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Yahoo continues its hiring spree with to-do list application Astrid. Marissa Mayer announced the news on Twitter:

Astrid’s Jon Paris writes on the app’s blog:

We are thrilled to announce that we have been acquired by Yahoo!. When we set out to build Astrid, we sought to help as many people as possible become happier, healthier and more productive. We’re really excited to join the mobile team and continue this work with Yahoo!’s goal of “making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining.”

Over the next 90 days, Astrid will continue to work as is, and we will no longer be accepting new premium subscriptions. To make future changes as easy as possible, we’ll be in touch with users shortly to share how to download data.

We are grateful to the more than 4 million of you who have downloaded our apps, to those who have shared Astrid with friends, family and co-workers, and to all who encouraged us with your kind words along the way. You honored us in so many ways, and we won’t forget you.

Yahoo is quickly adjusting its mobile strategy for maximum impact. The recent acquisition of Summly has already turned into new Yahoo apps for iOS and Android. Competition in the to-do list space isn’t getting any smaller. Rival Google launched Google Keep in mid-March. The reviews on Google Play are overwhelmingly positive. Speaking personally, it has quickly become one of my most-used mobile apps.

A good to-do list could fit neatly into Yahoo’s mobile strategy.

Many people assume that it’s possible for a person to be an effective leader without being likable. That is technically true, but you may not like the odds. In a study of 51,836 leaders, we found just 27 who were rated at the bottom quartile in terms of likability but in the top quartile in terms of overall leadership effectiveness — that’s approximately one out of 2,000.

Our likability index, based on data collected from 360 assessments, measures a broad set of behaviors that go far beyond smiling and having a pleasant personality. To see the complete list, and take a self-assessment of your personal likability, click here.

Likability sounds like an immutable trait — something people either have or don’t. But our experience in working with thousands of leaders suggests otherwise. Our 360 data from these 50,000+ leaders highlighted seven key steps executives can take to substantially increase their likability.

• Increase positive emotional connections with others. Just like the flu or a cold, emotions are contagious. If a leader is angry or frustrated, those feelings will spread to others. Conversely, if a leader is positive and optimistic, those emotions also spread. Be aware of your emotional state and work to spread the positive emotions.
• Display rock solid integrity. Do others trust you to keep your commitments and promises? Are others confident that you will be fair and do the right thing? We like leaders we trust; we dislike those we distrust.
• Cooperate with others. Some leaders believe that they are in competition with others in the organization but the purpose of an organization is to unite employees to work together in a common purpose.
• Be a coach, mentor, and teacher. Think about someone who has helped you develop or learn a new skill. How do you feel about that person? Most people have fond and positive memories of coaches and mentors. Helping others develop is a gift that is never forgotten.
• Be an inspiration. Most leaders know very well how to drive for results. They demand excellence. They insist that employees achieve stretch targets. In other words they push. And the best bosses do this as well. But that’s not all they do. The most successful leaders are also effective at pulling. They roll up their sleeves when necessary and pitch in with the team. They communicate powerfully. Inspiring leaders, as you might expect, are more likeable.
• Be visionary and future focused. When employees do not clearly understand where they’re headed and how they’ll get there, they become frustrated and dissatisfied, feeling like passengers with no control and few options except complaining. Sharing a vision of the future and helping team members understand how to get there inspires confidence: It’s hard to like a leader who’s lost in the wilderness.
• Ask for feedback and make an effort to change. Our 360 data show clearly that most people rate themselves more likable than their bosses, peers, and direct reports do. How can you bridge that gap? As the graph below demonstrates, there’s a strong correlation between a leader’s likability and the extent to which they ask for and respond to feedback from others. Feedback from others helps leaders to understand the impact (positive or negative) that they have on others.

You can be more likeable. Identify two of the actions from the list above that would most help you in your current situation. A great way to start would be to ask for feedback and ask team members to identify which activities would have the most value to them. Make a plan, identifying some specific steps you will take to improve, and then stick to it. Ask others for feedback on your progress.

And, oh by the way, if you are a man, this is even more important for you to consider, because in all probability, you are less liked than your female counterparts, and that’s hindering your effectiveness as a leader.

Jennifer Aniston has had an enviable body for as long as she’s been onscreen, but even she has days where she’s unhappy with certain body parts.

The 43-year old actress admits she used to be “a lot rounder”, however, and credits yoga for helping to tone her problem areas. Aniston recently attended a book party for her friend Mandy Ingber, who just released “Yogalosophy: 28 Days to the Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover.” The pair have known each other for years and have watched the other grow into her own body.

