Marktplaats.nl actie voor Prinses Beatrix Fonds groot succes

Het originele persbericht:

Totale opbrengst € 14.766,-

Cultureel uitje met Annemarie Jorritsma brengt maar liefst € 6.500,- op

Emmeloord, 26 september 2005 - Op www.marktplaats.nl heeft de actie voor het Prinses Beatrix Fonds ruim € 14.000,- opgebracht. Eén van de meest populaire advertenties, een dag op stap met Annemarie Jorritsma, burgemeester van Almere, bracht maar liefst € 6.500,- op. Ook het rijden in een Lamborghini bleek erg gewild, en bracht € 3.000,- op.

De opbrengst komt geheel ten goede aan het Prinses Beatrix Fonds ter gelegenheid van het 25-jarig ambtsjubileum van Hare Koninklijke Hoogheid Beatrix. Morgen zal Marktplaats directeur Oscar Diele de volledige opbrengst persoonlijk aan Hare Majesteit de Koningin overhandigen tijdens haar bezoek aan de provincie Flevoland.

Tijdens een groots opgezet pleinfeest in het Museumkwartier te Lelystad, waar alle gemeentes zich op diverse manieren presenteren, zal Hare koninklijke Hoogheid Beatrix kennismaken met jong en oud in Flevoland. In lijn met het thema ‘jong en oud’ wordt de nieuwe digitale manier van handelen via Marktplaats.nl tegenover de traditionele manier van veilen gezet. Zo zal er morgen – naast de al gehouden Internet veiling - ter plaatse een bekende veilingmeester uit de Noordoostpolder enkele bijzondere objecten ‘live’ veilen. Ook deze opbrengst komt ten gunste van het Prinses Beatrix Fonds.

Tot vandaag 12.00 uur was het mogelijk om te bieden op de bijzondere Marktplaats advertenties, beschikbaar gesteld door verschillende bedrijven in de provincie Flevoland, waaronder ook:

· Mountainbike clinic voor 10 personen gegeven door Bart Brentjes – Opbrengst € 500,-

· Verzorgde reis naar de Olympische Spelen in Turijn 2006 - Opbrengst € 600,-

· Hulp-burgemeester zijn van Lelystad voor één dag - Opbrengst € 1.201,-

· Dagdeel rijden in een Oranje Lamborghini Garraldo - Opbrengst € 3.000,-

Over het prinses Beatrix Fonds en De Beatrix

In Nederland lijden meer dan tweehonderdduizend mensen aan polio, multiple sclerose en ruim zeshonderd verschillende spierziekten. De meeste van deze ziekten zijn chronisch en ongeneeslijk.

Het Prinses Beatrix Fonds spant zich sinds 1956 in om de kwaliteit van leven van de patiënten zo hoog mogelijk te houden. Mede dankzij het werk van het Prinses Beatrix Fonds kunnen patiënten bijvoorbeeld hun hobby beoefenen of een studie volgen. Voor gezinnen met een familielid dat aan een van de ziekten lijdt, zijn er aangepaste vakantiehuizen beschikbaar.

Tevens subsidieert het Prinses Beatrix Fonds het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek. Jaarlijks kunnen zo'n vijftien onderzoeken worden begonnen. Hierdoor groeien de mogelijkheden om spierziekten en de andere aandoeningen te remmen, te genezen en/of te voorkomen.

Tijdens SAIL 2005 doopte Koningin Beatrix de catamaran ‘De Beatrix’. Het schip is 1 van de jubileumgeschenken bij haar 25-jarig Regeringsjubileum. Het Prinses Beatrix Fonds heeft de 18 meter lange Catamaran laten bouwen, uitgerust met de modernste technieken waar mensen met een handicap gebruik van kunnen maken. De Beatrix vervangt “de Zonnetij” van NebasNsg, de Nederlandse sportorganisatie voor mensen met een beperking. Dit schip moet na 30 jaar dienst uit de vaart worden genomen, tot groot verdriet van de mensen die daar gebruik van maken.

