Technology: GSM
Announced Carrier: AT&T
Announced Release Date: June 6, 2010
The Rugby II is a ruggedized device that offers push-to-talk capabilities behind it’s military standard certifications (MIL-STD810G). Other key features include a 2MP camera with video capture, MobiTV, AT&T radio, 19.2 MHz processor speed, and internal memory of 70MB.
The Rugby II is now the third device behind the Palm Pixi Plus, and LG Vu Plus announced by AT&T with a June 6th launch date.
Facebook will launch “drastically simplified” privacy controls tomorrow, the site’s VP of product, Chris Cox, said today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City. Cox said the Facebook team has had an “intense and humbling couple of weeks” amidst outcry over confusing and invasive privacy controls. But until now — aside from the occasional condescending Q&A and avoiding-the-big-issues op-ed — Facebook has largely kept quiet.
Facebook VP product Chris Cox
Cox said that he doesn’t believe the fuss over privacy is just an overblown media story. “A lot of people really care [about privacy],” he said. Cox tried to justify Facebook’s reticence on the issue by saying the team didn’t want to just talk about better privacy controls, it wanted to have products to show for its efforts, built with the input of advocacy groups. And tomorrow that will happen, with a wide rollout of new features and descriptions of what they mean for users.
As for upcoming location features, Cox said the company would talk about what it’s doing when it has a product ready for users. “A lot of things on Facebook happen in the context of location,” he said. “In the long run, we’re a platform company. We want something where users can have whatever data they’re interacting with.”
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Could Privacy Be Facebook’s Waterloo?
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my bio.
A fresh-out statement from Geoff Morrell, chief spokesman for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, reacting to the proposed legislative language for repealing the military’s ban on open gay service and the general legislative strategy of putting the repeal in the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill:
“Secretary Gates continues to believe that ideally the DOD review should be completed before there is any legislation to repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law. With Congress having indicated that is not possible, the Secretary can accept the language in the proposed amendment.”
Audi A1 "The Next Big Thing" Episode 4
Here it is, the fourth episode to “The Next Big Thing” starring the Audi A1, Justin Timberlake and Dania Ramirez. For those of you wondering, there are only two more episodes to go of this…well, whatever you want to call it.
Click here for more news on the Audi A1.
Hit the jump for the video.
Refresher: The 2011 Audi A1 will go on sale in Europe later this year with prices starting around 16,000 euros ($22,062 USD). Power will come from a lineup of 4-cylinder engines, which consists of two TDI diesels and two TFSI gasoline units with output ranging from 84-hp to 122-hp. Mated to a 7-speed S tronic transmission, fuel-economy will range from 44 mpg and 62 mpg.
– By: Kap Shah
Lt. Jeff Cobb had heard about the “castle” at Forward Operating Base Kanashin when he got his orders to deploy to Afghanistan with the Marines. But the 27-year-old wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he got there.
“The picture I got was a medieval Scottish castle or something like that,” he said looking at the structure. “Not quite the same. But it is a castle.
The “castle” is an ancient fortress made of mud brick walls the completely surround a number of buildings. There’s some dispute over exactly when the walls were built. Some say it was put up in the 1200’s to protect Ghengis Khan’s hunting lodge. Cobb says it could be even older than that.
“The rumors are that it was built by Alexander the Great when his army came across during the ancient times. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it looks like it’s that old.”
Alexander the Great and his men came through Afghanistan around 330 BC. However old it is, the fortress has been weathered down over the years by Afghanistan’s harsh elements. Some Marines joke that it looks like an ice cream cake that’s been left out too long.
Marines say the
The heat in this part of Afghanistan is enough to make anything melt. The day we were at Castle Kanashin it was 110 degrees. That’s a big change for Cobb, who is a native of Ypsilanti, Michigan. He says the temperature there rises to maybe 75 degrees this time of year. But he’s acclimating to the weather. He didn’t even realize the mercury had risen that high.
“Putting up with the temperatures the past couple of weeks, the difference between 95 and 110 isn’t very much,” he told us.
Cobb has been a Marine for 6-and-a-half years. This is his first deployment. He pushed for the assignment and is glad he was sent to the castle instead of one of the bigger bases.
“This is kind of the tip of the spear right here, the frontier,” he told us while showing us around.
Cobb is responsible for keeping track of all the manpower in the 1st LAR’s area of operation (AO).
“Nobody comes in and out of castle, or even the AO at large without me finding out about it. “
That means he’s sitting at a desk. But at the castle, it feels like a throne.
Lt Jeff Cobb
With the announcement of the next-gen iPhone just weeks away, Walmart have taken it upon themselves to lower the price of the soon-to-be-replaced 16GB iPhone 3GS to a borderline bargain basement price of only $97 on a two-year contract.
There isn’t really much more to say on this one. If you’re looking for a cheap, functional smartphone on AT&T, you can’t really go wrong with this deal. Unless you dislike Apple of course. Or can’t handle the thought of impending obsolescence. Or whatever.
I’m sure you know what you’re doing.
[via Gizmodo]
On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates.
Kim Snodgrass clearly remembers Dec. 11, 1998. It was her first day in the sixth grade, and the beginning of her steady education — as well as her salvation.
“From then on, I never missed a day of school,” said the master’s student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Risk and Prevention Program, who will graduate today armed with ambition and a story of overcoming adversity.
Snodgrass, a fresh-faced, blued-eyed blonde, could be a poster child for the stereotypical Californian. She could also be a poster child for foster care.
As a young girl, she and her family were on the run. They camped out in the mountains and hopped to and from motels and shelters across southern California. They skipped out on apartments whenever the rent was due. They stole to survive, walking out of grocery stores with carts full of food, or filling up the car at gas stations, and then driving away without paying.
“That is what we were so used to, stealing things and getting what we needed whenever we needed it.”
Snodgrass watched as her stepfather and mother’s addiction to drugs and alcohol broke the family apart, gradually “disintegrating” her parents in the process. Eventually, her mother lost all rights to her five children. Between age 5 and 11, Snodgrass was in and out of at least 10 foster homes. Finally, at age 16, her long-term foster family adopted her, her younger brother, Max, and sister, Jennifer.