It’s hard to say is that yoga or is it as we get older we grow into ourselves, but I’ve seen her become so empowered, so grounded in herself, so comfortable in her own skin,” Ingber said. “I’ve definitely watched that process happen and unfold, and I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to be the observer of that.”

Aniston says she allows herself “cheat days” where the word diet is off-limits, but a weakness for chips and salsa means she has to control her portions.

“Cheat days for me are usually … it’s either Mexican food … maybe Italian pasta, but I think you always have to do it in moderation,” she says.

In Hollywood, where a woman’s body will always be judged by someone, many females choose a slender body over being healthy; that isn’t the case for Aniston, who says it’s important to her to be patient with herself…especially when doing yoga.

“Love the body that you have right now because that’s the perfect body and then be patient with yourself,” she said. “When you first start you might feel like ‘I can’t do this, it hurts,’ and then be patient. Do little bits and you get there. You do, it’s all about being really gentle with yourself and acceptance of what it is at the moment.”

Google has been updating its indexing systems to treat some TLDs differently than in the past. Some country-code TLDs are being treated as generic TLDs.

The list, which may still change more over time, of generic country code TLDs is as follows: .ad, .as, .bz, .cc, .cd, .co, .dj, .fm, .gg, .io, .la, .me, .ms, .nu, .sc, .sr, .su, .tv, .tk and .ws.

Google’s Pierre Far shared the news in a Google+ post (via Search Engine Roundtable).

Google’s Matt Cutts recently did a Webmaster Help video discussing location and ccTLDs. If you’re reading this article, you might find it helpful. You can get the gist of it in text if you click the link, in case you don’t feel like sitting through the two-and-a-half-minute video.

HTC’s financial woes for the past 18 months continued as the company announced quarterly results on Thursday. Smartphone sales have been down for some time but the company managed to rake in NT$42.8 billion (US $1.45B). Unfortunately, operating margin was a scant 0.1 percent with overall first quarter profits of NT$85 million (U.S. $2.88M).

It certainly didn’t help this quarter that HTC had to delay its new HTC One launch by a few weeks. The flagship smartphone has outstanding design and performance; it will surely help HTC this quarter once the global sales channels have inventory to sell. But I recently noted that HTC’s problems run much deeper than just an HTC One handset delay.

The company — once the biggest up-and-coming Android phone manufacturer — has watched itself be overtaken by Samsung, ZTE and Huawei, to name a few.

Brand awareness and a relative lack of marketing haven’t helped. Neither has money spent on poor decisions: The investment in Beats Audio hasn’t proven to be that helpful and efforts to create a small Android tablet — before such devices were truly popular — didn’t pan out either. And I’m not yet sold on the HTC First, a Facebook-centric handset, on helping the company stand out from the crowd.

For all of its struggles, HTC still has a positive outlook for next quarter; mainly due to the HTC One. The company expects a huge bump in revenues: NT$70 billion. Gross margin should be between 22 and 24 percent — up from the 20.3 percent of the most recent quarter — and operating margins are expected in the 1 to 3 percent range.

If I were HTC, I’d take as much of the profits as possible and dump them into marketing its latest handset. What good is a winning device if people are surrounded by ads from Samsung, Apple and others?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Tablets wars: Apple is from Venus, Amazon is from Mars
• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
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Last week, those hoping to find a cure for HIV were disappointed by the failure of a U.S. clinical trial for an HIV vaccine. This week, the hope that a cure can be found may have been renewed.

According to a report from The Telegraph, Danish researchers believe they are close to an affordable cure for the HIV virus.

Doctors at Aarhus University Hospital are now conducting clinical trials of a technique that proved successful in the lab earlier this year. The technique involves removing the HIV virus from cell DNA, allowing the body’s immune system to attack it.

Dr. Ole Søgaard, a member of the research team, is so confident in the prospect of a cure that he told The Telegraph he is “almost certain” their technique will be successful in releasing the “resevoirs” of HIV found in DNA. However, he also cautioned that getting a patient’s immune system to attack the exposed virus could be a challenge.

For now, the clinical trial only has 15 patients. It will be expanded if any of the patients is found to be cured of HIV.

Mark Shuttleworth is nothing if not ambitious. How may other tech execs have actually been to space?  Not counting Microsoft alum Charles Simonyi, that would be one: the aforementioned Shuttleworth.

Now Shuttleworth, who used tens of millions of his own dollars to fund Canonical and made it his ambition to entrench Ubuntu Linux on desktops and servers is now launching a full-on assault to put it on your smartphone, your tablet and the computers that run your favorite cloud services via OpenStack.

