Knowledge at Wharton

A decade after pets.com and a string of other early Internet specialty retailers collapsed a new wave of start-ups -- enabled by the power of cloud computing advanced delivery systems and deep social relationships with customers -- is shaping e-commerce. From diapers and eyeglasses to pool tables and yes pet products entrepreneurs are developing specialty businesses to compete alongside one-stop shopping giants like Amazon.com and Walmart.com.

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Rumors that Facebook or Cisco would buy Skype were proven wrong on Tuesday when Microsoft struck an $8.5 billion deal to acquire the online voice and video chat service. Most analysts welcomed the takeover as a shrewd move on the grounds that it positions Microsoft in a commanding position in the emerging markets of video content and online telephony. Still considering that Skype’s previous acquisition by eBay ended in a $1.4 billion write-down questions remain. Will there be a good cultural fit between Microsoft and Skype? Did Microsoft overpay for a company that continues to lose money? Knowledge at Wharton discussed these questions and more with Wharton professors Eric Clemons and Kevin Werbach.

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The Flip a quick and easy video recorder that captures spontaneous moments for instant uploading to YouTube is about to fold. Cisco Systems which bought the Flip just two years ago is closing the business in a move that illustrates how rapidly evolving technology and business strategies can force major corporate flip-flops.

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Estée Lauder -- the $7.8 billion cosmetics and beauty products giant founded in 1946 -- has grown to more than 25 brands in 140 countries. The company clearly knows its customers 95% of whom are women. In a recent interview with Knowledge at Wharton William Lauder the company’s executive chairman and the grandson of founder Estée Lauder discussed the challenges of working in a family-owned business the company’s global growth aspirations and why the key to success is ”getting women to put their hands together.”

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The United States government spends more than it takes in a practice that is illegal in most state governments and harshly criticized when households and businesses do it. After being the rule rather than the exception for most of the past century why is the country’s deficit spending such a big deal now? Is the U.S. really on the edge of a precipice? Will the deficit-reduction plans under consideration in Washington work? How painful will the remedies be? Wharton faculty and other experts weigh in.

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Alberto Vitale was running Bantam Books the world leader in paperbacks when the Newhouse family recruited him to become the COO of Random House. In that role and later as the CEO of one of the world’s top publishing firms Vitale oversaw huge changes in the publishing industry. In this interview with Stephen J. Kobrin publisher and executive director of Wharton Digital Press and Knowledge at Wharton Vitale discusses the rise of digital publishing the future of bookstores and the globalization of copyright among other issues.

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Nassim Taleb is a literary essayist hedge fund manager derivatives trader and professor of risk engineering at The Polytechnic Institute of New York University. But he is best known these days as the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. During a recent visit to Wharton as part of The Goldstone Forum he spoke with Wharton finance professor Richard Herring -- who taught Taleb when he was a Wharton MBA student -- about events in the Middle East the oil supply investing in options the U.S. economy the dollar health care and of course black swans.

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”Dismissed.” A single word from Bangladesh’s highest court ended a bitter legal battle that has grabbed world attention. The loser in this case: Muhammad Yunus the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Grameen Bank the groundbreaking Bangladeshi microfinance institution he is no longer allowed to run. But as with many of the highs and lows of microfinance there is much more than meets the eye to this boardroom shakeout.

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Valuations are growing aggressively for Facebook Groupon and a handful of other social media darlings. But does that growth signal the coming of another tech bubble? Not necessarily say Wharton faculty and other experts who note that the main issues are the extent to which these valuations are supported by real staying power and whether or not these companies are having an undue influence across the tech landscape.

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