Articles by Theodore F. di Stefano

How many of us still remember John Maynard Keynes? Keynes, also called "1st Baron Keynes," was a British Economist who lived from 1883 to 1946. He has had a profound influence upon macroeconomics, including the economic policies of various governments. Keynes believed in applying monetary and fiscal policies to lessen the deleterious effects of bo...

When AOL made a US$1 billion deal to sell patents to Microsoft last April, its stock jumped up about 43 percent on the news. After all, AOL could use a $1 billion shot in the arm. Who couldn't? But what is behind this string of sales of patents? Why are patents so important to large tech firms like Microsoft, Google and Apple? Let's take look at w...

When Twitter eventually goes through an IPO (initial public offering), its investment bankers will be faced with the challenge of establishing a price per share for the company's stock. To the uninitiated, this might seem like a simple task. The fact is there are several valuation scenarios that can be used to price a stock. I'll describe two of ...

After the recent Super Bowl game, Twitter reported that during the final three minutes of the game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, an average of 10,000 tweets were sent every second. This sheer volume of tweets is almost unimaginable. My first thought was that all of these tweets were going into the ether at a purely indi...

The word "terminal," before the computer revolution, had several meanings, one of which described it as either end of a carrier line containing facilities for freight and passengers. Nowadays, in the computer age, it can mean the end point of a carrier line containing data "floating" in a cloud and saved for many users and uses. Specifically, in t...

This is a followup to an article that I wrote for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Why Publishers Are Afraid of Amazon." In that article, I mention that Amazon is now facilitating those authors who choose to self-publish. I also mention that The New York Times recently quoted Russell Grandinetti, one of Amazon's top executives, who said, "The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and the reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity." ...

My previous experience with book publishers was over 10 years ago when I wrote a book about buying a business. It wasn't a great experience because first I had to find an agent -- not an easy task. The agent then had to go through the long and arduous task of finding a publisher.

One would think that after all of the publicity in recent years about insider trading and its illegality, that such a phenomenon would be a thing of the past. Not so. On Oct. 13, 2011, the hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, received the longest prison sentence to date for insider trading. A judge for the Federal District Court of Manhattan, Ri...

In October of 2010, I wrote an article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Can the USPS Be Saved?" The point of my article was that the U.S. Postal Service needs a new business model that addresses the present-day realities of e-mail and e-commerce. Despite my intent to focus on the need for a new business model, the article drew some nasty comments and blog responses from the American Postal Workers Union.

At this point, most of us are quite aware of the problems that Rupert Murdoch is having in Great Britain. There has been a seismic shift in the power that Murdoch has over politics and law enforcement in England. Up until a few short months ago, most people in power there were afraid to openly criticize Murdoch for fear of retribution in the press ...

Some people are considering now buying a home because they realize that residential prices are quite low. They reason that if they don't get into the market now, they might miss the window of opportunity to purchase a home at a deep discount from previous prices. Others are looking to get into the market to buy a distressed sale, then profitably "flipping" the house quickly by selling it to another buyer. Both scenarios make sense.

Most businesses with which I am familiar, especially those of small to medium-size, are so caught up in day-to-day challenges that the only time they take a good look at the health of their business and the timeliness of the filing and payment of certain taxes and levies is when they review their annual statements with their accountants The way I a...

In a recent article for the E-Commerce Times titled "Is the World Headed Toward a Single Global Currency?" I asked Morrison Bonpasse, the president of the Single Global Currency Association, about his thoughts on currency consolidation. Since then, I've given some thought to how the world's multi-currency financial transactions affect business. I...

If your company has decided that the time is right for an initial public offering (IPO), it should consider the options available to it. There are ways by which a company can become publicly traded without the lengthy and costly process that usually accompanies an IPO. A common alternative to an IPO is a reverse merger, sometimes referred to as a ...

Many economists, including Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, have argued that the European Monetary Union is in trouble because of the fiscal difficulties of a few of its member countries. Some have predicted that the euro will fail. Because the prospects for a future single global currency depend upon the continued success of the euro and the c...

A recent study that I just read shows that the startup success rate over a period of 10 years is about 30 percent. This obviously means that about 70 percent of startups are out of business after a 10-year period! There is no doubt that the failure rate of startups is stunning and, in my opinion, will continue to be so into the foreseeable future.

I recently spoke with the CEO of an emerging technology company, Santeon, because I was curious about companies that are pushing the envelope with technological innovation. I found a company that is creating technology, software processes, rapid implementation and value-adding software architecture that are quickly reflected in bottom-line results...

Though there are many benefits to bringing your company public, there are also disadvantages to be considered. Therefore, the process of deciding whether to launch an initial public offering should be a deliberate, well-thought-out process made by a team of professionals, including management, your board of directors (if you have one), financial advisors and attorneys.

Having an actively engaged, independent board is a must for the long-term viability of any corporation. Unfortunately, there are still many management teams that feel that their prospects for long-term employment, as well as generous salaries and perks, are dependent upon a "friendly" board of directors composed mostly of friends and associates His...

According to the Small Business Administration, fewer than 30 percent of startups are still in business after 10 years. This is a pretty startling failure rate -- over 70 percent. Let's take a look at some of the causes of startup failure and what can be done to improve your chances of making your new business a long-term success....