would not have sold, since he only updates the index on a quarterly basis.) Although Coven says he would have sold, I'm keeping it in the portfolio because he also says he would have re-bought after a dip.
I'm currently increasing my positions in SBS and MIXT, both of which are down from their highs because of the market's increasing nervousness about emerging market stocks. As Coven notes, this nervousness is misplaced with regard to MIXT, since the company has truly global revenues and a dropping South African Rand lowers the company's expenses more than it hurts its sales.
As a Brazilian water utility, SBS is truly an emerging market stock, but its low price to earnings ratio (6.4) shows that a lot of emerging market risk is well priced in.
I don't yet own DGII, but because of Jabusch's comments, I plan to give it another look.
|
ca240f330587ccdb107b4ad65a9102d0
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2018/07/08/east-carolina-unlv-among-group-of-five-teams-needing-to-turn-things-around/
|
East Carolina, UNLV Among Group Of Five Teams Needing To Turn Things Around
|
East Carolina, UNLV Among Group Of Five Teams Needing To Turn Things Around
Scottie Montgomery is entering his third year at East Carolina and following a pair of 3-9 seasons... [+] he needs to get the program pointed in the right direction again. (Photo by Mary Ann Chastain/ Getty Images)
After taking a look at one team from each of the Power Five conferences that needs to start showing some progress or take another step in the right direction, here is a glimpse of such teams from the Group of Five.
AAC | East Carolina
To say everything has been a mess since the firing of popular Ruffin McNeill would be a gross understatement. AD Jeff Compher’s decision to can McNeill following the 2015 season ultimately cost him his job. He was let go this spring ($1.26 million buyout) less than a year after signing a five-year extension.
In six seasons McNeill led the Pirates to four bowl appearances and three straight years (2012-14) of at least eight wins, two of which were capped by bowl victories. It figured there would be a dip in 2015 especially with the departure of QB Shane Carden and WR Justin Hardy, ECU’s all-time leading passer and receiver. When considering the quality of players who moved on and key injuries suffered in camp and early in the season, McNeill and the Pirates did well to go 5-7. That was the first of what is now three straight losing seasons with Scottie Montgomery overseeing the last two.
Following a pair of 3-9 showings, Montgomery enters 2018 with five new assistants. One of them is defensive coordinator David Blackwell, a former ECU player who arrives from Jacksonville State (co-DC) and is charged with waking up a defense that yielded the most points (45.0) and yards (542) in the nation last season. On the other side of scrimmage, with Gardner Minshew off to Washington State as a graduate transfer, the remaining quarterbacks have combined for one career pass attempt. At least Montgomery now has many of his recruits plugged into the two-deep. It is time for those players to yield some dividends and lead the program to better days.
C-USA | UTEP
The Miners have nowhere to go but up following a winless season in which the offense totaled less than half that of their opponents in six of 12 games. OC Brent Pease was let go after three weeks and head coach Sean Kugler stepped down after five games with former UTEP coach Mike Price being dusted off to finish the season on an interim basis. Dana Dimel, who had stints as the head coach at Wyoming and Houston and spent the last nine years as the OC at Kansas State, was hired to take over a program that has won nine games since going to a bowl in 2014.
To help bolster an offense that topped out at 21 points, Dimel signed quarterback Kai Locksley, last season’s JC player of the year. The son of Alabama OC Mike Locksley took a circuitous route to El Paso where he will compete with senior Ryan Metz. A number of returning players combined with other JC transfers and incoming freshmen give Dimel plenty of parts to mesh in fall camp.
Victories will likely continue to be hard to come by for a program that has lost 20 of its last 22 games against FBS competition. Dimel should at least inject some life into the offense, which can only help a decent defense that was put in many bad spots last season. While it sounds simple, the truth of the matter is any improvement in 2018 starts with moving the chains – the Miners had seven games of 12 or fewer first downs -- and putting some points on the board.
MAC | Miami (Ohio)
When Chuck Martin took over the RedHawks following a winless 2013 he became the team’s fifth head coach in 11 years, a stretch that commenced with Terry Hoeppner’s final season. As such Martin is the first coach since Hoeppner whose tenure goes beyond four years in Oxford. Because 2018 will be his fifth year it is expected that the program finally rounds the corner it has approached the past couple of seasons. In 2016 Miami lost its first six games, won six in a row and fell short in its bowl (last-second blocked FG) to finish 6-7. That was followed by a 5-7 showing last year that increased the program’s run of consecutive losing seasons to seven.
There was plenty good feeling heading into 2017. A couple of early injuries, the eventual loss of QB Gus Ragland for three games due to a leg injury and five defeats by eight points or less resulted in plenty of disappointment. Still, Martin was given a two-year extension through 2020.
The RedHawks head into this season with Ragland, who sparked the 2016 turnaround, among many senior starters on offense. A defense that finished 45th in the country (368 yards) and third in the conference also has several returning seniors. Add it up and there is no reason why Miami cannot finally turn that corner, snap its streak of losing seasons and be in the running for a MAC East title. Otherwise, Martin likely will not be in position to fulfill the extension.
MWC | UNLV
Notwithstanding last year’s season-opening loss to visiting Howard that will not soon be forgotten, in either Vegas or D.C., Tony Sanchez has the Rebels moving in the right direction. In each of his three seasons the team increased its win total by one and finished 5-7 last year. In addition to the Howard defeat, UNLV suffered other frustrating losses, including against rival Nevada to end the season.
Entering his fourth season since arriving from nearby prep power Bishop Gorman, Sanchez has a depth chart comprised mostly of his players. He has an exciting young quarterback in sophomore Armani Rogers and an outstanding running back in senior Lexington Thomas, who many consider to be the best in the conference. Sanchez began to shore up his defense (113th last season) by hiring Tim Skipper, who was the linebackers coach at Florida a year ago.
It is an exciting time when it comes to football in Vegas. The school broke ground this winter on a new facility that should be ready early next year and the Raiders are arriving in time for the 2020 season when a new stadium that will also host the Rebels opens for business. For now, a favorable schedule combined with the returning talent should yield a breakthrough season and UNLV’s third bowl since 1994. With the improvement shown on his watch to date, the lack of that happening may not cost Sanchez, who is signed through 2021. But now is the time to take another step or two.
Sun Belt | Texas State
It is not so much that the Bobcats have failed to go to a bowl in their seven seasons in the FBS. After all, they were eligible after going 6-6 in 2013 and 7-5 in 2014. Rather, the program has won all of seven games the past three seasons. Since arriving from FCS power James Madison coach Everett Withers has a pair of 2-10 campaigns on his resume.
Frankly, it is hard to imagine things getting worse. The Bobcats have defeated an FBS opponent only once in their last 21 attempts. That was last season against a Coastal Carolina program that was transitioning to the FBS and doing so with coach Joe Moglia on leave.
Granted, Withers has had very young teams, which he will once again in his third season at the helm in San Marcos. Those young players at least have some seasoning and that should result in some progress as the schedule marches along. That progress, though, needs to be reflected in more than just the team’s play, but also in the form of at least a couple more wins.
|
41b13753dbfaf93260454319b6a171f0
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2018/12/18/tampa-bay-rays-build-on-2018-success-by-spending-for-2019/
|
Tampa Bay Rays Build On 2018 Success By Spending For 2019
|
Tampa Bay Rays Build On 2018 Success By Spending For 2019
Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash got a lot out of a team that appeared to be in a for a long 2018... [+] season, but went on to win 90 games. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) Getty
That was rather refreshing, wasn’t it Rays fans?
The team that spent a good chunk of last winter, including the early days of spring training, ridding itself of fan favorite Evan Longoria and several other players while taking on a collection of uncertainties that had most everybody resigned to something along the lines of a 100-loss season, went to Vegas and spent $30 million on Charlie Morton.
Signing Morton, who was fitted for a World Series ring a little over a year ago, signaled ownership is serious about building on a surprising 2018 campaign that saw the Tampa Bay win 90 games. Indeed, the two-year deal for the right-hander provided a dose of positive energy a day after it was announced the team’s Tampa stadium deal, not that there was much of a deal, was kaput leaving many to wonder about the Rays' future.
This is about 2019, though, which means taking a peek back at 2018 when many scoffed, especially the purists, about Kevin Cash’s decision last season to go with an “opener” for an inning or two. While it made many of the team’s pitching lines look like something out of a Grapefruit League game, it was a strategy that worked and worked very well as the Rays were in the wild card hunt late. Not that Cash had it planned all along. Injuries played a huge part in having to manipulate and massage the pitching staff into something that became far more than simply serviceable.
