BANGALORE: <keyword id="6360722" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</keyword>, chairman emeritus at Tata Sons, has invested in Delhi-based online marketplace <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>. 
 
The company did not disclose the amount invested. The announcement comes a day after Snapdeal entered into a partnership with Tata Value Homes to sell apartment units of projects spread across five cities, namely, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. 
 
Snapdeal’s cofounder and chief executive Kunal Bahl termed Tata’s investment a validation of the company’s growth. “An investment by a legendary and respected figure like Mr. Tata is an excellent validation of our focused strategy on building a long term enterprise and marks the start of a very important phase for the company,” said Bahl. 
 
This investment also underlines the growing interest shown by India’s traditional industries in the fast-growing ecommerce sector. Recently traditional retail majors like Reliance and Arvind have made forays online. 
 The sector has also attracted large <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> in the past few months. Snapdeal raised over $233 million this year in two rounds from investors like eBay Inc, Singapore-based Temasek and Wipro chairman Azim Premji’s family office Premji Invest. Market leader Flipkart too raised two rounds of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> this year. In July it raised $1 billion from existing investors and <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword> sovereign wealth fund GIC. Global major Amazon also announced a $2 billion investment for its India operations in July. 
 
Snapdeal, which is estimated to have crossed $1 billion in sales this year, is rapidly adding new categories of products. Apart from apartments, it has launched a catering supplies segment recently. In the next few months the four-year-old platform is planning to add 10 more categories. Bahl has stated in the past that the company will focus on adding new merchants, new categories and focus on mobile commerce to ensure growth.

Ratan Tata, Tata Group's Chairman Emeritus, Invests In Snapdeal

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/ebay-ceo-says-drone-delivery-a-long-term-fantasy-lrtDSH68TkG3HRsziliv9w.html">Bloomberg</a>Ebay CEO John Donahoe</div></div>Ebay has <a href="http://www.ebayinc.com/in_the_news/story/ebay-inc-responds-carl-icahn%E2%80%99s-feb-24-open-letter-stockholders" target="_blank">released a response</a> to Carl Icahn's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/carl-icahn-ebay-letter-2014-2" target="_blank">brutal shred of its board</a> this morning, writing that Icahn "cherry-picked old news clips and anecdotes out of context" to attack <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/carl-icahn-slams-marc-andreessen-2014-2" target="_blank">board members Marc </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/carl-icahn-slams-marc-andreessen-2014-2" target="_blank">Andreessen</a> and Scott Cook, and CEO John Donahoe.
Icahn, who took a stake in eBay in January, has recently been demanding that eBay spin PayPal into a separate company. 
Ebay responded that it would prefer to discuss the reasons about why the two companies should stay together with its shareholders in a "constructive and substantive" way, rather than through Icahn's "mudslinging attacks." 
Here's the full letter: 
<blockquote class="blockquote">
New eBay shareholder Carl Icahn has cherry-picked old news clips and anecdotes out of context to attack the integrity of two of the most respected, accomplished and value-driven technology leaders in Silicon Valley. Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook bring extraordinary insight, expertise and leadership to eBay's board, which is scrupulous in its governance practices and fully transparent with regard to its directors' other affiliations and businesses. And eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe is widely respected for his turnaround of eBay and leadership of the company over the past six years.
As we are sure our other shareholders would agree, we prefer to engage in more constructive and substantive discussions of why, in our view, PayPal and eBay are better together. Instead, Mr. Icahn unfortunately has resorted to mudslinging attacks against two impeccably qualified directors.
Mr. Icahn has nominated two of his employees to eBay's board. As we have said, the board's nominating committee will review the nominations of his employees in due course. Even if our board does not support the nominations, ultimately shareholders will decide whether they believe Mr. Icahn's employees are better qualified than directors such as Mr. Cook (Mr. Andreessen is not up for re-election this year) to sit on the board of a leading technology company.
The board has been clear in its view that shareholders are best served by keeping PayPal part of eBay. The board regularly assesses all strategic options for the company; should circumstances change the board is entirely capable of evaluating alternatives for optimizing shareholder value.
In response to Mr. Icahn's specific claims, the facts are:
1) Skype: Skype was a great stand-alone business but had limited synergies with eBay's global commerce and payments businesses. Consistent with its practice of regularly reviewing all of eBay's operations, the Board determined that because of these limited synergies, it would be in the best longer term interest of stockholders to explore a divestiture of Skype. The company explored all options for divesting Skype, including an IPO and sale to a strategic buyer, and pursued the option that offered the highest return at the time, which was the sale of a controlling stake. We retained a 30% stake upon the sale to a private equity group led by Silver Lake Partners. That stake meant that the company earned a total of $1.4 billion when Microsoft acquired Skype. Because Mr. Andreessen's fund had a small stake in the acquiring group, Mr. Andreessen was recused from all decision making. This refusal was dictated by eBay's published Board Governance Guidelines and Code of Business Conduct, and Mr. Andreessen fully supported his recusal. Separating Skype enabled eBay to invest in its core growth engines of e-commerce and online payments, while allowing for potential upside if Skype's potential was fully realized.
2) Marc Andreessen: Andreessen Horowitz is one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world, and Mr. Andreessen's track record of creating value and driving innovation makes him an extraordinary asset on eBay's board. Regarding other investments Mr. Andreessen and his firm have made, this sort of potential conflict exists whenever venture capitalists serve on a Board of Directors. This is true for many public companies which have found experienced venture capital investors to be extraordinarily valuable directors, especially in high tech. The eBay Board has guidelines to minimize the impact of any such conflicts. Also, in regards to Kynetic, any benefits from the terms of eBay's purchase of GSI Commerce accruing to Kynetic would have been built into the price at which Andreessen Horowitz purchased their shares; as such, any relationship with eBay was irrelevant. eBay subsequently disposed of its note and equity interests in Kynetic and related Rubin enterprises at a profit.
3) Scott Cook: As founder of Intuit and chairman of the company's executive committee, Mr. Cook also has an exceptional track record of creating value and driving innovation. He has been an enormous asset to eBay's board for many years. The overlap between Intuit and eBay is small, fully disclosed and within the SEC safe harbor for interlocking directorates. Regarding hiring, this is old news, any restrictions ended years ago, and Intuit historically had not been a source of talent for eBay Inc.
</blockquote>

Ebay Responds Carl Icahn's 'Mudslinging Attacks' About Its Board

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackdorsey/162463924/">Flickr via Jack Dorsey</a>Young Jack Dorsey, founder of Square</div></div></div>Mobile payments startup Square did not try to sell itself, according to one of its board members, Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital.
At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference today, Botha said the payment company has not tried to sell itself in recent months, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579513882989476424">contrary to news reports.</a> He also said the company is doing fine and that it did not shelve any IPO plans.
"I don't know where this misinformation is coming from," Botha told Michael Arrington at the on stage at Disrupt. "There was a person who compared Square and Box recently for shelving its IPO plans. Square never filed, they never made a filing public, and they never withdrew it."
"A lot of our late stage companies are thinking, 'Should we go public this year? Maybe not. Are there things we should invest in?' Going public is an irreversible event," he added.
When asked if Square was trying to sell itself, Botha replied, "Square was not trying to sell itself these past few months. There were no discussions to sell itself. None." 
Botha said the Wall Street Journal called him before it <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579513882989476424">ran a story about issues within Square</a>. Botha said he told the reporter, "Being on the board of the company, [if Square was trying to tell itself] that would be a surprise to me."
Still, WSJ said it had sources who said otherwise and reported:
Google Inc. discussed a possible acquisition of Square earlier this year, according to three people familiar with the matter...Square also had informal discussions about a deal with Apple Inc. and eBay Inc.'s PayPal in the past, according to people familiar with those situations. Those conversations never developed into serious talks.