De Beatrix zal vanaf 2006 gaan varen en kan zelfs vanuit de rolstoel met een joystick worden bestuurd. Zo kunnen watersportliefhebbers met een beperking genieten van een bijzondere vakantie op de Friese meren en de Waddenzee.

Over Marktplaats.nl

Marktplaats.nl, opgericht in 1999, was in Nederland een van de eerste websites die zich volledig richtte op rubrieksadvertenties. Sinds de oprichting is Marktplaats.nl uitgegroeid tot de populairste website op dit gebied in Nederland met een nog altijd groeiende klantenbasis van particulieren en kleine bedrijven. Per dag komen er meer dan 70.000 nieuwe advertenties op de site bij van kleding en verzamelobjecten tot auto’s en huisraad. De onderneming maakt sinds november 2004 onderdeel uit van eBay. Marktplaats is gevestigd in Emmeloord. Kijk voor meer informatie op: www.marktplaats.nl.

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eBay 10 Years - 2001

The Year that Was: 2001

"Right now, they are still learning how to turn on a computer." - Karin Stahl

As the world entered 2001, many people were most likely to associate the year with the title of director Stanley Kubrick's acclaimed 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nine months and 11 days later, however, the events of one Tuesday morning would forever change what people remember about 2001.

In response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the company snapped into action, launching Auction for America to help families of the attack victims. Through Auction for America, sellers listed items with all proceeds benefiting the September 11 Fund and the Twin Towers Fund. eBay contributed all listing fees and final value fees. More than $10 million was raised.

The year presented a number of challenges. Many nations were in the midst of a serious economic downturn. More dot-com companies went out of business. And in the U.S., a series of corporate scandals rocked investor confidence. The high-flying economic times of the late 1990s were clearly history.

In this downcast environment, however, eBay continued to bustle and boom. To refine and improve the online shopping experience as well as to empower people with big ideas but small budgets, the company launched eBay Stores, a way for people to have their own customized online businesses for just a few dollars a month. The international expansion continued to accelerate with the purchase of a majority stake in South Korea's Internet Auction Company; the acquisition of the European auction site iBazar SA; a strategic relationship with the leading Latin American online trading site MercadoLibre, and the launching of new sites in Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, and Singapore.

By the end of the year, eBay was a company of more than 2,500 employees supporting more than 42 million registered users who transacted more than $9.3 billion in gross merchandise volume in more than 18,000 categories—all measures dramatically higher than the year before. Among items sold were the oldest known pair of Levi's (going for $46,532) and a Gulfstream II business jet. The jet, incidentally, went for $4.9 million, the highest amount ever for an item sold on eBay.

In the midst of its own success, eBay continued to think of ways to share its resources with others who needed assistance of various kinds. During the year, eBay Foundation, founded back in the company's pre-IPO days, continued to give generously to organizations and initiatives supporting children, education, volunteerism, community revitalization, and the environment.

In June 2001, a group of eBay employees also shared their time and resources in a very different way—they traveled to an isolated village of 12,000 in Guatemala called San Pedro La Laguna, bringing with them computers, medical supplies, and other items. The goal was for villagers to learn about e-commerce and eventually trade on eBay. The trip was organized by employee Karin Stahl, who had been to the village several times dating back to 1997. Struck by the poverty, rampant disease, and absence of any health care, she made a pledge to help the people there. As Karin quipped: "Right now, they are still learning how to turn on a computer." But, while still in a formative stage, the project was an eloquent expression of the original eBay dream becoming an amazing reality—a single, global marketplace in which everyone has the chance to participate on an equal basis.