As the summer of 2018 progressed the lineup began to have the look and feel of 2019. Corner outfielders Tommy Pham and Austin Meadows were acquired at the trade deadline and joined a team that had a harmonious clubhouse vibe thanks to the likes a 28-year-old rookie and jack-of-all-trades Joey Wendle and a number of younger first-year players such as the inseparable Jake Bauers and Willy Adames, who manned first and short, respectively.
Jake Bauers? Well, I guess it would not be the Rays if there wasn’t a head-scratcher thrown in. It would have seemed the 23-year-old left-handed hitter had a bright future with the club. Alas, Bauers was dealt to Cleveland in a three-team deal that net Tampa Bay the Cuban-born corner infielder Yandy Diaz.
VP Chaim Bloom and GM Erik Neander feel that, despite all of 27 homers in more than 2,100 professional at-bats, the right-handed hitter will launch some baseballs over the Tropicana Field wall. Diaz hits the ball with authority, no doubt, but at 27 he has yet to develop a long-ball stroke.
With first baseman/DH C.J. Cron, who hit 30 homers last season, having been designated for assignment before landing in Minnesota, a big bat is certainly needed in the middle of the lineup. While Mike Zunino, acquired from Seattle for outfielder Mallex Smith in November, has demonstrated 20-homer power, the .207 career hitter and native Floridian is valued mostly for his defense.
Designated hitter Nelson Cruz and catcher J.T. Realmuto, despite Zunino’s acquisition, are names that have been bandied about as potential targets to land in St. Pete. And, with Cron departed, who plays first? Candidates abound, though none stand out among Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Ji-Man Choi.
As for the pitching staff, Cash is not likely to go away from the “opener.” Morton’s acquisition, after going 29-10 with a 3.36 ERA in his two seasons with the Astros, bolsters the rotation with another legit starter. The 35-year-old joins Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the latter acquired at the trade deadline from Pittsburgh along with Meadows for Chris Archer, to form what could be a very dependable top three.
After that, well, there are plenty of arms with the likes of a healthy Jake Faria and Wilmer Font. Ryan Yarbrough, who won 16 games as a rookie while doing everything Cash asked of him, started a half dozen games, a figure that could grow in 2019. As it was, the lefty was very effective in following an “opener” and bridging the early and late innings.
Barring setbacks Brent Honeywell and Jose Deleon could be available about mid-season after returning from Tommy John surgery. If that were to happen, and depending on how things otherwise develop, a surplus of pitching could enhance Tampa Bay’s prospects at the trade deadline.
While Sergio Romo made the type of history that seemingly could only be made with the entertaining 2018 Rays, the veteran became the team’s closer. The free agent is not expected back, however, leaving hard-throwing lefty Jose Alvarado and righty Ryne Stanek, who “opened” 29 games, as possible closers.
A couple of questions that abound throughout the roster may be answered in the coming days while others may wait until spring training, or longer.
At least the off-season leading into 2019 seems light years removed from that of 2018. For Rays fans that is very refreshing.
|
9a61462aa51192c8753361adae9bf03e
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2019/03/31/former-michigan-state-center-anthony-ianni-shares-his-story-of-overcoming-autism-bullying/
|
Former Michigan State Center Anthony Ianni Shares His Story Of Overcoming Autism, Bullying
|
Former Michigan State Center Anthony Ianni Shares His Story Of Overcoming Autism, Bullying
Anthony Ianni travels the country speaking out against bullying and educating people about autism.... [+] (Photo courtesy Michigan Department of Civil Rights) Michigan Department of Civil Rights
Anthony Ianni faced many challenges growing up.
By the time he was 11 years of age he was six feet tall and wore a size-13 shoe. Consider that he was also autistic and, well, he was a big and easy target for schoolmates, neighborhood kids and whoever else thought it would be fun to harass and razz somebody that was “different.”
“All the time,” Ianni said of the frequency in having to deal with his tormentors. “I was bullied from my kindergarten days until I was a freshman in high school. A lot of it was because of my autism, because I would say and do things differently than everybody else. I was bullied in middle school because I was the biggest kid around.”
At age four Ianni was diagnosed with pervasive development disorder, which is on the autism spectrum. Specialists told his parents there was little if any chance their son would succeed in school. A basketball player at a Big Ten program? Good luck getting into college.
His disorder was characterized by difficulties in deciphering aspects of language such as nouns, verbs, idioms, sarcasm and jokes. He often could not understand if people were being serious or were kidding, which resulted in occasional outbursts of frustration.
“I had a really tough time understanding a lot of those things, especially the sarcasm and jokes,” said Ianni, who was a center for two seasons at Grand Valley State and two seasons at Michigan State. “I still have a lot of those same struggles to this day, but I have learned to cope with the fact that I am going to have those struggles for the rest of my life and I am okay with that.”
For the past six years, and through his Relentless Tour campaign, Ianni, an employee of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, has been traveling the country speaking out against bullying and educating people about autism. His audience is generally upper elementary school through high school, though he also speaks at colleges and universities, including engaging in leadership discussions with athletic teams.
“I love what I do and I have such great passion for what I do,” said the husband of Kelly and father of two boys, four-year old Knox and one-year-old Nash.
The Iannis have always had great passion for athletics. Anthony’s father, Greg, was an All-Big Ten baseball player at MSU and recently retired following a quarter-century of service in the school’s athletic department, most recently as deputy athletic director.
His mother, Jamie, played three sports at Adrian (Mich.) College and his sister, Allison, played volleyball at Pacific and Michigan State.
Attending sporting events as a youngster, though, could be problematic. That was especially so with football games at Spartan Stadium and basketball games at the Breslin Center. Noise, such as buzzers signifying timeouts and whatever was blaring from arena and stadium speakers could be overbearing. Such noise sensitivity is common among autistic individuals.
“It was like it was too much of an overload for me,” he recalled. “I would put my head in my mom’s lap the whole game because I could not take it.”
Ianni would eventually adapt by placing his hands over his ears when he knew it would get loud. Instead of keeping his hands over his ears until the noise subsided, he would slowly remove them so that he could grow accustomed to the noise. Through repeatedly doing this at sporting events his discomfort subsided when exposed such acoustic stimulation.
“I created ways to control the sounds that I was exposed to,” he noted.
There were no such ways to lessen the frequency of the harassment he had to put up with at school. Thanks to those who loved him and cared enough to look after him, Ianni was able to make it through elementary school and middle school.
“Those first nine years I was in school were miserable,” he said. “There were days I went home questioning whether or not I wanted to go back to school the next day. Luckily, I had a great support system to back me up every day. Whether it was family, friends or teachers, they had my back every day.”
Through his Relentless Tour campaign Anthony Ianni speaks to grades 3-12 and other groups, including... [+] college athletic teams. (Photo courtesy Michigan Department of Civil Rights) Michigan Department of Civil Rights
Basketball was an outlet, one that allowed Ianni to escape the daily torment. Starting with his sophomore year of high school more and more people began to realize how good he was. Suddenly, Ianni didn’t stand out because of his developmental disorder.
“It was really tough growing up, but that’s where basketball came into play,” he said. “The harder I worked in the classroom and on the court, the more results I got as far as school and basketball. That’s when people started to notice and I kind of earned everybody’s respect.”
Ianni’s diligence on the court, which resulted in earning all-league and all-area honors at Okemos High, which is a couple miles from East Lansing, and in the classroom served as a springboard to college. At first, and at the urging of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, Ianni attended Division-II Grand Valley State in Allendale, Mich.
His desire was to walk on at MSU. Izzo, long a family friend, suggested he should not turn down the full ride GVSU was offering. So, it was off to GVSU where Ianni spent the first two years of his collegiate career.
While Ianni was appreciative of the overall experience at the school, which he said has outstanding resources for those on the autism spectrum, he felt the coaching staff could have been better understanding of his situation. When the assistant coach who recruited him and grew close to him left for another opportunity, Ianni thought it was time to move on as well. He did so with no hard feelings.
“To this day I am thankful for the opportunity Grand Valley State gave me,” he said. “I made a great number of relationships that I maintain to this day. Allendale will always have a special place in my heart.”
Ianni’s dream was to put on a Michigan State Spartans’ jersey, which he did when he walked on with Izzo’s program.
After sitting out the 2009-10 season as a transfer, Ianni got into 27 games in his two seasons as an active player.
“Coach Izzo and his staff had a really good idea of what they were working with,” said Ianni, who has a degree in sociology from MSU. “His staff knew about me, but they had to adapt a little bit to helping me with some of the strategies and plays. The coaches were very accepting.”