Board Member: 'Square Has Not Once Tried To Sell Itself These Past Few Months'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">AP Images</div></div>Billionaire investor Carl Icahn owns eBay [via CNBC's David Faber]. 
Icahn owns 0.82% of eBay shares. 
He has nominated two directors to the board. 
Shares of eBay are up more than 9.2% in the after-hours trading session. 
eBay just <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/live-ebays-q4-2013-earnings-2014-1">reported fourth quarter earnings. </a>
<a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ebay-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-211500331.html">From eBay's earnings release:</a> 
Proposal from Carl Icahn - The company also announced today that it has received a notice from Carl Icahn indicating that he has nominated two of his employees to its Board of Directors and submitted a non-binding proposal for a spinoff of its PayPal business into a separate company. The notice stated that companies controlled by Mr. Icahn had, earlier this month, acquired shares and derivative securities that give him an economic interest of approximately 0.82% in the company. eBay welcomes the opportunity to listen to the perspective of all of its shareholders, including Mr. Icahn. His Board nominations will be passed on to the Board's Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee, which will consider them in the ordinary course of business. We would note that eBay has a world-class board of directors with directors who have significant experience in technology and financial services. Regarding Mr. Icahn's separation proposal, eBay's Board of Directors routinely assesses the company's strategic direction and has explored in depth a spinoff or separation of PayPal. eBay's Board of Directors has concluded that the company and its shareholders are best served by the current strategic direction of the company and does not believe that breaking up the company is the best way to maximize shareholder value. As part of eBay Inc., PayPal is able to leverage the company's technology capabilities, commerce platforms and relationships with retailers, brands and large merchants worldwide. Payment is part of commerce, and as part of eBay, PayPal drives commerce innovation in payments at global scale, creating value for consumers, merchants and shareholders.

Carl Icahn Takes A Stake In eBay

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Rueben Sprich/ReutersMarissa Mayer.</div></div></div>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Earnings from some of the biggest U.S. technology companies will take center stage this week, giving investors a chance to re-evaluate the sector's health.
Big tech names set to report next week include Intel Corp and Yahoo Inc on Tuesday; eBay Inc on Wednesday and Google Inc on Thursday.
The tech sector has the highest projected earnings growth rate among the 10 S&amp;P sectors for the second quarter at 12.3 percent, its best quarter since the first quarter of 2012. This forecast marks a sharp rebound from a drop of 3.2 percent just a year ago, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.
Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note that the information technology sector "appears to be the most undervalued sector," giving investors more reasons to be bullish on tech stocks.
The implied earnings-per-share growth for the tech sector has been 5.4 percentage points above the S&amp;P 500 on average over the past 10 years, but it is now just 1.0 percentage point above the benchmark index, according to the Goldman Sachs note.
While the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&amp;P 500 have hit record highs recently, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is still more than 700 points away from its all-time intraday high on March 10, 2000, suggesting to some investors that the sector may have more room to the upside.
The tech sector's earnings are "going to certainly be important because the market started to gain momentum as economic data got better," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, which is based inNewark, New Jersey.
"We want to hear good solid numbers and if we get that from tech names, it will help."
Nine of the 13 sub-industries in the tech sector are expected to report higher earnings than a year ago, withsemiconductors and semiconductor equipment having the highest growth rates within the sector, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The Nasdaq is up 5.7 percent for the year, while the semiconductor index is up 20.3 percent.
<h3>BIG BANKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT</h3>
Among the 10 S&amp;P 500 sectors, financials have the worst earnings forecast with a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nine of the sector's 21 sub-industries are expected to post a drop in earnings.
Earnings from some of major banks next week will include JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Tuesday; Bank of America Corp on Wednesday and Morgan Stanley on Thursday.
Analysts are expecting subdued results because a slowdown in revenue from mortgage refinancing and trading is offsetting gains from other areas like investment banking and money management. Higher legal, regulatory and compliance costs are also weighing on results.
Wells Fargo &amp; Co on Friday underscored some of those problems as the largest U.S. mortgage lender reported a 39 percent decline in revenue from that business.
In addition to keeping a close watch on earnings, Wall Street will also tune in next week to what Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says when she makes a couple of trips to Capitol Hill. She is scheduled to testify on the U.S. central bank's monetary policy in a semi-annual appearance before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. 
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)

We'll Get A Good Read On The Biggest US Tech Companies This Week

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Alibaba founder Jack Ma</div></div></div>BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding IPO-ALIB.N revealed the members of its powerful 27-person partnership and expanded board on Monday, while disclosing that its growth has slowed from the red-hot pace of recent quarters.
In an updated prospectus for what could be the largest tech IPO in history, e-commerce firm Alibaba said the partnership includes founder Jack Ma, Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Lu. The partnership has the exclusive right to nominate a majority of Alibaba's future nine-member board.
Among the four independent directors asked to join a post-IPO board are former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, Yahoo Inc YHOO.O founder Jerry Yang, and J. Michael Evans, former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N.
Alibaba is widely expected to eclipse Facebook Inc's FB.O $15 billion initial share sale in 2012 when it debuts late this summer on a U.S. exchange.
The Alibaba Partnership is comprised of 22 members of management, four members of the company's Small and Micro Financial Services Co and one management member of China Smart Logistics, for a total of 27 people. The company previously said the group encompassed 28 members; it did not explain the change on Monday.
Alibaba has said partners are elected annually and the partnership has the exclusive right to nominate for shareholder approval a majority of its board directors.
The company's five executive board directors are Ma, Tsai, Lu, Chief Operating Officer Daniel Zhang, and Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Corp 9984.T, Alibaba's biggest shareholder with a 34.3 percent stake.
<h3>REVENUE GROWTH SLOWS</h3>
Monday's updated filing also gave investors more information about the operations of Alibaba, which handles more transactions than Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and eBay Inc EBAY.O combined. Its initial prospectus, filed in May, was criticized for a lack of detail.
Alibaba reported its net income in the quarter ended March 31 climbed 32 percent to 5.543 billion yuan. Revenue was up 38 percent to 12.031 billion yuan. The pace of revenue growth was down from 62 percent in the previous quarter.
Shares of Yahoo, which tend to move in sync with the perceived valuation of its roughly 24 percent slice of Alibaba, were down 5 percent near midday.
The filing also broke out the value of goods transacted over Alibaba marketplaces Taobao and Tmall, two of its largest businesses, without revealing profitability.
Taobao, which like eBay enables individuals and small businesses to sell goods, had gross merchandise volume of 295 billion yuan ($47.5 billion) in the three months ended March, up 32 percent from the previous year.
For Tmall, where bigger brands sell to consumers similar to Amazon, gross merchandise volume was up 90 percent year-on-year to 135 billion yuan in the quarter ended March.
Mobile transactions accounted for 27.4 percent of gross merchandise volume, up sharply from 19.7 percent in the previous quarter.
($1=6.2090 Chinese yuan renminbi)
 
