so here's some news

Looking for an apartment to rent and or buy and while my place is great, i dont know how much its going to cost. probably somewhere between $400k and $450k. A bit much for a true 2 bedroom/ 1 bath in hoboken but maybe my landlord will be all about giving me a break. going to wait at least another year before the real estate market bottoms out and i will make an offer.

othrewise -- looking to move to the lower east side, east village, chelsea, soho, nolita. need to figure out if i want to stay in hoboken or move to manhattan, if i'm going to rent or buy or what.



http://www.streeteasy.com

paidContent.org: Hachette Filipacchi U.S. Buys Online Auto Ad Network JumpStart For Upto $110 Million

Hachette Filipacchi U.S. Buys Online Auto Ad Network JumpStart For Upto $110 Million

By Rafat Ali - Thu 19 Apr 2007 10:57 AM PST

An interesting acquisition by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S (part of French media giant Lagardere): it has bought out Jumpstart Automotive Media, the SF-based vertical ad network focused on the auto industry. The price: a cash payment of $84 million, and additional amount of $26 million based on future performance.

Hachette owns auto media brands such as Car and Driver, Road & Track and Cycle World, and Jumpstart will start selling ads for CarandDriver.com, RoadandTrack.com and CycleWorld.com. The ad network will remain as a separate brand. Jumpstart reported 2006 revenues of $17.1 million (double 2005), and was cash-positive at end 2006.
The network was founded in 2000, and didn’t take any round of funding until last year, when it raised $10 million from Alta Communications. It acts as an ad-rep for automotive inventory on a variety of sites, including NADAguides, Vehix and J.D. Power Autos. It also sells auto ads that run on ValueClick, one of the Web’s largest ad networks, and search listings on Yahoo and Google.

For Hachette and its parent Lagardere, it has indicated its M&A ambitions in the digital media sphere...see related links below. More acquisition details in release.

WSJ Article: Google's Profit Surges 69%

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
April 19, 2007 4:30 p.m.

Google Inc. said first-quarter profit surged 69%, largely as a result of improvements in advertising revenue from its core Web-search business, which is far outpacing that of rivals such as Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

That's all I have for you.

http://online.wsj.com/

Exerpt from PC World article: Microsoft Plans $3 Suite for Emerging Markets

Microsoft Plans $3 Suite for Emerging Markets
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is launching a global initiative to bring educational technology to the developing world.
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Thursday, April 19, 2007 07:00 AM PDT

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates Thursday is expected to unveil a global initiative by Microsoft to bring computers and technology education resources to emerging countries during an appearance in Beijing.

The initiative, an expansion of what Microsoft calls its "Unlimited Potential" strategy to promote technology skills and bring computers to emerging markets, includes several new programs and partnerships to offer low-cost software, education, job training and PCs, said Orlando Ayala.

Can you find Bill Gates?

The LandLord

Good Job Meg Whitman

EBay's Profit Soars 52%
With Strength in Auctions
By RIVA RICHMOND
April 18, 2007 5:02 p.m.

EBay Inc.'s net income jumped 52% in the first quarter, as the online auctioneer kept its costs in check on rising revenue and benefited from a lower tax rate, and lifted its financial projections for the rest of the year.

The San Jose, Calif., company also said it bought back about 10 million shares worth $333 million during the quarter under a program that allows it to buy another $2 billion in shares by January 2009.

"The strength of our core businesses, as well as the significant traction we're beginning to see across our newer businesses, helped us deliver great results across the board," Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a statement.

Late Wednesday, eBay reported first-quarter net income of $377.2 million, or 27 cents a share, up from $248.3 million, or 17 cents, a year ago. Revenue for the period totaled $1.77 billion, up 27% from $1.39 billion last year.

Excluding stock-based compensation and amortization of intangibles, earnings rose 34% to $460 million, or 33 cents a share, from $342.9 million, or 24 cents, a year ago.

Sanjaya, You on Fire

you may or may not know that I think the recent events around American Idol are fantastic.

from Votefortheworst.com to the contestants, i think we are getting a little too interested. take a look at this article below, i think we, as a country went text message crazy and it resulted in the following:

Research in Motion experienced a massive system-wide BlackBerry outage starting Tuesday night, according to U.S. wireless providers who carry the popular mobile-email devices. It wasn't clear what caused the outage or how quickly normal service will be restored. "We are currently experiencing a service interruption that is causing delays in sending or receiving messages," RIM said on an automated customer service help line.

The approach to New York depth chart

Its earnings season... Yahoo! Ya Noo!

Yahoo's net fell 11%, hampered by higher costs and modest revenue growth following a recent upgrade to the Internet giant's advertising system. Shares fell 8% after-hours while IBM's profit rose 8% amid a slight revenue increase, helped by software acquisitions and a pickup in demand for its technology services.

