Who knows if this update will satiate the expectations of Kindle Fire owners, and I’m sure we’ll all hear about it if it doesn’t. Still, has the dissatisfied present and uncertain future discouraged shoppers from buying the Kindle Fire.

In a word: No!

With seemingly no regard to the first impressions of Kindle Fire, consumers appear undeterred and the unit sales of the tablet, according to a report from Goldman Sachs today, are on course to reach 6 million by the end of the year. What’s more, Goldman Sachs went on to project that Amazon could sell 15.5-20.5 million units in Kindle Fire’s first full year of availability. Details can be found in the bar graph below.

From the above data, John Paczkowski of All Things D points out that “if Amazon does manage to sell six million Fires before the end of the year, it will surpass the iPad’s domestic sales in its first December quarter in 2010.”

Really? Topping sales of something Apple? That’s quite a feat, but what’s going on with this surge of Kindle Fires? Do people not really seem to care that initial reviews of the Kindle Fire were, at best, disappointed?

One report claims that people are still drawn towards the Kindle Fire because of its considerably lower cost than an iPad. Furthermore, the Goldman Sachs report suggests that the Kindle Fire still has appeal to consumers because, in spite of the many flaws, the tablet still gets the bare minimum of functions correct, which just happen to be the functions that tablet users utilize the most (I guess people are satisfied enough that the Kindle Fire powers on and displays different words – easy enough to meet those needs, sure).

Whatever fix Amazon’s update to the Kindle Fire brings to users, the tablet is still expected to stake a healthy claim in the tablet market. It’s already expected to outpace Samsung’s top tablet and analysts are curious to see how much of a bite the Kindle Fire will take out of Apple’s market dominance.

So is the Kindle Fire really the maxim “You get what you pay for” in action? Maybe, and it’s certainly not the only device to be met with milquetoast reviews upon its initial release. Do you think Amazon can damage control itself out of its lackluster start and make the Kindle Fire a true competitor to Apple’s iPad? Comment below to let us know.

Goldman Sachs maintains that this move wasn’t ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is thought to have been sniffing around Facebook as of late.  Indeed, according to Aaron Lucchetti and Liz Rappaport, Goldman said the change wasn’t "required or requested by any other party."

Goldman also tried to make clear that it isn’t trying to sidestep an ongoing investigation, telling Lucchetti and Rappaport that it "concluded the level of media attention might not be consistent with the proper completion of a U.S. private placement under U.S. law."

So, for better or worse, we’re just left with the fact that Goldman will give overseas investors a first shot at perhaps $1.5 billion in Facebook shares.

This is sure to spark more than a few discussions.  Some onlookers are concerned laws have been skirted.  Others feel government regulations have effectively cheated American investors of a great opportunity.  Then there’s the theory that Facebook’s overvalued and this development will save Americans some cash.

As always, we’ll be sure to see what happens.

A couple points of reference: it was only 38 months ago that Microsoft drew laughter by paying $240 million for a 1.2 percent stake in Facebook, valuing it at $15 billion.  And Yahoo and eBay just have market caps of about $21.7 billion and $36.3 billion, respectively.

This counts as a very significant milestone for Facebook, then.  Andrew Ross Sorkin and Evelyn M. Rusli, who first reported the development, noted, "The new money will give Facebook more firepower to steal away valuable employees, develop new products and possibly pursue acquisitions – all without being a publicly traded company."

Then here’s one other interesting detail: "As part of the deal, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook at the $50 billion valuation, people involved in the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the transaction was not supposed to be made public until the fund-raising had been completed."

Anyway, although all this should ensure Facebook won’t run out of money anytime soon, it means Goldman Sachs is liable to handle Facebook’s IPO whenever the company goes public.

The hubbub, along with the plan to raise $1.5 billion more, may also mean the SEC’s rumored investigation into the trading of Facebook’s private market shares will become a little more serious.

You can blame the nasty dive Google’s stock took following the company’s quarter one earnings report for this move; a drop from $595.30 at the closing bell to $563.00 at the opening one definitely counts as "underperformance," and Google’s stock has since fallen further to around $536.24.

What’s more, five-day, one-month, three-month, and six-month views of the stock’s performance all show losses.

Google’s stock is still up 38.92 percent if you look at it using April 28th, 2009 as a starting point, though.

Google’s stock is up this morning, too, by a not-unimpressive 0.87 percent.

By comparison, Microsoft is up 0.15 percent, Yahoo’s down 1.15 percent, the Dow’s down 0.14 percent, and the Nasdaq’s down 0.13 percent. Google’s shareholders don’t exactly need to go calling for anyone’s resignation just yet, then.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the note stated, "We previously estimated that Google might sell 3.5 mn Nexus One units in 2010."  Now, after seeing some data from Flurry, "We forecast that Google sells 1.0 mn Nexus One units in FY2010 . . ."