“I always knew from an early age what [my mother and stepfather] were doing was wrong, and I made a pact to myself that I was going to get myself out of this hole. I was not ever going to touch drugs or alcohol or smoke, and I was going to make it.”
Though she had only had sporadic formal schooling before sixth grade, she knew her escape route depended on education. She became a driven student and excelled academically.
“I used my education as my savior. It was like my thing that I could always go back to, no matter what happened in my life.”
Snodgrass attended the University of California, Irvine, where she studied community and public service. It was there that she dedicated herself to helping foster care children.
“When I entered college, I thought I needed a college degree to have a successful family. As a sophomore, I thought I needed a college degree to change the foster care population, as I found out that only 50 percent of foster youth graduate from high school. My junior year, I realized that I needed a graduate degree to really make an impact and help train others about how they can make change to make an even bigger impact.”
With her new master’s degree, she hopes to provide foster care children with access to support systems and mentors who can help them to develop important life skills and succeed in high school and college. As part of her program at Harvard, she developed an intervention method to help foster care youth transition to college and beyond, and is currently working with an HGSE alumna to explore using her program at a local nonprofit.
While at Harvard, she also produced an educational video about the foster care system, founded the club REACH (which stands for Realizing Every Action Creates Hope) to raise awareness about foster care youth in school, and worked on a model for a charter school designed for foster care children in connection with the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit in Santa Ana, Calif.
She also made time to teach at two local schools. The fast pace is the standard for Snodgrass, who admitted that the overachiever mentality is something of a coping mechanism, one that offers her life a certain kind of balance.
“I cram people into every second of the day. My schedule is back to back to back. It’s something that helps [keep] me from sitting down and crying. I don’t just dwell on the past, I think, ‘What can I do tomorrow?’”
After Harvard, “the possibilities are endless,” said Snodgrass, who sees herself getting a Ph.D. and working in the policy realm, or running a charter school or nonprofit.
But one thing is certain. Citing research that shows that children who face difficult challenges often succeed with the support of just one encouraging voice, Snodgrass sees her future mission clearly.
“So many people helped me get where I am today. I want to go back and help others. My mission is to be a child advocate, and become that voice for them.”
Her Harvard experience has helped her too, and prepared her to help others.
“Harvard was 100 percent where I was supposed to be,” said Snodgrass. “I am going to have a big tool kit when I leave.”
More graduate profiles will be available in the May 27 print issue of the Harvard Gazette as well as online.
Inside an office where Julia Child used to film her cooking show, Jason Luke is whipping up another kind of dish: Commencement.
It’s a historic backdrop like Child’s set that adds extra mystique to Luke’s job as associate director of custodial and support services for University Operations Services. That’s a mouthful, but behind the long title is a Frank Sinatra-loving ultra-preparer. And he has to be. It is spring, after all.
April and May are no ordinary months. Commencement is easily the busiest time at the University, but especially so for Luke. That’s when he — to quote a sticker on a file cabinet in his office — earns the moniker “The Man.”
“When Yardfest [an annual spring concert for undergraduates] gets here in April, I’m like ‘OK, here we go,’ ” said Luke. “Then after that, it gets pretty intense.”
In the off-season, Luke oversees a staff of 250 custodians and handles logistics and support for other Harvard events peppered throughout the academic year. But nothing compares with the end-of-year weekly soirée of Class Day, Morning Exercises, alumni reunions, and the hundreds of other happenings, which he helps coordinate under Commencement Director Grace Scheibner and the Harvard Alumni Association. Then, after months of intense planning, Luke rounds up his crew, a bevy of student workers, and gets cookin’.
There are countless components that make up Commencement, according to Luke, ranging from the small to the massive. Take, for instance, dorm rooms. Those have to be turned around for alumni visitors after vacating students are gone, then turned around again in time for summer school. And think of all the technical equipment that goes into staging a large-scale production — cords and cables and speakers, oh my!
“Commencement is a year-round thing,” said Luke, who also coordinates labor, seating, staging, tenting, setting up, and breaking down. “But at the beginning of May, we start taking the equipment out of storage. We take inventory, we see what’s damaged or missing, then we start working in the Yard.”
But who better to tackle all this than one of Harvard’s own? Luke, a one-time concentrator in English and American literature, graduated in 1994. As a student, he worked for the student dorm crew on facilities maintenance, a precursor to the 15 years he has now worked at Harvard.
Right before Commencement, Luke moves onto campus to better manage his massive workload. “I set up another office in Sever Hall, and then I usually stay in Wigglesworth for 10 days,” he said. “I just don’t go home at all.”
“I pull a couple of all-nighters, at least,” he says. “I probably get about three or four hours of sleep a night for 10 days.”
His assistant stays in the dorm room with him. “We don’t want to oversleep, so we can wake each other up this way. The pace of the week is just so hectic.”
Imagine, for instance, setting up chairs and other infrastructure for about 32,000 Commencement attendees.
“There’s a very, very specific setup for the chairs,” said Luke. “It takes several days. We have specific counts for each section.” He and his staff arrange them meticulously well before Commencement. But because events are already going on, Luke and his team don’t just arrange them once, but several times.
“People are coming into the Yard, moving the chairs, things get changed,” he said. “You’ve got to redo it, recount it, over and over and over.”
When Commencement ends, there are more events on Luke’s horizon. Sustainability is another project he is working on. He has helped to integrate four nontoxic products into everyday cleaning use, including a disinfectant, and he has brought in microfiber cloths in place of throwaway paper towels.
But by July or August he vows to take a well-deserved vacation. He’ll stream a little Sinatra (whose mug bedecks Luke’s office walls), or maybe Nat King Cole and Bobby Darin. He’ll don his trademark Tilley, an indestructible and UVA/UVB ray-blocking hat, and get down to the business of just relaxing. “If people need to find me,” he said, “look for the hat.”
Depois de permanecer por um bom tempo na liderança dos veículos mais vendidos no continente europeu, o Volkswagen Golf havia perdido o trono das vendas, mas agora voltou a assumir o posto no qual sua montadora anseia obter em todo o mundo. No mês de abril, o Golf modelo alemão se tornou novamente o mais vendido, superando a marca das 49 mil unidades.
