Hello to all my name is Jeff Horn, I’m currently writing a book about the big three search.. would love your input..from any and all Xooglers! I just set up my Twitter acct and email is up and running!

Feel free to email me your story or personal experience at the Google Plex!  jeffhorn@xooglers.info  or  Twiiter.com/xooglers_

I also have a direct webform at this site http://jeff-horn.info or call me direct 808-244-3000.

He empezado a usar hoy Google Wave y creo que estoy un poco asustada.
Se trata de una nueva forma para interactuar en línea. No se si voy a ser capaz de explicaros lo que es porque tiene su complejidad y puede que aun no sepa todo lo que se puede hacer en esta aplicación. Básicamente, podremos llevar a cabo conversaciones en colaboración a tiempo real, de una forma que nunca antes habíamos hecho. Puedo ver lo que está escribiendo mi contacto mientras lo escribe (cosa que tampoco me parece que esté tan bien, porque soy de las que a veces reescribe sus mensajes y se lo piensa varias veces antes de enviarlos…) y además utilizar el email, redes sociales, wiki, mapas, y otras muchas extensiones que seguro que tiene y aun no he descubierto.

Creo que de la herramienta se van a derivar ciertos tipos de uso que nos sorprenderán, por ejemplo para grupos de trabajo puede facilitar ciertos aspectos de la comunicación. Eso sí, espero que no se convierta en un facebook más; sino me decepcionará bastante, además, como decía al principio, tengo ciertas dudas en cuanto a la forma de compartir la información, quien puede verlo y demás… Ya os iré contando cuando lo pruebe más a fondo.

Mozilla reported its 2008 audited financials and the organization behind the Firefox Browser delivered consolidated revenue of $78.6 million, up 5 percent from 2007. And the revenue picture looks even better if you exclude the $7.8 million loss in Mozilla’s investment portfolio. The worry: Google, now a competitor, is still bankrolling Mozilla.

Mitchell Baker, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, outlined the financial picture on her blog. There’s a lot of good stuff in there.

To wit:

• Mozilla funds 200 people working full or part-time on Mozilla.
• The company has outposts across the globe and Firefox comes in 70 languages.
• Mozilla is launching messaging software.
• And Firefox has 110 million daily users as of November.

The worry for me as a Mozilla fan: The foundation’s financial stability depends on Google. Baker noted that Mozilla is diversifying its revenue base somewhat, but not enough in my view. She notes on her blog the majority of Mozilla’s revenue “is generated from the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox from organizations such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, and others.”

A trip to the actual audited PDF of Mozilla’s financial results and a note on “concentrations of risk” reveals:

Mozilla has a contract with a search engine provider for royalties which expires in November 2011. The contract was recently amended and extended to November 2011. Approximately 91% and 94% of Mozilla’s revenue for 2008 and 2007, respectively, was derived from this contract. The receivable from this search engine provider represented 80% and 86% of the December 31, 2008 and 207 outstanding receivables, respectively.

Obviously that search provider is Google. Simply put, Mozilla needs to diversify that revenue base from Google, which funds the foundation, but is increasingly a competitor. Having a rival fund your operations isn’t comfortable for any organization. Mozilla’s current situation is like Oracle accounting for the bulk SAP’s revenue. Or Microsoft providing most of Red Hat’s revenue. Or MySpace accounting for the majority of Facebook revenue. You get the idea.

Baker notes in her blog:

The past few years have seen an explosion of innovation and competition in web browsers, demonstrating their critical importance to the Internet experience and marking the success of our mission. In 2008 not only did Microsoft and Apple continue developing their web browsing products, but Google announced and released a web browser of its own. Competition, while uncomfortable, has benefited Mozilla, pushing us to work harder. Mozilla and Firefox continue to prosper, and to reflect our core values. We expect these competitive trends to continue, benefiting the entire Web.

Can Mozilla realistically diversify its revenue base away from Google? That’s unclear on many fronts. Google has the dominant market share in search. Yahoo is a non-factor. And Microsoft has the Bing search engine, but isn’t likely to support Firefox, a browser that competes (and often wins) against the software giant’s Internet Explorer.