Taking on the giants

It’s a gutsy bet. He’s basically taking on Google’s Chrome Browser, ChromeOS and Android OS. And then there’s iOS. Not a job for the faint of heart. In a recent interview with GigaOM,  Shuttleworth said a key Ubuntu advantage is that its basic code really does run everywhere from itty-bitty mobile devices to big iron. No Android-Chrome OS divide here.

“The core of Ubuntu that runs on the server is the same as on the phone and that’s a wonderful resonance,” Shuttleworth said. “We’ve done  pioneering work to put server Linux on ARM chips and the core of those ARM chips is the same for servers as it is for smartphones,”  Shuttleworth said.

Admittedly, it’s still early days for running ARM servers in a production environment — my colleague Stacey Higginbotham reported that Baidu is doing it — for storage — but few others are. But the need for energy-sipping servers is not going away. And ARM servers address that demand.

As more cloud services get delivered via smartphones and tablets, all that “resonance” could come in handy. But timing may be a problem. Android and Apple iOS, which dominate that smartphone and tablet market now, will be hard to dislodge. If you believe Google Chairman Eric Schmidt — a biased observer — Android Android’s growth rate is, is on track to hit 1 billion downloads within the next 6 to 9 months. And, to further complicate matters, Microsoft seems willing to spend big to build its presence in smartphones and tablets as well. As much money as Shuttleworth has, Microsoft has more.

Seemingly undaunted, Shuttleworth says Ubuntu is getting serious looks from silicon providers, from carriers and from handset makers who are interested in offering it on their devices. He declined to provide names. It is true that Google’s acquisition of Motorola’s mobile assets still worries third-party handset makers who don’t relish the thought of competing with their OS provider, but that doesn’t seem to have slowed Android adoption.

Ubuntu shows strength in cloud

Ubuntu is already a big presence in the cloud by virtue of Amazon Web Services where it is the most popular operating environment on EC2 — at least as measured by the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) that people create. “The number of AMIs running Ubuntu is 5 or 6 times as many as Windows or any other operating system,” said Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst with Redmonk. One caveat is that people create lots of AMIs that they may not actually use, cautioned The 451 Group analyst Carl Brooks.

And Ubuntu came earlier than many other vendors to the OpenStack party. It’s got a leg up in the enterprise two years ago when  HP named it the lead host and guest OS in HP’s OpenStack cloud. That relationship continues to this day.

Shuttleworth also said Ubuntu’s OpenStack gets tons of interest from telcos and carriers that are rushing to create their own cloud services to better compete with AWS. One theme coming out of the OpenStack Summit last month was that these sleeping giants, many of which offer VMware vCloud Director options that price them out of the market, are finally waking up to the threat that AWS poses to them. And that is something Shuttleworth feels Ubuntu, with Canonical behind it,  can capitalize on.

“We are in a very good position when carriers want to look beyond standing up OpenStack to what the end-user experience is,” he said.

In his view, Ubuntu more than other Linux OpenStack flavors, offers simplicity and power — a claim that other OpenStack players would likely dispute. Linux rivals Red Hat, SUSE and are also all in the mix here. And Nebula’s selling point is its OpenStack controller that makes it easy to plug OpenStack into existing legacy environments. There will be a ton of competition among the OpenStack providers even as they all contend with CloudStack and Eucalyptus options.

Shuttleworth maintains Ubuntu’s advantage, however.

“We really are at the point where you can take a USB with Ubuntu, stick it on 1 to 300 servers and in a short period have a high-availability cloud — compute, storage, and network — up and running that provides a lot of value,” he said. “This is real and it’s helping people get over the conceptual hurdle of moving to cloud. It’s at the point where you can have ten people debating it for a week or you can just go and do it — the cost is low enough and the lessons are valuable enough to make it happen.”

But what about revenue?

There’s one not-so-small hitch here. As many good reviews as Ubuntu Linux has gotten, the revenue or profit picture is about as clear as mud. Canonical’s business model is that customers pay for support and maintenance on free software. But the privately held company won’t say how many people actually pay for any of that. And it doesn’t talk about how much money Shuttleworth has ponied up since founding the company in 2004. The question is whether Canonical (and Ubuntu) could stand on its own without his deep pockets. Face it, it’s hard to take a customer from free to non-free.

When it comes to questions about revenue or profitability, Canonical will only say that customers including PC, phone and tablet manufacturers and big companies that deploy Ubuntu at scale  use Canonical’s paid tools and services to support their server, cloud and client environments.

That may not be enough detail for enterprise buyers who want to know if the vendor they use today will be around next year or the year after. For a company that has such grand plans for a free operating system, Canonical needs to address these questions at some point.