(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Matthew Miller; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Leslie Adler)

Yahoo Drops 5% After Alibaba Reveals A Significant Drop In Sales Growth

MUMBAI: <keyword id="6360722" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</keyword> is said to be considering a personal investment in <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, an e-commerce firm, at a time when online retail is generating investor euphoria on the back of exponential growth. 
 
In a move that would signal his interest in India's emerging consumer internet story, the 76-year-old chairman emeritus of Tata Sons may buy out an early investor in Snapdeal through a secondary sale, people familiar with the development said. 
 
Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal, did not respond to TOI's query while an emailed questionnaire to Tata's office on Monday remained unanswered till the time of going to press on Tuesday. 
 
The 76-year-old, who transformed India's largest private sector conglomerate with a string of marquee global acquisitions, is expected to be a minority investor in his personal capacity in the e-tailer. TOI could not ascertain the exact stake Tata would hold in Snapdeal if and when the transaction is completed. 
 
While his holding is unlikely to be high, its real significance would lie in the buzz it would create for the four-year-old firm. Tata has always had in interest in technology; even so, the deal, if it goes through, would mark the ultimate coming together of the old and new guard. 
 
People close to Snapdeal said Tata had visited the firm's headquarters in Delhi about a month ago and addressed employees. 
 Tata could be boarding Snapdeal just when the online marketplace, which has crossed $1 billion in gross merchandise sale by value—second only to Flipkart—is busy fending off a challenge from online retail juggernaut <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> for No. 2 position in the domestic e-commerce market. 
 
The investment would be testimony to the growing interest of established business houses in India's burgeoning internet commerce, which is poised to hit $9 billion over the next two years, according to US venture capitalist Accel Partners. 
 The potential investment by Tata, who stepped down from his day-to-day responsibilities at the $100 billion conglomerate about two years ago, would be a huge, timely shot in the arm for Snapdeal, with both <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and Amazon declaring open war for dominance of India's fast-growing e-commerce market which has attracted top dollars from financial investors. 
 
Bangalore-based Flipkart, the country's leading e-tailer with gross sales nearing $3 billion, last week raised $1 billion in funding mostly from existing investors led by Tiger Global, Naspers and Accel Partners. The Jeff Bezos-led Amazon responded a day later by announcing a $2 billion investment in what is becoming a hotly contested three-legged race. 
 Another Indian business tycoon, Wipro's Azim Premj, has laid bets on the Indian consumer internet story through his family office PremjiInvest by picking up minority stakes in <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword>, now merged with Flipkart, and Snapdeal. <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="6355623" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narayana-Murthy">Narayana Murthy</keyword> recently formed an e-commerce joint venture with Amazon through his private investment firm Catamaran Ventures. 
 
Other big Indian business houses with interests in offline retail like Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail and the Aditya Birla Group have now begun unfolding their e-commerce plans as an increasing number of Indians shop online, driven in large part by rising smartphone penetration. India's galloping internet user base is now estimated at over 240 million, raising the possibility of it emerging as the world's largest digital commerce market along with China. 
 
Snapdeal has already raised two rounds of funds so far this year, taking total capital raised to about $350 million at a valuation of a billion dollars. Its existing investors include San Jose- based eBay Inc, Singapore's Temasek, BlackRock, PremjiInvest, Intel, Nexus Venture Partners, NEA-IndoUS Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. 
 
Bahl and schoolmate, Rohit Bansal, both 32, started Snapdeal four years ago as a daily deals site, modelled on GroupOn, later changing it into an online marketplace for merchants to sell their products. Before Snapdeal, the Delhi duo founded Money Saver, a physical coupon book business that offered discounts to consumers across retail outlets. Bahl, who'd returned after graduating from Wharton, and Bansal, armed with an IIT-Delhi degree, later transitioned from a physical format to mobile couponing till the idea of starting a daily-deals site struck them in January 2010. 
 
Snapdeal says it sells about five million products across various categories like apparel, mobiles and electronics with over 25 million subscribers operating on a pure-play online marketplace model. Like Flipkart, it generates over 50% of its orders from mobile phones.