Goldman Sachs doesn’t have much confidence that Google will be more successful in the future, either.  The firm believes Google will sell additional devices as it "rolls out a second Nexus handset, markets it more aggressively, and makes it available offline," but nothing like 3.5 million was mentioned.

Instead, Goldman Sachs predicted "that Google sells 2 mn handsets per year in 2011 and future years."

This is fairly bad news for the search giant, given that the Nexus One was supposed to make so much of a splash.  The online-only sales model and lack of advertising may have been meant to save Google huge amounts of money, too.

Control is not really possible when there are so many ways to pirate or undercut sales. The newspaper, music, movie, and now images market are changing drastically (and I love to read Seth Godin’s take on the changes).

Now, Getty Images, which is the world’s largest supplier of pictures, is for sale. Goldman Sachs is handling the deal which the New York Times says could get $1.5 billion. In November, Getty reported a third-quarter profit of $25.7 million, down 31 percent a year ago.

Getty was the first to license images online and now it’s fallen victim to it. Sites like Flickr, iStockphoto (which they bought for $50 million in 1996), and others charge much less – sometimes free or a dollar an image. That forced Getty to lower their prices. Then came cell phone cameras, that have further eroded their profit (which is interesting because though they are low quality they are quick to get, free, and people like how real they are). Their shares dropped more than 47 percent this past year.

I noticed that Getty also sells music (another industry that has been killed, or should I say transformed, by the Internet).

Getty was founded by Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty (see picture, right) in Seattle in 1995. The Getty family, who made their money in oil, owns about 20 percent of the company. They grew by taking traditional image stock archives and putting them online. They also sell high end photography from professional photographers and distribute images from National Geographic and others. They claim an average of 3.2 billion images and 4 million monthly unique visitors to its web site.

Comments

The company has hired Goldman Sachs to consult on any potential sale and The New York Times is reporting that Getty Images could sell for $1.5 billion. A number of equity firms have interest in Getty, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital.

When asked about a potential sale, a Getty spokesman in London told Agence France-Presse," We do not comment on rumors."

Getty was founded in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein and has grown through a series of acquisitions, including its purchase of its biggest competitor, MediaVast, for $202 million. The company was also in negotiations with Jupitermedia but the talks ended without a deal.

Getty’s main selling point is the licensing of high quality images from professional photographers around the world. It also offers video for use in movies, television and online.

"Getty Images continues to be a company in transition, adjusting from being the leading player in an oligopolistic market to being one of many players in a highly competitive market," Barbara Coffey, a research analyst with Kaufman Brothers, wrote in a research note earlier this month.
 

If you don’t agree, blame Goldman Sachs for the existence of this article – that firm led investors.  Oak Investment Partners also participated, and Ren Riley, who serves as a general partner there, gave a statement in the official press release.  “[iCrossing] has successfully built upon its core expertise in search to create a ‘next-generation’ digital marketing agency,” he began.

“Over the last nine years, the iCrossing team has proven that they understand how to make digital marketing work for the Fortune 500.  The company is also ideally positioned to help big brands leverage opportunities in emerging channels such as video, mobile and social media,” Riley concluded.  And those fields are certainly where everyone appears to be headed.

It’s hard to say with any specificity, however, what iCrossing will do with its $62 million.  Even Red Herring’s Tomio Geron, who got an interview with iCrossing’s CEO, discovered little.  “Raising this money adds to our war chest and strategic acquisition capital,” Jeff Herzog told him.

In any event, iCrossing already counts Yahoo, Google, MSN, and Ask among its partners, and Coca-Cola, General Motors, and PR Newswire among its clients; $62 million in funding isn’t likely to drag the company down at all.

Google (NASD:GOOG) issued a statement today announcing it will sell 5.3 million new shares of stock to “partially meet the anticipated needs of index funds to purchase Google Class A common stock when Google is added to the S&P 500 Index at the close of trading on March 31, 2006.”

In trading today, Google closed at $394.98, gaining $17.78. After hours trading saw the figure retreat after the stock sale announcement, giving back some of today’s gains and dropping to $383.55 at press time.

Google submitted a Form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the planned sale. The search advertising company stated it would “use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and possible acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets.”

Google also listed this among the caveats in the Form S-3 document: “We may apply the proceeds of this offering to uses that do not improve our operating results or increase the value of your investment.”

That comes from provisions associated with the Investment Company Act of 1940, which exists to make companies “disclose their financial condition and investment policies to investors when stock is initially sold and, subsequently, on a regular basis.”

In their statement, Google noted how Goldman Sachs would be the sole underwriter of this sale. That represents a full 180-degree turn in that relationship since Google’s IPO. Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Hank Paulsen made contact with Kleiner Perkins, a substantial investor in Google, in what Google angrily viewed as a “business as usual” practice.

That prompted Google to snub Goldman Sachs in favor of Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston to underwrite the 2004 IPO.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.