Shuttleworth will be talking about his grand cloud vision at GigaOM’s Structure Europe in London in September, so here’s your chance to ask.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• How tomorrow’s mobile-centric data centers will look
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Case Study Demonstrates How Restoring a Stream Can Help Restore a Community

WASHINGTON, D.C.– The U.S. Geological Survey today released an analysis of the Watts Branch of the Anacostia River in Prince Georges County, Md. and Washington, D.C. that documents how restoration work on this urban tributary has had a substantial impact on the local economy, directly or indirectly accounting for 45 jobs, $2.6 million in local labor income and $3.4 million in value added to the local D.C. metropolitan area in 2011. 

“The USGS study confirms the value of re-greening our urban landscapes around the nation,” said David J. Hayes, Deputy Secretary of the Interior. “Restoring one of the most degraded urban streams in the Anacostia watershed while also addressing sewage infrastructure benefited a struggling local economy, provided an improved park and green space for residents, and enhanced wildlife habitat. Restoring a stream is helping restore a community and demonstrates the power of partnerships.” 

The Anacostia watershed is one of the priority areas for interagency cooperation in both President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership. 

D.C. and federal agencies formed the Watts Branch restoration partnership in 2010 to restore a segment of one of the most urbanized watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. Completed in 2011, the restoration project was funded largely by the District of Columbia’s Department of Environment and also carried out by the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington Water and Sewer and several local organizations. 

The partnership has addressed both environmental degradation and sewage infrastructure needs of the Watts Branch, which originates in the Capitol Heights area of Prince George’s County, flowing almost 5 miles to the Anacostia, which drains to the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. 

The analysis, conducted by USGS economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas and Elizabeth Myrick, found that restoring Watts Branch had a substantial impact on the local economy. The restoration directly accounted for 26 jobs and more than $1.5 million in local labor income including salaries, wages and benefits and $1.5 million in local value added (the contribution of expenditures to Gross Domestic Product). Moreover, the restoration indirectly supported an additional 19 jobs, providing an additional $1.1 million in labor income and $1.9 in value added to the local economy. Restoring Watts Branch contributed more than $3 million to a struggling local economy. 

“This restoration project shows the fiscal and transformative power of re-greening urban areas—supporting local jobs, upgrading infrastructure, and helping improve the local economy,” said Hayes, noting that the Watts study is one of a number of case studies on the impact of restoration projects in other parts of the country.  “With a roughly $2 trillion backlog in infrastructure needs nationwide, our country has a tremendous opportunity to advance both economic and environmental goals through other restoration projects.” 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other partners not only restored the eroded stream channel, which was depositing nearly 1,500 tons of sediment into the Anacostia watershed each year, but also relocated and improved sewer lines to address and prevent future sewage leaks. Infrastructure and environmental restoration improved water quality, increased floodplain storage, reduced erosion and improved in-stream habitat to support fish like American eel, alewife and American shad. Local residents regained a beautiful urban stream, and habitat along the stream also improved for birds such as warblers, barred owls and great blue herons, to name just a few. 

Moreover, local communities have seen utility and street upgrades. A local nonprofit, Washington Parks and People, has begun using Watts Branch as an outdoor classroom to prepare an emerging workforce for jobs in urban and community forestry. 

“The Watt’s Branch restoration turned a degraded stream into an urban sanctuary within an underserved community,” the analysis concluded. 

President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative is a conservation agenda for the 21^st century. It underscores how urban parks and community green spaces can contribute to the social, physical, economic and emotional health of America’s communities.  The Anacostia is one of the priority areas chosen under America’s Great Outdoors. 

The Anacostia River Watershed also is one of the original pilot project areas of the interagency Urban Waters Federal Partnership led by EPA. Through this partnership, the Interior Department and 10 other federal departments work to reconnect urban areas—particularly those that are overburdened or economically distressed—with their waterways through improved collaboration. 

Intel’s board has elected Intel Chief Operating Officer Brian Krzanich as its next CEO, succeeding Paul Otellini. Krzanich will assume his new role at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on May 16.

Krzanich, who has held roles at Intel since 1982, becomes the sixth CEO for the chip giant. But the real question is if he can help steer the company through an increasingly competitive semiconductor market as changes in the mobile arena erode the demand for Intel’s PC chips. There are also changes in the data center that aren’t hurting Intel yet, but will introduce more competition. The board seems to think he’s capable. From the release:

“Brian is a strong leader with a passion for technology and deep understanding of the business,” said Andy Bryant, chairman of Intel. “His track record of execution and strategic leadership, combined with his open-minded approach to problem solving has earned him the respect of employees, customers and partners worldwide. He has the right combination of knowledge, depth and experience to lead the company during this period of rapid technology and industry change.”

Krzanich acknowledged the changing industry in part in his canned quote in the release, referring to “ultra-mobility,” as the next era for Intel.