Tata May Invest In E-Tailer Snapdeal

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Jeff Zelevansky</div></div>Carl Icahn is out with a <a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/ebay_letter_3/">new open letter</a> to the shareholders of eBay.
There has been quite a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/carl-icahn-slams-marc-andreessen-2014-2">back and forth</a> between the activist investor and eBay's board, and the scrap continues today with Icahn laying out six "facts."
In this letter, Icahn goes after board member Scott Cook - who runs a company that Ichan argues is a competitor - writing that "having Mr. Cook on the board while planning PayPal's future is akin to having Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, sitting in when the Denver Broncos were constructing their game plan for the Super Bowl (then again, maybe he did)." 
<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/ebay_letter_3/">Check out the letter</a>:
New York, New York, February 27, 2014 - Today Carl C. Icahn released the following open letter to stockholders of eBay Inc. 
We have read the responses of eBay's public relations machine. We find it interesting that Mr. Donahoe, Mr. Andreessen and Mr. Cook have decided to hide behind them, rather than state the facts themselves. 
FACT ONE
eBay has challenged us to focus on honest, accurate debate. We do not believe eBay is serious about this. However, yesterday CNBC offered a public forum for that debate. We immediately told CNBC we would be happy to do it, but we doubt eBay will accept its own challenge. We will soon find out. At this moment, not surprising to us, eBay has not responded. We eagerly await their reply. 
FACT TWO
eBay was planning to IPO Skype. Mr. Andreessen and his investor group preempted the IPO, purchasing 70% of Skype for less than what eBay paid for it. Had eBay sold Skype to Microsoft at the price paid to Mr. Andreessen's group, eBay shareholders would have been at least $4 billion richer upon the sale. Mr. Andreessen's group profited by about $4 billion in only a year and a half. This is an indisputable fact.
FACT THREE
eBay states it explored all available options for Skype before selling to Andreessen's group. Since we are highly skeptical of this, yesterday we sent a letter to eBay demanding to inspect all books and records regarding the process surrounding this transaction - pursuant to our legal right under Delaware law. Will Mr. Donahoe provide those records immediately or waste time to fight our request and hide behind his legal army?
FACT FOUR
eBay states the conflicts regarding Mr. Andreessen's investments are acceptable. Mr. Andreessen has funded, sits on boards of, and advises no less than five competitors, four of which directly compete with PayPal - all the while potentially having access to nonpublic information regarding PayPal's operating performance. Based on our research, Mr. Andreessen's actions are by far an outlier on public markets - even for technology company boards. We do not consider them even close to satisfying the "world-class"standards that eBay claims to have established for its board. 
FACT FIVE
It is interesting that eBay did not even mention Mr. Cook's alleged transgressions in its reply yesterday. But eBay has previously stated that Mr. Cook's company, Intuit (of which he is the founder, a board member, the chairman of the executive committee and an employee), and PayPal are not competitors. However, to state they are not competitors is absurd. Both PayPal and Intuit have publicly declared the increasing importance and thedesire to greatly expand within payment processing over the long-term. Both companies have identical product offerings such as "PayPal Here" and "GoPayment", among many others. In our opinion, having Mr. Cook on the board while planning PayPal's future is akin to having Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, sitting in when the Denver Broncos were constructing their game plan for the Super Bowl (then again, maybe he did).
FACT SIX
Amazingly, eBay states the hiring embargo Mr. Cook allegedly demanded of the company is "old" news. However, the Department of Justice complaint concerning Mr. Cook's actions is still currently pending and the company has not announced that it has taken any action regarding Mr. Cook's alleged attempts to intervene in its hiring practices. 
We look forward to an honest, accurate debate on the issues we have raised.
Sincerely, 
Carl C. Icahn

Carl Icahn Goes After The eBay Board In A New Open Letter With 6 Facts

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/Photos/eBay-Inc-Office-Photos-E7853_P3.htm">Glassdoor/eBay</a>How ebay sees the future of commerce</div></div></div>BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc initially believed that its customers' data was safe as forensic investigators reviewed a network security breach discovered in early May and made public this week, a senior executive told Reuters on Friday.
EBay has come under fire over its handling of the cyberattack, in which hackers accessed personal data of all 145 million users, ranking it among the biggest such attacks launched on a corporation to date.
"For a very long period of time we did not believe that there was any eBay customer data compromised," global marketplaces chief Devin Wenig said, in the first comments by a top eBay executive since the e-commerce company disclosed the breach on Wednesday.
EBay moved "swiftly to disclose" the breach after it realized customer data was involved, he said.
Wenig would not say when the company first realized that the cyberattackers accessed customer data, nor how long it took to prepare Wednesday's announcement.
He said hackers got in using the credentials of three corporate employees, eventually making their way to the user database.
Hackers accessed email addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to all eBay users. "Millions" of users have since reset their passwords and the company had begun notifying users, though it would take some time to complete that task, Wenig said.
"You would imagine that anyone who has ever touched eBay is a large number," he said. "So we're going to send all of them an email, but sending that number all at once is not operationally possible."
At least three U.S. states are investigating the company's security practices. Customers have complained on social media about delayed notification emails. And New York's attorney general called on eBay to provide free credit monitoring services to users.
But the Internet retail giant has no plans to compensate customers or offer free credit monitoring for now because it had detected no financial fraud, Wenig said.
Wenig declined comment when asked if he thought eBay had good security prior to the breach. He said the company would now bolster its security systems, and has mobilized senior executives in a subsequent investigation of the attack.
"We want to make sure it doesn't happen again so we're going to continue to look our procedures, harden our operational environment and add levels of security where it's appropriate."
The breach marked the latest headache for eBay this year. In January, it crossed swords publicly with activist investor <a class="cite">Carl Icahn</a>, who mounted a campaign to get it to spin out PayPal. Then in April, the e-commerce company disappointed investors with a weak second-quarter outlook, pressuring its shares.
<h3>AVOIDING BACK DOORS</h3>
Buying and selling activity on eBay remained "fairly normal" though eBay is still working out the cost of the breach, which included hiring a number of security firms. Wenig, who was previously a senior executive at Thomson Reuters Corp, declined to comment on whether the cost could be material to eBay's results.
Wenig's revelation that the company initially believed that no customer data had been compromised might take some of the heat off eBay's executive team.
Cyber forensics experts said it's not uncommon for large companies to take weeks to grasp the full impact of an attack, because hackers are often able to steal data without leaving obvious clues.
"In some cases you go in and find the smoking gun immediately. Other times, it takes a few days or even a few weeks," said <a class="cite">Kevin Johnson</a>, a cyber-forensics expert who was not involved in the eBay investigation but has worked for other Fortune 500 companies.
<a class="cite">Daniel Clemens</a>, a forensics expert and CEO of <a class="cite">Packet Ninjas</a>, said investigators often ask companies to hold off on disclosure until they believe they understand the full extent of an attack. Otherwise, they risk tipping off attackers who might cover their tracks or leave "back doors" so they can return after the investigators complete their probe.
On Wednesday, the e-commerce company announced that hackers raided its network between late February and early March. The company said financial information was not compromised and its payments unit PayPal was not affected.
When eBay first discovered the network breach in early May, the senior team was immediately involved and held multiple daily calls on the issue. EBay staff have been working around the clock since Wednesday.
Wenig said he could not provide much more detail about what happened in the attack beyond the scant information given out so far. He declined to provide further specifics, citing ongoing investigations by the <a class="cite">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> and several forensics firms including <a class="cite">FireEye</a> Inc's Mandiant division. 
(Editing by Edwin Chan, Lisa Shumaker and Andrew Hay)

Cyber Thieves Took Data On 145 Million eBay Customers By Hacking 3 Corporate Employees