WSJ article: Intel profit rises 19%, Boosted by Tax Benefit

Intel's Net Rises 19%,
Boosted by Tax Benefit
By JONATHAN VUOCOLO and DONNA FUSCALDO
April 17, 2007 5:02 p.m.

Intel Corp.'s first-quarter net income rose 19%, boosted by a tax benefit. Microprocessor unit costs fell and previously reserved inventory was sold, more than offsetting a slight decline in revenue.
EARNINGS PREVIEWS

[Image]
Check out WSJ.com's redesigned earnings cheat sheets, with new charts, sort options, email/print features and more.
Motorola: Handset worries
Ebay: Growth concerns
Google: Not ruling out upside
Nokia: Putting heat on Motorola

The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker's earnings rose to $1.61 billion, or 27 cents a share, from $1.36 billion, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier.

Intel said results were boosted by the recognition of money previously set aside to pay taxes. That benefit lifted earnings by $300 million, or five cents a share.

Revenue fell to $8.85 billion from $8.94 billion a year earlier.

Intel had forecast revenue of $8.7 billion to $9.3 billion in January.

First-quarter gross margin was 50.1%, up from 49.6% the previous quarter but down from 55.1% a year earlier.

Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant said in a conference call that inventory in the quarter was flat. He said the company is aiming for inventory in the second quarter to remain flat to slightly higher.

Mr. Bryant declined to comment on whether the semiconductor company gained market share during the first quarter, saying only that once the data are revealed, it should be "positive" for Intel.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, Mr. Bryant said he expects any uptick in demand due to Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system has been built into Intel's financial targets.

Operating expenses fell 15% to $2.76 billion. The company saw both research and development and marketing, general and administrative costs fall. Intel also said it met its goal of reducing its work force to 92,000 people a quarter ahead of schedule.

Weaker prices for computer chips had hurt Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which have been engaged in a prolonged price battle. However, Intel said in its Wednesday press release that prices held up well in the competitive environment.

Industry watchers, citing AMD's sale warning on April 9, say Intel has gained ground against its rival. AMD cut its outlook earlier this month because of lower overall average selling prices and decreased unit sales. AMD is scheduled to report results Thursday.

For the second quarter, Intel expects revenue of $8.2 billion to $8.8 billion. Analysts are looking for revenue of $8.86 billion. Intel also expects gross margin to be around 48%.

You can imbed these maps

check it out, you can place lonely planet maps in your blog posts or as a separate widget

Apache: perhaps the most hip video ever

priceless. absolutely priceless.

necessary CYA

**This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.**

Googling is good for you

An interesting read on measures Google is taking to protect privacy.

By Ben Charny, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:19 PM ET Apr 4, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc.'s board of directors
recommended Wednesday that the company's shareholders vote against a
proposal to bar the company from any "proactive" censorship efforts.
The board's opinion came to light in materials Google filed with
securities regulators concerning its May 10 annual shareholders
meeting.
Google did not explain why its board recommends shareholders vote down
the anticensorship proposal from the Office of the Comptroller of New
York City, which is a trustee of pension funds that have invested in
486,000 Google shares.
A representative for Google did not respond to an e-mail seeking
comment for this article.

The proposal would prohibit Google from storing user information it
collects in countries that restrict Internet access -- making it
harder for local authorities to get at the information.
The proposal also calls for Google to inform its users when it does
cede to government requests to censor its search results or other
features.
"Technology companies in the United States have failed to develop
adequate standards by which they can conduct business with
authoritarian governments while protecting human rights to freedom of
speech and freedom of expression," the proposal reads.
To a large degree, the Google board's stance illustrates the
complicated position on censorship the company has as it expands
worldwide.
On the one hand, censoring Internet search results runs afoul of
Google's core goal of organizing and disseminating all of the world's
information. Yet in order to do so, it says it must abide by varying
degrees of censorship worldwide.
Perhaps the best known example of this tightrope Google's walking
occurred in China, where Google abided by a government request to
censor information to get a business license.
This conflict crystallized even more so on Wednesday, when Google's
YouTube video site said that the government of Thailand's is blocking
the site after it was used to air an unflattering video of its king.
In a statement, a YouTube spokesman suggested that the company may be
planning to fight the decision.
"We are disappointed that YouTube has been blocked in Thailand, and we
are currently looking into the matter," the spokesman said. End of
Story
Ben Charny is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco.

a serious WTF storm

well i may not be rained into my apartment like some of my friends but this storm is absolutely ridiculous. i have a couple buddies who are rained into their apartments. my roommate had school canceled because of the rain... basically the whole east coast was batter by the nor' easter.

The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night and trapped others. All of the roads going into and out of NJ are closed down. its ridiculous.

this is what the down town jersey city looked like this morning.