Much to the chagrin of, well, everybody but Amazon, the app works like this: suppose you’re in a brick and mortar store and plan to purchase an item from the retailer. Instead of following through with that, Amazon would have you use the Price Check app to enter the barcode of the item and then purchase it from Amazon; in turn, Amazon will give you a discount of up to $5. You can use the app for 3 purchases, meaning a total savings of up to $15. The app can only be used starting at 9PM tonight through 11:59PM tomorrow night, December 10.

It’s a shifty maneuver to snatch away money that would otherwise likely be spent at the brick and mortar store and essentially uses the retailer as a showroom for Amazon’s inventory. The Retailer Industry Leaders Association has already come out against the app in force and now the chorus of organizations and people decrying Amazon’s tactics are getting louder. Yesterday, the American Booksellers Association joined the protest against Amazon’s attempt to literally entice consumers to walk out of brick and mortar stores without spending a dime.

In an open letter to Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, ABA CEO Oren Teicher calls out the Amazon chief on his forked-tongue statements about fairness with regard to online commerce and accuses Amazon of knowingly exploiting the tax loophole to its advantage. Teicher goes on to shame Amazon for chipping away at the foundations of local communities by “stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments, and libraries.”

Despite books not being included in the selected items eligible for the discount that the Price Check app offers, that the booksellers should take up the charge against Amazon contains historical and poetic significance. After all, they’ve been the retailers struggling against the online company the longest (if you remember, Amazon started out proclaiming itself as “Earth’s Largest Bookstore” in the 1990s). They’ve probably lost the most revenue to Amazon over the years and therefore probably have the most authority to speak out against Amazon’s latest plot to take business away from brick and mortar retailers.

In addition to the booksellers’ opposition to Amazon’s tactics, an online petition was created yesterday on change.org that denounces Amazon’s poaching of customers from brick-and-mortar stores. Within a day, the letter has already gathered over 20% of it’s signatures goal. Say what you want about the efficacy of online petitions because it’s not a matter of whether it works – it indicates that people are paying attention.

The momentum of the anti-Amazon sentiment appears to be growing today. People have begun to marshall behind the Occupy movement to profess their anger and demand for change to Amazon’s predatory business strategy. There is an Occupy Amazon page on Facebook imploring consumers to boycott Amazon tomorrow – the time period in which the Price Check app will be live – and choose to shop locally instead. A steady stream of supporters are gathering on Twitter with the hashtag #occupyamazon. Here’s a sample of what people are saying:

What happens from here remains to be seen. Amazon doesn’t exactly have a physical space in which protesters can occupy, so how this unfolds tomorrow (and in the future) will be interesting. In a contrast to previous Occupy efforts, will consumers choose to benevolently occupy their local retailers tomorrow for the forces of communal good? Chime in with what you think about the latest development among people speaking out against Amazon in the comments below.

Note: Credit to Jon Stitch at Diesel Bookstore for the creation of the above Occupy Amazon buttons.

Did you see what Amazon just did there?

When you see something you want in a store and instead of buying it in the store you are already in, Amazon wants you to use their app and buy it from them and, as a reward, Amazon will give you a discount. Understandably, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, an advocacy organization that watches out some of the top retailers in the U.S., is calling shenanigans on Amazon’s latest attempt to snatch up business from brick-and-mortar retailers with a press release they issued this afternoon:

Arlington, VA –The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) reacted to a new smartphone App from Amazon.com that encourages holiday shoppers to use brick and mortar stores as showrooms to then purchase merchandise online from inside the store.   Central to this tactic is Amazon’s continued practice of using a pre-internet loophole to avoid state sales tax collection, a move that gives them an unfair competitive advantage over Main Street retailers.

“Retailers compete on price 365 days a year, and at no time is that competition hotter than during the make-or-break holiday shopping season.  However, by continuing to evade collecting state sales taxes, Amazon’s exploitation of a pre-Internet tax loophole is resulting in a 6-10 percent perceived price advantage over their competitors on Main Street,” said Katherine Lugar, executive vice president of public affairs.

“Amazon’s aggressive promotion of its Price Check App shows the lengths they are willing to go to exploit this tax loophole, and is a stark reminder of why Congress needs to act to protect retailers on Main Street.  A failure to act is an implicit endorsement of a subsidy of Amazon, a subsidy that distorts the free market and puts jobs on Main Street at risk,” said Lugar.