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Tim Shaffer<keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="eBay">EBay</keyword> founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar in Delaware, December 7, 2009. </div></div>SAN FRANCISCO (<keyword id="76338" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reuters">Reuters</keyword>) - EBay Inc founder <a>Pierre Omidyar</a> has become the latest self-made tech baron to plunge into the struggling news industry - hot on the heels of Amazon.com Inc founder <a>Jeff Bezos</a>, who just paid $250 million for <a>the Washington Post</a>.
But unlike Bezos, the French-born Iranian American says he aims to build a new "mass media organization" from the ground up, and his first recruits are the journalists who exposed the <a class="cite">U.S. government</a>'s surveillance programs, using documents leaked by former spy agency contractor <a class="cite">Edward Snowden</a>.
The new venture puts Omidyar, 46, in the public eye after many years of relatively low-profile philanthropic and investment activities. While he has long supported efforts to promote transparency and accountability in government, including a local news website in his home state of <a class="cite">Hawaii</a>, Omidyar suggested that he is prepared to spend as much as Bezos did in buying the Post to take those efforts to a new level.
"I want to find ways to convert mainstream readers into engaged citizens," Omidyar wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Omidyar's new endeavor, as yet unnamed, will face myriad challenges. Established news organizations are struggling to find a viable financial model as print advertising and circulation plummet while online advertising dollars migrate to Google Inc and to automated ad exchanges that drive prices down. He has yet to offer any clues about his business strategy.
Media investments generally do not make good investments, said David Cowan, a partner at Bessemer Ventures. "I'm pretty sure Pierre doesn't think that a news startup is the best way to get richer," he said.
Born in <a class="cite">France</a> to Iranian parents, Omidyar grew up largely in the Washington, D.C. area, with a stint in <a class="cite">Hawaii</a>. He graduated from <a class="cite">Tufts University</a> near <a class="cite">Boston</a> in 1988 with a degree in computer science, and moved to Silicon Valley.
While working as a software engineer at then-hot personal-communications company General Magic, Omidyar came up with the idea for eBay in 1995 and worked on it as a hobby until it became big enough for him to quit his day job.
When eBay went public three years later, the then 31-year-old Omidyar's stake was valued at $611 million by the end of the trading day. He still owns almost 9 percent of the $70 billion company today, making him eBay's top shareholder. Forbes pegs his wealth at $8.5 billion.
Omidyar serves as eBay's chairman, but has not been involved in its day-to-day operations for years.
During the summer, Omidyar considered purchasing <a class="cite">the Washington Post</a>, he wrote in his blog. While the Post eventually sold to Bezos in August, the process "got me thinking about what kind of social impact could be created if a similar investment was made in something entirely new, built from the ground up," he wrote.
Those musings led to his latest project, which he is billing as "My Next Adventure in Journalism."
<h3>'PASSIONATE' ABOUT JOURNALISM</h3>
<a class="cite">Omidyar Network</a>, the investment firm founded by Omidyar and his wife, <a class="cite">Pam</a>, in 2004, has backed some 25 organizations dealing with news and government transparency, including News Trust, a news-discovery site run by the nonprofit journalism center the <a class="cite">Poynter Institute</a>; the <a class="cite">Sunlight Foundation</a>, a government-transparency nonprofit; and Transparency &amp; Accountability Initiative, a <a class="cite">London</a> based organization.
"Pierre gets journalism," said John Temple, founding editor of <a class="cite">Honolulu Civil Beat</a>, the news site launched by Omidyar in 2010. "He's passionate about it and knows how to create an environment and culture where journalists feel energized and empowered."
Omidyar's comments on Twitter in recent months show an increasing discomfort with the workings of the <a class="cite">U.S. government</a>.
"There goes freedom of association," he tweeted earlier this week, linking to an article in <a class="cite">the Washington Post </a>about the <a class="cite">National Security Agency</a> collecting email address books.
But in his Wednesday blog post, Omidyar emphasized his new endeavor would go beyond investigative reporting, and would "cover general interest news, with a core mission around supporting and empowering independent journalists across many sectors and beats."
That broad approach makes sense, said <a class="cite">Arianna Huffington</a>, creator of <a class="cite">the Huffington Post</a>, which started an edition in <a class="cite">Hawaii</a> earlier this year through a partnership with Omidyar's <a class="cite">Civil Beat</a>.
"He wants this to be a business, and that's not possible without having a site that's about general news and everything that people are interested in," Huffington said in an interview.
"And for the conclusions of investigative journalism to have impact - and he wants to have impact - you have to capture the public imagination. If you have people coming to the site for other reasons they are more likely to engage."
To some extent, Omidyar seems to be shifting what he has been trying with <a class="cite">Honolulu Civil Beat</a> to a broader stage.
<a class="cite">Civil Beat</a> aimed to create a new online journalism model with paid subscriptions and respectful comment threads. <a class="cite">Patti Epler</a>, current editor of <a class="cite">Civil Beat</a>, said a policy of requiring people to log in via Facebook before they post a comment has encouraged a less strident tone than at many news organizations. She declined to comment on the site's finances.
Her boss has championed projects that might lead to more government transparency, Epler said. When her reporters ran up against a law exempting police from releasing internal disciplinary records, Omidyar created the <a class="cite">Civil Beat</a> Law Center, which is working to secure the release of those records.
Another impetus for starting the center was the demise of <a class="cite">Hawaii</a>'s shield law, which protects journalists from having to reveal anonymous sources, Epler said. It expired earlier this year.
Omidyar frequently drops by the newsroom, where he edits the occasional article, plays foosball, and chats with staff.
"He loves to talk stories," Epler said. "And journalistic principles and ethics."
To read a column for Reuters.com by a reporter who has worked for Omidyar, click on http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/10/17/the-omidyar-way/
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Weber; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Grant McCool)

Ebay's Founder Plans On Building A New 'Mass Media Organization' From Scratch, Starting With Snowden Leaks