Ianni, who also speaks highly of the support system and resources at Michigan State, said that based on research he and a couple of staff members within the Spartans’ athletic department undertook, the thinking was that he was the first Division-I basketball player known to be on the autism spectrum.
“We all thought that was pretty cool,” he said. “When the news got out about me and my situation at Michigan State, it was something that gave people a lot of hope. I know not everybody on the spectrum will have the same successes as me, but what happened to me can be a goal of many parents who have kids on the spectrum.”
Kalin Bennett, a Kent State basketball recruit, is the first autistic individual to sign a national letter of intent. The Arkansas native signed with the Golden Flashes last November.
“I’ve always wondered when and where (an autistic individual with a Division I basketball program) was going to happen again and to see it has finally happened puts a smile on my face,” said Ianni. “I’ve reached out to Kalin and his mom to let them know I’m in their corner and if they need anything from me that I am here for them. I look forward to watching him during his four-year career at Kent State.”
Ianni blended in nicely with the Spartans. He did not tell anybody about his autism during his first couple of years in East Lansing. Two of his teammates, one from high school and one from the travel circuit, were aware he was on the spectrum, so it was not a big deal. Furthermore, as he grew older it became more difficult for the average person to detect his struggles.
There were awkward moments, though. Ianni recalls a specific instance in which a misunderstanding with teammate and current Golden State Warriors’ forward Draymond Green led to a flareup.
“He was joking in the weight room with us one time, about having to do an extra workout, and I fell for it,” he said. “I did the extra workout during (the lifting session) and the whole team was laughing about it. I threw a fit. I had one of my outbursts.”
The team’s strength and conditioning coach, Mike Vorkapich, stepped in to calm things. Vorkapich told Green that Ianni was autistic and may not understand if somebody is speaking in literal terms or not.
Green apologized the next day and told Ianni how impressed he was with how far he had come.
“That day changed our relationship,” said Ianni. “I earned his respect not just as a teammate, but more importantly, as a friend and vice versa.”
Earning respect is something Ianni does on a daily basis while doing his part to enhance the general public’s awareness of autism. Those on the spectrum have the same dreams, desires and goals as anybody else. That is the message Ianni repeatedly delivers.
“You can do extraordinary things,” he said. “Autism doesn’t define who you are. You define who you are.”
It’s a game of inches — and dollars. Get the latest sports news and analysis of valuations, signings and hirings, once a week in your inbox, from the Forbes SportsMoney Playbook newsletter. Sign up here.
|
67f3d795f9773d405151c6e03c125dd4
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2019/08/11/after-a-whirlwind-year-blake-barnett-is-prepared-to-take-charge-at-south-florida/
|
After A Whirlwind Year, Blake Barnett Is Prepared To Take Charge At South Florida
|
After A Whirlwind Year, Blake Barnett Is Prepared To Take Charge At South Florida
Blake Barnett totaled more than 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2018 despite missing two games and ... [+] playing injured in others. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
To say 2018 came and went at a dizzying pace would understate the reality for Blake Barnett.
Barnett and his wife, Maddie, welcomed son Brooks into the world in March. In May, the California native crossed the country to enroll at the University of South Florida as a graduate transfer. Three months later he was among a trio of quarterbacks battling to become the Bulls’ starter, a competition from which he emerged on top with about a week to go in preseason camp.
Heading into the 2019 season Barnett is not only the unquestioned starting quarterback, but there is no comparing his level of comfort from a year ago.
“I am more comfortable in my surroundings as far as with my team because I know I am better, I know how they play on the field, I know how they react when they are upset,” he said. “But I am not comfortable in terms of feeling lackadaisical, by any means. This is the first camp I have gone into where I am the starter, so I have tried to stay persistent in competing every rep, making sure that I do the best that I can to help this offense.”
The 23-year-old native of Corona, Calif. is doing his best off the field as well. He and Maddie, who rode the waves off the Jersey Shore to a competitive surfing career, are raising their son in a community they have embraced and within which they feel right at home.
“Absolutely great,” Barnett said when asked about how he and his family have adjusted to the Sunshine State. “The Tampa community has been very welcoming. We feel very welcome here and Tampa is home.”
A welcome sight to coach Charlie Strong is a bigger quarterback who is demonstrating his leadership skills after merely trying to find his way a year ago.
“When Blake came into the program last year he was just trying to feel out everything and just see where he actually fit,” said Strong, entering his third season at USF. “This year you can see his leadership and how he has taken on the team and how he is looking for the team to build. He has gotten bigger and stronger and he has developed into the team leader.”
MORE FOR YOUCrisis Management: Justin Thomas And His Endorsement Portfolio After Being Dropped By Ralph Lauren
That sense of leadership is felt in the huddle. Stanley Clerveaux, whose 22 receptions last season are second among USF’s returning wideouts, recognizes that a much different Barnett has been commanding the offense in fall camp.
“Blake, I would say last year was kind of more timid and now he is more vocal,” said the sixth-year player. “You can tell he’s a leader now. He’s grown into it and he’s comfortable.”
Barnett had quite a journey to get to this point. Before arriving at USF he had stints at Alabama and Arizona State with a non-playing, but important layover at a junior college shoehorned in between.
A five-star recruit out of Corona’s Santiago High, Barnett committed to Alabama the summer prior to his senior year. He enrolled early and spent 2015 as a redshirt before opening the 2016 season as Nick Saban’s starting quarterback.
Barnett led the Crimson Tide onto the field against USC in Arlington, Texas, but through most of the blowout win over the Trojans it was Jalen Hurts, and not Barnett, who ran the offense.
With Hurts possessing the keys to coordinator Lane Kiffin’s unit, Barnett appeared twice more in mop-up roles before leaving Tuscaloosa after the Tide’s fourth game.
Barnett returned to California and immediately enrolled at Palomar College, about an hour’s drive from the family home. He met all of the academic requirements that allowed him to maintain his eligibility for the 2017 season and transfer to another Football Bowl Subdivision program without having to sit out a year.
That program he chose was Arizona State where a familiar face, former Alabama receivers coach Billy Napier, was brought on by head coach Todd Graham to be the offensive coordinator. Though eligible to play that season, Barnett needed a waiver from the NCAA permitting him to play in the Sun Devils’ first four games instead of waiting for the fifth game, or one year from the time he left Tuscaloosa.
As it turned out, he did not see much playing time. Manny Wilkins won the job — Memphis quarterback Brady White, who Barnett played against in high school and will face November 23 in Tampa, redshirted for the Sun Devils that season — and Barnett attempted all of five passes.
Barnett remained at ASU through the spring of 2018 and received his degree in liberal studies. With Wilkins entering his senior season entrenched as the starter, Barnett, with two years of eligibility remaining and degree in hand, was on his way USF.
Though it was frustrating to not break through in Tuscaloosa or Tempe, Barnett appreciates his time at both universities.
“I learned a lot of things,” he said toward the end of fall camp last year. “They are very different programs, but I learned from different people, taking knowledge from meeting different people, being in different places, different experiences.”
Last season he added USF to his checklist of experiences. The Bulls opened 7-0 and cracked the top 25 before losing their final six games. Barnett went 7-3 as the starter and threw for 2,710 yards and 12 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. He also ran for 301 yards and eight TDs, but calf, ankle and shoulder injuries took their toll in the season’s back end when he missed two games and was far from 100 percent in at least a couple of others.
An off-season conditioning program resulted in Barnett adding 10 to 15 pounds to bring his weight to about 230. He also worked under the tutelage of former NFL quarterback Jordan Palmer and 3DQB, a company owned by former major-league pitcher Tom House that has trained, among others, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan.
In addition, Barnett maintained his ongoing relationship with San Diego-based quarterback instructor George Whitfield Jr. In other words, no stones were left unturned in preparation for this season.
“This is my last chance in college and I wanted to be prepared,” he said. “This is an offense that I think fits not only our team, but myself. I am trying to make sure I can do everything that I can to help this team succeed.”
The offense Barnett referred to is an exciting and breath-of-fresh-air style run by new coordinator Kerwin Bell. The former University of Florida quarterback, NFL and CFL signal-caller and head coach of 2018 Division-II national champ Valdosta State, brought his electric playbook — the Blazers averaged 52 points last season — to USF.
Bell arrived in January and took over for Sterlin Gilbert, who left USF to be the head coach at McNeese State. Gilbert was widely criticized for a predictable run game and lack of imagination. There are no such issues with Bell during fall camp.
