I give an enthusiastic thumbs up to www.Geni.com.
Remarkably easy to use geneology tool with some social networking aspects built in. Better seen than described.
Something like this will not compete with a major social network but is a great example of a superb niche application and the value of a great GUI, even in a well-established category (geneology).
Michael Eisner's online venture has launched its first series: Prom Queen
Short, snappy, professional episodes. Supposedly cost $100K to produce the whole series.
Episodes will be released here: http://www.promqueen.tv/episodes
This is the beginning of the professionalization of online video content and what will be a complete explosion of online video models as the cost of production and distribution falls through the floor...
I of course just love it because it is on a .tv domain!
Hmm...
Without question KKR has clocked into warp speed with deal-making. Since January, it has offered $45bn for energy company TXU in the largest buyout ever and spent $7.3bn to buy discount store Dollar General. It's at the centre of a high-profile battle to take over supermarket chain J. Sainsbury in the UK and just bid £11.4bn for retailer Alliance Boots. Yet its Monday overture to buy First Data just may trump all these others. It is making the $29bn bid for the company all on its own.
But it's not just this deal-doing velocity that may propel KKR back into the industry's record books. With about $1.9bn of ebitda, KKR is paying a lofty multiple of 15 times for First Data. That's about 40% more than where First Data's competitors trade on the public market. What's more, KKR will be financing the deal with about $21bn of debt - a racy 11 times its operating cash flow. On average, last year's buyouts were financed at 5.5 times, according to S&P/LCD. True, the company's profits are tied to consumer spending, and have proven stable. And the banks may give First Data credit for some of the cash it receives from joint ventures. But even with the cash from alliances, the deal is still financed at well over 10 times ebitda.
Full article from Breaking Views (probably will disappear behind a firewall soon).
Apollo, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, has made a relatively senior hire to head up their international efforts.
Though Apollo has a presence in Mexico and has dabbled in the Netherlands, for the most part it has left Doug Becker and Laureate free to roam the world building a massive university network.
Kaplan (part of the Washington Post) is the only other firm to have made some meaningful efforts internationally. Devry owns Ross down in the Caribbean but overall neither firm comes close to matching Laureate's international focus.
I think what has happened is that the US higher education market (adult and online) was so good for so long for the major firms that they did not feel much urgency to go international where capital investment costs are higher and private universities still tend to cater to traditional, campus-based 18-24 year students.
Astute observers will remember that Laureate is in the process of being taken private by KKR, SAC and others.
A Wall Street analyst who is a well-known commentator of the for-profit higher-education industry has jumped ship to work for one of the companies he has long been following for clients, the Apollo Group Inc.
Apollo, which is the parent company of the University of Phoenix, announced that effective today, Gregory Cappelli, an analyst with Credit Suisse, will become executive vice president for global strategy, and an assistant to John G. Sperling, the company’s founder and executive chairman.
Full but short post is on the Chronicle of Higher Education Blog.