Foremski ups the ante on the Flickr/Yahoo partnership rumor, suggesting that an acquisition is about to be announced.

Silicon Valley Watcher: Scoop! SiliconValleyWatcher reports Yahoo is negotiating acqusition of Flickr

My good friend Nick Aster has been doing an MBA with a difference, one that combines business with sustainability, at the Presidio World College.

They are shortly having open days for their MBA in Sustainable Management.

Wired News: Monster Fueled by Caffeine on a startup that works out of a coffee shop.

After a false start with ‘hot desking’ in the 90’s freely available wifi, laptops and cellphones really do mean that in some case you can work anywhere. In this case, history has come full circle with some of the biggest institutions in the world, such as Lloyd’s insurance, having been started in 18th century coffee houses.

Increasingly I am meeting people, that like myself would rather work out of a coffee shop than some anonymous cube hell that is the staple of most US work environments. I have a friend who is looking to buy a coffee house in San Francisco as space for his startup, whilst keeping it selling coffee to the public.

From an architectural standpoint I see this as the perfect rebellion. Unlike coffee houses, office space does not have to be designed to be attractive to hang out in and as such the vast majority of office space in America is a thoughtless committee designed waste of money devoid of any soul.

My recent experiences with realtors show me that: most of them don’t know very much about buildings; waste your time by lying in descriptions; seem to be the last people on earth to use email and digital cameras instead of time wasting phone calls and expensive on-site visits.

Realtors charge up to a quarter of what architects do, without most of the skill, service or liability. The reason that this happens is that they own the customer. By extension, if their services don’t benefit customers then this will change.

Why hasn’t the Internet destroyed the current hopeless realtor merry-go-round. Perhaps a listings service could be built where data can only be submitted if:

1. the realtor or seller lists a contact email(rather than them contact you, or by phone).

2. all listing have digital pictures of outside and all rooms.

3. all room sizes are listed in square foot.

4. visits can be arranged through a third party key holder rather than with the agent. (Most of the time having a realtor show you round is a waste of money. Why not distribute keys to security companies and have someone less annoying show you round.)

5. all listings allow feedback from registered users who are prospective buyers/renters.
this would allow people to rate realtors, rate properties and upload their own pictures of properties.

[The problem with 5. is that reviewing building listings has less vanity benefit than an product review, as your review won't be seen for ever. Perhaps revenge is enough of a driver to make people give bad feedback.]

NB. Here is a realtor tip that a friend told me about:

In the US it appears that some contracts require a licensed broker at both ends of a deal. Given that that can be one person - threatening to bring in a second broker results in the first reducing fees automatically because they will have their fees halved by the mere presence of another broker.

Sample chapter headings:

The Morons Who Are Sitting Next To You
Business Culture, My Arse
Why You Can’t Lose By Resigning
Corporate Culture - Stupid People

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Lazy joke lands author in trouble

Coke has had to recall Dasani feared to be contaminated with a carcinogen.

Coke started by selling drink with narcotics, last century.

It then took the narcotics out, building a brand by selling sugared water at a massive premium.

It then launched Dasani, removing the sugar and selling water at a massive premium.

It turned out that Dasani isn’t a mineral water, but is purified tap water, selling at a massive premium.

With this recall, they were selling lipsmackin, thirstquenchin contaminated, non-mineral, unsugared, ‘coke’ free water.

Ed Sim points out something that instinctively should be a truism: companies are bought and not sold. In other words, if you look to shop a company you reduce its attractiveness.

So what makes the playing-hard-to-get game, different for companies than products they sell. Are products sold and not bought? Does Coca Cola’s sugared water sell itself or do they have to market it?

What is happening in both cases is price - Coke play hard to get by saying that you can only have their sugared water by paying a huge premium over cost.

All companies are for sale, but the price, like a discreet ad for an expensive piece of real estate, is not published - if you need to know then you can’t afford it.

Everything has a price and surely, even companies need to proactively seduce their potential suitors.

China’s average GDP to exceed 1000 US dollars

At current growth rates this would mean that a supposedly communist country could have a larger economy than the US within 30 years.

Business Plan Archive is a repository of business plans and information about failed .com companies - a sort of intellectual anti-matter I guess, but fascinating reading nonetheless.

My personal favorite that I’d forgotten about:

Zap.com
Portal that makes fish oil

Ping Identity - who are sponsors of the SourceID open source identity project has secured $5M in Financing from General Catalyst Partners - who Jeremy Allaire is involved with.