In a symbol of its understanding of the importance of software, the Intel board also elected Renee James as president of Intel. She also assumes her new role on May 16. James had a leadership role in Intel’s R&D division and was the chair of its McAfee, Wind River and Havok software operations, which means she probably has a lot of the insights into the threats and opportunities Intel faces, as well as understands what the chip giant can bring to bear on the market.

James also currently serves on the board of directors of Vodafone Group Plc and VMware Inc. and was chief of staff to former Intel CEO Andy Grove. Frankly, she looks like the one who can understand the reality of Intel’s position in the changing world. Hopefully she and Krzanich can bypass Intel’s usual hubris and just focus on making sure it can come out on top when the winds of change stop blowing.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Glasses are totally sexy, but that used to not be the case. Glasses used to be an indicator that somebody was a nerd. If you wore glasses, you probably played Dungeons and Dragons late into the night while stuffing your face with Doritos. Now thanks to Google Glass, all the pasty white guys can be identified as nerds using only eye wear once again.

A new tumblr popped up recently called “White men wearing Google Glass.” Turns out the title is incredibly descriptive because that’s what you get. Here are some of the standouts:

The most popular image by far is the one below of Robert Scoble testing Google Glass’ water resistance.

It is waterproof to an extent, but Google itself says not to go scuba diving with Glass on.

[h/t: Mashable]

The Lexus IS350 F-Sport has been completely redesigned for 2014. That means new body panels, a new interior, and a V6 engine that pumps out 305 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque. It’s a nice car, it really is, but with a V6 engine note that sounds like a hopped up sewing machine, it’s not really my cup of tea. Matt Farah and the crew from The Smoking Tire recently got hold of a pre-production IS350 F-Sport and put it threw is paces on one of California’s most challenging roads. Check out the video after the jump.

Source: TheSmokingTire.com

Facebook is now firmly entrenched as a mobile company, with 30% of total advertising revenue coming from mobile. Mobile is the key front for Facebook now and for the foreseeable future, as users continue to spend the majority of their time on phones and tablets. Mobile monthly active users (MAU) grew to 751 million in the first quarter, with total daily active users (DAUs) reaching 1.1 billion. UBS analyst Eric Sheridan noted that mobile advertising revenue was above his estimates at $374 million, and he expects to see continued growth as more users, and more ads go online.

Continue reading…

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos (the guy who has led content acquisition since 2000) thinks that the best way to curb piracy is to give the people some good alternatives.

“I think people do want a great experience and they want access – people are mostly honest. The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options,” he said in a recent interview with Stuff.

Why does he think this? Well, he has some stats to back it up. Apparently, access to Netflix in any particular region is kind of a torrent killer.

“One of the things is we get ISPs to publicise their connection speeds – and when we launch in a territory the Bittorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows,” said Sarandos.

So, going by that and that alone, it would seem that at least a good proportion of people who illegally download TV shows and movies simply do so because they lack an alternative. Maybe, if they had an alternative, they would take it.

We can turn to HBO for more proof of this concept. Remember that “Please Take My Money, HBO” campaign that spread on Twitter last year? Sure you do. Thousands upon thousands of people took to Twitter to beg HBO to simply offer an HBO GO-style streaming service free of the ties of a cable subscription. They said that they would gladly pay for it – an average of $12+ a month if I recall.

After dismissing it originally, it appears that the company has softened to the idea – if just a bit.

Remember, HBO’s Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2012 and its season 3 premiere episode broke torrent records a few weeks ago.

Would all of these pirates stop pirating if they simply had more legitimate streaming options?

“One of the side effects of growth of content is an expectation to have access to it. You can’t use the internet as a marketing vehicle and then not as a delivery vehicle,” Sarandos added.

You listening, content providers?

“Storage Wars” has become a phenomenon in reality television, finding success among those who love a good find in dusty old antique stores and garage sales. The show is done on an even bigger scale, with people bidding on storage units full of stuff sight unseen, hoping one of them will yield a vast treasure. Sometimes, it’s amazing what can be found in those units. So amazing, according to one cast member, because the producers of the show plant those items in order to draw in ratings.

David Hester says he’s seen them plant a mini BMW, among other things, and filed a lawsuit last December against the show for wrongful termination after they fired him for going public with the story. Now, cast members Darrell Sheets and Dan and Laura Dotson are being dropped from several episodes in the upcoming season, reportedly because the show is trying to save money while they deal with the lawsuit.

