Thursday, May 14. 2009

DigitalGlobe's First Day Trading: Up 13%

The company set shares at $19 yesterday and sold 14.7 million shares in a highly subscribed IPO to raise $279.3 million. Today, shares closed up 13% at $21.50. Prices had been up as much as 24% from the offer price.

- Reuters

Off Topic: How I Managed During the Google Outage

I knew it without checking Twitter; something was up with Google News this am. After confirming it was not my ISP I used another service. Yep, Yahoo News did the job just fine. Oh and GMail was down, but if anything really important was going on via e-mail - my colleagues would IM or another e-mail account or Twitter to reach me. No biggy. The cloud works for me...

Oracle, DigitalGlobe To Offer Imagery Service

Update: (Adena here) For those who note a PR on this topic from 2007, Joe assured me it's something different. I sent him that very link!

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After the IPO this morning of DigitalGlobe (DGI), news was available that the company will offer an imagery service with the next release of Oracle Spatial similar to the service that Oracle has with NAVTEQ. Users will be able to injest imagery data into Oracle Spatial and a 60-day trial license made available to try data. More details later.

Should DigitalGlobe IPO Change thinking on GeoEye?

Somes say yes. Rich Smith of Motley Fool compares the two companies and says "no." Nice tables compare 2008 and 2009 revenues.

The IPO launched today at $19 above initial expected range of $16-$18 and raised $279.3m, more than expected. The stock begins trading today.

- Reuters
- Bloomberg

DARPA Funds Inertial Tracking In Shoes

The Register reports that Massachusetts Intersense announced a DARPA funded contract to work with Case Western university to deliver tiny yet highly accurate inertial-nav units under a programme called Micro Inertial Navigation Technology (MINT). The idea is to put the technology in shoes because the feet don't bend and wriggle like the rest of the body, which improves accuracy. The larger vision is to use the tech in drones and robots that will do their work indoors and perhaps tag "persons on interest."

Using the Location of those you Call for Fun and Profit

Frog Design's Nick de la Mare thinks about how ringbacks (the tones you hear while waiting for someone to pick up the phone) could be location-based.

Imagine mapping hot spots like movie theaters or classrooms as do-not-interrupt locations, or tying specific ring tones to places, like hearing the sound of Mickey Mouse when you call someone visiting Disneyland. By tying together GPS with the flexibility of customized ringbacks, one could introduce new conversation paradigms around physical location and context.

My first reactions: Who would pay for the service? The user visiting Disney? Disney itself? What about privacy, this would have to be "opt in." Fascinating idea, however, that might yields LBS ads to those calling. For example, when you call you friend who is visiting Disney you might get an ad like "Your contact is visiting Disney! Today visitors will see fireworks, a show featuring Snow White and .... Why don't you come visit?"
- Creativity Online