More than Numbers

50 on top.

I love how 50 Cent made over $100 M last year, partially (but likely a very big part) due to his stake in Glacéau (the parent company of Vitamin Water and smartwater, among other brands). Glacéau was bought by Coca Cola for $4.1 B about three months ago. Funny because I just recently read an article about J. Darius Bikoff, who was the founder of Glacéau. He was talking about the way he initially marketed Vitamin Water by pushing it on celebrities (including 50 Cent and Paris Hilton) along with the incentives of cash and equity in the company. Of course Glacéau wasn't the only cash cow for 50 -- he does have G-Unit, music, movies, video games, and endorsements. I am curious how much he might take in next year though as he is rumored to have a partnership in the works with Partrice Motsepe, the great South African mining entrepreneur. It's all about diversification.

Google surprise.

Google had an amazing run in the market today after a positive surprise earnings yesterday. The stock rebounded nearly $90 to close at $539.41. This after a pretty depressing 4-month decline. While analysts predicted profit of $4.52/share, Google had profit of $4.84.

Frankly, I love when stock analysts are wrong as it provides excellent buying opportunities for the non-analysts. Predicting the future is almost impossible. Look at weathermen for example-- same thing!

But that's nothing new. What I really love about these earnings is how comScore was involved. Just 2 months ago, comScore reported that Google had very slow growth in paid clicks. You might remember this announcement when Google sank to a 52-week low for the first time. Ever. In any case, it turns out that comScore was completely wrong, and in fact Google saw 42% YoY growth. I'm glad investors seemed to remember this and incidently their share price tanked. In result, comScore has since tried to issue press releases with various reasons for the "miscommunication." Oh, please.

stocks, google, comscore

Our iPhones saved us money.

It's pretty awesome, really. I used to have a blackberry, and before that some clunky HTC device. The same with my wife. When we switched to iPhones, our monthly at&t bill dropped over $20. If there wasn't reason enough to switch to an iPhone. You know a great deal when it blows what you used to have out of the water and is actually cheaper. That's over $240 per year in mobile service fees.

6.6% market share. So far.

The other day Gartner released some estimates around PC market share for FY08Q1 in both the US and WW markets. It was awesome to see Apple in 4th place with an estimated 6.6% share of the market in the US. It was even more awesome to see Apple having the greatest YoY growth rate at 32.5%. Definitely some positive momentum there.

I was not surprised by the two companies with the largest share: Dell and HP. But Acer being in third place really did surprise me. I don't think I know anybody with an Acer-branded machine, nor have I even seen one in years. I know Acer is huge in Asia, but in the US? Granted they do own some additional brands: eMachines, Gateway, and Packard Bell. But still. Gartner reported Acer to have a -18.3% YoY growth rate and a current market share of 9.1% in the US.