“They lived up to Darrell’s contract, but then shot more episodes that weren’t covered by his contract and kept him out of those,” a source said. “He was not happy to say the least. It seems as if they are going after some of the higher paid cast members. And meanwhile they are expanding the franchise. “

Hester claims that all the cast members knew about the show planting items and is allegedly furious that he’s the only one to speak up and get the boot. As of now, Sheets has been cut out of six episodes, and the husband-and-wife couple are reportedly out of at least that many.

The Guinness World Record holder for the longest-serving soap actor has now been charged with rape.

According to a BBC News report, 81-year-old William Roache has been charged with two counts of rape. Roache plays Ken Barlow on the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. He has appeared in the series since its first episode in 1960.

Roache is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967. The first hearing on the charges is scheduled for May 14.

Roach has issued a statement through his lawyers, saying:

“I am astounded and deeply horrified by the extraordinary events of the last 24 hours. I strenuously deny the allegations and will now focus my full attention on fighting to preserve my innocence in the challenging times ahead.

“I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all those people who have offered me their support and good wishes at this difficult time.”

A spokesperson for ITV told the BBC that Roache will not be appearing on Coronation Street until the legal matter is settled.

So, it’s May and time for the annual if temporary equity market selloff, right? Well, maybe – but only maybe.  A fresh weakening of the global economic pulse would certainly suggest so, but central banks have shown again they are not going to throw in the towel in the battle to reflate. The ECB’s interest rate cut today and last night’s insistence from the Fed that it’s as likely to step up money printing this year as wind it down are two cases in point. And we’re still awaiting the private investment flows from Japan following the BOJ’s latest aggressive easing there.

So where does that all leave us? A third of the way through 2013 and it’s been a good year so far for nearly all bulls – both western equity bulls and increasingly bond bulls too! Not only have developed world equities clocked up some 13 percent year-to-date (the S&P500 set yet another record high this week while Europe’s bluechips recorded a staggering 12^th consecutive monthly gain in April) , but virtually all bond markets from junk bonds to Treasuries, euro peripherals to emerging markets are now back in the black for the year as a whole. For the most eyebrow-raising evidence, look no further than last week’s debut sovereign bond from Rwanda at less than 7 percent for 10 years or even newly-junked Slovenia’s ability this week to plough ahead with a syndicated bond sale reported to already be in the region of four times oversubscribed. For many people, that parallel rise in equity and bonds smells of a bubble somewhere. But before you cry “QEEEEE!” , take a look at commodities — the bulls there have been taken a bath all year as data on final global demand hits yet another ‘soft patch’ over the past couple of months.

So is this just an idiosyncratic random walk of asset markets (itself no bad thing after years of stress-riven hyper correlation) or can we explain all three asset directions together? One way to think of it is in terms of global inflation. If QE-related inflation fears have been grossly exaggerated then pressure to remove monetary stimulus or wanes again and there may even be arguments – certainly in Europe – for more. This would intuitively explain the renewed dash for bonds and fixed income in general even in the face of the still-plausible, if long term, “Great Rotation” idea. You could argue the monetary free-for-all is buoying equities regardless of demand concerns. But why wouldn’t commodities gain on that basis too?

The answer likely lies in the desperate demand among big institutional investors for income in a low-growth, QE-buoyed world. The paltry income left in ‘safe’ bond markets becomes less unappealing if the inflation horizon is lower than we thought and from there the push for more yield fuels all bond markets. Similarly this year’s equities rally has been remarkable because it’s been led by income-like, blue chip defensive stocks with decent dividends that ape bond returns – and not by growth stocks or even emerging markets, which still remain in the red.

And if income is the only game in town and there’s no inflation scare, then the last place you want to be is income-less commodities.

So, what’s up next week? Tomorrow’s US payrolls report set the tone. But next week throws up a G7 meeting, heavy UK/European earnings sked, Chinese trade and inflation, BoE meeting and US/German bond auctions.

 

GLOBAL DATA/EVENTS TO WATCH

Malaysia general elections Sun

Europe Q1 earnings Mon: AXA, BCP, Natixis

EZ April services PMIs/March retail sales Mon

French debt auction Mon

Australia rate decision Tues

Europe Q1 earnings Tues:  HSBC, Lafarge, SocGen, Pirelli, , Commerzbank, Adecco, Banca Generali, Carlsberg, Credit Agricole,

Swiss Q2 confidence, April jobless Tues

French March trade and industrial output Tues

US March consumer credit Tues

US 3-yr debt auction Tues

China April trade data Weds

Europe Q1 earnings Weds: Deutsche Telekom, CRH, Aegon, ING, Dexia, Henkel, J Sainsbury, Next, Standard Chartered,