“Coach has brought some really, really exciting things to not only this offense, but this team,” said Barnett, who is working toward a master’s degree in entrepreneurship. “I cannot express enough how excited we are for this upcoming season just because of the options that we have. The offense is extremely dynamic, we have great playmakers and the plays that (are designed) to get the playmakers the ball are really going to make a difference this year.”
Barnett’s retention from spring to fall camp and general understanding of the system have earned Bell’s praise.
“I think he is playing at a lot higher level than at the end of the spring and I am very pleased with that,” he said. “We talked about knowing your five progressions, getting through them and cancelling those things out as fast as possible. Don’t get stuck on progression three when you can get to four and five. That comes with knowledge of the offense and he’s really come back out here and has gotten through his progressions a lot better than when we left the spring. I am excited about him.”
There is an unmistakable air of excitement surrounding the Bulls as they prepare for their season opener against visiting Wisconsin on the evening of August 30. Of course, Barnett needs to stay healthy on a team that does not have a backup who has thrown a pass in a college game. Furthermore, no matter how different and exciting the offense may look, the unit cannot do it all.
Unless a defense that last season allowed 248 rushing yards per game (122nd nationally) tightens the screws — Badgers’ running back and Heisman candidate Jonathan Taylor will serve as a monumental test out of the gate — the Bulls could find themselves in a season full of shootouts.
One thing seems pretty clear and that is a year has indeed made quite a difference for the young husband, father, grad student and quarterback as he heads into his final season of college football.
“I could not be more proud of how Blake and Maddie are raising Brooks and how they have juggled everything,” said Blake's father, Lance Barnett. “Getting his undergrad degree, raising a family and working toward his master’s degree while playing Division-I football is not easy. He’s happy and he put in a lot of hard work this off-season. Stars are aligning for him his final year. He is finally getting to run the offense that he has always wanted to run. He’s all in. This is it.”
It’s a game of inches — and dollars. Get the latest sports news and analysis of valuations, signings and hirings, once a week in your inbox, from the Forbes SportsMoney Playbook newsletter. Sign up here.
|
b4d045d05c4ac83d190c927265899fa4
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2019/10/03/yandy-diaz-and-charlie-morton-showed-why-the-tampa-bay-rays-coveted-them/?via=indexdotco
|
Yandy Diaz And Charlie Morton Showed Why The Tampa Bay Rays Coveted Them
|
Yandy Diaz And Charlie Morton Showed Why The Tampa Bay Rays Coveted Them
Austin Meadows thought Yandy Diaz would have a big wild card game against Oakland. Meadows twice ... [+] greeted Diaz after the latter homered in the first and third innings. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Getty Images
Tampa Bay’s off-season acquisitions of Charlie Morton and Yandy Diaz raised eyebrows for different reasons.
That the Rays signed Morton to a two-year, $30-million deal (club option for 2021) last December was a pleasant surprise. After all, the organization is not known for signing players to eight-figure deals. In fact, the $15 million per is a team record.
Eight days earlier the Rays traded for Yandy Diaz. In a three-team deal Tampa Bay sent lefty-swinging first baseman Jake Bauers and $5 million to Cleveland for Diaz.
Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon in Oakland when Austin Meadows said that Diaz “is going to be a force out there for us tonight.”
He wasn't kidding.
Diaz led off the Rays’ first postseason game in six years with a home run and went deep again in the third inning in the Rays’ 5-1 American League wild card win over the A’s.
That's one more home run than Diaz hit in 265 MLB at-bats prior to this season. In typical Rays number-crunching fashion, the team acquired a player whose stat were far from sparkling, but felt they could help him become a productive player.
Specifically, the Rays felt Diaz's propensity for hard hit balls would ultimately result in baseballs banging off of and disappearing beyond outfield walls. Furthermore, in 516 minor league games in the Cleveland system, Diaz had a .413 on-base percentage and walked more than he struck out.
MORE FOR YOUAEW Dynamite Results: Winners, News And Notes On February 24, 2021WWE NXT Results: Winners, News And Notes On February 24, 2021‘Big Show’ Paul Wight Joins AEW In Shocking Development
“He’s a guy we’ve been on for a while,” said Chaim Bloom, the Rays’ senior VP of operations, after making the deal. “We really like his bat.”
They certainly do now.
What might be most eye-opening about Diaz’s three-hit, two-homer performance Wednesday night is that he returned to the lineup only on Sunday in Toronto after missing more than two months. He had last appeared in the Tampa Bay lineup on July 22 against the visiting Red Sox when he fouled a ball of his left foot, an injury that ultimately revealed a hairline fracture and the thought he would be done for the season.
Instead, the 28-year-old Diaz, who hit 14 homers in 307 at-bats, became the fifth player in MLB history to homer in his first two postseason plate appearances. One of the other four, Evan Longoria, did it with the Rays in 2008 against Boston.
Morton also added his name to the record book by becoming the first pitcher in MLB postseason history to win three winner-takes-all contests.
The 35-year-old right-hander was signed after going 29-10 in two seasons in Houston that included being fitted for a World Series ring in 2017. Not only did he go 16-6 with a 3.05 ERA that was third in the American League this season, but he was an invaluable veteran presence on a young pitching staff and within the walls of the clubhouse.
It was laborious at times, for sure, for Morton on Wednesday night. But he dug down and made his best pitches when it mattered most, as he typically does. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and went on to allow a single unearned run in five innings of work. By the time the bullpen was summoned the scoreboard reflected what would be the final tally.
For Morton, Diaz and their teammates it is now off to Houston for the best-of-five American League Division Series.
Facing Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke and the rest of the Astros is a huge order for any team. Yet, on Wednesday night Morton and Diaz provided the latest examples as to why the Rays should never be overlooked.
It’s a game of inches — and dollars. Get the latest sports news and analysis of valuations, signings and hirings, once a week in your inbox, from the Forbes SportsMoney Playbook newsletter. Sign up here.
|
db6452c74e0c20bd409ef82ab6ef908f
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2020/11/25/safety-enhancements-160-million-in-renovations-have-raymond-james-stadium-ready-for-super-bowl-lv/
|
Safety Enhancements, $160 Million In Renovations Have Raymond James Stadium Ready For Super Bowl LV
|
Safety Enhancements, $160 Million In Renovations Have Raymond James Stadium Ready For Super Bowl LV
Raymond James Stadium in Tampa has undergone numerous upgrades the past four years. In addition, ... [+] several pandemic-related safety enhancements were addressed prior to this season and in advance of Super Bowl LV. Tampa Sport Authority
While the National Football League is taking a-wait-and-see approach with respect to the number of fans that will be able to attend Super Bowl LV in Tampa, renovations and upgrades to Raymond James Stadium have the venue ready for any potential turnout on February 7.
Thanks to the efforts of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ ownership and the Tampa Sports Authority, which manages the stadium, renovations have taken place over a four-year period at a cost of about $160 million.
Work commenced with the leadup to college football’s national championship game between Clemson and Alabama in January 2017. Fans attending Buccaneers and college football games since that point have undoubtedly noticed the many upgrades within the seating bowl and other areas of the venue, which opened in 1998.
The pandemic added an unexpected layer of installations prior to this season. To that extent, Tampa Sports Authority president and CEO Eric Hart said $6.5 million in federal funding provided by the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package signed into law by President Trump in late March, was used to address the health and safety of fans and staff. (Raymond James Stadium was approved for $10.4 million in federal funding. Hart said nearly $4 million will be returned and used for “other programs” in Hillsborough County, which is where the stadium is located.)
As is the case in many NFL and college football venues during the pandemic, the fan experience at Raymond James Stadium is touchless and cashless from the parking lot, to ticketing, to concessions and the fan shop. The Super Bowl will be a cashless event, something that will be the norm, so the stadium’s staff is already well versed.
MORE FOR YOURoger Federer ‘Not Coming Back To Make Up The Numbers’UFC 259 Full Fight Video: Watch Amanda Nunes Knock Out Ronda RouseyEverton’s $700 Million Stadium: A Wow Factor Risk Worth Taking
Touchless restroom fixtures were installed as were nearly 300 hand sanitizers throughout the venue, which also has social distancing measures applied at entry points and on the concourses.
Of the eight games the stadium’s tenants, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the University of South Florida, have played at Raymond James Stadium this season, the last six have been in front of a limited number of fans. Attendance is capped at 25%, or roughly 16,000 fans in the 65,618-seat venue. The fan-attended games have served as test runs for the Super Bowl.
“We have not seen significant issues and, actually, people are getting more comfortable with (the safety upgrades),” said Hart. “I think the plan that we have in place has worked pretty well and we continue to tweak it. We learn from each event and we are getting to the point where people are starting to get used to it and understanding it.”