Given that landscape Mozilla needs to get creative about that lucrative search box. Of Mozilla’s revenue generating partners only Amazon and eBay have the heft to really help diversify the foundation away from Google. Instead of a search box, perhaps Firefox needs a commerce box that would allow eBay and Amazon to pick up some of the revenue slack.

How do you think Mozilla can diversify away from Google?

Source:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=27670&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2FBTL+%28ZDNet+Between+the+Lines%29

Chicago Web Design Firms

In today’s Bloomberg News, columnist Brian Womack discusses Google Inc.’s newest addition – AdMob Inc. The idea behind this $750-million purchase is that it will help Google to expand sales of advertisements that appear in smartphone applications. According to Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt,

The purchase [of AdMob Inc.] will allow advertisers to get their brands in front of consumers who use games, personal-finance tools and music programs on the iPhone and other devices, such as those using Google’s Android software.

Apple Inc. released its iPhone in 2007 and to date there are more than 100,000 applications available for download. Google’s Android system, which first became available last year, offers more than 12,000 programs. The addition of AdMob Inc. to all smartphones will be interesting to say the least. The advertisements will appear as most advertisements do online in the form a banner across the top or bottom of the screen. These advertisements will also be present within applications and games.

Advertising industries must love that they can now reach their audience on smartphones. You can see the CEO’s sitting in their offices now: Internet websites? Check. Park benches? Check. Newspapers? Check. Magazines? Check. Busses and taxis? Check. Smartphones? Heck yes, baby!

As a consumer, I enjoy the fact that I can browse and play games on a smartphone without being inundated with advertisements for different products. Sometimes it’s nice to just get away from it all. By having even more ads thrown at me, and with ads become more personalized, it is intriguing, but also worrisome to see just how much farther technology will go before things start to really unravel.

Since this addition, and due to the 27 per cent increase in smartphone sales worldwide, Google is back in business. Schmidt comments however that despite all of their large purchases (YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006 and DoubleClick Inc. for $3.2 billion in 2008), Google is not going to make such extreme purchases the norm. Due to their increase in sales, Schmidt says that

Our [Google's] mobile revenue is growing faster than our regular revenue.

This is definitely good news for people looking for a career with Google Inc. After cutting back in staff from more than 20,000 employees to about 19,665 employees due to the recession, Google Inc. is back, booming, and ready to take over.

We hear a lot about the IPhone and various handsets sporting Android 1.0 — make that 2.0 — duking it out, with the Palm Pre limping along somewhere behind. But that’s the market struggle on the surface, there’s another battle going on: whether mobile will be ruled by device or platform. And history suggests that the natural winner will be platform, much to the pleasure of Google and eventual dismay of Apple.

This isn’t a feature slug-out where only the well-positioned survives. The mobile space fight more resembles the personal computer space in the early years, where IBM established a category and both Microsoft and Digital Research wrestled to create the default operating system. At the same time, Apple had a closed system, hardware and software all under its thumb. I think we’re seeing a similar scenario play out today.

There are some significant differences. For example, Apple is out in the lead early in the race. But in the long run, that isn’t going to be enough. The issues are economics and scalability. There are too many people in the world who will want units without having to pay a premium price. That’s why the openly available platform is going to win. It’s too cheap and well-developed for the hardware manufacturers, who, as one expert in cost management for consumer electronics companies told me, work on shaving fractions of a cent off per-unit costs.

And how can a company like Google afford this economic advantage? Online ads. When I mentioned the other day about Eric Schmidt saying that the company wanted to avoid Microsoft’s mistakes, I failed to mention something else he said in the Fox Business interview: Google can give away Android because “we make money, and lots of it, it turns out, from advertising on mobile phones.” Not will make money, but do make money. Google can infinitely leverage its development over many handset manufacturers and carriers without worrying about maintaining margins or overexposing itself. The more places Android is, the more money Google will make.

I also realized that Google has a tremendous advantage in the way it reports revenue. Ad revenue is all in one bucket, with no differentiation among platforms. As its numbers have shown at least a little growth during tough economic times, many — myself included — have assumed that they were doing a bit better than keeping par on search ads. But what if they weren’t? What if that had gone down and the “lots” of mobile advertising dollars have more than backfilled the drop? You can tell what the iPhone means to Apple, but Android’s fiscal importance to Google is like the Purloined Letter: invisible and in plain sight, all at the same time.