RILA supports bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and in the Senate that would level the playing field and force all retailers to compete under the same rules. In a hearing last week before the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) summed up the need for Congressional action by saying:

“I don’t think Congress should be in the business of picking winners and losers. Inaction by Congress today results in a system today that does pick winners and losers.”

Gruenwald, Juliana, “Congress Urged to Close Online Sales-Tax Loophole,” National Journal, 11/30/11

“Main Street retailers have been forced to compete on an uneven playing field for too long. Retailers cannot afford another holiday season where they are forced to compete on an uneven playing field,” added Lugar.
 

Even if Amazon’s underhanded scheme should have some appeal with consumers, luckily for brick-and-mortar retailers the discount-offering app is only good from 9PM December 9th to 11:59PM December 10th and customers can only use the app up to three times. Still, it’s hard not to agree with the accusations RILA has stamped onto Amazon.

Do you think the RILA’s on the right track here? Or should Amazon be permitted to do this? Chime in below with your comments.

An analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, Craig Moffett, was quoted in Bloomberg yesterday for predicting that at least one of the major cable operators, probably Comcast Communications or Time Warner Cable, will initiate a usage-based payment scale next year for Internet-loving customers. He anticipates the change in billing plans due to the growing number of Internet users watching more and more movies through services like Netflix and Hulu. As more cable subscribers cancel their service and defect to watching videos online, cable companies are looking for ways to minimize the attrition of customers. Through a usage-based service plan, all of those Netflix and Hulu flicks you’ve been watching online will start to be reflected in higher bills if you watch enough of them.

But don’t go updating your Netflix plan to resume receiving DVDs via mail just yet.

One, this pot has boiled once before. Time Warner had a go at testing “Consumer Based Billing” in 2009 but nixed the plan after the public made it patently clear that they disliked this idea. In their statement after the fall-out, Time Warner stated “that it is working to make measurement tools available as quickly as possible. These tools will help customers understand how much bandwidth they consume and aid in the dialog going forward.”

Yeah, because customers can’t wait to pay more to use the Internet just to find out how much bandwidth they consumed while plowing through the final three seasons of Lost.

Ultimately, it’s likely this strategy from the cable companies will be regarded as an attempt to wrest back their subscribers that have migrated to the Internet in search of their viewing pleasures. In an editorial he wrote for the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, Netflix General Counsel David Hyman said changing to usage-based billing services “is bad news for consumers and threatens to slow down the innovation powering today’s Internet economy.” Added to that, consumers have grown accustomed to free Internet since… well, since the Internet. An effort from cable companies to apply a limit on how much customers can use the Internet based on how much they pay – even if those customers could technically afford it – is likely to go over about as well as the last time a company tried this.

Despite the gloomy prediction that our land of Internet-y milk and honey may soon come to an end, the Bloomberg piece did conclude with a spell of optimism:

Cable’s best option is to find ways to profit from the online shift, said Moffett. If the companies were to lose all of their video customers, the revenue decline would be more than offset by a lower programming fees and set-top box spending, he said.

“In the end, it will be the best thing that ever happened to the cable industry,” Moffett said.

So tell us: would you be willing to pay for your Internet use based on your amount of usage?

According to Aburdene, “conscious capitalism” the predominant trend to watch in the coming years. (In contrast to what she calls “unconscious capitalism” as defined as Friedman’s statement “the social responsibility of business is to increase profits.”)

Three ways to run a company to meet these trends correctly:

• Values –work harder to link the values you stand for with your product
• Standards — Eductate the customer to differentiate between diluted standards, and the higher standards that you embrace.
• Authenticity — Walk the talk. The customer needs to know that the way that the business is run is aligned with the same values that show up in the marketing of the product.

More here.

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Christopher Carfi, CEO and co-founder of Cerado, looks at sales, marketing, and the business experience from the customers point of view. He currently is focused on understanding how emerging social technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social networking are enabling the creation of new types of customer-driven communities. He is the author of the Social Customer Manifesto weblog, and has been occasionally told that he drives and snowboards just a little too quickly.

Grab your popcorn and cotton candy and sit back and enjoy Carnival of the Capitalists: The Greatest Business Show in the Blogosphere.

That was a little long for a tag line. I’ll have to work on improving that one.

One of the truly exciting aspects of hosting Carnival of the Capitalists is the wide assortment of bloggers who enter.

Many of the entrants to this hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists are here for the very first time.

This is my second hosting of the Carnival of the Capitalists and I hope you enjoy the show.

Got your refreshments in hand?

Let’s join the midway!