O segundo colocado no ranking, o Ford Fiesta europeu (não o modelo que temos aqui no Brasil), teve mais de 32 mil unidades vendidas. Outro carro da Volkswagen que estava na oitava posição e agora subiu para o quarto lugar foi o Polo.
Já o Opel Corsa caiu da quarta posição para a sétima, ficando atrás do Astra. O Ford Focus consegue aparecer na lista dos dez mais vendidos, com mais de 21 mil unidades, que está atrás do Renault Mégane. Em último lugar está o Fiat Panda. Vejam a lista completa a seguir.
Carros mais vendidos em abril na Europa, por unidades:
1.Volkswagen Golf – 49.395
2.Ford Fiesta – 32.226
3.Renault Clio – 29.258
4.Volkswagen Polo – 28.092
5.Peugeot 207 – 26.415
6.Opel/Vauxhall Astra – 25.854
7.Opel/Vauxhall Corsa – 25.628
8.Renault Mégane – 22.094
9.Ford Focus – 21.948
10.Fiat Panda – 20.958
Via | Auto Portal
Today is Towel Day, where fans around the world celebrate the works of beloved author Douglas Adams, a master of witty prose and observational humour. Consider his description of money:
“This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”
Adams was right to highlight the perceived link between money and happiness. Many people dream of the life they could lead if they won the lottery, a world of mansions, fine restaurants, and first-class travel. But few consider the costs. These fineries could lead to enjoyment overload, compromising our ability to savour life’s simpler pleasures, whether it’s a walk on a sunny day or the taste of a bar of chocolate. This idea of wealth as a double-edged sword is widely held and while it’s easy to suggest that it springs from jealousy, a new set of experiments supports the idea.
Jordi Quoidbach from the University of Liege showed that richer people aren’t as good as savouring everyday pleasures than their poorer counterparts. Even the mere thought of money can make us take mundane joys for granted. Normal people who were reminded about wealth spent less time appreciating a humble bar of chocolate and derived less enjoyment from it.
Quoidbach’s study helps to make sense of a trend in psychological research, where money has an incredibly weak effect on happiness. Once people have enough to buy basic needs and rise out of abject poverty, having extra cash has little bearing on their enjoyment of life. Perhaps this is because money both gives and takes away: it opens doors to new pleasures, while making delights that were already accessible seem less enticing. Obsessing over wealth is like being on a hedonic treadmill – continuously running to stay in the same emotional place.
To begin with, Quoidbach asked 351 university employees, from cleaners to senior staff, to complete a test that measures their ability to savour positive emotions. Each recruit was asked to put themselves in a detailed pleasant scenario, from finishing an important task to discovering an amazing waterfall on a hike. Afterwards, they were quizzed in detail about how they would react to the scenarios, to see how strongly they savoured the experiences.
Using other questionnaires, Quoidbach also assessed how happy they were, how much money it would take to live their dream life, how much money they earned and how much they had saved. And as a final twist, half of the questionnaires included picture of a large stack of euros, while the other half saw the same picture that had been blurred beyond recognition.
He found that the more money the recruits had, the worse they were at savouring their positive emotions. Of course, it’s possible that people who appreciate their lot in life are less eager to chase after wealth. But Quoidbach found that a person’s savouring ability was unrelated to their desire for money. And even suggesting the thought of money, by showing them the euro picture, had the same negative effect, dampening their to the happy imaginings.
Regardless, the recruits also tended to be slightly happier the more money they had. Other studies have found the same trend, but Quoidbach’s important result is the money would have had a far greater impact on the volunteers’ happiness were it not for its negative effect on their savouring ability.
Of course, there’s only so far you can take the results of the questionnaires. A more objective experiment would be better, and that’s exactly what Quoidbach did. He asked 40 students to volunteer for a taste test. They were given a binder that included a questionnaire about their attitudes toward chocolate. On the opposite page, marked as material for an unrelated study, was a picture of either money or a neutral object. Afterwards, all they had to do was eat a chocolate.
Two researchers kept an eye on them and not only timed their munching, but rated how much enjoyment they were showing. The results were clear – the recruits who saw the money took 32 seconds to eat the chocolate, significantly less than the 45 seconds spent by the others. And on average, their happiness rating, as judged by the observers, was 3.6 out of 7, compared to a higher score of 5 for their peers. (Incidentally, the observers didn’t know which group their subjects belonged to, and their scores strongly agreed with one another’s).
These studies are part of a growing body of research showing that the link between money and happiness is more complicated than we might imagine. Elizabeth Dunn, who also worked with Quoidback, has previously shown that money can buy happiness if it’s spent on others, but that having money reduces the odds that people will actually spend it in this way! Dunn has also found that money is better used to buy happiness if it’s spent on experiences rather than goods. And here we see that wealth can undercut the very happiness that it boosts.
In both experiments, a simple reminder of wealth undermined people’s ability to appreciate life’s little pleasures, be they imagined ones or the very physical joys of chocolate. That’s a striking result and Quoidbach explains it best himself. “One need not actually visit the pyramids of Egypt or spend a week at the legendary Banff spas in Canada for one’s savouring ability to be impaired,” he writes. “Simply knowing that these peak experiences are readily available may increase one’s tendency to take the small pleasures of daily life for granted.”
Reference: Psychological Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797610371963 or here
Image from Muffet on Flickr
More on happiness or money:
Larry Summers gave an interesting speech yesterday defending and explaining the White House’s economic policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His thesis was classic Keynesian economics: “Appropriate short-run expansionary budget policy can make an important
contribution to establishing the confidence necessary for sound
growth,” Summers said. In other words, deficits are good, for now, because heavy public spending in downturns is still required to juice long-term growth. Good for the administration for making that argument explicitly.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank attended the speech. He chose to focus on the idea that Summers was being obtuse and boring:
It was the language of the PhD thesis: “Conditions for fiscal policy to
have an expansionary impact are especially likely to obtain . . .
considerations militating in favor of sustainable budgets . . . the
ultimate consequences of stimulus for indebtedness depend critically on
the macroeconomic conditions.”