<keyword id="330063" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Silver-Lake">Silver Lake</keyword> Management LLC and partners are close to lining up about $15 billion in funds for a buyout of <keyword id="28251" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dell">Dell</keyword> Inc., the third-biggest maker of personal computers, said people familiar with the matter.
A deal could be announced as soon as Jan. 22, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Silver Lake, which is leading the effort with its limited partners, might be joined by other private-equity firms once the buyout is announced, said the same person.
Lenders including Credit Suisse Group AG, Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. may informally disclose terms to a small group of possible buyers of the bridge loan as soon as today, said another person, who asked not be identified as the process is private. Dell’s enterprise value is about $19.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The lenders are informally canvassing debt investors to gauge whether they can parcel out pieces of the financing in a so-called syndication process once the deal is final, another person said. JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co., which is advising Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker Dell, would also provide so-called staple financing to the group led by Silver Lake, said one of the people.
The technology-focused buyout firm’s financing is crucial to completing a leveraged buyout of Dell, which would be the biggest since the financial crisis. The rest of the funds to take Dell private would come from Silver Lake and its partners, Dell itself or founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell, said one of these people.
<h2>Data Focus</h2>
Dell, which lost almost a third of its value last year, is struggling amid competition from tablet makers such as Apple Inc. Going private may give Dell more room to overhaul the company’s corporate structure and focus on data-center equipment instead of PCs. Dell’s shares advanced 1.7 percent to $12.82 at the in New York.
Turning the computer maker into a private company would allow Michael Dell and his private-equity backers to manage the company’s finances differently, said a person familiar with the matter. For example, they could borrow money by securitizing accounts receivables, a move a public board and public shareholders would likely reject, said this person.
Dell needs more urgency and focus, said Erik Gordon, a professor of law and business at the University of Michigan. “It hasn’t diddled too long in PC-land because public stockholders tied its hands,” Gordon said in an e-mailed statement. “It was free to go into tablets and services, as did its competitors, but management chose not to.”
<h2>TPG Capital</h2>
David Frink, a spokesman for Dell, and Gemma Hart, a spokeswoman for Silver Lake, declined to comment. Officials at Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Barclays, Bank of America, and Royal Bank declined to comment.
TPG Capital, which earlier looked at participating in a transaction, is unlikely to be part of any deal with Silver Lake, said a person familiar with the matter. KKR &amp; Co., which considered a deal with Dell last year, also isn’t likely to bid at this time, said another person. Representatives at TPG and KKR declined to comment.
Silver Lake has ammunition some other buyout firms don’t: It just raised $7 billion for a new fund that could swell to as much as $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter said this week, and that fund can only invest in technology companies. Michael Dell also was one of the early investors in Silver Lake’s initial fund of $2.3 billion.
<h2>Dell’s Stake</h2>
Under the current negotiations, Michael Dell, the top shareholder in the computer maker, would roll his stake into the buyout, said one of the people. Dell, 47, owns about 15.7 percent of the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, valuing his stake at $3.45 billion, based on yesterday’s closing price.
He and Glenn Hutchins, co-founder and Co-CEO of Silver Lake, are scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum, which takes place in Davos, Switzerland from Jan. 22 to Jan. 27.
Based on the company’s market value, a deal could be the largest buyout of a technology company since 2007, when KKR bought First Data Corp. for more than $25 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It might also be the biggest acquisition in the computer industry since Hewlett-Packard Co. bought Compaq Computer Corp. for about $19 billion more than a decade ago, the data show.
<h2>Technology Buyouts</h2>
Large leveraged buyouts have been scarce since the financial crisis. The biggest for the technology sector in the past two years was Blackstone Group LP’s $3 billion purchase of health-care billing company Emdeon Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Other technology companies, including disk-drive maker Seagate Technology Plc, have tried to go private and seen talks collapse over valuations or financing difficulties.
Silver Lake has been investing in technology companies since its founding in 1999. Its latest fund, Silver Lake Partners III LP, was generating an 18 percent net internal rate of return, according to data from California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a limited partner.
In 2009, the Menlo Park, California-based firm bought a majority stake in Skype Technologies SA from EBay Inc. in a deal that valued the calling service at $2.75 billion. Less than two years later, Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion.
While Skype yielded a threefold return for Silver Lake, another big bet didn’t. Silver Lake’s 2007 investment in communications equipment maker Avaya Holdings Corp. was marked at cost as of Dec. 31, 2011, meaning the firm has yet to book a profit on the deal, according to a marketing document.

Dell Could Go Private In $15 Billion Deal As Soon As Tuesday

The new Carl Icahn letter is out. 
More to come... 
Here's the letter: 
CARL ICAHN ON EBAY:
"WE BELIEVE BASED ON EVIDENCE WE HAVE NEWLY UNCOVERED THAT DONAHOE'S INEXCUSABLE INCOMPETENCE COST EBAY STOCKHOLDERS OVER $4 BILLION. READ OUR LATEST LETTER AND YOU BE THE JUDGE."
New York, New York, March 10, 2014 - Today Carl C. Icahn released the following open letter to stockholders of eBay Inc.:
We believe, based on our review of the evidence currently available in the public domain, including eBay's own statements, that the following assertions are indisputable. Stockholders: you be the judge.
? eBay CEO John Donahoe oversaw a premature sale of Skype at a diminished price that resulted in eBay stockholders losing over $4 billion as compared to the sale of Skype to Microsoft 18 months later.
? Who can doubt that if eBay were a private company, Donahoe would be fired when the facts were disclosed to the owners? But sadly at many of our public companies, such as eBay, there is a lack of accountability, and transgressions by management are swept under the rug by crony boards. If middle management makes a costly error, they pay the price; if the CEO makes one, too often the "old boy" board covers it up and gives him a bonus.
