Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys

There media is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/world/europe/suspense-ahead-of-verdict-for-jailed-russian-punk-band.html?pagewanted=all From the article: Human rights groups and Western governments, including the United States, immediately criticized the verdict as unjust and the sentence as unduly severe.

What I find intriguing is if Assange had published China state secrets and cables the US would be most likely be providing him with asylum and trumpeting "China oppression of free speech" and "China crackdown on international research dissidents", etc............ It is sad when international laws are broken by a state to make an example of one person with the intent to scare the rest of humanity into blind submission.

Facebook was never a "unique" idea. It was successful viral spam effort. Does anyone remember? It got its first viral thrust as a SPAM email sent out to a stolen database of students!

FB did not change my life. FB did not change anyone's life that I know of. FB is a major number pumper. I guess at least 20% probably a lot more of the "active accounts" are fake.. Even more so are people that only use it to look at pics grandkids sent them. FB is run by a guy with zero scruples. FB entire strategy relies on them selling your personal data to advertisers in one way or another. Should be called "FaceCrook" FB is a major fad, yet slowly running out of steam. When the real attrition starts, it will deflate quickly and like many on this thread state "will become a news site" I don't know anyone who "loves facebook" anymore. I'm surprised you are so behind the times and so in love with it!

Orwell rolls around in his grave....Google becomes a copyright cop. I wonder what "wink wink" deal this was tacked onto with the studios.

With a pogo stick

Well I called FB stock at 10$ by the end of the year. Let's see if I hit the nail on the head.

Microsoft has a history of failure in the phone market, period. Look at any forecast, and Microsoft is not expected to get a decent size of the global handset market. They continue to pump the money in thinking money solves everything. I don't think they can get back market share, there is just too much momentum for APPL and Android in the space. The entire Nokia deal is just plan silly. I don't even know anyone that uses a Nokia smartphone (although still know lots that have the 20$ backup cheap nokia symbian phone). Everyone I know has a smartphone, everyone. And not one Nokia. The only place I've ever seen them is on store shelves and at trade shows, I can't even remember seeing an actual end user with one in their hand in public. Windows mobile 8 will continue that path, while APPL and Android eat up the marketplace.

The reasons are simple, just ask yourself "do I want Microsoft on my phone?". Yes, there is the answer. No. Nobody does. Microsoft became "uncool" long long ago. Nobody wants an uncool phone.

Microsoft missed the one boat that could have maybe just maybe gave them a fast start in the marketplace, they could have purchased RIM. They could of done away with the old timer brand "windows" for a smartphone, and used "Blackberry". Fact is, when people think about Windows they think about an antiquated PC, not some latest and greatest gotta have it smartphone. Add to the fact that Windows has very little, if any, brand loyalty. People don't feel connected to Windows as something that is a good brand. They think of it as the commodity PC, exactly the monopoly that Microsoft built, and profited from since inception.

The veeps at MS need someone cool to step through the door and get through their thick skulls that "Microsoft, Windows, Windows Mobile, Office" will never be "cool" brands. The brand will always be kind of like "Hormel" in the food space. Even if they did everything right and created the best smartphone OS out there, the masses don't want to be carrying a "Hormel Phone"

So, the company wants to enter into the app market against Apple and Google. Yeah that's an easy one. I give this a 9 out of 10 chance of failure in the short to mid run. This reminds me of Microsoft entering the phone market. Such a brash, so full of ego, "we are gonna take over" kind of approach to a market that is well already.....crowded. It is like a strategy designed around the press release to drive retail investors to the stock, its a borderline scam. How could management really think they can win that market. There is no innovation There is no competitive or comparative or economic or platform advantage in their plan. It is a plan vanilla "me too" play, only weaker because its on others' OS and platforms. This stock is going to continue tanking. This type of strategy is a red flag to the high probability that the management and board have no idea how to capitalize on their "registered user base". No clue. They are clutching at air now. Nokia could not get it right. Microsoft could not get it right. RIM is struggling. Motorola is all but a brand. Hey how many people are using their "Samsung Market" or "Sony Market". FB thinks they are smarter than those guys because they had a viral photo and drivel social networking site and the biggest IPO (cough *ponzi* cough) in social networking history? They think they can drive the smartphone market with games, crowding out Google and Apple? What is their expected market share in two years? This is destined for failure. Stock at 10$ by end of year? Could be single digits if they keep coming up with plans like this.

HD killed the mass market for higher and high definition displays. All the notebooks, even desktop displays no longer had to fight over resolutions, they all just went "HD". and hence the mass market settled on 'HD". The display makers were pleased, they could finally stop building new production lines every time DPI went up every 6 months before they got their capex back. The laptop makers were pleased, they could stop worrying about competing on display resolution in the mass market and spam out "HD" or even "HD Ready" on everything (HD Ready was SD with HDMI input...what a scam in itself". There are some interesting articles about how this phenomena killed the race for higher DPI displays in the mass market. Its been going on for years, the longest stagnation in the display mass market since the introduction of the PC to the masses............

Well, I ditched my HTC when Galaxy IIs came out. I loved the phone except.....could not get rid of facebook app without rooting the phone. So, switched to Samsung and rooted the HTC and gave it to the Ms. Facebook options chain started trading today. STock is down almost 5% already. There will be a huge scramble to produce a "plan", and I'm sorry a crappy app for a crappy service tied to a really cheesy brand is not going to save the farm here.

Hey Doofus, did you bother reading the article? Quote: "Monday's closing price of $US34.03 implied a 24 per cent annual growth rate for Facebook earnings over the next 10 years - a rate that would rank above 90 per cent of the companies in that industry. Thomson Reuters Starmine, meanwhile, more conservatively estimates a 10.8 per cent annual growth rate -- almost exactly the mean for the technology sector - which would value the stock at $US9.59 a share, a 72 per cent discount to its IPO price."

That's right, there is only one person that should be ultimately held accountable for the mess. The same person that ensured he had full control via voting rights, the same person that had to sign off on the revenue forecasts, the valuation, and the IPO process.

And, what this person signed off on is, in a nutshell, to pay back previous investors with new investors' expense. This is traditionally called a ponzi scheme. The number pumping, book cooking is the same as Enron, Worldcom, and a plethora of Chinese companies listed all over the world, to list a few. Yes, the bankers help, the auditors help, its a very consolidated effort. In this case, however, you have a person who demanded voting control and voted this all into play. He should be held fully accountable. Don't expect it to play out that way however, because there will be backroom deals, lobbying everywhere, and all sorts of shenanigans to keep the ball rolling

Now the simple fact remains that man, would rather take investors money than give it to them. And he has full control. Let me repeat that with quotes with a personal emphasis "HE WOULD RATHER TAKE YOUR MONEY THAN MAKE IT FOR YOU".

And to this I say, they will make nothing close to Google and Apple and probably the top 3 handset manufacturers in mobile. If this is what you think all that matters on FB valuation, then they are worth nothing. On mobile they will be squashed.