Although 2001 had its share of tragedy and setbacks, eBay remained focused on doing its part to change things for the better.

eBay 10 Years - 2000

The Year that Was: 2000

"eBay is positioned to thrive, not just survive this shakeout." - Meg Whitman

"Outwit. Outplay. Outlast"—these three words summed up a new reality-based television show that premiered in the U.S. in the spring of 2000. Its name, of course, is Survivor, and it immediately captured the imaginations of ten of millions of viewers. For many people with a stake in the new breed of Internet companies, this show also mirrored a reality they were experiencing in their own lives. Just a few weeks before Survivor first aired—on April 14, 2000, to be exact—the dot-com bubble burst. Stock prices plummeted. And among the biggest losers were these Internet startups—the "dot.goners" as they were quickly renamed. Soon afterwards, these companies began to fold in droves. Just as on the show, the vast majority of participants did not survive.

eBay—due in large part to its extremely successful business model, loyal community, and opportunistic management style—was one of the fortunate few. In fact, during the spring of 2000, people throughout the company were already thinking beyond the present and well into the future. As Meg Whitman put it at the time: "eBay is positioned to thrive, not just survive this shakeout."

eBay was not entirely immune; its stock price dipped for a time. But, throughout the year, the company continued to grow and develop at its usual break-neck pace.

One major 2000 theme was expansion both at its headquarters and around the world. As the company moved into still more buildings at eBay Park, its Hamilton Avenue, San Jose location, and into its new customer support center in Salt Lake City, Utah, it also opened sites in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. If anyone ever had doubts about eBay's global appeal, they were clearly laid to rest.

During the year, eBay also moved into a new market—the online buying and selling of fixed-price items. In July, the company acquired Half.com, an online fixed-price marketplace for books, CDs, movies, and video games. Launched just six months before, Half.com was an instant hit and had 250,000 registered users by the time the acquisition was final. The success of Half.com also inspired eBay to add the Buy It Now feature to the main site just in time for Christmas 2000. An appeal to auction-adverse buyers, Buy It Now allowed sellers to establish a price at which they would be willing to stop the auction and finalize the sale. As well as improving eBay's Holiday Season transaction volume, this feature dramatically increased “auction velocity,” the speed that items move off the site.

Other highlights during the eventful year included the creation of eBay University, an online educational service that teaches people how to become successful eBay sellers; the launch of eBay Motors, which debunked once and for all the myth that people would not buy automobiles over the Internet; and co-branding and other partnership arrangements with companies such as Disney, AutoTrader.com, Microsoft, Keen.com, UltimateBid.com, Zipreality.com, and General Motors.

As well as experiencing many highlights of its own during 2000, eBay also helped facilitate a highlight in the arena of baseball card trading. In July, one of the rarest of all pieces of baseball memorabilia—a small, slim card depicting the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Honus Wagner—sold on eBay for a record $1.265 million—the highest price ever for a single baseball card.

By year end, more than 22.5 million eBay registered users trading in more than 7,600 categories had accounted for $5.4 billion in gross merchandise volume—all shattering 1999 records. Once again, the company had proven itself to be much more than a survivor.

eBay 10 Years - 1999

The Year that Was: 1999

"Will eBay Inc.'s customers stay loyal?"