Marketing

Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing suggests storytelling as a powerful form of marketing. Nothing deepens and enriches a relationship with others like telling them a good story.

Marketer Michele Miller of WonderBranding: Marketing To Women recommends that when approaching the topic of marketing to women, stop thinking feminine. Instead, she says, focus on the logical.

Is it possible greed is a great quality for salespeople? Or is the word so tainted, it’s an unacceptable quality for all people and professions? Those are the provocative questions posed by Jim Logan of JSLogan as he channels Gordon Gecko of the movie Wall Street.
Laurence Haughton of BusinessBlogcasting graphically illustrates the purpose of marketing in a world where marketers are encouraged to be liars.

Empowering employees is key to creating remarkable customer experiences is the message from Joseph DePalma of Joseph’s Marketing Blog.

James Cherkoff at Modern Marketing says The 4Ps is an idea that most marketeers have come across during their education. That makes it a good vehicle to discuss change as it is so widely understood. For those who don’t know it refers to Price, Place Product and Promotion, the mixture of areas that traditional marketing has concerned itself with. James asks: So what do the 4Ps mean in a digital era?

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing recommends bringing small groups of your clients together to meet, network and generally discuss how brilliant you are. After an opening like that, you simply have to read on.
Heather Burke at Pro Wrestling Impact asks what to do when something goes wrong at your event is something you should always plan for. She says the reason you should plan is because you need to have some idea of what you want to do to compensate your fans if something goes wrong. Her advice on planning ahead is applicable to any special event marketing.
At The Guerilla Marketer Michael McLaughlin says it’s common for clients to experience sticker shock when they see the price tag of a consulting project. With a little work, you can soften the blow.

Gina Vescio at A Weight Lifted describes how the diet and weight loss industry is marketed and how many well known historical persons would be left out of the so-called marketing ideal body type.

Blogging, Reading, and Writing

Vikk Simmons of Down The Writer’s Path discusses writing and the creative process. Evoking the legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury as an example, Vikk tells us how to free up our creative minds.

Over at The Blog Studio, Peter Flaschner sends us Part Two of a series examining how certain businesses could benefit from blogging. In this case, Peter suggests that realtors become bloggers. The post includes specific tips and examples.
Yvonne DiVita at Lip-Sticking says “Smart Blogger, Andy Wibbels” makes us look good by being both informative and funny in this interview on blogging and more. Read some dood business advice, in a fun environment, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Ed Deevy of The Deevy Report describes what he’s learned about blogging from six months of online publishing. Deevy writes from the perspective of an individual who is a “lay person” when it comes to Internet technology. He clearly sees the blogging platform as a powerful easy-to-use communications tool…and he’s on a mission to convince his clients and colleagues that they should get on-board with the Blogging Revolution.
At Seeking Alpha, David Jackson discusses the attractiveness and drawbacks for finance bloggers of adding ads to their sites.

Evelyn Rodriguez of Crossroads Dispatches receives a new book, A Clear Eye for Branding, that reminds her that “Keep it Simple, Stupid” is sage advice in business and life and sets off the trigger for this post.

Here at Blog Business World as my own entry, I offer a post entitled “Case studies: A blogging idea” where I suggest writing real life case studies as a regular blog posting feature.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul of Free Traffic Tips invites us to tell our business story. As a multi-part post series, start with the first entry and enjoy the story of “Your Business and the Story of a Tree: Part One”.

Finance, Markets, and Investment

FMF of Free Money Finance has a post featuring people commenting on the outrageous sums that they’ve spent on their pets. Poor Fido and Fluffy.

Over at TechTrader, Anonymous discusses buyouts of IUSA. Wanna get in on the share trading action?

Toni Staka of The Prudent Investor – seeing too many bubbles asks is there a rift developing on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors? It seems so. Toni suggests that Governor Donald Kohn has started the finger-pointing, by distancing himself from other FRB members. ‘Don’t blame me, I told you so,’ he will be able to say in the future, once economic developments have turned sour. “It is not the time for complacency”, he warned bankers, who should put in extra hours to finetune their risk management systems.
You may often ask how much money do you need to save to pay for college for you or your kids? Ironman at Political Calculations has a tool to find out what you’ll need, to cover the costs, of what many people consider to be the most important investment they’ll ever make.

John Mudd of Tampa Bay’s Inside Real Estate Journal discusses the explosion of condo sales in the Tampa, Forida area.