More manufacturers will turn to Google — or maybe a competitor like Intel or Symbian, though they don’t seem to be keeping pace at the moment — and eventually it will win the handset wars because, as happened in the PC wars, Apple cannot and will not be everywhere.

Source:

http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10004030/apple-iphone-vs-google-android-machine-vs-platform/

Chicago Web Site Design Company

Eyeing to enhance its expertise in mobile advertising, internet giant Google Inc is all set to acquire mobile display ad technology provider AdMob for USD 750 million.

Google Inc has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AdMob, for USD 750 million in an all stock deal, the company said in a statement.

AdMob a leading mobile advertising firm engaged in the development of display advertising technology for mobile Internet sites.

“Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time,” Google Vice—President of Product Management Susan Wojcicki said.

The deal will help Google in its efforts to develop more effective tools for creating, serving and analysing emerging mobile ads formats.

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions.

The acquisition would enhance Google’s existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while giving advertisers and publishers more choice in this growing new area.

“The said acquisition will be an important moment for everyone involved in producing, consuming, or monetising engaging products on mobile,” AdMob Founder and CEO Omar Hamoui said.

Facebook is one of those web properties that people love to speculate should be in play, and who else to buy but Google? Forgetting for a moment that this is unlikely ever to happen, it would be a smart move for Google, but not for the “positioning” reasons you might think. No, Google needs Facebook because it knows how to do something that Google will have to learn.

To understand the context, I’d refer you to Danny Sullivan’s piece about hitting Gmail’s storage limit. He’s looking at the issue of how much email is nothing more than a waste of bytes, in addition to considering whether Google is setting false expectations of never needing to delete messages. But I took something a little different from his post: Just what is Google letting itself in for with Wave?

From the descriptions that are out, like the one by my colleague Michael Hickins, Wave is a collaboration tool that blurs the differences among word processing, spreadsheet, and slide presentation documents; email; real-time chat, and broadcast web conferencing. If this isn’t an invitation to bloat, I don’t know what would be. The problem is that although real-time pondering and discussion is useful, it can also be long-winded and tends to get condensed into the eventual email or document. If everyone in a business is keeping everything and shifting to the web from phone or in-person conversations, then data is going to multiple at a rate that makes today’s race for bigger hard drives seem like nothing.

Cloud storage? That’s fine, but that eventually must translate into real hardware. This is all going to cost money as expectations drive continuing expansion. But just as importantly, it’s going to require an understanding of the operational issues that come up because the minute Google starts rolling this out, it has the potential to explode in scale. And that’s why Facebook would be incredibly useful at the moment. Although not perfect by any means, the company does understand the virtual logistics of keeping a ballooning amount of data more or less moving along. In fact, if you consider that users can attach multimedia documents or links to posts, then the relevance seems even clearer.

Source:

http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10003367/google-wave-needs-facebook-know-how/#comments

Chicago Website Design

Who is going to be: Google or Microsoft? They are once again head to head and this time for the e-mail system overhaul for Los Angeles, which is trying to get rid of its ancient e-mail system. CEOs of Google and Microsoft are willing to come down to L.A. and meet the council committee.

So, who is going to be? Both the big guns have pros and cons. Microsoft has strengths of MS Outlook and MS Exchange and Google is betting its cloud computing. So far, Google seems to be having a bit an edge in this matter after getting clearance from one of the city council committee. However, Google will need clearance from the second council committee to win the bet.

Read the complete story: Microsoft vs. Google: An e-mail showdown at L.A. City Hall

De groei van Google is nog lang niet voorbij. Ook de grote GPS-firma’s (zoals TomTom) moeten gaan uitkijken voor deze reus. Tegelijk met Android 2.0 gaat Google Maps Navigation gelanceerd worden. Deze navigatiesoftware wordt gratis aangeboden in tegenstelling tot de concurrerende partijen.

Yesterday I attended a seminar on Objectivist Ethics leaded by Craig Biddle (he was just great!).  During the 6 hours of our discussion we shared ideas on,

• Which is the source of rights?
• What are natural rights?
• What are Rights?
• What are moral laws?
• What are Virtues?
• What is Morality?
• What are moral principles?
• What is reason?
• What is good?
• What is Objectivist Ethics?
• What are values?
• Why is Egoism good?
• Why is Capitalism the only moral social system?
• What is selfishness and what is altruism?