Meg Whitman

With memories of their company's highly successful IPO fresh in their minds, eBay's employees—all 138—entered 1999 with a heightened sense of possibilities. But, in the year of U.S President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial, fears about the millennium bug, and the release of Stars Wars—the Phantom Menace (the movie that critics disliked but that still made $400 million at the box office), they faced new kinds of challenges. One was an increased emphasis on growth through acquisition and international expansion. During the year, eBay acquired such companies with capabilities that complemented its own as Butterfield & Butterfield, Billpoint, Blackthorne Software, and Kruse International. The company also launched built-from-scratch sites in the United Kingdom and Australia designed especially for community members in those countries. And, with the purchase of Germany-based Alando.de.ag, eBay did both—buying a company and turning it into an overseas subsidiary. On the whole, these developments occurred without major issues, and eBay was on its way to becoming a truly global enterprise with thriving user communities in more than 100 countries. Another challenge was much more sobering. A few minutes before 7:00 on the evening of June 10, 1999, the eBay site went down. At first, no one was alarmed—outages had occurred on the site since the company's early days, and usually the problem could be isolated and fixed in short order—at most a few hours. But, as time ticked by that night, the site wouldn't come up. In the middle of the night Meg called Sun Microsystems whose servers eBay used, and soon more than 50 engineers from both companies were working on the problem. With the site still down the next morning, Meg shared the unthinkable to the executive staff: What if the site never came up? Ultimately, however, the problems were found, and—just before 4:30 the next afternoon—the site was revived. The experience was a jolt for everyone with a stake in eBay, and the following Monday, The Wall Street Journal even posed the question: "Will eBay Inc.'s customer stay loyal?" But eBay executives responded quickly, writing a letter of apology to the community and offering to automatically refund the fees for any items listed during the outage—even if an auction had been completed. The community remained loyal. And eBay moved quickly to make sure that a problem of this magnitude would never happen again by building redundancy into the systems and bringing greater discipline to the IT operations. A major challenge met, eBay continued to grow and develop. Other 1999 highlights include the selection of Salt Lake City, Utah, for the company's new Customer Support center; the launch of eBay Motors; the addition of more than 500 new employees including such key executives as Maynard Webb, Jeff Jordan, Matt Bannick, and Lynn Reedy; the company's first stock split; and—still more solid evidence that eBay had arrived—the publication of the first edition of the bestselling eBay for Dummies. By year end, the company also marked another milestone—its 10 millionth registered user. In just three years, the eBay community had grown 244 times.

eBay 10 Years - 1998

The Year that Was: 1998

"Pierre isn’t going anywhere, is he?"

Meg Whitman

As they looked to 1998, eBay's leaders Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll did something many entrepreneurs fail to do—they took a clear-eyed look at the future and concluded that someone else was needed to take their small but booming enterprise to the next level. They wanted to preserve and protect the unique company—and community— culture they had created. But, they also wanted to see eBay take the logical next step in its development—to make its initial public offering (IPO). For this, they knew they needed outside talent, someone with the right business experience and savvy who also understood what it was to be, as Pierre called it, "eBaysian." After enlisting a headhunter, eBay executives and Benchmark partner Bob Kagle considered a long list of candidates, gradually whittling the list down to a handful for interviews. As the process continued, one candidate—a Harvard MBA with impeccable credentials from consumer companies such as Proctor & Gamble and Disney—became the runaway favorite. According to Pierre, Meg Whitman was "the perfect person." Bob Kagle was also impressed by a question Meg asked during her interview. "If this is something I decide to do," she said, "Pierre isn't going anywhere, is he?" For Kagle, this showed a quality many incoming CEOs lack—the ability to fully recognize and value the contributions of the people who had started a company from scratch. Meg, he felt, would be an excellent complement to Pierre and Jeff. Meg came onboard as eBay's new CEO in March 1998, and the company set its sights on a September IPO. In the meantime, much was happening. In June, a charitable fund known as the eBay Foundation was established. In July, eBay acquired Jump, Inc. and its person-to-person online trading site, Up4Sale, and hired Rajiv Dutta as director of finance. In August, the company also entered into a three-year strategic partnering arrangement with AOL, a step many considered essential to a successful IPO. And in August—while Elvis week was celebrated in Memphis with candlelight vigils and karaoke contests—eBay launched "All the King's Things," its first Elvis site. The prime mover behind the site, which included an Elvis chat room along with numerous Elvis-related auction listings, was “Rockin” Robin Rosaan, a long-time Elvis fan and eBay employee. On the last day of August, eBay's executive team began the "road show," a traveling investor pitch that hit more than a dozen U.S. cities leading up to the planned IPO in late September. The presentations went over well across the country. And, as the team arrived in New York to watch the company go public on September 24, momentum—and anticipation—were building. The stock opened at 53 1/4, much higher than expected. At that moment, the company that Pierre had begun as a hobby just three years before was worth $2 billion. As the management team celebrated in New York and the rest of eBay's staff joined in from the San Jose offices, the listings, auctions, and surreal growth continued. During 1998, $700 million in sales were transacted over eBay—a jump of more than seven times the previous year. Registered users—which had totaled 341,000 at the end of 1997—now surpassed 2.1 million.

