Apple’s New Hamburg Store Vandalized with Microsoft Logo. Apple is opening a new store in Hamburg and in celebration of that accomplishment a group of artists dressed in construction worker clothing decorated the building this week with a Microsoft logo. The guerrilla marketing logo was placed on the building with “easy to remove” tactics to ensure the job didn’t turn into a lawsuit and at this time it’s still unclear if it has been removed.
It’s believed that the joke was meant to show how Microsoft’s own stores have yet to make it out of the U.S. due to “modest returns” on their initial stores which will probably greatly delay international store openings. The funniest part of the stunt is that Apple retail store construction is typically closely guarded, although these pranksters managed to easily get by security and post a giant Windows Logo on a large portion of the building. Here’s a video from the prank: Groupon Was “The Single Worst Decision I Have Ever Made As A Business Owner” Editor’s note:This guest post was written by Rocky Agrawal, an entrepreneur who has worked on local products since 1995. He blogs at reDesign and Tweets @rakeshlobster.
“How much is your average sale here?” “It’s about five dollars.” That one question told me Jessie Burke had been sold an unsuitable product. Her average sale was $5 and her Groupon rep had convinced her to run a Groupon for $13. I already knew how the story ended. Jessie had posted about her experience running a Groupon for Posies Cafe on her blog. I wanted to drill deeper and get at the why. Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 Some of the key takeaways: Jessie found about Groupon from a friend who saw that the pizza place across the street was full after running a Groupon. One of the things I’ve really struggled with in writing this is the potential for readers to view Jessie as ignorant or worse by the Silicon Valley elite. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. A Groupon rep called last week. Skype cuts senior executives. Why? La RATP s’oppose à l’open data et tente d’interdire l’application CheckMyMetro.
News Corp. finalizing $30M sale of Myspace. Myspace’s parent company News Corp. is in the final stages of selling the under-performing social network for $20 – $30 million, reports All Things Digital. News Corp. is apparently in a rush to complete an acquisition deal by Thursday — its fiscal year-end. The media giant probably doesn’t want MySpace to blemish its 2012 financial records, especially given the lackluster revenue predictions. Backing up earlier information, the report indicates that significant cuts in staff and operating costs will be made to Myspace depending on who the buyer is.
News Corp. might also retain a small minority stake in the company, according to the report. Specific Media and Golden Gate Capital are at the top of the list of companies that could acquire Myspace. News Corp. purchased the California-based social network in July 2005 for $580 million.