By the end of the seminar, we were all ready to understand why Capitalism was the only moral social system.

And this joke by Pastis is just one example of how Capitalism works.

Because it is companies like Google Inc. are the real example of how Capitalism works.  The services provided by Google Inc. to me are immeasurable.  Google has given me more opportunities, choices, knowledge, help and advantages than any other company in the world.

Let us all “praise” to the Google!!

Its been some time since both Microsoft and Google have been trying to woo the internet sensation Twitter, finally both Microsoft Corp and Google Inc secured separate agreements to access real-time content from Web phenomenon Twitter.

Source:
http://technology.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/microsoft-and-google-both-announce-deal-with-twitter/

Global Online Advertising Industry: An Analysis

The global online advertising industry has witnessed the rapid emergence of social networking sites and is growing rapidly despite the economic slowdown. The growth of this industry is being driven by increasing internet users, rising awareness and growing broadband subscription rate and ecommerce, which is playing a key role in this industry. In coming years online Ad spending is expected to overtake the TV advertising market.

The industry is divided into various segments but mainly three segments (search, display and classifieds) represent the whole industry. Rich media is a new segment recently entered in the online Ad industry, caters to a small portion of the market whereas search, display and classifieds serves almost 80% of the online Ad industry. There are various revenue models, out of which pay-per-impression and pay-per click are the most common among others.

In terms of online Ad spending by geography, UK, Netherlands and the pan-European sector lead the market but in terms of internet Ad budget allocation France, Germany, Spain and Italy have a strong presence. United States is the most developed market for the advertising industry. In Canada, internet advertising accounted for almost one third of total advertising market.

The report analyses the global online advertising market with a complete description of its segments. It also defines the market by geography such as, U.S. Canada, UK, Japan and China with a description of revenue models and expenditure models. The report discusses various industry trends and driving factors, which are giving shape to the industry. Future trends outline the expected market growth and changes. The report highlights the competition prevailing in the market and profiles major players with their business description and strategies.

The report also talks about the future outlook of the industry and its growth. By combining SPSS Inc.’s data integration and analysis capabilities with our relevant findings, we have predicted the future growth of the industry. We employed various significant variables that have an impact on this industry and created regression models with SPSS Base to determine the future direction of the industry. Before deploying the regression model, the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and the dependent variable was analyzed using standard SPSS output, including charts, tables and tests.

Table of content

1. Online Advertising Industry: An Overview

2. Advertising Industry Structure

Market Value by Region
Growth Rate

3. Worldwide Internet Advertising Market

3.1 Market Size
3.2 Online Advertising Spending

4. Online Advertising Market: United States/Canada

4.1 Spending Model
4.2 Online Revenue Models
4.2.1 Revenues by Quarter
4.3 Canada
4.3.1 Revenue Model

5. European Online Advertising Market

5.1 Online Advertising Expenditure
5.2 United Kingdom
5.2.1 Online Advertising Expenditure
5.2.2 Market Segmentation

6. Asian Online Advertising Market

6.1 Japan
6.2 China

7. Growth Drivers

7.1 Growing Internet User Base
7.2 Rising Broadband Penetration
7.3 New Advertising trend through Social Networking Sites
7.4 E-Commerce Driving Online Ad Demand

8. Industry Trends

8.1 Online Advertising Industry Prospects in Singapore
8.2 Online Advertising Industry in Switzerland
8.3 Decline in Online Advertising Industry
8.4 Online Advertising Barriers in China
8.5 Future Trends
8.4.1 Global Market
8.4.2 United States
8.4.3 UK

9. Competitive landscape

10. Company Profiles

10.1 Google Inc.

Overview
Business Strategies
Extensive Product Offering & acquisitions
Comprehensiveness & Global Access
Word-of-mouth Publicity
Early Adopter & Innovations

10.2 Yahoo Inc.

Overview
Business Strategies
Broad Range of Services
Worldwide Presence

10.3 AOL LLC

Overview
Business Strategies
Global Expansion
Accessibility Policy

10.4 MSN

Overview
Business Strategies

11. Industry Outlook

11.1 Market Forecast
11.2 Forecast Methodology
11.2.1 Dependent and Independent Variables
11.2.2 Correlation Dependent and independent Variables
11.2.3 Regression Analysis

