Can IAC Become A Real Exit Strategy For NYC Tech Startups?

Last month, the idea that Foursquare could exit to Yahoo! for $120+ million had everyone abuzz.  “This means NY tech has come to its own!” people exclaimed. Finally, we had a major player in the social web space. It was a company born here and grown here. Now it was on the brink of being sold for big money. It was a proof point that NYC could breed a serious batch of startups post-Web 1.0.  But if anything, the “Fourhoo episode” was also a scary wake-up call for those of us invested in the future of the NY tech ecosystem. If Foursquare sold — to Yahoo!, to Facebook, or to anyone else in the space — they’d undoubtedly end up in the hands of a Silicon Valley company, and its IP and (probably) leadership would be shipped out of town, taking any future value creation with it. (Sure, they may keep the jobs here, but the profit and reinvestment? Future product integrations?)  As it turns out, this whole exit scenario is a sham for the local environment, and here I thought exits were a good thing. What’s the matter with New York?! Here we are producing a fleet of World Class startups, and an exit for our startup scene means depleting its resources?  This sounds bad. And it is.

Read More: BusinessInsider.com

Futures, Forwards, Contracts Part 2

I was recently talking to someone in the industry I admire and we both started discussing the options, forwards and contracts of dispensable media. Ironically both of us have oil/gas history. He mentioned to me the context of the spot market and how in oil and gas – almost the majority of deals are done in advance and commodities trade in this manner and hedge where needed. The spot market is a residual market where it’s a lot less of the commodities that trade. Take the 80/20 rule – 20% is the spot market in oil/gas and 80% is the futures, forwards contracts market.  Let’s look at the premium and remnant market in digital – is it not the exact opposite? 20% of the market is secured guaranteed premium inventory and the other 80% is the spot market! Incredible – this means that the upside is greater and that digital is only at the start of its bell curve. While 20% has the bulk of the monetisation –we have an 80% pool of potential upside waiting in the wind. Technically, the spot market becoming competitive and working by market forces should only increase the guaranteed market.

Read More: AdSolver

Pay To Play: Is Hulu Plus A Step Away From An Ad-Supported Model Or The New Freemium Norm?

Beginning what some analysts see as the beginning of a slippery slide away from wholly ad-supported models, Hulu on Tuesday debuted Hulu Plus — its premium service that will charge consumers $9.99 a month for carte blanche content access over multiple platforms.  When Hulu debuted in mid-2007, it was viewed as a potential threat to cable and satellite providers that charge a premium for content — and in some cases ad-supported content.  Hulu Plus, which will include some advertising, could therefore be seen as an admission that advertising alone is not enough to support premium content online.  Not so, says senior eMarketer analyst David Hallerman. “It’s an expansion of Hulu’s business rather than a failure,” he says. “What they’re offering here is a deep catalog of content, and studies I’ve seen show that about a quarter of [consumer] respondents are willing to pay for that.”  Meanwhile, Hulu is positioning its subscription service as the perfect vehicle for marketers to target advertising across four screens. Initially, Hulu Plus is partnering with Nissan and Bud Light, and said it expects to include additional advertisers shortly.

Read More: MediaPost