eBay 10 Years - 1997

The Year that Was: 1997

"Let me get this right: people are going to buy and sell antiques online. I gotta go."

Silicon Valley venture capitalist

If 1996 was the year that AuctionWeb officially became a business, then 1997 was the year when the young, bustling operation began to build the foundations for future growth and viability. In the year when the Beanie Baby craze reach new heights, the world said goodbye to Princess Diana, and millions stood in long theater lines to see Titanic, Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Skoll, and their small but growing staff were making decisions that would affect their enterprise for years to come. By the end of the year, the company had transformed itself yet again. Now, it had 41 employees, 341,000 registered users, venture capital funding, a scalable new IT architecture, and, yes, even a new name. The year also marked another major milestone—the one-millionth item, a Big Bird Jack-in-the-box toy, was sold. With all the changes AuctionWeb was experiencing, the one constant was almost surreal growth. During 1996, the total amount of the merchandise sold on the system was $7.2 million. A year later, it was $95 million—an increase of roughly 13 times. This inspired people to call the period the time of the "Great eBay Flood." And one of the key contributing factors was those lovable Beanie Babies. AuctionWeb became a great resource for people who just couldn't live without Legs the Frog, Chocolate the Moose, and their animal friends. And, in May 1997, $500,000 worth of these cuddly creatures were sold through the site—an incredible 6.6 percent of the site's total volume for the month. Along with growing revenues, some major challenges were also flowing along in the Great eBay Flood. One glaring item on the "to-do" list was to gain credibility in the venture capital community. After Jeff finished a business plan, which included AuctionWeb's "principles," he and Pierre began to seek out the funding they believed would be instrumental in eventually making their initial public offering (IPO). Despite all the growth they had experienced, there was still skepticism. Jeff remembers one respected venture capitalist telling him: "Let me get this right: people are going to buy and sell antiques online. I gotta go." In June, however, AuctionWeb received its funding—$5 million from Benchmark Capital for 21.5 percent of the company. Four years later, that $5 million would be worth more than $4 billion, making it one of the best investments of all time. Another big challenge was developing a system architecture that could accommodate the organization's growth. To "build our next generation from scratch," as Pierre put it, he brought in Mike Wilson, a whimsical computer guru he had once worked with. Quickly winning the community over with his blunt no-nonsense communications and personal quirks (he named each of the network's servers after a reptile), Mike led the effort that created the new system and launched it on September 1, just in time for AuctionWeb's second birthday. As AuctionWeb retired its old IT system on September 1, it also retired its name and—paradoxically—began to actively promote an identity it had had all along. Back in 1995, Pierre had wanted to name his own Web site www.echobay.com. This had nothing to do with Echo Bay , the small community in Nevada ; he just liked the sound of it. When he found that www.echobay.com was taken, he claimed www.eBay.com. AuctionWeb was one of the three different services that could be accessed from this site, and—when referring to the auction service—community members often used “eBay” or both names interchangeably. To clarify the situation—and cement the brand in people's minds—the shorter, catchier eBay was chosen.

eBay 10 Years - 1996

The Year that Was: 1996 "I had a vague idea of what I needed to do as an entrepreneur, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to put together a business plan." - Pierre Omidyar

