With Instagram Deal, Facebook Shows Its Worth

Image via CrunchBase Reddit Permalink During the negotiations with Instagram, the parties framed the deal around a logical assumption: Facebook could soon trade publicly at a much higher market value. As part of the talks, the companies discussed a potential value of about $104 billion for Facebook, the people briefed on the negotiations said... Continue to read

Related articles

• What Is the Point of... Instagram? (readwriteweb.com)
• You Think $1 Billion Was Expensive For Instagram? They Originally Asked For $2 Billion (businessinsider.com)
• Zuckerberg's Solo Instagram Deal | Spotify's Coca-Cola Partnership | Tumblr's New Ads (socialtimes.com)

World's Richest Worth $1 Trillion on Billionaires Index

prince al waleed bin-talal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 40 richest individuals on Earth lost a combined $6.2 billion yesterday as stocks dropped amid disappointing U.S. earnings, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the wealthiest people.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal joined the index, which doubled the number of billionaires it tracks yesterday. Alwaleed’s fortune has increased 18.2 percent, or $3.2 billion, this year, as shares of his Kingdom Holding Co. (KINGDOM), a diversified investment group that is planning to build the world’s tallest tower, rose 36 percent. The 57-year-old ranks 24th on the index with a net worth of $20.5 billion.

“There is no secret to success,” Alwaleed said in an e- mail sent from Saudi Arabia. “It is based on a sound investment strategy, commitment and long-term vision.”...Continue to read.

Related articles

• Billionaire Rankings: Bloomberg Launches Daily List of the World's Richest People (business.time.com)
• Market slump sees world's richest biggest losers (rt.com)
• What It's Like to Be a Billionaire - for a Day (newser.com)

Debt-ridden Countries IMF'd as "Euro Collapse" threat lures Bailout Buck...

Leave The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Alone

White House (Photo credit: HarshLight)

As the crisis in Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world continues, the oil markets have, understandably, been rocked by uncertainly and fluctuation. Here in the United States, that has led to some fairly sharp increases in the price of gasoline:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Gas prices continued to rise Monday, driven higher for nearly two weeks straight by the turmoil in Libya, with analysts expecting prices to keep climbing.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose six tenths of a cent to $3.509, according to a daily survey by motorist group AAA.

Gas prices have increased for 13 days in a row, rising nearly 34 cents in that time.

The pain at the pump is palpable for anyone who’s had to full up their tank anytime in the last week and that’s led, inevitably, to calls for the President to “do something,”even if that something is immensely foolish:

The Obama administration is considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to rapidly rising gasoline prices brought on by turmoil in the Middle East, the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, said on Sunday... Continue to read.

Related articles

• Running on empty: Failing to address high gas prices

• The Obama Oil Embargo: But Only USA Cap and Trade (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• The Obama Oil Embargo (mb50.wordpress.com)