Renovations prior to the 2017 national championship game included the installation of high-definition video boards, an upgraded sound system and enhanced WiFi capabilities.
Several other projects were already underway or planned prior to the NFL’s October 2017 announcement that Tampa would host Super Bowl LV. Those enhancements included new seatbacks, upgraded concession areas, expansion of the team store and renovations to the club levels and suites.
The Super Bowl announcement set the wheels in motion for additional projects that were completed by the start of the current season. Upgrading the field’s drainage system and the installation of LED lighting were among major projects that were tackled. According to Hart, the lighting system features more than two million color schemes.
“(The field drainage) was still good, but we decided we wanted it to drain a little better,” said Hart. “But the big one was the lights. That really added a dynamic feature to the venue and makes for a nice fan experience.”
An upgraded fan experience can be realized outside the walls of the stadium as well. Hart noted more than $50 million was spent on 5G technology that will extend to all parking lots that surround the venue. The system is not complete, but should be by roughly mid-December.
“From our understanding, we are the only building in the world that will have this throughout the building,” said Hart. “It is designed for all the new 5G users. Technology wise, the building has been significantly upgraded.”
Stadium personnel can also communicate via a public address system from anywhere in the building to any of the parking lots. Speaker systems were installed atop 5G towers located in the parking area.
“When we have an issue where we need to communicate out into a remote lot, we can stage, we can break it into zones and actually make announcements from anywhere in the building to anywhere in the parking lots,” said Hart.
That project represents the back end of a string of renovations and upgrades playing out over the past four years. Combined with health and safety measures that have been put in place, the stadium experience should be pleasing to fans attending the Super Bowl.
“Everything from the video boards, to the suites to the LED lighting and several other improvements have made it possible to host another Super Bowl,” said Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, which takes the lead when it comes to bidding on and hosting major sporting events in the Tampa Bay region and which is working hand-in-hand with the Super Bowl host committee. “The Tampa Sports Authority and Raymond James Stadium have done a fantastic job preparing the building for fans. They have really transformed the stadium to make it the safest environment possible. Naturally, that is something that we are really pleased and excited about for Super Bowl LV.”
****
Super Bowl LV will be the fifth to be played in Tampa. Here are the outcomes of the previous four:
XVIII January 22, 1984: Raiders 38 Redskins 9 (Tampa Stadium)
XXV January 27, 1991: Giants 20 Bills 19 (Tampa Stadium)
XXXV January 28, 2001: Ravens 34 Giants 7 (Raymond James Stadium)
XLIII February 1, 2009: Steelers 27 Cardinals 23 (Raymond James Stadium)
|
41a3fa7181273609950c55f35ce818c8
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2021/01/15/steve-sarkisian-was-the-eighth-assistant-under-nick-saban-at-alabama-to-leave-for-a-head-coaching-job/
|
Steve Sarkisian Was The Eighth Assistant Under Nick Saban At Alabama To Leave For A Head-Coaching Job
|
Steve Sarkisian Was The Eighth Assistant Under Nick Saban At Alabama To Leave For A Head-Coaching Job
Steve Sarkisian (r) served as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator at Alabama before taking over as ... [+] head coach at Texas. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nick Saban’s coaching tree is like a giant oak with branches that seemingly stretch on endlessly. The college football and NFL landscapes are dotted with his many disciples, a growing list that reads like a Who’s Who within the coaching fraternity.
In Saban’s 14 years at Alabama, eight assistants left his staff to take the top job elsewhere. Butch Jones and Steve Sarkisian became the seventh and eighth, respectively, in the past month.
Four of the eight had previous gigs as a head coach and four others became first-time head coaches. Here is a look at each of them in descending order.
Steve Sarkisian (At Alabama: 2016, 2019-2020)
The former Washington (2009-13) and USC (2014-15) head coach initially arrived in Tuscaloosa to serve as an offensive analyst. He left after one season to become the offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons only to return to serve in the same capacity under Saban the past two years.
Under Sarkisian, the Crimson Tide were second nationally in scoring both seasons while placing in the top six in total offense. Quarterback Mac Jones, running back Najee Harris and Heisman-winning receiver DeVonta Smith were unstoppable in leading the Tide to the national title this past season. Sarkisian was hired by Texas on January 2 and remained on board through the national championship game before heading to Austin.
Butch Jones (2018-2020)
Jones spent the last three seasons on Alabama’s staff, the first two as an offensive analyst earning $35,000 after receiving an $8.2-million buyout from Tennessee. Jones, who served as a special assistant to Saban this past season, was named head coach at Arkansas State on December 12. Like Sarkisian, he remained with the Crimson Tide through the national championship game. Jones had three previous head-coaching stints. He took over for Brian Kelly at Central Michigan (2007-09) and Cincinnati (2010-12) before moving on to Tennessee (2013-17).
MORE FOR YOUNBA All-Star Game 2021, Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest, Skills Challenge TV Schedule, Stream, Odds, PicksAEW Revolution 2021: Kurt Angle And 5 Major Stars Who Could DebutAEW Revolution 2021 Results: Christian Cage Debuts As Mystery Signee
Mike Locksley (2016-18)
In his three seasons under Saban, Locksley went from offensive analyst to co-offensive coordinator to being the OC in 2018 after Brian Daboll departed. While also serving as the receivers coach in 2017, Locksley oversaw a trio of impressive true freshmen: DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III.
Locksley, who was the head coach at New Mexico (2009-11) and served as the interim head coach at Maryland following the firing of Randy Edsall midway through the 2015 season, returned to College Park to take over the Terrapins following the 2018 season. One of his quarterbacks is ‘Bama transfer Taulia Tagovailoa. Locksley coached his brother, Tua, for two seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Jeremy Pruitt (2007-12, 2016-17)
Pruitt left the Alabama high school ranks to be director of player development on Saban’s initial staff in Tuscaloosa. He would eventually coach defensive backs before becoming the defensive coordinator at Florida State and Georgia. Pruitt returned to Alabama to fill the void left by Kirby Smart, who departed for Georgia after serving as the Crimson Tide’s DC in 2016-17. Pruitt then accepted his first head-coaching gig at Tennessee. He has four national championship rings from Alabama, including 2017 when his defense led the nation in allowing only 13.0 points per game.
Lane Kiffin (2014-16)
Kiffin, whose ears might still be ringing from Saban’s sideline rants, spent all or part of seven seasons as head coach with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and USC before arriving in Tuscaloosa. He spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator, winning a national title in 2015 thanks in large part to the running of Heisman winner Derrick Henry. Kiffin left to take over at FAU (2017-19), where he won two Conference USA titles before accepting the top job at Ole Miss.
Kirby Smart (2007-2015)
Smart followed Saban to Tuscaloosa from Miami where the former coached the Dolphins’ safeties. After coaching defensive backs and serving as assistant head coach in 2007, Smart was elevated to defensive coordinator in 2008 and helped lead the Tide to four national titles. Linebackers Dont’a Hightower and C.J. Mosley were among nine first-round picks on the defensive side of scrimmage during Smart’s tenure.
Smart left Alabama to become a first-time head coach at Georgia, his alma mater and where he was also an assistant. In his second season in Athens, he led the Bulldogs to the national championship game where he lost to Saban and the Crimson Tide in a memorable overtime contest.
Jim McElwain (2008-11)
McElwain arrived in Alabama from Fresno State where he served as offensive coordinator in 2007 under Pat Hill. Two of his four seasons with the Crimson Tide concluded with BCS titles, including 2009 when running back Mark Ingram became the school’s first Heisman winner.
McElwain left for his first shot as a head coach at Colorado State (2012-14) before moving on to Florida for two-plus seasons. After spending the 2018 season coaching receivers under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, McElwain took over at Central Michigan where he guided the Chippewas to a seven-game turnaround in 2019.
Curt Cignetti (2007-10)
Cignetti was the recruiting coordinator and receivers coach during Saban’s first four seasons at Alabama. He left following the 2010 season to become a first-time head coach at Division-II Indiana University-Pennsylvania, which is where his father, Frank, played and had an outstanding 20-year run as coach. Cignetti has spent the last four years leading Colonial Athletic Association members Elon and James Madison, which he guided to an FCS championship game appearance in 2019.
|
a57d61531bd62eb487529194a13dbbdd
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2021/01/22/former-packers-linebacker-sam-barrington-building-a-business-career-in-the-sunshine-state/
|
Former Packers Linebacker Sam Barrington Building A Business Career In The Sunshine State
|
Former Packers Linebacker Sam Barrington Building A Business Career In The Sunshine State
Sam Barrington spent all or part of four seasons in the NFL before embarking on a business career in ... [+] his native Florida. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sam Barrington used to tell his friends that he was much more than a football player and that the game did not define who he was. Rather, he was a businessman whose athletic talents played out on the gridiron.