So, look. Milbank writes mainstream political columns that stir snark and analysis into something distinctive and popular, and that’s his thing, and more power to him. But come on. This wasn’t a major public address. It was a speech by a brilliant economic wonk to a graduate school for advanced degrees in government and international affairs. If Summers had stopped to explain to second-year Masters students the definition of a “multiplier effect” or a “catalyzing investment” (other terms Milbank mocks Summers for using), it frankly would have come off as pedantic.
Economic messaging is really important, and Milbank is right that the administration is still seeking a messenger mixing the panache of Austan Goolsbee with the gravitas of Summers. But it’s unfair to bash Summers for speaking over the heads of “Americans worried about finding or keeping a job” when it’s perfectly clear that his actual audience was much worried about getting an A in Advanced Topics in Monetary Theory.
White House – Washington Post – Keynesian economics – Fiscal policy – Government spending
Why do platforms that deliberately restrict consumer choice do just as well, if not better, than platforms offering unlimited choice? Examples abound in dating services, executive recruitment, and real-estate brokerage. In the online dating market, for instance, eHarmony restricts potential candidates for its members while rival Match.com lets its users browse as many profiles as they like. In the working paper “Platforms and Limits to Network Effects,” HBS professors Hanna Halaburda and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski discuss competitive strategy in these environments and the options available to platform designers and proprietors who want to maximize the strength of network effects.
Among other cases this week, “Zotter—Living by Chocolate” explores how entrepreneurs could create new markets for niche products. In the case HBS professor Mukti Khaire and coauthors detail how an Austrian-based chocolatier weighed options to cross borders and to scale up its time- and labor-intensive manufacturing process. Meanwhile, “Apple Inc. in 2010” by Professor David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim studies the iconic company’s next steps in the midst of global competition.
— Martha Lagace
| Authors: | Ron Adner and Daniel Snow |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Industrial and Corporate Change (forthcoming) |
We explore the implications of a real and common alternative to attempting the transformation required to embrace a new, dominant technology—the choice to maintain focus on the old technology. In considering this choice we distinguish between “racing” strategies, which attempt to fight off the rise of the new technology by extending the performance of the old technology, and “retreat” strategies, which attempt to accommodate the rise of the new technology by repositioning the old technology in the demand environment. Underlying our arguments is the observation that the emergence of a new technology does more than just create a substitute threat—it can also reveal significant underlying heterogeneity in the old technology’s broader demand environment. This heterogeneity is a source of opportunities that can support a new position for the old technology, in either the current market or a new one. Using this lens we explore the decision to stay with the old technology as a rational, proactive choice rather than as a mark of managerial and organizational failure. We then consider the distinctive challenges and organizational dynamics that arise in technology retreats and their implications for the ways in which managers and scholars should approach questions regarding the management of capabilities, lifecycles, and ecosystems.
| Authors: | Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Ralf Martin, and Raffaella Sadun |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Economic Journal 120, no. 544 (May 2010) |
We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the U.K. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better managed firms are significantly less energy intensive. This effect is quantitatively substantial: going from the 25th to the 75th percentile of management practices is associated with a 17.4% reduction in energy intensity. Better managed firms are also significantly more productive. These results suggest that management practices that are associated with improved productivity are also linked to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Download the paper: http://www.stanford.edu/~nbloom/BloomGenakosMartinSadun.pdf
| Authors: | Dhammika Dharmapala, C. Fritz Foley, and Kristin J. Forbes |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Journal of Finance (forthcoming) |
This paper analyzes the impact of the Homeland Investment Act of 2004, which provided a one-time tax holiday for the repatriation of foreign earnings and thereby reduced the cost to U.S. multinationals of accessing a source of internal capital. Lawmakers and lobbyists justified its passage by arguing that it would alleviate financial constraints. This paper’s results indicate that repatriations did not lead to an increase in domestic investment, domestic employment, or R&D—even for the firms that appeared to be financially constrained or lobbied for the holiday. Instead, estimates indicate that a $1 increase in repatriations was associated with a $0.60 to $0.92 increase in payouts to shareholders—despite regulations stating that such expenditures were not a permitted use of repatriations qualifying for the tax holiday. The results indicate that U.S. multinationals were not financially constrained and were reasonably well governed. The fungibility of money appears to have undermined the effectiveness of the regulations.
| Authors: | Itai Ashlagi, Benjamin G. Edelman, and Hoan Lee |
|---|
We model competing auctions for online advertising, with attention to the participation costs that limit advertisers’ interest in using small ad platforms. When participation costs are large relative to the volume of traffic an ad platform can offer, an advertiser may forego use of an ad platform that the advertiser otherwise finds profitable. Mergers between ad platforms can increase advertiser welfare if the resulting click-through rate and volume of traffic are sufficiently improved relative to the offerings of the ad auctions when separate. When there is an insufficient improvement, such mergers can harm advertisers.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-055.pdf
| Authors: | Sergey Chernenko, C. Fritz Foley, and Robin Greenwood |
|---|
Standard theories of corporate ownership assume that because markets are efficient, insiders ultimately bear agency costs and therefore have a strong incentive to minimize conflicts of interest with outside investors. We show that if equity is overvalued, however, mispricing offsets agency costs and can induce a controlling shareholder to list equity. Higher valuations support listings associated with greater agency costs. We test the predictions that follow from this idea on a sample of publicly listed corporate subsidiaries in Japan. When there is greater scope for expropriation by the parent firm, minority shareholders fare poorly after listing. Parent firms often repurchase subsidiaries at large discounts to valuations at the time of listing and experience positive abnormal returns when repurchases are announced.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-094.pdf
| Authors: | Hanna W. Halaburda and Mikołaj Jan Piskorski |
|---|
We model conditions under which agents in two-sided matching markets would rationally prefer a platform-limiting choice. We show that platforms that offer a limited set of matching candidates are attractive by reducing the competition among agents on the same side of the market. An agent who sees fewer candidates knows that these candidates also see fewer potential matches, and so are more likely to accept the match. As agents on both sides have access to more candidates, initially positive indirect network effects decrease in strength, reach their limit, and eventually turn negative. The limit to network effects is different for different types of agents. For agents with few outside options, the limit to network effects is reached relatively quickly, and those agents choose the platform with a restricted number of candidates. This is because those agents value the higher rate of acceptance more than access to more candidates. Agents with higher outside options choose the market with a larger number of candidates. The model helps explain why platforms offering a restricted number of candidates coexist alongside those offering a larger number of candidates, even though the existing literature on network effects suggests that the latter should always dominate the former.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-098.pdf
| Authors: | Bradley R. Staats, Francesca Gino, and Gary P. Pisano |
|---|
Prior work examining the relationship of varied experience (i.e., the concurrent completion of multiple tasks) and learning by groups finds inconsistent results. We hypothesize that team familiarity, i.e., individuals’ prior shared work experience, may help explain this difference, as familiar teams may be more effective than unfamiliar teams at using the knowledge gained from the concurrent completion of multiple tasks. A sense of psychological safety may be one reason that team familiarity could aid in the process of team learning. In an experimental study, we find that familiar teams learn at a faster rate than unfamiliar teams. Additionally, we find that team familiarity leads to the development of psychological safety and that the relationship between team familiarity and team learning is mediated by psychological safety. By separately examining task variety, team familiarity, and psychological safety, our work offers new insights and direction for the study of learning in teams.
Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-016.pdf
John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
Harvard Business School Case 510-091
How does a small business set its online media budget? The HBS Executive Education Division can be viewed as a small-to-medium sized business unit with annual revenues of $107 million. As we watch it change its culture, practices, and organization from offline to online marketing, we have an opportunity not simply to see the metrics used in online marketing budget allocation, but also the stresses involved in the birth of a new go-to-market culture.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/510091-PDF-ENG
Anita Elberse and Brett Laffel
Harvard Business School Case 510-092
In January 2010, Bob Bowman, chief executive officer of Major League Baseball Advanced Media—MLB’s digital arm—is facing a number of decisions related to its “app” for Apple’s new iPad. What are the best name, price, and set of features for MLBAM’s iPad app? The case describes what is often seen as one of the most successful paid-content businesses in sports and media. Provides in-depth information on MLBAM’s four main sources of revenues and relates those to the league’s overall revenues. Describes the company’s online and mobile offerings in considerable detail and outlines the choices facing MLB’s offering for Apple’s iPad device, enabling a rich discussion of viable marketing strategies.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/510092-PDF-ENG
John J. Gabarro
Harvard Business School Note 908-416
This note describes the relationship between organizational alignment and performance in professional service firms and how to use McKinsey 7S Alignment to diagnose a firm’s or practice’s alignment, identify misalignments, and determine how to bring about the changes needed to re-align, as well as the changes needed to re-align the organization with its existing or new strategy.
Purchase this note:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/908416-PDF-ENG
Boris Groysberg, Leslie Danford, Amy Lodge, and Tereh Sayles
Harvard Business School Case 410-103
After completing her MBA in 2007, Toby Johnson, a former army pilot with the 18th Airborne Corps Rapid Deployment Force, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). For her first assignment with PepsiCo, Johnson accepted a position as a manufacturing manager at a Frito-Lay plant in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Williamsport plant had 200 employees and 54 million pounds of production per year. The case describes how Johnson took charge of the plant and her action plan for implementing a new set of changes. During Johnson’s tenure at Williamsport, the plant was nominated as a potential site for a company-wide transformative initiative. This initiative would entail major changes in the current team structure and incentive program within Frito-Lay. Johnson needed to think carefully about this change implementation.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/410103-PDF-ENG
Purchase this Supplement (B):
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/410104-PDF-ENG
G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon
Harvard Business School Case 810-099
In December 2008, Thomas G. Tsao, acting CEO of Digital Media Group (DMG), a venture-backed provider of technology and media used primarily in subways, must decide how to structure the company’s bid for the advertising concession in Shanghai’s 13 existing and planned subway lines. This is complicated by the fact that he is also a general partner in Gobi Partners, one of DMG’s largest investors. The company is bidding against its largest competitor, which also investigated acquiring DMG a few months before. DMG has very little cash, and the publicly traded competitor knows it. How does Tom structure the bid? How does he get the money for it? How does he manage the company, given its inability to attract a CEO and his firm’s need to have an exit? Lastly, how does he manage his responsibilities—to his firm, his limited partners, his coinvestors, and the company?
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810099-PDF-ENG
G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner, and Ann Leamon
Harvard Business School Case 810-095
Thomas G. Tsao, founding general partner of Gobi Partners, an early stage venture capital firm in China, must decide how to manage his firm’s largest investment after the departure of the CEO. Tom has temporarily stepped in as CEO, but finding a replacement with the necessary technical and language skills is difficult. Moreover, the company is facing significant challenges in winning business and restructuring its own operations. Should Tom stay on as CEO? Revisit one of the candidates who had withdrawn? Try harder to sell the company? At what price? The case provides an opportunity to discuss the issue of active investment management in an emerging market from the perspectives of the many stakeholders involved.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810095-PDF-ENG
Mukti Khaire, Stefan Aichinger, Monika Hoffmann, and Maximilian Schnoedl
Harvard Business School Case 810-091
This case is about a boutique chocolate manufacturer’s decision to grow. Zotter, an Austrian company that was a pioneer in the organic and Fairtrade chocolate movement, uses the traditional confit technique to make premium hand-scooped chocolates in unusual and innovative flavor combinations. Having done many novel things to educate the market about the value of premium organic and Fairtrade chocolate, Zotter consolidated its market position within the premium segment of the Austrian market for chocolate. The company only recently started to sell its product outside Austria. However, the time- and labor-intensive manufacturing process and the high prices of Zotter chocolates limit the scalability of the company, even though the founder desires to grow. While the founder has many ideas for the firm, it is not clear which path would be optimal for the kind of growth he desires. The case provides students an opportunity to discuss how entrepreneurs create markets for novel products, and how they can consolidate their position.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/810091-PDF-ENG
John D. Macomber
Harvard Business School Supplement 210-066
“CityCenter (C)” follows the (A) and (B) cases chronologically. The (C) case explores the decisions facing MGM MIRAGE following a lawsuit by partner Dubai World and suspension of Dubai World’s cash contributions to the project in early 2009. Issues include the discussion of activity by secured lenders and other involved financial actors, like Carl Icahn and James Packer, as well as MGM MIRAGE major stockholder Kirk Kerkorian. The firm considers various options and remedies with respect to the claim by Dubai World. “CityCenter (C)” can serve as an in-class handout to advance class discussion of the (A) and (B) cases to encompass events as they unfolded.