German 5-yr bund auction Weds

German March industry output Weds

Madagascar Presidential Elections Weds

Norway rate decision Weds

US 10-yr Treasury auction Weds

China April inflation Thurs

SKorea/Malaysia/Egypt rate decisions Thurs

Europe Q1 earnings Thurs:  Barratt, Beazley, WM Morrison, Old Mutual, Repsol, Tullett Prebon

UK March industry and manufacturing Thurs

Bank of England rate decision Thurs

US 3-yr Treasury auction Thurs

Europe Q1 earnings Fri: Unicredit, ArcelorMittal, TUI

German/UK March trade, Italy March industry Fri

G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meet in London Fri/Sat

EBRD meeting in Istanbul Fri/Sat

Pakistan general elections Sat

Bulgaria parliamentary elections Sun

The Wii U, much like the Gamecube, has a problem with third-party support. Even so, EA Sports still brought annual iterations of Madden NFL to the little purple box. That’s not happening on the Wii U.

When Madden NFL 25 was announced last week, a Wii U version was missing from the press release. Nintendo World Report started asking questions and got the following response from an EA Sports spokesperson:

“We will not be releasing a Wii U version of Madden NFL in 2013. However, we have a strong partnership with Nintendo and will continue to evaluate opportunities for delivering additional Madden NFL products for Nintendo fans in the future.”

If you have trouble reading corporate speak, EA is essentially saying that the Wii U isn’t selling well enough for it to dedicate resources towards a Wii U version of Madden. If the console starts to pick up in the future, EA Tiburon will start up Wii U development again. Until then, EA is watching and waiting.

Some will undoubtedly take this news as the death knell for the Wii U, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Does Madden skipping the Wii U look bad? It looks incredibly bad, but it’s just as much an EA problem as it is a Nintendo problem. EA Sports just finished with a round of massive lay offs, its CEO stepped down and the publisher is trying to restructure itself to prepare for the next generation of consoles. Any perceived flops would look bad to already anxious investors and a Wii U version of Madden would most definitely be a flop.

That being said, Madden NFL 25 skipping the Wii U may be a sign that other major third-party titles will be skipping the console as well. In the announcement of Call of Duty: Ghosts from yesterday, the Wii U was missing from the title’s list of target platforms. The PS4 and next Xbox will be getting the game, but it looks like Activision will be skipping the Wii U after Black Ops II was kind of a flop at the Wii U’s launch.

Even if EA and Activision pull out, Ubisoft is still supporting the console with all of its major AAA blockbusters. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Watch Dogs will all be making an appearance on Nintendo’s console this year.

With all this in mind, I think it’s safe to say that the Wii U will be much like the Wii and Gamecube before it – a console for Nintendo titles and the odd third-party exclusive. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does ensure that the Wii U will remain a companion console for most gamers as they look to the PS4, next Xbox or PC as their main platform of choice.

Data center developer 365 Main is expanding its New York data center, doubling the size of the facility to address increasing demand. The company is adding 16,000 square feet of space at its existing facility at 65 Broadway.

365 Main said it has made ”considerable investments” to build out the facility, which is located near Wall Street and enables the company to increase its base of financial services customers.

“365 Main is committed to meeting rapidly growing customer demand in New York and other critical geographies,”” said Chris Dolan, CEO. “Strategic expansion is at the core of the 365 Main customer service plan, from the moment we acquired our 16 data centers in 2012. We are translating our vision into meaningful action – our customers and partners are queuing up to
capitalize on our increased size and markets.”

Dolan and partner James McGrath bought 16 data centers from Equinix last year, including a number based in secondary markets where 365 Main sees growth potential. But the company also sees opportunity in historic data center hubs, including Manhattan.

365 Main is a privately held company based in San Francisco. Its financial partners include Housatonic Partners, Crosslink Capital and Brightwood Capital.

Last week over 100 leading cancer specialists signed their names to an op-ed in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, which lambasted the prices of cancer drugs that often exceed $100,000 annually. These researchers opined that high prices are preventing patients from being treated, and they questioned the ethics of pharmaceutical companies.

This isn’t a problem only facing uninsured patients: The op-ed claims that in the U.S., for instance, even insured patients pay an average of 20% of drug prices out-of-pocket, meaning these drugs can cost a patient $20,000 a year. Those numbers can be even higher because many patients suffer multiple ailments, requiring more than one pricey drug.

The key to solving this problem is to forget about regulation, charity, or public shaming and instead focus on how to help drug companies make even more money.

