Tag Archives: ceo

How A Site That Streams People Playing Video Games Became A Billion Dollar Business

The genesis of Twitch, one of the most popular gaming-related Websites and applications in the world, can be traced to a few informal meetings in the fall of 2010, including one with Gideon Yu.

The former chief financial officer of YouTube, who negotiated that site’s $1.65 billion sale to Google and parlayed some of his windfall into a 5% ownership stake in the San Francisco 49ers, came by Justin.tv’s offices — which by then had raised $8 million in venture capital and had begun to generate revenue by morphing from a site originally conceived to stream the life of co-founder Justin Kan into a platform where anyone can stream video.

According to Michael Seibel, another Justin.tv co-founder, Yu came in and gave the company the kick in the pants it needed.

“He came by and basically said, ‘You guys have got something, it’s making some money, but you haven’t really made anything of significant impact, so you can sit on your ass and make a salary and not run this like a startup, or you can build something real out,” Seibel said.

That meeting, coupled with other conversations like one Kan had with SAY Media’s Matt Sanchez, convinced the team to start a few skunkworks projects internally. Taken together, the discussions with Yu and Sanchez marked the start of a process that would eventually morph Justin.tv into two companies with two different missions — Twitch, a site consisting of video streams of people playing video games, and Socialcam, a mobile app for sharing video.

It also marked the beginning of Justin.tv co-founder Emmett Shear’s evolution from engineer to executive, an unlikely ascent that transformed Twitch into one of the most valuable video-streaming companies in the world. Now Twitch is among the companies on Google’s shopping list, being eyed for a reported price of around one billion dollars. (The company announced Tuesday that it would wind down Justin.tv’s operations in order to devote all of its resources to Twitch.)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattlynley/how-a-site-that-streams-people-playing-video-games-became-a

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  • 60
    2014 LA Hacks Keynote The following keynote was delivered by Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, during LA Hacks at Pauley Pavilion on April 11, 2014. I am very grateful for your time and attention this evening. It is absolutely incredible to see so many young people gathered here together to…
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  • 57
    There’s been a sharp response to the post I wrote last Wednesday in Forbes outlining the rationale for either Alibaba or SoftBank buying Yahoo at current levels. The stock is up 6.5% since that story first was published on heavy volume. To me, the strong response by investors to the story suggests one…
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  • 55
    When Zappos announced late last year that it would eliminate titles and traditional managers from its company, some were skeptical about whether the online shoe retailer could pull it off. But the company tells Business Insider that 80% of its 1,500 employees are now working under Holacracy, a relatively new organizational…
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  • 54
    Let’s start with the premise that Twitch, the video-game watching network, is the next ESPN – you know, the jewel in Disney’s crown that, by itself, is worth $50.8 billion. Like ESPN, Twitch is about live competition, and, like ESPN, Twitch does exceptionally well in the highly desirable young male demographic.1 Obviously…
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7 reasons for Nadella’s appointment as Microsoft CEO

Five months ago, the student town of Manipal went abuzz when they realized that one of their own was the leading contender in the race for the top job at Microsoft Corp. For the next five months, it looked like their prayers would easily lead to fruition. But late last week, another Indian name came into the fray. While it was a win-win situation for Indians, Redmond had to face a tussle between the two tech-stalwarts who would be resurrecting its lost glory. But in the end Satya Nadella was the man who came out on top. … 

Read all 7 points here : http://yourstory.com/2014/02/satya-nadella-ceo/

 

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The Daily Routines of Famous Artists and Scholars @infowetrust

Data visualization artist RJ Andrews of Info We Trust created an amazing infographic of 16 of the 161 creative masterminds featured in Currey’s book.