List of Tables

Global Advertising Market by Region (2006-11E)
US Advertising Spending & Estimates by Medium (2007-10E)
Total Online Ad Spending in US (Pure-Plays vs. Traditional Media), 2007
EU-15 Market Share by Media (2004-09)
Share of UK Internet Advertising Expenditure by Industry (H205/H207)
UK Internet Advertising by Display Format (H206/H207)
Share of UK Internet Advertising Expenditure by Display Format (2006-07)
UK Property Advertising Market by Medium (2006-07)
Online Penetration of UK Classified Advertising (2007)
China Online Ad Market Statistics (2001-11E)
Sales through E-Commerce in US (2005-07)
Top Ad Networks Comparison (March 2008)
Top Portals as % of Total US Online Ad Spend (2004-08)
Dependent and Independent Variables (2001-08)
Correlation Analysis Table
Model Summary – Coefficient of Determination
Regression Coefficients Table

List of Charts

Online Search Engine Value Chain
Global Split of Major Service Sector Share by Revenues (2007)
Global Ad Spending Growth by Medium (2006-10E)
Worldwide Internet Advertising Revenue (2001-08)
Online Advertising by Industry (2007)
Internet Advertising Expenditure by Country (2006-08)
Global Online Ad Spending (2006-07)
US Internet Advertising Spending by Format (2007)
US Internet Advertising Revenue Model (2007)
Annual Revenue for Online Ad Industry in US (2001-08)
Quarterly Revenue Comparison (Q407/Q408)
Internet Ad Revenues by Pricing Model (2004-08)
Canada – Advertising Revenue Distribution by Medium (2007)
Total Online Purchase in Canada (2002-07)
UK – Advertising Spend by Media (2007)
UK Online Advertising Expenditure & Share of Ad spend (2006-08)
UK Online Market Segments (2007)
Online Advertising Market in Japan (2002-11E)
China’s Online Ads Market by Segment (2008)
Online Ads Market Segments Share in China (2001-12E)
Global Internet Users (2001-10E)
Number of Internet Users in China (2001-10E)
Global Broadband Adoption (2006-07)
Broadband Subscribers (2004-12E)
Broadband Penetration Rate by Country (2007)
US Online Social Network Ad Spending (2008-13E)
Influence of Websites in User Purchasing Decision (2007)
Worldwide E-commerce Growth & Forecast (2006-11E)
Online Advertising in Switzerland by Segments (2006)
Online Ad Spending in Switzerland (2002-06)
Internet Advertising Barriers
Global Advertising Expenditures by Medium (2010E)
US Online Ad Spending by Type (2008-12E)
US Online Video Advertising Spending (2007-13E)
Forecast of UK Internet Advertising Expenditure (2008-12)
China Online Players Market Share by Revenues (2008)
Google Revenue Comparison (2004-08)
Yahoo Revenues by Geography (2006-08)
Online Advertising Industry Forecast (2008-10E)

* Report price : $ 850
* Publication date : May 2009
Click banner for your report

Billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, five others charged in case

Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire founder of the Galleon Group, a major hedge fund, is led in handcuffs from FBI headquarters in New York Friday, Oct.16, 2009. Rajaratnam was charged with insider trading in the stock of several companies including Hilton, Clearwire, and Google. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)

By The Associated Press

Article from MSNBC

One of America’s wealthiest men was among six hedge fund managers and corporate executives arrested Friday in a hedge fund insider trading case that authorities say generated more than $25 million in illegal profits and was a wake-up call for Wall Street.

Raj Rajaratnam, a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with up to $7 billion in assets under management, was accused of conspiring with others to use insider information to trade securities in several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton set bail at $100 million to be secured by $20 million in collateral despite a request by prosecutors to deny bail. He also ordered Rajaratnam, who has both U.S. and Sri Lankan citizenship, to stay within 110 miles (177 kilometers) of New York City. The judge gave prosecutors until shortly after 6 p.m. to consider appealing his bail ruling.

 
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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference it was the largest hedge fund case ever prosecuted and marked the first use of court-authorized wiretaps to capture conversations by suspects in an insider trading case.

He said the case should cause financial professionals considering insider trades in the future to wonder whether law enforcement is listening.