? In 2009, Donahoe decided to sell Skype in, according to eBay, "a competitive process with multiple bidders including several financial and strategic buyers."<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/we-believe-based-on-evidence-we-have-newly-uncovered-that-donahoes-inexcusable-incompetence-cost-ebay-stockholders-over-4-billion/#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> We are not sure whether there actually were "multiple bidders" as eBay originally stated or whether eBay merely "contact[ed] multiple financial and strategic buyers"<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/we-believe-based-on-evidence-we-have-newly-uncovered-that-donahoes-inexcusable-incompetence-cost-ebay-stockholders-over-4-billion/#_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> as they now claim. Regardless, Microsoft clearly was interested in buying Skype but "walked away" because of concerns over technology licensing litigation between eBay and Skype's founders.
? In litigation documents<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/we-believe-based-on-evidence-we-have-newly-uncovered-that-donahoes-inexcusable-incompetence-cost-ebay-stockholders-over-4-billion/#_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> that we have just uncovered, Skype's founders alleged that John Donahoe and eBay director Marc Andreessen's investor group received information from Mike Volpi, an associate of Skype's founders, that there could be a workaround of the technology that was the subject of the licensing dispute between eBay and Skype's founders and that was reportedly the cause of Microsoft "walking away."
? With the apparent benefit of this information, Andreessen's investor group purchased a controlling interest in Skype from eBay for $1.9 billion. The Andreessen investor group then quickly settled the licensing litigation with Skype's founders, and flipped Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion - tripling their money in only 18 months. The obvious unanswered question is: why didn't Donahoe, who allegedly also had the information that would be key to reaching a settlement with Skype's founders, settle it for eBay and sell Skype directly to Microsoft, thereby keeping the extra $4 billion for eBay stockholders?
? To make matters even more embarrassing for Donahoe, Marc Andreessen boasted upon the announcement of the sale to Microsoft that his group's risks in buying Skype had always been less than they had appeared. He said that he "knew that for Microsoft and a number of other companies Skype would be an obvious thing to buy" and that he "[would] always have the fall-back of selling to strategic buyers."<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/we-believe-based-on-evidence-we-have-newly-uncovered-that-donahoes-inexcusable-incompetence-cost-ebay-stockholders-over-4-billion/#_ftn4" title="">[4]</a> Obviously, the same logic should also have applied to Donahoe. Therefore, why did he sell Skype to the Andreessen investor group instead of keeping the $4 billion for stockholders (it would have been interesting to see Donahoe's face when Andreessen actually boasted about his windfall)? The board and Donahoe, in typical PR speech, have swept this $4 billion fiasco under the rug and have actually boasted about their success in executing this transaction between eBay and the Andreessen investor group. However, Joe Nocera of the New York Times does not appear to have been fooled by eBay's PR machine. At the time of the sale to Andreessen's group, he wrote: "And so, the mystery of the Skype deal: why were the winning bidders willing to pay so high a price for a company whose very existence could be threatened by this lawsuit? One possibility is that they have nerves of steel. The other is that they know something nobody else does."<a href="http://www.shareholderssquaretable.com/we-believe-based-on-evidence-we-have-newly-uncovered-that-donahoes-inexcusable-incompetence-cost-ebay-stockholders-over-4-billion/#_ftn5" title="">[5]</a>
? Amazingly, Donahoe chose to sell a controlling interest in Skype to Andreessen's investor group, allowing them to reap billions at the expense of eBay and its stockholders, rather than cleaning up the licensing issues and then pursuing a more lucrative exit, such as an IPO or a sale to a strategic buyer.
? Any first year student in finance would understand that if you want to sell a company and you have a party that wishes to buy but is concerned about technology licensing issues, you fix the issues and then you sell. It's even more absurd not to do so when you know there is a potential solution. I believe that all stockholders must consider whether Donahoe is either incompetent or negligent or, perhaps even worse, was simply taking the easy path of bowing to the wishes of a respected and powerful board member. At any rate, this failure cost eBay stockholders over $4 billion.
? I have been so successful with companies over the years because I have brought in the right CEO. Sometimes convincing boards to make changes takes years, but when change ultimately comes the results are often startlingly good. In just the last year, simply examine our successes at Forest Laboratories and Chesapeake Energy etc. We believe that at the very least, eBay stockholders must send Donahoe and the board a message that we are very unhappy with the current situation at eBay. In addition to the egregious issues surrounding the Skype situation, it should also be noted that in just the past year eBay has underperformed its peers. Indeed, from January 1, 2013 through our initial involvement on January 10, 2014, Amazon, Visa and MasterCard returned 60%, 48% and 73%, respectively, while eBay stock returned only 2%.
? In our opinion, eBay and PayPal should immediately be separated. It is my firm belief that if this occurred, there would be a number of bidders willing to pay a large premium for an independent PayPal. However, on the other hand, I fear that if left under the management of eBay it will "wither" (as Elon Musk said). I believe that if it is left as a division of eBay, PayPal may well go the way of other former technology greats such as Blackberry, Dell, Eastman Kodak, Polaroid, Nintendo, Xerox, Sony, Palm, and AOL - the same way that Motorola Mobility may have gone had we not been able to convince Motorola's board to bring in a new CEO and separate the companies - ultimately resulting in a sale to Google.
? Sadly in our opinion and the opinion of others eBay does not have years to wait. PayPal is a great company, but it is going to war against strong adversaries such as Google, Apple, Visa, etc. To win a war, you need to have great generals that have proven their competence and loyalty. Unfortunately, it is obvious to us that this is lacking at eBay and PayPal. PayPal must be separated NOW so that great management can be attracted - management that can make the right decision and know when to sell at the right time, not the worst time.
 