Purchase this supplement:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210066-PDF-ENG
John D. Macomber and Griffin H. James
Harvard Business School Supplement 210-067
“CityCenter (D)” follows the (A), (B), and (C) cases with subsequent chronological events through CityCenter’s grand opening in December 2009 and financial results through March 2010. The case includes a simple valuation exercise intended to explore CEO Jim Murren’s options as he seeks to avoid an MGM MIRAGE bankruptcy. The (D) case presents Murren with the choice of selling the Borgata casino in New Jersey or receiving an ownership stake in CityCenter itself. Students will draw on EBITDA comparables and projections to complete a simple valuation analysis to take a position on which asset to sell. “CityCenter (D)” can serve as an in-class exercise or homework assignment to follow discussion of the (C) case.
Purchase this supplement:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210067-PDF-ENG
John D. Macomber and Griffin H. James
Harvard Business School Case 210-070
A real estate developer assesses its ability to capture the benefits of investing in LEED Platinum, Vedic Design, and EnergyStar components in new buildings. The building at 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland is said to be the healthiest building in the National Capital Region. Does this matter? Can the developer realize higher rents because of this? The developer performs a detailed cost-benefit analysis of energy-saving measures that overlap and reduce their cumulative benefit. They consider the impact of these measures in combination with Vedic design features (aka Vastu) on the overall health, productivity, and business success of building occupants. “Green leases” are discussed as the developer tries to establish a leasing strategy that reflects these benefits and associated cost savings. The case takes a deep look at many of the critical on-the-ground issues involved with innovative real estate development.
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210070-PDF-ENG
David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim
Harvard Business School Case 710-467
On April 4, 2010, Apple Inc. launched the iPad, the company’s third major innovation released over the last decade under its iconic CEO Steve Jobs. Apple’s strategy of shifting its business into non-PC products had thrived so far, driven by the smashing success of the iPod and the iPhone. Yet challenges abounded. Macintosh sales in the worldwide PC market still languished below 5%. Growth in iPod sales was slowing down. iPhone faced increasing competition in the smartphone industry. And would Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, take the company to the next level?
Purchase this case:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/710467-PDF-ENG
I deal with superginormously ridiculous energies, velocities, and sizes all the time as an astronomer. You get used to it after a while… then something like this’ll slap you upside the head: a star that exploded more than 5000 years ago launched two epic bullets. One is a cloud of gas screaming away at thousands of kilometers per second, and the other is the cinder of the star itself, an octillion-ton cannonball blasting through space in a totally different direction.
This is a composite picture of the supernova remnant N49: an expanding lumpy sphere of gas about 30 light years across (300 trillion kilometers, or 180 trillion miles)*, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. The blue in the picture is the emission from gas heated to millions of degrees, and shows X-rays detected by the Chandra observatory. The yellow and purple are from Hubble data, showing gas being whipped and beaten by shock waves slamming around insides the remnant.
Turn your attention to the little blue blob to the right, marked by the red arrow. It’s outside the main bubble of the nebula, meaning that it must be moving faster than the gas in general. This is seen sometimes in supernovae remnants: a bullet or focused blob of gas screaming away. It may be caused by magnetic fields in the expanding gas just after the star explodes, launching the octillions of tons of matter away in all directions, or it may be due to focusing from shock waves, which can sculpt the gas and create little pockets of denser knots.
Either way, this bullet is moving away from the nebula at speeds of more than 2200 km/sec (1300 miles per second) — fast enough to cross the United States in less than 3 seconds. The mass of the blob is unclear, but to give you an idea of the energies involved, it emits 10 times the Sun’s total energy in just X-rays alone. Incredible.
Now focus your attention to the star-like point source indicated by the other red arrow, near the top of the remnant. The astronomers took a good look at that object, which was previously known to be an object called SGR 0526−66. SGR stands for Soft Gamma ray Repeater, an object that periodically blasts out flashes of super-high-energy gamma rays. SGRs are neutron stars, the ultra-compact and überdense (I know, I’m running out of adjectives.. but just you wait…) leftover cores of stars that have exploded. They can have more than the mass of the Sun compressed down into a ball just a few kilometers across! A cubic centimeter of neutron star material (usually called neutronium, a word I love love love) weighs about as much as the combined weight of all the cars in the United States. So there’s that.
The astronomers found the age of the SGR to be a few thousand years, which matches the age of the nebula! That means it’s very likely this is the leftover core of the star that exploded and created N49 itself. But what’s it doing way off center?
Astronomers think that sometimes the explosion can be off-center in the star, so that things don’t quite expand the same in all directions. Given the energies involved (hint: a LOT) this can give the neutron star a kick, sending it caroming through space at high velocity. If SGR 0526-66 is indeed the leftover cinder from the explosion, to get where it is in the time since the explosion it has to be moving at a velocity of at least 790 km/sec (490 miles/second). Think about that: this is an object with the mass of the Sun and it got kicked so hard it went shooting off hundreds of times faster than a rifle bullet.
Yeah, you might want to sit for a moment and soak that in.
It gets worse! Since it’s seen in the Chandra data, that means it’s hot. Glowing at several million degrees, the energy it gives off in just X-rays is a hundred times the Sun’s total energy production! If you replaced the Sun with SGR 0526-66, you’d barely be able to see it since it’s so small, but it would hardly matter: the X-rays it gives off would cook the Earth like a marshmallow in a furnace. If that’s not enough awesome for you, the magnetic field at the surface of the neutron star is about 100 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s!
Neutron stars are small in stature, but nothing else about them is.
Studying supernovae remnants is interesting scientifically for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that they create the heavy elements in the Universe, so we literally owe our lives to them. That would be enough… but I know that secretly, astronomers study them because they are simply so frakkin’ cool.
Or maybe it’s not so secret.