This may sound counterintuitive, but a win-win opportunity exists. Making expensive drugs more accessible and getting pharma companies on board involves adapting pricing tactics successfully used by other companies in similar situations to help them sell more. The key components that lead to a solution are as follows:

Understand the dynamics of a high fixed cost/low variable cost industry. While pharma companies spend billions on research, the actual cost of manufacturing a treatment (such as a pill) is minimal. This cost structure enables pricing flexibility. This is why Las Vegas hotels, for instance, have premium prices on weekends and rock bottom discounts during the middle of the week. As long as mid-week prices cover the low nightly variable costs (mostly the cost of cleaning the room), any higher amount is gross profit. With the current high prices, pharma companies are only serving weekend customers. Like other high fixed cost/low variable cost industries, they could make more money by learning to extend discounts in the right circumstances.

Understand that there’s profit in serving discount-oriented customers. Activating dormant customers through discounts is a common growth strategy. Coach, the manufacturer of fine accessories such as handbags, activates price-sensitive dormant customers via a network of outlet stores that offer up to 70% off full retail prices. In North America, for instance, over 30% of its stores are outlets, and 45% of its total retail square footage is dedicated to discount outlets. Even “dollar menus” at fast food restaurants generate enviable cash flows. For example, the incremental gross margin of a $1 McDonald’s double cheeseburger is 55%.

Understand micro-differential pricing. The dream of every pricing strategist is to somehow determine and charge the highest price that each customer is willing to pay. This is why, for instance, auto salespeople size you up by noting how you dress and asking questions such as “What do you do for a living?” They are trying to figure out how much you are willing to pay — this process results in different prices for different customers. Solving the $100,000 drug problem involves emulating car salespeople. Pharma companies should be encouraged to set prices based on a patient’s income as well as their other drug costs.

To implement smarter pricing that saves more lives, and brings in more revenue, the pharma industry should create a straightforward grid that specifies the annual maximum a patient should pay out of pocket on pharma expenses. Key variables that determine this maximum include income (verified by IRS data), family size, and their other pharma costs. Patients can submit this data to a third party agency, discounts will be applied based on these criteria. For instance, if it is determined that a 30% co-payment on a $100,000 annual treatment for a middle class family of four is too much, the patient can be reimbursed $15,000 by the drug company, which still nets a healthy $85,000 in incremental revenue (since this family wouldn’t have purchased the drug without the discount).

There are already several foundations and prescription assistance plans in place today to help low income patients. But the $100,000 drug issue is also a middle to upper-middle income issue — and the industry should address the problem in a way that helps create more revenue.

Discounting shouldn’t be thought of as charity. In fact, it’s smart business for pharma companies.

Drug companies already profitably implement differential pricing on a macro-level: This is why drugs are cheaper in third world countries than in the U.S.. Why not employ differential pricing on a micro individual-to-individual basis? The U.S. may be a rich country, but there’s a gigantic income difference between poverty-ridden inner city areas and, say, Beverly Hills. If a patient skips a treatment due to price, that’s not only a loss for the patient (whose health will suffer), but it’s a missed gross margin opportunity.

Micro-differential pricing is a win-win strategy: higher profits will be reaped and more patients will be served.

Doctors signed on to the Blood op-ed in hopes of starting a dialogue on high drug prices. It’s an important topic, and one that demands a solution. The key to solving the $100,000 drug challenge is to encourage the invisible hand actions of profit-seeking. The micro-differential pricing opportunities available due to the high fixed/low variable costs structure of drug companies would enable as many people as possible to benefit from pharmaceutical advancements.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg briefly discussed Instagram at yesterday’s Q1 earnings call, and the takeaway is that big brands want more commercialization, but the Facebook-owned company is content with a growth strategy at the time being. That means no ads on Instagram…for now.

“They’re really doing well and growing quickly and that is the right focus for them,” Zuckerberg said. “They have the opportunity to…build community. I am really optimistic about the business and the opportunities.”

He went on to say that the addition of ads could possibly hamper Instagram’s growth. Instagram just surpassed 100 million monthly active users, and the photo-sharing app is growing at a faster rate than Facebook did at this time in its life.

According to Zuckerberg, it’s not that Instagram isn’t drawing any interest from businesses looking to advertise. “Big brands are approaching us,” he said.

You may remember that Facebook has to tread carefully when approaching the topic of ads on Instagram. Last year, Instagram users were up in arms over some proposed changes to the Instagram privacy policy. Originally, the company wanted to add this clause to the terms:

Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

This led to a mostly misguided outrage that Instagram was going to sell users’ photos. What did deserve outrage was Instagram’s tricky, vague, lawyerly language that attempted to describe a future ad product that didn’t yet exist.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom ended up apologizing, saying they were wrong to put the cart before the horse.

“Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.”

Instagram will be properly monetized, it’s inevitable. Facebook has already put way too much into the acquisition and Instagram is already such a powerful social channel. But for now, at least, it looks like Zuck is fine to let it grow.