CONCLUSION
 
The true owners of eBay cannot and should not tolerate any longer the behavior exhibited by CEO John Donahoe and the board as detailed above. We believe that eBay is the quintessential example of what is wrong with corporate governance at many of our public corporations and why the system is dysfunctional. If we, as stockholders, do not send a clear message to the eBay board that we will no longer tolerate the internecine relationships that have come to be accepted as commonplace at eBay, and perhaps more importantly, if we continue to follow the advice of Donahoe, even in light of the transgressions regarding Skype as well as the other failures outlined above, and allow him to continue to lead both eBay and PayPal, and if PayPal fails (as Elon Musk and others far more knowledgeable than me have warned), then investors that own shares in the institutions and funds that control the voting of eBay stock will have every right to cast the blame on everyone who failed to vote for change at eBay.
 
THE TIME HAS COME TO SEND THE EBAY BOARD A MESSAGE THAT THERE WILL NO LONGER BE BUSINESS AS USUAL AT EBAY! VOTE FOR OUR PRECATORY PROPOSAL AND FOR OUR DIRECTOR NOMINEES.
 
Sincerely,
Carl C. Icahn

CARL ICAHN: eBay Shareholders Lost $4 Billion Because Of The CEO's 'Incompetence'

The Most Ethical Companies In The World

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image">REUTERS/Ray StubblebineThe Dream Team.</div></div>With 2013 officially over, it's accountability time.
We spoke to <a href="http://tipranks.com/">TipRanks</a>, a service that allows you to track the success of market <keyword id="49628" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="analysts">analysts</keyword> based on comments they make in the media, to find out who on Wall Street made the best calls last year.
TipRanks measures analysts' "success rate" based on how their calls perform relative to the <keyword id="123873" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="SP-500">S&amp;P 500</keyword> and the statistical difficulty of their calls.*
Here's what they found:
1. Corey Davis, Jefferies
Pharmaceuticals [Vanda (VNDA), Acelrx Pharmaceuticals (ACRX), Elan Corporation (ELN), Forest Labs (FRX), Endo Health (ENDP), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), Salix (SLXP), Antares Pharmaceuticals (ATRS)]
Success Rate: 92%
Average Return: +16.6%
<a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/acelrx-pharma-rises-analyst-starts-164839449.html">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: AcelRx (+76.7%) "We see a clear market opportunity for ARX-01 given the current standard of care for post-op pain control is fraught with drawbacks."
2. Daniel Fannon, Jefferies
Asset Management [T. Rowe Price (TROW), Intercontinetal Exchange (ICE), The Blackstone Group (BX), Affiliated Managers (AMG), CME Group (CME), Invesco Ltd. (IVZ), Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP)]
Success Rate: 88%
Average Return: +5.3%
<a href="http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/13/04/3474562/update-jefferies-raises-pt-on-invesco-ltd-on-1q13-previe">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Invesco Ltd. (+15.9%) "Our estimates are moving modestly higher, mostly due to domestic equity market gains, as well as improving fee rates and generally higher flow assumptions. We believe AMG and IVZ are poised for strong flows and positive earnings revisions."
3. Ella Ji, Oppenheimer
Chinese consumer and business service companies [E-House (China) (EJ), Noah Holdings (NOAH), Melco Crown (MPEL), China Distance Education, Holdings Ltd. (DL), New Oriental Education (EDU), Suntech Power (STPFQ)]
Success Rate: 100%
Average Return: +33.8%
<a href="http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/13/05/3615921/update-oppenheimer-upgrades-china-distance-education-hol">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: China Distance Education Holdings (+60.5%) "We are upgrading DL to Outperform from Perform and introducing an $8 target. Momentum in its core accounting test prep services has picked up, and we anticipate a 23%/35% revenue/EPS CAGR for FY12-14."
4. Mark Mahaney, RBC Capitalist
Internet Stocks [Twitter (TWTR), Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Wix.com Ltd. (WIX), Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX), Google (GOOG), Priceline.com (PCLN), Pandora (P), Amazon (AMZN), Ebay (EBAY), AOL Inc. (AOL)]
Success Rate: 72%
Average Return: +12.5%
<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-a-buy-with-33-price-target-says-rbc-2013-11-06">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Twitter (+126.4%) "Twitter is becoming an essential service for consumers, businesses, media companies, and advertisers."
5. Arvind Bhatia, Sterne Agee
Interactive Entertainment, Digital Entertainment and Consumer [Electronic Arts (EA), Groupon Inc. (GRPN), Facebook Inc. (FB), GameStop (GME)]
Success Rate: 78%
Average Return: +11.4%
<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/groupon-analyst-says-buy-much-more-upside-in-groupon-stock-price-2013-05-15">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Groupon (+41.9%) "Eric and Ted will bring in a new CEO with a strong operating background to move the company forward, so they not only grow the top line but more importantly the bottom line." 
6. William Plovanic, Canaccord Genuity
Medical Technology [Enteromedics Inc. (ETRM), MIMedx Group (MDXG),Stryker (SYK), Dexcom (DXCM), Insulet Corp. (PODD), NuVasive (NUVA)
Globus Medical (GMED), Cyberonics (CYBX)]
Success Rate: 100%
Average Return: +11.9%
<a href="http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/13/10/3967795/update-canaccord-genuity-initiates-coverage-on-mimedx-gr?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+benzinga+(Benzinga+News+Feed">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: MiMedX (+72.7%) "By our estimates, the dermal substitute segment of the advanced wound care market generated ~$345M of revenues in 2012, growing ~23% per year since 2009."
7. Christopher O'Cull, KeyBanc
Food Service [Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Red Robin Gourmet Burger (RRGB), Jack In The Box (JACK), Brinker International (EAT), Ignite Restaurant Group (IRG), Texas Roadhouse (TXRH), Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD)]
Success Rate: 100%
Average Return: +11.2%
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-03-22/ignite-shares-rise-after-keybanc-upgrade-to-buy">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Ignite Restaurant Group (+23.7%) "The company's profits will eventually get a boost from it acquisition of Romano's Macaroni Grill."
8. Michael Olson, Piper Jaffray
Online Media, Online Travel and Video Games [Chegg Inc. (CHGG), Universal Electronics (UEIC), TiVo Inc. (TIVO), Stratasys (SSYS), GameStop (GME), OpenTable (OPEN), Priceline (PCLN), Electronic Arts (EA), HomeAway (AWAY), Take-Two (TTWO)]
Success Rate: 81%
Average Return: +8.7%
<a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2013/02/20/ready-for-playstation-4-here-are-some-bullish-video-game-calls/">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: GameStop (+44.0%) "We expect the PS4 will be a meaningful growth driver for GameStop as the retailer's hardware market share has grown from 20% during 2006 [the time of the PS3's launch] to 35% today."
9. Gary Balter, Credit Suisse
Home Improvement [Container Store Group (TCS), Sears Holdings (SHLD), Best Buy Co. (BBY), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Ulta Salon (ULTA)]
Success Rate: 90%
Average Return: +12.6%
<a href="http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/13/03/3419859/update-credit-suisse-upgrades-ulta-salon-to-outperform-o">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Ulta Salon (+24.9%) "While not having a permanent CEO and weaker gross margins in Q1 raise concerns, the question we asked is do we believe in the growth potential of the concept. … Given that our answer is yes, and given that yes implies a growth rate of 25% to 30% at a low 20's multiple, we now like that risk reward. 
10. John Baugh, Stifel Nicolaus
Home Furnishings [Mohawk Industries (MHK), Conn's (CONN), Tempur Sealy (TPX), Owens Corning (OC), Select Comfort Corporation (SCSS), Furniture Brands (FBN), La-Z-Boy Inc. (LZB), Mattress Firm (MFRM)]
Success Rate: 90%
Average Return: +12.1%
<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2013/08/07/furniture-brands-shares-fall-on-stifel.html">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Furniture Brands (+56.6%) "We believe some form of liquidation of the company or bankruptcy filing is imminent."
11. Timothy Ramey, D.A. Davidson
Food, Beverage and Nutrition Industries [Herbalife (HLF), NuSkin (NUS), Tyson Foods (TSN), Flowers Foods (FLO), Smithfield Food (SFD), Balchem Corp (BCPC), Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ)]
Success Rate: 77%
Average Return: +5.8%
<a href="http://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/UPDATE%3A+DA+Davidson+Upgrades+Nu+Skin+Enterprises+(NUS)+to+Buy/8764029.html">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: NuSkin (+38.0%) " I am valuation sensitive on NUS as it has reestablished a somewhat premium evaluation."
12. Victor Anthony, Topeka Capital
Media and Internet Sectors [Twitter (TWTR), Google (GOOG), Ebay Inc. (EBAY), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), AOL Inc. (AOL), Shutterfly (SFLY)]
Success Rate: 67%
Average Return: 9%
<a href="http://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Twitter+%28TWTR%29+2014+Year-End+Target+%2454%3B+Topeka+Capital+Starts+at+Buy/8826827.html">Most successful recommendation of 2013</a>: Twitter (+125.9%) "We believe that Twitter's user and advertising monetization platform is in the early innings. We see a well-defined ecosystem with strong network effects developing around Twitter that should lead to out-sized shareholder returns for years to come. As such, we recommend investors buy the shares of Twitter to capture upside from Twitter's value creation engine."
------------------------------------------------ *Here's the methodology from TipRanks:
TipRanks looks at a variety of benchmarks, including the traditional % average over the S&amp;P 500 and performance success rate. But, we go far beyond this information in our ranking over the analysts.
When it comes to evaluating adviser performance, we not only measure how much an analyst outperforms a specific benchmark, but also how consistent they are in doing so.
As such, TipRanks uses the statistical Z-test to determine the statistical viability / consistency of financial advisers stock recommendations against a benchmark.
Z-test enables answering tough questions when it comes to comparing financial advisor performance, for example:
· Which adviser has a better success rate, one that gave 10 recommendations out of which 7 outperformed the benchmark (70%) or one that gave 100 recommendations out of which 68 outperformed the benchmark (68%)? While 70% is greater than 68%, achieving a 68% success rate over 100 recommendations is "statistically harder" than achieving 70% over 10.
· Which adviser has a higher excess return over the benchmark, one that gave 10 recommendations and outperformed the benchmark by 3.2% or one that gave 100 recommendations and outperformed the benchmark by 'only' 3%? To measure the adviser performance against the benchmark, TipRanks calculates the Z-score the recommendation set given by each adviser and can thus compare an adviser with 10 recommendations to an adviser that gave 100 recommendations.

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