Peter at Fund Universe offers a few tips that can help you build the wealth you will need to
assure your future financial security. In fact, Peter provides “8 Rules That Will Make You Wealthy”.
Joshua Sharf at View From a Height discusses a popular means of evaluating fund managers’ style. It is something called “Returns Based Style Analysis”. Joshua believes that a much better system can be developed.
Joe Kristan from Roth & Company Tax Update cites reports that say that the US Justice Department may indict KPMG. Joe discusses why that would be unwise.
When moving out of a rented apartment your security deposit is typically returned in full. However, as Ezra Marbach of Sound Money Tips says, landlords have been known to argue for deducting money from your deposit in order to cover supposed issues that you are leaving behind. The post offers some pointers on getting your rented apartment’s security deposit back in full when you move out.
Big Picture Guy at Big Picture, Small Office talks about how the Board rejects loyalty rebates on the basis that customers are commodities that can be bought and sold…like feeder cattle and corn. What is the price of “Pork Belly Futures” today?

Business Management and Methods

Gretchen Ross of The Green Lantern comments on the rumoured proposal from Wal-Mart that their employees be on call and available for work around the clock.

Gautam Ghosh of Gautam Ghosh on Management suggests that eventually every KM project is an attempt to change the corporate culture of the organization and the behavior of people in the organizational systems. He says this change can never be sustainable unless human and organizational processes change to support this change. Gautam believes that is the insight that traditional OD consulting brings to KM.

When you are in business, says Rosa Say of Talking Story says learning to be a reader gives you a definite edge. She says this post is about organizing yourself to take advantage of opportune pockets of time. Rosa suggests don’t let “I have no time to read” be your excuse.

Practical advice arrives from Susan Getgood of Marketing Roadmaps on how to make sure your sales and marketing teams are really communicating with each other, not just talking (and complaining) at each other.
Aleah at Ricksticks believes that successful organizations must honour individual spirit. Note the Lord of the Rings reference in the post too.

Elana Centor at FunnyBusiness examines corporate culture from the lighter side of the street. Elana ponders a new Universal Symbol –MY BUTT IS ON THE LINE. I can see her design possibilities on Post-It notes already.

Skip Angel of Random Thoughts from a CTO asks the following questions about leadership and principles: As a leader, do you want people to understand you better? Do you want them to know what you value and what you don’t?

At pc4media, Peter Caputa discusses how Fundable.org is a website that lets users create fund drives. Peter says the fund drives can be for any purpose: to fund a software project, to raise funds for a non profit, to raise funds for a group purchase. The goal, continues Peter, for how many participants and how much each has to give is set by the person creating the action. If the goal isn’t met, all the money is refunded. Peter concludes that it is a no risk way to support a mini or a major cause.

Christopher Bailey from The Alchemy of Soulful Work asks is there a good time to conduct a learning dialogue? Christopher concludes: Sure there is. The timing of a manager’s criticism is as important as its constructiveness.

Mad Anthony of Mad Anthony is “Going Postal”. Well not really. Actually, he is taking a look at the things the post office does right and wrong – and why.

“How big are your batteries?” asks Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft. Lisa sends a thoughful post about how people are equipped with different natural energy levels.

Communications, Technology, and Podcasting

Neville Hobson of Nevon provides a detailed step by step primer on putting the power of podcasts into production for your blog or online business and public relations program.
The joys and triumphs, and trials and tribulations and everything e-mail are fodder for cehwiedel of Kicking Over My Traces. Also provided are some ideas for eliminating spam. Now I know you want to read that!

Improving your voice mail message is the message from Phil Gerbyshak at Make It Great. Practical tips and techniques are included. No more “name your own adventure”!

At her Selling To Small Businesses blog, Anita Campbell says despite all the free tools available for online collaboration, there is still a market to sell such tools for a fee to small businesses. Anita says once small businesses get a taste for online collaboration — especially in this day and age of small businesses working virtually from multiple locations — they will find that they need these tools. Anita beleives the availability of the free stuff will actually increase the demand for paid products that are easier to install, configure and customize to the small business’s needs. She concludes that today the use of “free” tools is what actually creates a market demand for the upgraded, fee version of the products.

The User Experience approach, in the opinion of Barry Welford of The Other Bloke’s Blog is most useful for websites and coffee-grinders. Barry believes it would work wonders for the remodernized Montreal International Airport.
Russell Buckley of The Mobile Technology Weblog says the community showed its displeasure as eBay continued to host Live 8 ticket auctions. Russell states that eBay were forced to quickly back down as the community responded to Bob Geldof’s calls to “mess up the system”.
Economics

Charkie Quidnunc of Rip and Read Blogger Podcast give us a listen to a podcast called “Democratic Anti-Economics” where he sends a clip of the appearance by Alan Greenspan, before a Congressional committee, discussing the concept of class warfare with Maurice Hinchey.