Though Barrington did not expect his NFL career to be derailed while in his mid-20s, he was wise enough to understand the next play could be his last and that life would go on if football did not.
Shredded cartilage resulting from an opponent falling on his right foot early in the 2015 season essentially concluded Barrington’s playing days. However, a few years removed from putting on the pads and helmet for the last time, a growing portfolio that includes a construction equipment company has people taking notice.
Barrington’s accomplishments, including those during his time as a linebacker in the NFL, will be recognized this spring when the 30-year-old is honored by the University of South Florida Alumni Association as an “outstanding young alumni.”
“It’s amazing recognition simply because you spend everyday working to make some type of progress,” said Barrington, the father of two daughters, 11-year-old Samari and soon-to-be two-year-old Yaa. “Then one day, you look up and realize that somebody is paying attention and it means that much more. Most importantly, somebody is going to be motivated by what you are doing. Aside from God, my parents and my children, that’s one of the reasons why I do it. It is to motivate people and help people understand that they can get out and do great things as long as they spend time to invest in themselves.”
MORE FOR YOUUFC 259 Results: Winners, Bonuses And HighlightsNBA All-Star Game 2021, Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest, Skills Challenge TV Schedule, Stream, Odds, Picks4 Green Bay Packers Who Could Soon Be Salary Cap Casualties
Barrington was a standout linebacker under Jim Leavitt and Skip Holtz at USF, which is where he received his undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies and where in May he is scheduled to graduate from the Executive MBA program.
A seventh-round selection of the Green Bay Packers in 2013, Barrington emerged as a starter in 2014 and it appeared as though he might be a fixture at Lambeau Field for years to come. However, thanks to the foot injury, he played only eight games over the next two seasons with the Packers, Chiefs and Saints. He signed with the Bills in 2017, but was not an active player and his NFL career was over at age 26.
“When you have to persevere through tough times and work through injuries, that’s the kind of stuff that builds character,” he said.
Barrington has shown plenty of character with his work as a volunteer for several organizations. He was the Packers’ nominee as the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2015. In the summer of 2016, he traveled to the nation’s capital to receive the President’s Volunteer Service Award and earlier that year he was the winner of Pop Warner’s annual humanitarian award. Such honors underscore the dedication Barrington has shown others.
“My big heart comes from my mom,” said the third-oldest child born to Paris Johnson, who raised eight kids. “She is a giver and the most unselfish person I know. I thank my parents for being where I am. They are the reason I am the man that I am today.”
Barrington’s father, Sam Sr., arrived in Florida at a young age and returned to his native Ghana where he founded a family business, Sky Limit Equipment & Structure Builders Ltd. He often returned to the Sunshine State to see his kids and Barrington has made several trips to the West African country to see his father.
The bond between father and son is evident in Orlando-based Sky Limit Equipment, LLC, which Barrington launched in 2016. The firm, of which he is chief operating officer, is a separate entity from that of the Ghana-based business, but is under the Sky Limit umbrella and similar in operation in dealing with heavy-lift equipment, rigging and hauling.
Barrington splits his time between Orlando and Tampa, overseeing a business that has picked up the last two years. Work has included a six-month steel erection project at the recently-opened JW Marriott in downtown Tampa, a new building on USF’s Research Park and the Orlando Magic’s new training facility.
From its inception, Barrington desired for what is now a 12-employee company to be far more than a place where somebody punched a clock, put in a day’s work and repeated the process.
“I wanted to create a business culture where people can thrive and have control of their destiny,” he said. “I wanted a culture and atmosphere that people would be happy coming to work everyday and be like, ‘I enjoy what I am doing and I work with good people.’”
Another initiative Barrington undertook was the founding of Pro Players in Construction in 2019. The business, which specializes in helping professional athletes transition to career opportunities in the construction industry, is currently in a research and development phase.
“We are finding out what models work for our potential clients,” he said. “We have had a ton of engagement not only with businesses, but former players as well.”
Sam Barrington, who launched Orlando-based Sky Limit Equipment in 2016, at a construction site on ... [+] the campus of the University of South Florida, his alma mater. Courtesy Sam Barrington
Barrington received plenty of help in getting to this point. In addition to his parents, he speaks very highly of the support provided by Leavitt and Jason Linders. The former, now defensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic, was USF’s coach during Barrington’s freshman season of 2009. The latter an athletic administrator in a student-athlete development capacity.
Barrington was an 18-year-old freshman who became a father one week into his collegiate career. While he struggled as a freshman attempting to balance the demands of class work, football and being a teenage father, Leavitt and Linders were there for him.
“Most important, Jim Leavitt exemplified integrity, passion and accountability,” he said. “He played a big role in who I am and we still have a close relationship to this day. Jason was very pivotal. As a young man, you could walk into his office and he was going to give it to you straight. He would give you some real advice on what you need to be doing to take it to the next level.”
Linders recalls a young Barrington struggling at times to balance the demands on his overflowing plate.
“He was a true freshman with a baby and a set of responsibilities that may have distracted him and kept him from giving his all in school and football,” said Linders, who is currently a senior associate athletic director at Chicago State University. “But he really matured as he progressed through school and developed into a strong leader.”
Barrington remains close, literally, to the USF football program. The past three years he has served as color commentator on the Bulls’ radio broadcasts alongside play-by-play man Jim Louk.
“It was a true goal of mine to do analyst or commentary work after my playing career,” said Barrington, who enjoyed participating in team-related radio and television segments when he was with the Packers. “I just didn’t know it would happen so fast. My last season in the NFL was 2017 and then, in 2018, I am in the booth.”
The ability to connect with people and look beyond his playing days helped greatly in making Barrington’s career transition smooth, productive and rewarding.
“During my playing days I created relationships with people I am doing business with today,” he said. “I just always looked at what life would be like after football. I always asked myself, ‘Is there more and can I continue to grow?’”
|
cc9aba99ab8e9cc361cd011062cd12af
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlayberger/2021/02/22/only-four-american-athletic-conference-teams-are-scheduled-to-play-multiple-power-five-opponents-in-2021/
|
Only Four American Athletic Conference Teams Are Scheduled To Play Multiple Power Five Opponents In 2021
|
Only Four American Athletic Conference Teams Are Scheduled To Play Multiple Power Five Opponents In 2021
The American Athletic Conference began pushing the Power Six narrative in 2016 with the goal of ... [+] being considered a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. (Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It will be four years this spring since the American Athletic Conference released a strategic plan supported by the “Power Six” narrative the league began to push a year earlier.
While there is no question that the American is a solid conference that has since seen UCF, Cincinnati and Memphis advance to New Year’s Six bowls, the idea was and continues to be one of attaining a grander platform. Alas, that part about being a “College Football Playoff contender” has not quite worked out.
The arguments against the American joining the big boys of the Power Five include strength of its members from top to bottom and non-conference scheduling. The latter brings us to the comprehensive 2021 schedule the conference released February 18 and games against the Power Five and Notre Dame.
With the 2020 non-conference schedule mostly wiped away due to the pandemic, what was a two-division and 12-team conference in 2019 went only 6-13 in the regular season against the Power Five/Notre Dame before splitting four bowl games.
In 2021, only four teams — USF, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Temple — in what is an 11-member conference (UConn went independent for football effective 2020) are scheduled to play two games against the Power Five/Notre Dame. All told, there are 16 such games with which to impress, not that Temple defeating Rutgers on the season’s opening weekend would rattle the landscape.
MORE FOR YOUUFC 259: Yan Vs. Sterling Prediction And PickSan Francisco 49ers Quarterback Rumors Hit Overdrive For No Apparent ReasonWWE Raw Viewership Tops Cable Ratings For World Title Change
The point is, to continue pounding the Power Six drum and be heard (true, many never tuned in to begin with) you best do some damage in the regular season and not just, say, UCF defeating Auburn in the Peach Bowl to complete an undefeated 2017, as nice as that was for the Knights and the conference.
Against that backdrop, here is a glimpse at some of the American’s scheduled games against Power Five/Notre Dame. Last season’s records and final AP rankings are noted.
Thursday, September 2
USF (1-8/0-6) at NC State (8-4/7-3 ACC)
Jeff Scott opens his second season at USF by returning to ACC country. The Wolfpack have won two of three meetings, including the most recent encounter in 2014. Two former ACC signal callers, Jarren Williams (Miami) and Cade Fortin (North Carolina), are among those who will compete for the Bulls’ top job. One of Fortin’s two starts in 2018 with the Tar Heels resulted in an overtime loss to NC State. He threw for 276 yards, one TD, one INT and ran for a score.