“Greed is not good,” Bharara said. “This case should be a wake-up call for Wall Street.”

Joseph Demarest Jr., the head of the New York FBI office, said it was clear that “the 20 million dollars in illicit profits come at the expense of the average public investor.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought separate civil charges, said the scheme generated more than $25 million in illegal profits.

Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the SEC, said the charges show Rajaratnam’s “secret of success was not genius trading strategies.”

“He is not the master of the universe. He is a master of the Rolodex,” Khuzami said.

Galleon Group LLP said in a statement it was shocked to learn of Rajaratnam’s arrest at his apartment. “We had no knowledge of the investigation before it was made public and we intend to cooperate fully with the relevant authorities,” the statement said.

The firm added that Galleon “continues to operate and is highly liquid.”

Rajaratnam, 52, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine this year among the world’s wealthiest billionaires, with a $1.3 billion net worth.

According to the Federal Election Commission, he is a generous contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. The FEC said he made over $87,000 in contributions to President Barack Obama’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and various campaigns on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and New Jersey U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez in the past five years. The Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, said he has given a total of $118,000 since 2004 — all but one contribution, for $5,000, to Democrats.

The Associated Press has learned that even before his arrest, Rajaratnam was under scrutiny for helping bankroll Sri Lankan militants notorious for suicide bombings.

Papers filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn allege that Rajaratnam worked closely with a phony charity that channeled funds to the Tamil Tiger terrorist organization. Those papers refer to him only as “Individual B.” But U.S. law enforcement and government officials familiar with the case have confirmed that the individual is Rajaratnam.

At an initial court appearance in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Klein sought detention for Rajaratnam, saying there was “a grave concern about flight risk” given Rajaratnam’s wealth and his frequent travels around the world.

His lawyer, Jim Walden, called his client a “citizen of the world,” who has made more than $20 million in charitable donations in the last five years and had risen from humble beginnings in the finance profession to oversee hedge funds responsible for nearly $8 billion.

Walden promised “there’s a lot more to this case” and his client was ready to prepare for it from home. Rajaratnam lives in a $10 million condominium with his wife of 20 years, their three children and two elderly parents. Walden noted that many of his employees were in court ready to sign a bail package on his behalf.

Rajaratnam — born in Sri Lanka and a graduate of University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business — has been described as a savvy manager of billions of dollars in technology and health care hedge funds at Galleon, which he started in 1996. The firm is based in New York City with offices in California, China, Taiwan and India. He lives in New York.

 

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Rajaratnam obtained insider information and then caused the Galleon Technology Funds to execute trades that earned a profit of more than $12.7 million between January 2006 and July 2007. Other schemes garnered millions more and continued into this year, authorities said.

Bharara said the defendants benefited from tips about the earnings, earnings guidance and acquisition plans of various companies. Sometimes, those who provided tips received financial benefits and sometimes they just traded tips for more inside information, he added.

The timing of the arrests might be explained by a footnote in the complaint against Rajaratnam. In it, an FBI agent said he had learned that Rajaratnam had been warned to be careful and that Rajaratnam, in response, had said that a former employee of the Galleon Group was likely to be wearing a “wire.”

The agent said he learned from federal authorities that Rajaratnam had a ticket to fly from Kennedy International Airport to London on Friday and to return to New York from Geneva, Switzerland next Thursday.

Also charged in the scheme are Rajiv Goel, 51, of Los Altos, California, a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., Anil Kumar, 51, of Santa Clara, California, a director at McKinsey & Co. Inc., a global management consulting firm, and Robert Moffat, 53, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, senior vice president and group executive at International Business Machines Corp.’s Systems and Technology Group.

The others charged in the case were identified as Danielle Chiesi, 43, of New York City, and Mark Kurland, 60, also of New York City.

According to court papers, Chiesi worked for New Castle, the equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. that had assets worth about $1 billion under management. Kurland is a top executive at New Castle.

Kumar’s lawyer, Isabelle Kirshner, said of her client: “He’s distraught.” He was freed on $5 million bail, secured in part by his $2.5 million California home.

Kerry Lawrence, an attorney representing Moffat, said: “He’s shocked by the charges.”

It was not immediately clear who would represent the others in their initial court appearances.