At the beginning of 1996, AuctionWeb—the online auction site computer programmer Pierre Omidyar had created and launched just four months before—was one man's "hobby." By the end of the year, it was a budding business with five employees, an office suite, 41,000 registered users, and tens of thousands of dollars in fees pouring in each month. The year also marked the beginning of another first for the fledgling site—message boards for everyone who used AuctionWeb or the people who soon became known as "the Community." The decision to charge fees, according to Pierre, grew out of necessity. Initially, he operated the site through Best, his $30-a-month home Internet service provider. But, as traffic on AuctionWeb grew, it was slowing down Best's system. In February, Best presented Pierre with its solution—it would charge him at the corporate rate of $250. To help defray this expense, Pierre, who had resisted the idea until then, started to charge fees. But, he would not, he decided, charge buyers anything. And he would not charge sellers to list items. He would, he concluded, only charge "final-value" fees, which would be a small percentage of the final sales price. In February, Pierre also introduced a new feature designed to delegate much of the site management to AuctionWeb users themselves—message boards. The first was the Feedback Forum, where registered users would work out disputes, expose bad practices and behavior, and praise good practices and behavior. Shortly afterwards, Pierre added The Bulletin Board, so buyers and sellers could ask each other questions without having to go through him first. About this time, the site's popularity began to grow in leaps and bounds. In March, revenues from the newly levied fees passed $1,000. By May, the revenues topped $5,000, convincing Pierre that he should hire someone to handle the collections. This turned out to be Chris Agarpao, AuctionWeb's first employee. Then, when revenues passed $10,000 in June, Pierre made two fateful decisions: he quit his day job at General Magic, and he hired Jeff Skoll—a recently minted Stanford MBA who had previously founded two high-tech startups—to be the company's first president. "I had a vague idea of what I needed to do as an entrepreneur," Pierre recalls, "But I knew I wasn't going to be able to put together a business plan." In Jeff, he had someone who could. By the end of the year, two more people were also AuctionWeb employees. One was Mary Lou Song, who Pierre and Jeff considered a perfect blend of the company's two pillars of commerce and community. Officially, her title was public relations manager. But she handled numerous tasks. The other was, Jim Griffith, a user who quickly earned a reputation among message board posters both for his friendly technical advice and for his eccentric manner. The eccentricity sometimes came in handy when "Griff" stepped in to resolve disputes between posters. Once, when a dispute between two such parties had escalated into an all-out war of words, Griff offered to give one of them a feather boa and the other an elaborate hat—both from an old trunk of his mother's clothing. The gesture literally disarmed the combatants, calming them down sufficiently so they could iron out their differences in a more respectful fashion.

eBay 10 Years - Year 1

The Year that Was: 1995

“What I wanted to do was create an efficient market, where regular people could compete with big business on a level playing field.” - Pierre Omidyar

As millions of Americans took to the road for Labor Day Weekend in 1995 a 28-year-old computer programmer with a fondness for philosophy and a strong libertarian streak stuck to his plan to stay home. Pierre Omidyar would spend most of the next three days planted firmly in the spare bedroom in his townhouse in Campbell, California. There, on his computer, he would hammer out the code for a new kind of online commerce service—one he likened to a “perfect marketplace.” At the time most of the smart people around would not have taken Pierre 's idea very seriously. Less than one half of one percent of the human beings on the planet actually used the Internet. And the idea of buying and selling goods or services over this marginal, hard-to-navigate, and unabashedly geeky communication medium seemed even more far-fetched. Just a few months before, Time magazine told its millions of readers why the Internet would remain marginal. “It was not designed for doing commerce,” the pronouncement read, “and it does not gracefully accommodate new arrivals.” Shortly afterwards, Time's rival Newsweek neatly summed up the idea of online shopping with the word: “baloney.” But, Pierre—who had a passionate faith in the potential of the Internet to help people—was undeterred. During the summer of 1995, he had divided his time between his job at mobile communications startup General Magic during the day and his home computer at night. He had always been a believer in free-market capitalism, but it had bothered him how well-connected insiders always seemed to have an unfair advantage over ordinary people. He saw the Internet as way to help solve this problem. “I was trying to think about how the Web could bring real power to the individual,” he recalls. “And what I wanted to do was create an efficient market, where regular people could compete with big business on a level playing field.” On Labor Day, Pierre launched the site, which would allow people to buy and sell items via online auctions, where natural market forces—how much someone was willing to pay—would drive each transaction. After christening the site AuctionWeb, he immediately began to promote it, posting notices at various sites. Slowly but surely, visitors began to post items on AuctionWeb. And within a week items ranging from a 1967 Superman metal lunchbox to a 1952 Silver Dawn Rolls Royce, to a Czech vase were all up for bids. The online auction had been created, and auctions for everything from consumer electronics to comics were underway. By year end, thousands of auctions had taken place on AuctionWeb. Since Pierre was offering his service for free, he kept his day job while continuing to pursue this “hobby” in the evenings. But he also had an inkling that something unusual and great was brewing. While he had stayed home that Labor Day Weekend, he sensed he had actually begun a journey—one that could soon change his life and the lives of millions of other people around the world.