Image credit: X-ray: (NASA/CXC/Penn State/S.Park et al.); Optical: NASA/STScI/UIUC/Y.H.Chu & R.Williams et al
It only measures seven atoms but, according to project lead scientist Michelle Simmons, computers made with this transistor—the smallest ever made—will “solve problems that would take longer than the life of the universe with a classical computer.” More »
Computer Science – Michelle Simmons – Technology – University of New South Wales – Quantum computer
The Fire Emblem series re-ignites as one more title is remade for the Nintendo DS. If you’re familiar with Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, then this might spell good news for you.
Filed under: Truck, Recalls, Safety, Suzuki
Remember the Suzuki Equator – the overlooked, rebadged version of the Nissan Frontier that went on sale in early 2009? There hasn’t been much to talk about the slow-selling Fronquator, but now a recall involving vehicles manufactured between November 2009 and March 2010 (a whopping total of 582 units) brings the little truck into the front of our minds again.
According to the official recall statement from NHTSA, the Equator’s lower control link bushing collars may not contain welds that meet strength specifications, which can alter the wheel alignment over time. The safety recall is taking place as you read this, and dealers will replace one or both lower control links if necessary. The full details are available in NHTSA’s statement, after the jump.
Gallery: 2010 Suzuki Equator
[Source: NHTSA]
Continue reading Suzuki recalls 2010 Equator pickups over suspension concern
Suzuki recalls 2010 Equator pickups over suspension concern originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Morning Money has posted a Goldman Sachs research report, and it seems the investment bank is spooked by just one thing in the financial regulatory reform bill: Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-Ark.) derivatives spin-off language.
To the extent that strains in European sovereign debt and short-term money markets cause broader risk deleveraging, U.S. financials are not immune from falling asset prices. At the same time, while regulatory risk is (hopefully) reaching a peak, it does create the specter of an overhang for some time. In particular, our Washington analyst does not expect the Lincoln proposal to make it into the final bill, but should this occur, it would be very negative for investment banks and potentially exchanges, as volumes would suffer.
“Volumes would suffer” means nothing more or less than that derivatives speculation would become more expensive and thus less lucrative and thus less of a priority for investment banks — something that advocates of tighter regulation argue should be a feature, not a bug, of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) merged and final bill.
But, Brian Beutler reports at Talking Points Memo, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), expected to be on the conference committee, says there is no way the Lincoln derivatives language is making it through.
“I mean there’s no partisan fight here, it’s just: let’s get the language right. And the language which is in the Senate bill is wrong. It’s just plain wrong. It’s going to cause significant contraction in the credit markets, and it’s going to make the derivative markets less stable less sound and push a lot of business and competition — business which we want in America — overseas.”
What does Goldman think the likely profits scenario for financial firms is? Not as good as the bubble years, but better than the average over the past 70 years — basically, rosy.
Our normalized EPS estimates adjusted for potential regulatory impact implies that large banks can still generate a return on tangible common equity of 21% which is equivalent to a ROE of 13%. This compares to an average ROE for the banking industry of 15% during the 15 years preceding the crisis (1992-2006) and 11% during the 70 years preceding the crisis (1937-2006). While our implied ROE is higher than the average of the past 70 years it is lower than the past 15 years which we think is attainable. We believe that the benefits of increased scale and efficiency stemming from industry consolidation will partly offset the costs of added regulation, implying that the industry can generate a return higher than the average of the past 70 years but not as high as the past 15 years.
The report also argues that fundamentals are improving: The real estate market has bottomed out, consumer delinquency has peaked and unemployment is starting to look better as well.
When Sean “Puffy” Combs aka P. Diddy announced his collaboration with Monster for a new pair of headphones, he made sure to declare that they would not only sound good, but look good too. The concept behind his diddybeats is that not only should they surely impress your ears, but they should also make a fashion statement by resembling jewelry when not in use. We have seen this before with Lady Gaga’s Heartbeats and even Vivienne Tam’s soon to be released Butterfly In-Ear Headphones. These are headphones designed to make a statement in and out of your ears.
Design
Back in January Diddy emphasized how important the quality and design of the headphones were to him. He explained that he wasn’t going to endorse a project that he wasn’t fully invested in. Along those lines, Monster and Diddy made sure to have the diddybeats not come in just one color but three – black, pink, and white, Diddy even spoke about how much he personally likes the color pink. Each bud sports a ‘db logo’, and a leather-wrapped aluminum housing with polished-enamel endcap. The cable used on the earbuds is the flat tangle-free cable that first debuted on the Dr. Dre Tour In- Ear headphones and it is maintained with a cable slider piece. Right under the cable slider piece is a metal adornment that has the Monster logo on one side and the diddybeats logo on the other.
The diddybeats also have ControlTalk, which makes it ideal to work with your iPhone for picking up calls and then resuming your tunes when the call is done. Also included is a simple yet purposeful pouch for your new headphones so that the assortment of included eartips don’t get lost. This time around Monster has heard the complaints of many (in regards to the Tours) and has included a whopping 8 different pairs of eartip styles – from foam, to mushroom, to trees. There is enough of a selection that you should find the right tip that not only gives you the best listening experience but sound-isolation too.
Sound Quality
So to the meat of the review – the sound quality. Well the first thing that we should mention is that the included manual suggests that your diddybeats experience will only get better once you break in your new headphones in with over 20 hours of use. As much as that is a good tip – it’s the first time we have ever seen such a a statement. Why can’t it just blow you away right out of the box for $149.95? But we digress.
We put the diddybeats through the same tests that we would normally do any pair of headphones, earphones, In-Ear headphones etc… we listened to tracks in 128kbps, 192kbps, and 320kbps to test them.
Throughout each listening session, the diddybeats held up well, exhibiting strong balance between both bass and treble through all the different bit rates. However these headphones performed much better when listening to anything above 162 kbps. When listening to anything lower, the bass performed well while the treble and mid-range almost sounded muted and muddled. These lower bit rates, hold back the quality of the music. It was like the music was screaming in our ears to be set free from the sucky bit rate of 128kbps.