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    Satya Nadella is Microsoft Corp.'s new CEO. But he ascends as co-founder Bill Gates returns to a more central role at a company struggling to catch up in mobile and other fast-moving technologies. Mr. Gates is giving up the chairman's role to become technical adviser to Mr. Nadella, the 22-year Microsoft veteran who was named…
    Tags: ceo
  • 56
    Famous as the 'Money Honey,' Maria Bartiromo is about to begin a Sunday morning show on the Fox News Channel—but not before firing a ringing broadside at her former CNBC bosses. The “Money Honey” may have moved across the street--from CNBC to Fox--but she’s still the same hyper-competitive, no-nonsense, Brooklyn-born…
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  • 55
    Five months ago, the student town of Manipal went abuzz when they realized that one of their own was the leading contender in the race for the top job at Microsoft Corp. For the next five months, it looked like their prayers would easily lead to fruition. But late last…
    Tags: ceo
  • 54
    If Tesla Motors Inc.TSLA  CEO Elon Musk turns into the next Steve Jobs or Henry Ford, Goldman SachsGS sees considerable upside for the electric car maker’s stock price. But that’s not a likely scenario. In a 47-page report to clients, Goldman laid out various scenarios for the car maker’s future…
    Tags: ceo
  • 51
    "The Remains of the Day" Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos lists Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day" among his favorite books, citing its ability to teach readers about life and regret. From Publishers Weekly Greeted with high praise in England, where it seems certain to be shortlisted for the…
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Goldman Sachs: What Happens If Elon #Musk Is the Next Steve #Jobs

If Tesla Motors Inc.TSLA  CEO Elon Musk turns into the next Steve Jobs or Henry Ford, Goldman SachsGS sees considerable upside for the electric car maker’s stock price.

But that’s not a likely scenario.

In a 47-page report to clients, Goldman laid out various scenarios for the car maker’s future before ultimately raising its six-month Tesla price target to $200 from $170, some 20% below Tuesday’s closing level of $240.04.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/18/goldman-sachs-what-happens-if-elon-musk-is-the-next-steve-jobs/

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    Social network Ello, which operates in Vermont, is riding the rocket ship usually reserved for Silicon Valley’s hottest consumer tech startups. The ad-free social network, which has to be the most well-known product from the Green Mountain State since Ben and Jerry’s launched in the late ’70s, has taken the…
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  • 60
    I'm as big a believer in the transformational power of cloud computing as anyone you'll meet. Smartphones, which are constantly seeking and retrieving data, don't make sense without the cloud, and any business that isn't racing to push its data and software into someone else's data center is, in my…
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  • 59
    In the future, Netflix will know exactly what you want to watch, even before you do. You won’t have to spend all that time browsing through endless lists of shows on your television. That’s according to Neil Hunt, Netflix’s chief product officer. It’s just one of many predictions for the…
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  • 54
    Data visualization artist RJ Andrews of Info We Trust created an amazing infographic of 16 of the 161 creative masterminds featured in Currey’s book.
    Tags: ceo
  • 53
    Thanks to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 2014 report on Cities of Opportunity, job seekers have a handy list of some of the best cities to find a job across the world. Using 10 indicators to look at the factors that contribute to a well-balanced city, the study compared 30 different cities and…
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Microsoft Prescription: More Bill Gates as mentor

Satya Nadella is Microsoft Corp.’s new CEO. But he ascends as co-founder Bill Gates returns to a more central role at a company struggling to catch up in mobile and other fast-moving technologies.

Mr. Gates is giving up the chairman’s role to become technical adviser to Mr. Nadella, the 22-year Microsoft veteran who was named Tuesday to succeed Steve Ballmer as its third chief executive. Mr. Gates said he would devote up to a third of his time—which is now largely devoted to philanthropic activities—to help Mr. Nadella craft Microsoft’s product strategy.

WSJ

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    Data visualization artist RJ Andrews of Info We Trust created an amazing infographic of 16 of the 161 creative masterminds featured in Currey’s book.
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  • 57
    Why is America’s largest cable TV company buying its biggest rival for $44 billion? Well, not to oversimplify things, but that’s easy to explain: http://qz.com/176837/one-sentence-and-six-charts-explain-why-comcast-is-buying-time-warner-cable/
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  • 44
    “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old” ― Peter F. Drucker A strategy is a plan of action to achieve a major aim and future result. It requires commitment because making change is difficult. To describe what’s involved, Peter Drucker said: “Strategic planning is the continuous…
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  • 38
    Five months ago, the student town of Manipal went abuzz when they realized that one of their own was the leading contender in the race for the top job at Microsoft Corp. For the next five months, it looked like their prayers would easily lead to fruition. But late last…
    Tags: microsoft, nadella, satya, ceo
  • 36
    Yes, Twitter has a growth problem. But more than that, the company has another headache: Getting people to stick around after signing up. According to people close to the company, Twitter has seen more than one billion registrations to its service over the past seven and a half years. Stack…
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