IPO Netsape 10 years ago, start of the HYPE

In two days the 10 year anniversary of the IPO of Netscape will be celebrated.

This IPO is seen as THE start of the Internet bubble.

To put some of the craziness of the hype into perspective hereunder are a few of the calls Netscape got prior to the IPO.

Pure for enjoyment:

Caller: Do you know what the ticker symbol will be yet?

Finance: At this point I believe it will be "N" as in Netscape, "S" as in Sam, "C" as in Charlie, "P" as in Paul. "N-S-C-P".

Caller: That was "N" as in WHAT???

A "very influential" incoming Netscape caller:

Caller: How can I get on this "Friends of Netscape" stock list?

Finance: Do you have any connection to Netscape?

Caller: I just heard about the information superhighway. I was told Netscape was a user-friendly browser, so I want to be on the "Friends of Netscape" stock list.

Mr. Sophisticated?

Caller: I'm a very "sophisticated" investor who has a very substantial amount of money to invest in Netscape stock and I want to talk to someone to find out how I can get it cheap.

Finance: Have you spoken yet to our underwriters?

Caller: What's an underwriter?

Finance: Well, basically Netscape sells the shares of stock to an underwriter, in this case it's Morgan Stanley and also Hambrecht & Quist (interruption...)

Caller: Was that Hamburger Kissed?

Finance: No, H-A-M-B-R-E-C-H-T & Q-U-I-S-T

Caller: Now what are you calling them?

Finance: The underwriter. So we sell the shares to Morgan Stanley and they sell the shares to the public.

Caller: Could I talk to Mr. Stanley please?

Another "savvy investor" calls in:

Caller: Can I talk to the Chief Financial Officer?

Finance: I'm sorry, but he's traveling until at least August 9. Is there something I can help you with?

Caller: Well, I heard your company was going public and I was wondering if you could tell me what that means.

Finance: Well, that essentially means that our company will be trading a certain number of shares of our stock on the stock market, which will raise capital so that we can expand our business.

Caller: What's the stock market?

Good reason to call the CFO:

Netscape: Peter Currie's office. Can I help you.

Caller: Is he there?

Netscape: No, I'm sorry he's traveling until at least August 9.

Caller: I heard you guys were going public.

Netscape: Yes, we've filed with the SEC and expect trading could begin as early as next week but we don't have a definite date yet.

Caller: Trading what?

Netscape: Netscape stock.

Caller: Oh, is that what this is all about. I heard someone talking in line at the grocery store about Netscape going public and was wondering what that was all about.

Caller: (Excited) Did you get your own personal copy of the prospectus?

PR: Not yet, why?

Caller: It's going to become a collectors item and I need to get multiple copies so I can hold on to them.

PR: Are you planning to purchase our stock?

Caller: No. I just want copies of the prospectus.