However just a bit rate of 162 kbps makes a world of difference. Songs like Fireflies from Owl City made the diddybeats shine. The headphones performed great picking up the vibraphone, piano, and violin sounds leaving you with a rich smooth experience. The same can be said about songs from artists like Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas and even Diddy himself that are bass heavy and in some cases feature autotune. If you only have lower bit rates to work with, which is what you typically have on your iPod or iPhone, you’ll get a better experience if you just simply turn the volume up. You still won’t experience nearly the essence of the diddybeats and what the drivers can do but at-least it won’t sound watered down. Also having put it through its paces for three days, we have to admit that the sound did actually get better as we used them.
Comfort
Personally, in the past the foam tips would have been it for me but I actually experienced a better fit, comfort, sound quality, and noise cancellation with the included smaller mushroom shaped eartip this time around. It also handled the bass better as well as provided a suction in your ear of pure sound, while I felt the foam tips let some of it escape. When you have the diddybeats in your ears, you are conscience of it, unlike the Turbines or even a few other cheaper models we tested. You physically feel them in your ear regardless of how good the music is coming out of them. In addition if you are like many folks that often have their buds falling out of your ears while walking (my Co-Editor complained of this problem with the diddybeats – I didn’t have this issue). Instead of listening to them in the traditional way, you can always put the headphones in your ear upside down and flip the cable around the top portion of your ear.That will keep it in and not have it falling out all the time. You are also not sacrificing the sound quality either and the best part is the logo can be seen by all any way you wear it.
ControlTalk
The diddybeats sport Monster’s ControlTalk technology which lets you switch between listening to music and talking on your phone on the fly. The ControlTalk cable in particular has a call answer button and a built-in mic. If you’re using an iPhone or one of the recent generation iPods, than ControlTalk also lets you control music and video playback. ControlTalk lets you answer or end a call, decline an incoming call, play or pause a song or video, skip to the next or previous song or chapter, scan forward or backward through songs and video, and also control the volume. Callers sounded very clear when using the ControlTalk to make phone calls. We were also told by callers that we normally spoke too using the Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote & Mic that we sounded so much clearer and louder. Previously when we had used the Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote & Mic to make phone calls, we were often told by people that they couldn’t hear us and we would have to switch to using the handset when making a call. There is no doubt that Monster’s ControlTalk technology is superior and it’s also easy to use.
Conclusion
So did the diddybeats truly make a fashion and technology statement impression us? Yes. The diddybeats are a well made product that feel good in your ears and in your hand. The diddybeats look expensive with their metal and leather finishes, that combined with the iPhone ControlTalk capability and the approval of P Diddy help justify the $149.99 price tag. Yes, it’s a bit pricey, but anything that has a celebrity attached to it usually is, and we all buy it anyway. It also looks like Monster took the time to release a product that is designed and packaged well.
But besides being endorsed by a hip-hop star, the In-Ear Headphones produce. In comparing it to the Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote & Mic these are far superior even if those are cheaper. When compared to even the Dr. Dre’s Beats Tour In-Ear Headphones they even perform well just based on comfort and noise cancellation. However the Tours did perform a bit better in regards to Bass output – but those headphones were meant to be DJ headphones in your ear, where as the diddybeats are not. While the Tour’s struggled at being a pair of headphones you could wear for hours on end due to its unusually deep In-Ear shape, the diddybeats provide comfort, and quality sound that consumers will enjoy and even the novice audiophile will appreciate. The diddybeats are being exclusively sold at Best Buy and are retailing for $149.95.
The Good: Designed well, looks expensive and well made, sound quality is excellent for 162kbps bit-rates and above
The Bad: Tends to fall out of some people’s ears – even with all of the included ear-tips, sound quality on lower bit-rates is just average
For the purpose of the review Monster provided us a pair of complimentary DiddyBeats.
Ryan McBride wrote:
Avila Therapeutics has a new target for its new class of drugs—lung cancer. The Waltham, MA-based biotech startup has clinched a $209 million deal with Clovis Oncology for drugs against mutated tumors in the lungs, according to the companies.
The companies are keeping a tight lid on the details of the deal, including how much cash Clovis is paying Avila upfront versus downstream in the form of potential milestone payments. Avila says that the deal includes an upfront payment, development and sales milestone fees that could total as much as $209 million. The firm also has a shot at making money from royalties on potential sales of drugs that result from its partnership with Clovis.
Boulder, CO-based Clovis is tapping Avila’s technology to combat non-small cell lung cancer that has built resistance to existing treatments such as the anti-tumor pills erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa). The Avila approach is thought to be promising against resistance, because its drugs are designed to form irreversible covalent bonds with their targets, making it a lot tougher for tumors to find an escape valve to keep growing. Avila and Clovis are seeking to develop a drug like this that can block a specific a mutation that is that is thought to prevent those existing treatments from binding with proteins that help lung cancer cells grow. Also, Avila could make drugs that target only the growth proteins with the mutation, meaning that healthy tissues where the proteins are present would be spared.
Clovis is funding clinical development and commercialization of Avila’s lung cancer drugs, which are in pre-clinical development. The Colorado company is also paying to develop a diagnostic test that would identify patients with mutated forms of lung cancer who are most likely to benefit from the drug.
Katrine Bosley
Avila’s deal with Clovis builds on its existing research of drugs to combat resistant forms of hepatitis C and immune system malignancies. The firm, founded in 2007, brought in $51 million through two rounds of venture capital funding from Abingworth Management, Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Fund, and Polaris Venture Partners. We’ll have a chance to hear more from Avila CEO Katrine Bosley next month, as she is one of the featured speakers at Xconony’s XSITE business innovation forum at Babson College on June 17.
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
People might not be buying houses and cars at the pre-recession levels, but laptops are flying off the shelves led by netbook sales. (Quiet, don’t tell John. He hates netbooks.)
Consumers clearly want mobility. Laptop shipments are up 43.4% over last year with 20% of them being low-cost netbooks. The notebook segment as a whole made up 13% of the total PC sales in the first three months of 2009.
But it was the netbook numbers that’s most surprising. We’ve been hearing for weeks that netbooks are dead, no one buys netbooks, blah, blah, blah. However this Gartner seems to say differently by finding netbooks sales are up 71% over last year. So maybe the netbook segment isn’t dead, Mr. John Biggs. Perhaps the is a market for small, low-cost notebooks.
