Happy Halloween 2005

Today is October 31, 2005 and I am preparing for the trick-or-treaters. Its cold and rainy but I am sure the charm of dressing up in costumes and going door-to-door for trick-or-treating will not dampen the spirits of the kids and their parents. My friend's daughter will be a parrot. Another 4 year old cutie will be an IPod (this is the extent of Apple's infliuence on people's lives)

Be good to the tiny tricksters ;-) BOO


Happy Halloween to you all.
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VoIP Growing Astronomically, $23.4 Billion By 2009 Projected

According to a report by Infonetics, released on wednesday, VoIP service is predicted to grow 18-fold -- from $1.24 billion in 2004 to $23.4 billion in 2009 -- representing total revenues of $62 billion to be spent on the technology over the five-year period.

Read the story on Yahoo News

Return of dot com boom?

Michael Copeland and Om Malik of Business 2.0 magazine have written a wonderful piece for CNN Technology. According to the authors, "Startups are hot -- again. Valuations are nuts -- again. Fortunes are being made -- again."

I agree with them. Look at the insane $4.1 billion Skype-eBay deal that has all the pundits and analysts scratching their heads. Rupert Murdoch was eyeing Skype after acquiring Intermix Media for $580-million.

I quote from the article:

• Corporate IT spending, both an engine and an indicator of tech industry health, was up 9 percent through the first half of 2005 and is expected to rise 7 percent more in 2006.
• Internet advertising, $9.6 billion last year, was up 26 percent in the first half of 2005 and is projected to hit $12 billion for the year
• Google is sitting on more than $7 billion; Yahoo has about $3.5 billion. Microsoft remains the cash king with almost $40 billion on hand. A lot of that money will be earmarked for strategic objectives—acquisitions

I am not sure if Startups are really hot or not. But Valuations are definitely nuts -- and yes, again. We are beginning to see Fortunes being made -- example Myspace, Skype.

Whether this becomes Internet Boom 2.0 or Bubble 2.0, remains to be seen. I think we can all use a boom right now ;-)

Read the complete story - "Tech's big comeback"