A criminal complaint filed in the case shows that an unidentified person involved in the insider trading scheme began cooperating and authorities obtained wiretaps of conversations between the defendants.

In one conversation about a pending deal that was described in a criminal complaint, Chiesi is quoted as saying: “I’m dead if this leaks. I really am. … and my career is over. I’ll be like Martha (expletive) Stewart.”

Stewart, the homemaking maven, was convicted in 2004 of lying to the government about the sale of her shares in a friend’s company whose stock plummeted after a negative public announcement. She served five months in prison and five months of home confinement.

Prosecutors charged those arrested Friday with conspiracy and securities fraud.

A separate criminal complaint in the case said Chiesi and Moffat conspired to engage in insider trading in the securities of International Business Machines Corp.

According to another criminal complaint in the case, Chiesi and Rajaratnam were heard on a government wiretap of a Sept. 26, 2008, phone conversation discussing whether Chiesi’s friend Moffat should move from IBM to a different technology company to aid the scheme.

“Put him in some company where we can trade well,” Rajaratnam was quoted in the court papers as saying.

The complaint said Chiesi replied: “I know, I know. I’m thinking that too. Or just keep him at IBM, you know, because this guy is giving me more information. … I’d like to keep him at IBM right now because that’s a very powerful place for him. For us, too.”

According to the court papers, Rajaratnam replied: “Only if he becomes CEO.” And Chiesi was quoted as replying: “Well, not really. I mean, come on. … you know, we nailed it.”

The criminal complaints in the case also captured what authorities said were efforts by the defendants to hide their conversations from authorities.

In one conversation, Chiesi was heard telling Rajaratnam that she was “glad that we talk on a secure line, I appreciate that,” to which Rajaratnam replied: “I never call you on my cell phone,” the complaint said. It added that Chiesi said she was “nervous” about being investigated.

 

One of America’s wealthiest men was among six hedge fund managers and corporate executives arrested Friday in a hedge fund insider trading case that prosecutors say generated more than $25 million in illegal profits and should be a wake-up call for Wall Street.

Raj Rajaratnam, a partner in Galleon Management and a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with up to $7 billion in assets under management, was accused of conspiring with others to trade based on insider information about several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference it was the largest hedge fund case ever prosecuted and marked the first use of court-authorized wiretaps to capture conversations by suspects in an insider trading case.
Rajaratnam, 52, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine this year among the world’s wealthiest billionaires, with a $1.3 billion net worth. Read More

Who is Raj Rajaratnam

US citizen residing in New York. Born in Sri Lanka, 1957.
This year he gave $1 million for the reintegration in society of Tamil fighters, whose military movement was defeated in May.
Politics: Contributed to a number of Democratic campaigns, including $30,800 to Barack Obama and $4,600 to Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election. Read More

No wonder America is in a recession!  Does anyone besides me see anything strange about this Raj Rajaratnam, the firm is based in New York City with offices in California, China, Taiwan and India. He lives in New York. manager of billions of dollars in technology and health-care hedge funds at Galleon, which he started in 1996  What say you?

LINKS:

(1)    Baltimore NAACP Spews Racism

Time will tell if Google Wave is a lot of hype, or the real thing. It does look like Google’s making a serious push to grab an entire new branch of online communication.

From the link:

The Web search giant is hoping that software developers far and wide will create tools that work in conjunction with Wave, making an already multifaceted service even more useful. Google (GOOG) is even likely to let programmers sell their applications through an online bazaar akin to Apple’s App Store, the online marketplace for games and other applications designed for the iPhone. “We’ll almost certainly build a store,” Lars Rasmussen, the Google software engineering manager who directs the 60-person team in Sydney, Australia, that created Wave, told BusinessWeek.com. “So many developers have asked us to build a marketplace—and we might do a revenue-sharing arrangement.”

Combining instant messaging, e-mail, and real-time collaboration, Wave is an early form of so-called real-time communication designed to make it easier for people to work together or interact socially over the Internet. Google started letting developers tinker with Wave at midyear and then introduced the tool on a trial basis to about 100,000 invited users starting on Sept. 30. Invitations were such a hot commodity that they were being sold on eBay (EBAY). For Google the hope is that Wave, once it’s more widely available, will replace competing communications services such as e-mail, instant messaging, and possibly even social networks such as Facebook.