Caller: Will the ticker symbol of your company be on my brokers computer screen?

PR: I assume so. I think you need to ask your broker that question.

Caller: I'm sending a letter to the SEC because I can't get any shares. I've been using Netscape from the beginning and I deserve them.

Caller: I went to the same University as Marc. Do you think Marc can get me some stock?

Caller: PLEASE let me in on the IPO. I'm trying to get some shares for charity.

Caller: Can I get a copy of your prospectus?

PR: Sure, send a fax to Morgan Stanley at 212-.......

Caller: Oh, send a fax.

PR: Yes, send a fax. They will mail you a copy.

Caller: Can you please tell me the date you are going public??

PR: You're kidding, right?

Caller: Ummmm. No.

PR: Well sir, it was TODAY. TODAY, Sir. It happened this morning.

Caller: Oh.

Corneren search engine files for IPO

4FUN: (not to be taken seriously) A new search initiative will soon file for IPO. Expect a new record better than the IPO of Baidu. Corneren search

10 jaar, eBay heeft de wereld veranderd

10 jaar geleden begon Piere Omidyar op Labour day een Internet veiling door een kapotte laserpointer aan te bieden. Deze werd verkocht, en eBay was geboren. Tegenwoordig wordt er voor een kleine $ 11 miljard aan goederen verhandeld per kwartaal. De omzet die eBay daar aan over houdt is een ruime $ 1 miljard. Verruit de grootste rubriek gemeten in de waarde van verhandelde goederen is de auto rubriek. Op eBay Motors worden er meer auto’s verkocht dan door de grootste dealer in de USA.. Tegenwoordig kan je veel rare objecten kopen en verkopen op eBay. Op dit moment staat er een zeer uniek object op de site voor iedereen die in 1995 en nu nog steeds geïnteresseerd is in interactieve media: een originele IPO prospectus van Netscape. Link Deze IPO was vandaag precies 10 jaar geleden, en wordt gezien als de start van de internet bubble. Het hele verhaal van het ontstaan en de groei van eBay kan je terug lezen in het boek The Perfect Store van David Cohen. In Nederland nam eBay vorig jaar Marktplaats.nl over voor 225 miljoen euro. Link. Verder lanceerde eBay de laatste 6 maanden geleden in een tal van landen een soort van Marktplaats sites, genaamd Kijiji.com wat "Dorp" betekend in Swahili, nam het mobile.de en Opus Forum in Duitsland, LOque in Spanje en Gumtree in UK over. Al eerder werden er bedrijven aan de eBay familie toegevoegd, zoals Paypal, Rent.com, Prostores en ander soortige ebay sites als Eachnet in China, Internet Auctions in Korea en Bazee in India. Afgelopen week werden mijn aandelen Shopping.com omgezet in een geld bedrag van $ 21 per aandeel. Verder heeft eBay minderheidsbelangen in Craigslist en in Mercado Libre Meer over dit succes verhaal: Money USA Today

Paypal start met lagere fees voor micropayments voor downloads

De ringtone business is een industrie waar vele miljoenen zo niet miljarden in omgaan. De ringtones worden vooralsnog vaak betaald via een betaald nummer. Ook het kopen van muziek kan via je telefoon of je credit card. Paypal introduceerd nu een nieuwe tarief structuur voor dergelijke downloads. De verkoper betaald 5% over de omzet plus een start tarief van $ 0.05. Het gemiddelde in deze business voor dit soort microbetalingen ligt op 2% met een starttarief van $ 0.20 - $ 0.30. Op betalingen van $ 0.99 slaat deze laatste tarieven een gat in de inkomsten van de verkopers. Een site als Jamba zou er goed aan doen om meteen Paypal te introduceren als betalingsmodel net als Apple al gedaan heeft. (link) Snel aandelen Verizon kopen, dit kan betekenen dat Jamba veel meer omzet gaat maken.