Brian Gongol of Gongal.com addresses the causes and effects of debt relief for poor countries, and some of the consequences resulting from different solutions.

Martin Lindeskog of EGO says that Ebay has been in business for 10 years. He provides thoughts on the future of online auctions between individuals, and questions on B2B e-auctions.

Join David of satire as he takes you on campus with Steve Jobs of Apple fame. It’s definitely an interesting and surprising ride.

Mastiff of Critical Mastiff says if we are serious about cutting back on subsidies, we need to start with the biggest beneficiaries: ourselves, or more specifically government-subsidized homeowners.

Les Jones at Les Jones.com believes sales tax is a huge issue for online operations. As an example, Les says “Borders.com Must Charge California Sales Tax”.

Gullyborg at Resistance is futile! points out that it’s big economic news, but it’s not getting reported in the mainstream media: despite Bush’s so-called “reckless tax cuts,” the US government has just set a new record for tax revenues.

At The Big Picture, Barry L. Ritholtz asks “How Much Does Sarbanes-Oxley Cost?”. Barry believes the cost is much different than publicly presented and thinks that some intellectual dishonesty afoot.

Half Sigma at Half Sigma addresses the question of whether competition causes higher prices. Yes, says Half Sigma, this is the opposite of what everyone “knows” to be true.

Steve Conover from The Skeptical Optimist offers a fiscal responsibility plan to keep the American debt burden under control, for the next fifty years. The result might be a surprise.

At Interested-Participant, Mike Pechar is concerned about “Legislation to Regulate Indoor Air”. Mike states it’s not clear what the long-term implications of the legislation would be, but it is clear that the state would dump a plethora of expensive design and habitability regulations on industry and the public while empowering some sort of sniffer police to enforce the provisions of the law.

Over at Mover Mike, Mike Landfair is enjoying that the Treasury International Capital (TIC) report is out and US Federal Reserve Chairperson Alan Greenspan relies on the government for his information. Mike is laughing about that turn of events. Give him a chance to recover a bit. Okay?

International Business, Trade, and Economics

While Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends was on vacation this week, Martin Lindeskog of EGO made an interesting guest post commenting on the difference in the entrepreneurial climate in Sweden and in the United States. Martin would love to get comments from others on some of the differences.

The trade agreement called CAFTA is examined by Will Frankin of WILLisms.com. Will calls CAFTA “The most important American free trade agreement in a decade”, making the post a must read.

Over at The Sharpener, Stuart presents a short piece on how GBP 2.8 bn (that’s a lotta dollars…) government subsidy to the BBC is killing regional media in Scotland: first radio,TV and advertising. According to Stuart, now Scotland’s newspapers are struggling to maintain an online presence in the face of state monopoly.
Trent McBride at Catallarchy challenges the conventional wisdom that agricultural subsidies in the First World promote suffering in the Third World. The discussion in the comments section is also interesting, with numerous trackbacks along with guest appearances from well known bloggers Jonathan Dingel, Megan McArdle, and David Tufte.

Brian David Crane from BrianDavidCrane.com discusses some techniques for doing business in Latin America. Along with the tips for opening business, Brian points out a few pitfalls to avoid.

According to Aamon Lamba of Audit Trails Of Self the $23-billion Reliance Industries, representing 4% of India’s economy, will be split between the brothers Anil and Mukesh Ambani. Aamon provides details of the transaction.
Education, Careers, and Employment

In “A Student’s Guide To Landing a Great Job” blogger and student Devin Reams of BusinessBits offers real world, nitty gritty ideas for landing the job of your dreams…or at least for avoiding the job of your nightmares.

Deputy HeadMistress at The Common Room sends us Part One of an Economic Education. Deputy HeadMistrss says ecause the employees did not understand some basic economics (and had no consideration for others) an employee nearly loses her job. (In part II, she lost her job).

School Choice is the topic for Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog. Warren presents his views on the joys of capitalism and choice, particularly as applied to schools.

You own a firm and you want to promote the career of the young rising star. Michael Higgins at Chocolate and Gold Coins asks how do you avoid allowing her career to fall victim to office politics?