Saturday, September 4
No. 6 Oklahoma (9-2/6-2 Big 12) at Tulane (6-6/3-5)
The only previous meeting between the schools was a 56-14 win by the host Sooners in 2017. Oklahoma is 5-1 against AAC members since the conference kicked off in 2013, with the defeat taking place in the 2016 season opener at Houston. Should the Sooners be ranked in the preseason top five, it will mark the 12th time the Green Wave will play a top-five team since at least 1936, which is how far back the school’s records date.
Saturday, September 11
No. 13 Florida (8-4/8-2) at USF (1-8/0-6)
The Gators have made the two-hour drive south to play in Raymond James Stadium five times, each an Outback Bowl appearance. The only previous meeting was a 38-14 Florida decision in Gainesville in 2010. The Bulls are 2-5 all-time against the SEC with the wins at Auburn in 2007 and against South Carolina in the 2016 Birmingham Bowl. USF is 2-9 against the three (UF, Miami, FSU) in-state Power Five programs.
Oklahoma State defeated Tulsa, 16-7, in Stillwater last season. The Cowboys have won nine straight ... [+] in a series that dates to 1914. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) Getty Images
Tulsa (6-3/6-0) at No. 20 Oklahoma State (8-3/6-3 Big 12)
The Bank of Oklahoma Turnpike Classic, as it has been known since 2017, will be in Stillwater for the second straight year. The Golden Hurricane have lost nine straight to the Cowboys, including a 16-7 setback last year. The Pokes lead the all-time series, which dates to 1914, 42-27-5. Tulsa has lost 22 straight in Stillwater with the last win in 1951 when the teams competed in the Missouri Valley Conference and when Oklahoma State was known as Oklahoma A&M.
Friday, September 17
UCF (6-4/5-3) at Louisville (4-7/3-7 ACC)
This is the fourth straight year the Knights have scheduled at least one ACC opponent, though last season’s meeting with North Carolina was cancelled. The teams split two prior meetings, the most recent in 2013 when UCF pulled out a last-minute 38-35 win at Louisville when both programs were part of the first-year American. The Cardinals moved to the ACC in 2014. This will be the first road game at UCF for Gus Malzahn, who arrived in Orlando earlier this month. Including bowls, the Knights are 5-2 the past four seasons against Power Five programs.
Saturday, September 18
No. 8 Cincinnati (9-1/6-0) at No. 12 Indiana (6-2/6-1 Big Ten)
This could be a very entertaining quarterback matchup between Desmond Ridder and Michael Penix, who should be running the Hoosiers’ offense once again after missing the end of last season with a torn ACL. The teams played four times in the 1890s, though this will be only the tenth meeting since 1899. The Bearcats are 3-8-2 all-time against IU and the most recent meeting was in 2000, a 42-6 loss in Bloomington.
Mississippi State (4-7/3-7 SEC) at Memphis (8-3/5-3)
The 45th meeting between the schools, which met annually from 1974 to 2003, will be the first one in 10 years. MSU leads the series 34-10 and has won 12 straight. Memphis, which will be looking for a new starting quarterback with the departure of Brady White, has won five of its last seven regular season games against Power Five opponents.
Boston College (6-5/5-5 ACC) at Temple (1-6)
This Eagles will be the second Power Five opponent for the Owls, who open the season at Rutgers. BC and Temple met in Chestnut Hill in 2018 with the home team winning 45-35. No strangers, the schools first met in 1936 and BC leads the all-time series 29-7-2. They met annually from 1982 to 2004, the final 14 games in that stretch as Big East members. Temple was the only American team to not play a non-conference game last season.
Tulane (6-6/3-5) at Ole Miss (5-5/4-5 SEC)
A trip to Oxford two weeks after hosting Oklahoma makes for a hefty early portion of the schedule for the Green Wave. This will be the 72nd meeting between the former SEC foes. Tulane was a member of the conference from 1922, when it was known as the Southern Conference, until 1965. Ole Miss, which won (39-0) the last meeting in 2012 at the Superdome, leads the series 43-28 and has won 11 straight.
Tulsa (6-3/6-0) at No. 2 Ohio State (7-0/5-1)
A week after playing at Oklahoma State, the Golden Hurricane travels to Columbus to take on the College Football Playoff runner-up. The only previous meeting was in 2016, a 48-3 win by the No. 4 Buckeyes. Attendance that day was 104,410, the largest crowd Tulsa has ever played in front of. The Golden Hurricane is 1-8 against current Big Ten teams with the lone win against visiting and No. 19 Iowa in 1996. Tulsa has since lost 13 straight to ranked Power Five opponents, mostly Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly led Cincinnati from 2007-09. The Fighting Irish host the Bearcats in ... [+] 2021. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) Getty Images
Saturday, October 2
No. 8 Cincinnati (9-1/6-0) at No. 5 Notre Dame (10-2/9-0 ACC)
This will be the second straight game (a bye in between) in the state of Indiana for the 2020 AAC champion Bearcats, who will receive $1.2 million for this matchup. The only time these teams met, Knute Rockne was 12 years old and a touchdown was good for five points. That was 1900 when Notre Dame rolled, 58-0. The Irish’s Brian Kelly coached Cincinnati from 2007-09 when the Bearcats were in the Big East. After competing as a member of the ACC last season, Notre Dame resumes as an independent this year.
Saturday, November 6
Navy (3-4/1-4) at No. 5 Notre Dame (10-2/9-0 ACC)
A victim of the virus in 2020, the teams had played every year since 1927. The series, which had its contract extended through 2032, will resume in South Bend this season. The Fighting Irish won in South Bend in 2019, 52-20, and lead the all-time series 79-13-1. The Midshipmen last won in 2016 in Jacksonville, one of five Navy “home” games versus Notre Dame in recent years that were played outside Maryland. With annual dates against the Irish, Army and Air Force, Navy has only one flex non-conference slot. This year that game will be the season opener against visiting Marshall, which makes for a strong non-conference slate.
|
6779857474c475c2cd3d4285113d923c
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2014/10/08/the-top-eight-things-you-need-to-know-about-online-education/
|
The Top Eight Things You Need To Know About Online Education
|
The Top Eight Things You Need To Know About Online Education
There is a variety of opinions in the media these days regarding online learning. Depending on what you read, online education can appear to be either a cure-all or cancer. In an effort to cut through the smoke, here are the top eight established facts you need to know.
1) Online learning is here to stay. Since 1986, when the first online degree program from an accredited institution was offered (by John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California), growth has been exponential. Today, one-third of America's 21 million enrolled students are taking some or all of their instruction online. The eleven-year study by the Babson Survey Research Group shows over seven million online enrollments in the fall semester of 2013.
2) There is no significant difference in learning outcomes. Some 30 years of research, including that of the U.S. Department of Education, has found no evidence that online learning is qualitatively inferior to that obtained in a traditional classroom. Unfortunately, those who have preached online learning’s "convenience" for so long have led many to believe that this means "easy," which is not true. Online courses can be more or less rigorous depending on the instructor who develops the course and the academic department that reviews it.
At the same time, advances in information technology now make it possible to offer significantly more rigorous courses that don't “feel” as difficult because of the design of the course and the support features that can be directly integrated. For example, one online provider, Excelsior College, sought to address the fact that its students, like most students, live in fear of anything quantitative. In response, Excelsior built access to the Khan Academy's tutorials into the lessons for its required courses. The result? Both grades and completion rates went up, with no dumbing-down required.
The Forbes eBook On Paying For College Getting into college is hard enough. Paying for it shouldn’t be. Find out how to save thousands on higher ed.
It also is important to note that, given the “anytime, anywhere” nature of online instruction, it allows for maximum student readiness to learn, as opposed to fixed-time-and-place classroom formats. Employing new adaptive technologies, it is possible to incorporate a student's learning style in the organization and delivery of instruction. With such features, there is increasing reason to believe that online learning can surpass that of the typical classroom, for certain students.
3) Online learning is widespread. Eighty percent of regionally accredited institutions of higher education are now offering online access. This includes elite institutions, among them, Harvard University, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Chicago.
4) There is no single form of online learning. Learning formats range from text-only "electronic correspondence courses" to multimedia-rich offerings featuring a high degree of interactivity, access to external links, animations, and high-quality simulations.
