Amazon has swiftly become the most disruptive company in the media and technology industries. Its potential in this space is simply off the charts: bigger than Apple’s, bigger than Google’s or Microsoft’s. It’s becoming a purer version of all three.

If you are in any way interested in this market, read the article!

Read the full article here

Read the two posts about it on VentureBeat and start agreeing with me!
Updated: Activision Blizzard could make $1.25 billion in additional revenue in next three years
Activision Blizzard chief says “we’ve never been better positioned” in video games

Like the cool new kid at school (Mean Girls, anyone?), the e-commerce evolution of the coupon (i.e. the Groupons and LivingSocials of today) has sparked a ton of venture funding interest and generated a lot of industry speculation. As daily deals companies build scale and expand reach, they are finding support from the investor community in droves. Some say this financial interest will dissipate when consumers start getting bored, the novelty wears off, the services reach a saturation point and profits suddenly dry up.

This venturebeat article briefly discusses if the Daily Deals concept iss turning out to be a bubble. It basically plugs a conference, but the numbers involved might be of interest.

While tech company IPOs have captured buzz of late, it looks like M&A activity in the sector has been booming. According to an Ernst & Young report, big deals drove the aggregate value of global technology M&A to $52.1 billion in the second quarter of 2011, nearly doubling the deal value from the first quarter (up 92 percent to be exact).

Ernst & Young said that the surge was attributed mainly to industry consolidation and by ongoing innovations in areas such as cloud computing, smart mobility, internet and mobile video, the smart grid and solar energy.

Read the full article on TechCrunch here.

Groupon’s revenue increased from $644.7 million last quarter to $878 million in the second quarter of 2011. The company managed to cut marketing costs from $208 million in the first quarter to $170 million in the second quarter 2011. However, that didn’t positively impact its net losses, which remained flat at $102.7 million for both the first and second quarter of 2011–and almost triple the $36 million loss from the second quarter of 2010. (VentureBeat)

You can really get to know (or at least that’s what they pretend) Groupon by reading their filing here. Or you can read up on the discussion surrounding GroupOn, since it’s not posting any profits and its space is being invaded by Google and others. Do you think it’s a good investment?

Over the weekend I conducted an extensive analysis comparing surname and population data from the US Census Bureau to the Google Plus user base profiles. My conclusion was that as of July 4^th there were 511,000 users in the U.S. and 1.2 million outside of the U.S. for a total of 1.7 million users.

But where it gets really interesting is when he starts discussing his own company’s path alongside Facebook.

The “business opportunity” Kopelman referenced is largely gone. Web sites may use Facebook Connect to slightly improve their conversion rates and to generate some re-engagement loops with Facebook, but Connect hardly helps third party applications grow virally. Facebook has seriously restricted its viral effect for new apps, which was the #1 reason why great entrepreneurs and developers wanted to build there in the first place.

This is deep insight into social networking from a developer/industry point of view and I’m 100% sure you will appreciate it.

Read the full article on Paul Allen’s site.