John Dmohowski at Drakeview tells us that a number of companies and institutions conduct periodic surveys of small and medium businesses. Interland and Florida International University have recently published theirs. John says the hosting services firm reports SMB owners are focused and optimistic about their businesses. FIU reports fewer people are seeing start-ups as viable career options. John concludes this is not surprising given the diversity and dynamics of the SMB universe.

Over at Ripples we find David St. Lawrence suggesting that there are times when your work situation just does not work out well. Even the best of employers can create a losing situation while trying to add a new position to the organization. David offers ideas for improving and changing an unpleasant employment situation.

Politics and Politicians

Matthew at TriggerFinger writes that blogger The Bitter Bitch questions whether requiring businesses to allow firearms owners, who are also employees, to lock guns in their cars without risk of being fired is a good thing. The question for Matthew is, of course, prompted by recent legislation in Oklahoma allowing that very thing. He says she’s got a point, one which I approached slightly in my commentary on the case of Feliciano v 7-11. Matthew thinks there’s a good point of differentiation, though.

David Gerstman from Soccer Dad: Maryland’s CEO writes that
The Washington Post doesn’t like it that Governor Bob Ehrlich makes his case on talk radio instead of in its printed pages. David says the reason is that the governor has a case to make that the paper just won’t consider.

David at satire follows Virginia Governor Mark Warner (D), a Presidential hopeful, during an interview with Salon.com who said that he wants, “to change the framing of the political debate, from right vs. left, conservative vs. liberal, to future and past. But…Mark Warner, who was a honest professional poker player, before becoming a shrewd professional politician, explained his winning strategy in terms easily understood by the rural Americans and the popular World Poker Tour tele-viewers. Keep reading for the rest.

Thanks to Jay and Rob for letting me host the Carnival.

Next week, look for Carnival of the Capitalists at First Call.

And finally, a big thank you to all of the contributors and to everyone who dropped by and peaked under the big tent.

I couldn’t have done it without you.

.

Reader Comments…

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Davis started Lycos back in June of 1995. In 1999 Lycos became the search industry’s “little engine that could” when it surpassed Yahoo for searches. It also had the fastest move to IPO in NASDAQ history. In just five years, it became a multi-million dollar business under Davis’s leadership.

However, Davis sold Lycos to Spain’s Terra Networks in 2000, saying, “We got out of dodge just before the sheriff showed up.”

View this Lycos discussion on WebProWorld.

He joined Highland Capital Partners just 36 hours after he sold the company. Highland Capital Partners, a firm specializing in digital media, has been around since 1988 and has $2 billion in funds. The company’s investments are almost exclusively health care (25%) and technology (75%).

One area in which the company recently invested was a massive multi-player online role-playing gaming (MMORPG) company. This section of the gaming industry is great, Davis says, because it has a consumer-based audience growing in a mass distribution channel with a recurring revenue model. These types of games are growing very, very quickly in Asia at the moment.

During his speech at the New York-based conference Davis discussed some of the qualities Venture Capital firms look for when determining funds. Highland Capital funds twelve to twenty-four companies per year with investments ranging from $100,000 to $50 million on average.

His firm is stage agnostic and will invest in a company with a proven track record as well as your average small business owner who’s just working out of his house.

When choosing a company to invest in, Highland Capital Partners considers people, markets, and products, Davis says. Davis says Highland Capital looks for smart entrepreneurial and driven businesses with large markets and diversifiable products with high growth potential. The company seeks intelligent teams that know who and what they’re competing with and clearly understand the marketplace.

Highland Capital provides not only money but a network of collective knowledge. It has a wealth of already established business relationships so it can provide leads to its startup companies. Additionally, it could possibly provide employees as well thanks to its strong network of top players.

Companies that are torn between venture capital and organic growth should consider the fact that a venture partnership is 50% money and 50% knowledge. If the opportunity is there, Davis said, a company should take it.

Having lived through the Dot-Com crash himself, Davis talked briefly about the reason behind why some online companies go bust, saying these companies often have no concept of priced earnings or even earnings at all.

When asked whether he would invest in search technology such as a new search engine algorithm, Davis replied, “Yes, in a heartbeat.”

However, when questioned about Microsoft’s upcoming leap onto the search engine field, Davis is more critical. The anticipation of the software giant’s arrival in the search industry has gathered bluster from both devoted Microsoft supporters and hardcore foes but all this turbulence is nothing more than hype, according to Davis. “Microsoft has been banging its chest and saying, Here we come for a long time,’” he said.

See what experts and professionals are saying about this article on WebProWorld, your forum for e-Business news and information.

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