However, most of what is currently offered, especially by public institutions, is at the less-sophisticated end of the spectrum. For schools that can afford the more-sophisticated versions, the current generation of courses is producing superior completion rates and better learning outcomes. Excelsior College again provides an illustration. It has spent over $100,000 per course to support the online version of its associate degree nursing program. Its completion rates are 96 percent, with demand growing. But the amount budgeted by most institutions for a single three-credit-hour course is typically $10-$20 thousand, resulting in a product that is less interactive, less eye-appealing, and less engaging. These drawbacks likely hike student dropout rates.
5) MOOCs are not an example of high-quality online learning. Contrary to perceptions created by the media, Massive Open Online Courses’ (MOOCs’) principal benefit to students is not their learning outcomes, but their price. The fact that such “mega courses” can issue from elite brands, such as MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, has led some to suppose that they have invented a new form of online learning. They have not.
Moreover, the notion—“If it comes from the elite schools, it must be good”—is an error. What MOOC has implemented a psychometrically prepared, nationally-normed assessment as part of its outcome measurement? None of which I’m aware. (Perhaps this is in the works.) Absent such metrics, it is difficult to know if anyone has learned very much. This may explain MOOCs’ typical, 90-plus-percent attrition rate, along with the fact that “traditional” online courses offer considerable faculty-student interaction, personalized attention, flexibility, and attention to outcomes.
6) Online learning is well-suited to adult learners, but not necessarily traditional-aged students. Recent studies by Columbia's Teachers College conflate these groups and hence come to some questionable conclusions regarding online education outcomes. For older, self-motivated, adults, online programs produce superior results to those of the classroom. For less-focused, less-sure, 18-24 year olds, there are often issues of persistence and completion. Moreover, there is reason for concern over our sons and daughters "going to college" in their bedrooms at home. Although younger students can indeed benefit from the much-publicized "blended model" (combining online learning with brick-and-mortar classrooms), they still need the experience of practicing to become an adult—living with others, reconciling differences, being held accountable for what they do and don't do, etc.
7) "Institutional" cost savings from going online are less than is often acknowledged. The only area of great savings for schools is the decreased need for classroom facilities. For adult students, there also is no need for recreation and extracurricular support services.
However, whether physical or virtual, there remains the need for the entire spectrum of enrollment management services, as well as an enhanced need for IT support. Student-savings is where we find the real difference. Those studying online can be anywhere in the world, have no commuting costs, no childcare costs, and no lost income from the need to study on campus fulltime. Here, the savings can be considerable.
8) Online learning could soon become the norm for “post-traditional” and graduate students who cannot afford the opportunity cost of traditional programs. That said, while online learning is here to stay, neither the residential campus nor the flagship research university is going to go away. Society always will need the campus-based option to help our youth become adults and citizens. Society also will always need the research-intensive institutions to continue the quest for new discoveries, and to provide the content that online learning distributes so well.
|
70958f4cabaea16a86d3c1cf0b473dc1
|
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2015/05/11/the-future-of-an-illusion-the-higher-ed-funding-cuts-myth/
|
The Future Of An Illusion: The Higher-Ed 'Funding Cuts' Myth
|
The Future Of An Illusion: The Higher-Ed 'Funding Cuts' Myth
For years now, students, parents, and taxpayers have worried over college-tuition hyperinflation and its concomitant, massive student-loan debt. And for good reason. Over the past quarter-century, average tuition prices have increased 440 percent—far more than the Consumer Price Index and even health-care costs over the same period. In an attempt to foot the ever-higher bills for college, students (and their parents) have burdened themselves with historically high student-loan debt. At roughly $1.2 trillion, student-loan debt stands above total national credit-card debt for the first time in history.
Just as often as we hear the dismal facts about the growing unaffordability of college, we hear from defenders of the higher-education status quo that the fault lies not with universities but with stingy state lawmakers, who, we are told, have been “cutting funding for schools.”
But this mantra could be on its way out. In a recent New York Times editorial, Paul Campos, a University of Colorado, Boulder law professor, offers what deserves to be the final word on the “funding-cuts-made-us-raise-tuitions” myth. And what a myth it is, as he demonstrates compellingly in the piece: “It is a fairy tale in the worst sense, in that it is not merely false, but rather almost the inverse of the truth.”
To begin, Campos reveals that public funding for higher education is “vastly larger” now than it was during the alleged “golden age of public funding in the 1960s.” While the U.S. military budget is roughly 1.8 times larger than it was fifty years ago, during the same period, “legislative appropriations to higher education are more than ten times higher.” Tuition hyperinflation, rather than being a direct effect of “funding cuts,” instead “correlates closely with a huge increase in public subsidies for higher education.” To make this point more concrete, he reminds us that, “if over the past three decades car prices had gone up as fast as tuition, the average new car would cost more than $80,000.”
Doubtless, a portion of the increased spending in higher education can be accounted for by the rise during the last two decades in the percentage of the population attending college, which Campos recognizes. Hence, although state funding for higher education has risen far faster than inflation, dollars appropriated per student are now less than they were “at their peak in 1990.”
Nevertheless, Campos is right to remind us that “appropriations per student are much higher than they were in the 1960s and 1970s, when tuition was a small fraction of what it is today.” Moreover, “by 1980, state funding for higher education had increased a mind-boggling 390 percent in real terms over the previous twenty years.” But did this “tsunami of public money” help reduce tuition? No. “Quite the contrary.”
Campos derides as “disingenuous” those defenders of the higher-education status quo who label a “large increase in public spending a ‘cut’ . . . because a huge programmatic expansion features somewhat lower per capita subsidies.” Here he provides another illustrative example: If the government had doubled the number of military bases since 1990, “while spending slightly less per base,” the charge that “funding for military bases was down,” although such funding “had nearly doubled, would properly be met with derision.” And yet this is precisely the narrative governing current discussions of the relation between government funding and tuition increases.
My own analysis of the relation between state funding and university tuitions and fees in Texas, the nation’s second largest state, echoes Campos’s findings. According to data provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, between 2000 and 2010, state funding for Texas public higher education dropped 15.9 percent on an inflation-adjusted, per-fulltime-pupil basis. During the same period, Texas university tuition and fees rose 76.1 percent. The truth behind the “funding-cuts-made-us-raise-tuitions” myth, then, is this: There has been a mild decrease in state funding that has been accompanied by a wild increase in university tuitions and fees.
Lest his analysis be smeared as “professor-bashing,” Campos is quick to point out that teachers are not the ones getting fat on this deal. Far from it. Fulltime faculty salaries today are, “on average, barely higher than they were in 1970.” Where, then, is all the taxpayers’ money going? Between 1993 and 2009, administrative positions increased at “ten times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.” A study of the California State University System finds that, while fulltime faculty members increased “from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183—a 221 percent increase.”
Campos’s focus on the role of administrative costs is supported by the findings of Benjamin Ginsberg’s research, published in his 2011 book, The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. In a Washington Monthly piece titled, “Administrators Ate My Tuition,” Ginsberg presents the book’s highlights. “Forty years ago,” he writes, “U.S. colleges employed more faculty than administrators. But today, teachers make up less than half of college employees.” Adjusting for inflation, from 1947 to 1995, “overall university spending increased 148 percent. Administrative spending, though, increased by a whopping 235 percent. Instructional spending, by contrast, increased only 128 percent, 20 points less than the overall rate of spending increase.”
Ginsberg also finds that senior administrators have done particularly well of late. From 1998 to 2003, deans and vice presidents saw their salaries increase as much as 50 percent. “By 2007, the median salary paid to a president of a doctoral degree-granting institution was $325,000. Eighty-one presidents earned more than $500,000 and twelve earned over $1 million.” Surveying these increases, a Chronicle of Higher Education report notes the difficulties that public university CEOs face when arguing that their “budgets have been cut to the bone . . . while at the same time acknowledging their rarified personal financial circumstances in states where layoffs, program closures, and pay reductions have been all too common.”
Although Campos grants that arguments might be made to defend both the boom in college enrollment and “even the explosion in administrative personnel,” he finds “no valid arguments” by which to justify the “recent trend toward seven-figure salaries” for senior administrators.
Equally indefensible is the claim offered by some of these same highly-paid administrators that “tuition has risen because public funding for higher education has been cut.”
One can only hope that the evidence provided by Campos, Ginsberg, and others will drive a stake through the heart of the “funding-cuts-made-us-raise-tuitions” myth. But don’t count on that happening just yet. The myth, Campos concludes, is as “ubiquit[ous]” as it is illusory. As long as it continues to be an unquestioned staple of the media narrative, there will be a future for this illusion, and with it, the discontents driven by disinformation.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.