How RenRen's IPO is setting the table for Facebook

A $4 billion valuation for a company that made a $7.7 million profit sounds laughable, but it could be paving the way for a flurry of mind-boggling offerings.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

A few years ago, a cynical editor I knew was fond of challenging reporters to write a credible and printable headline combining the words "sex," "iPhone" and "Obama" - three of the sweetest pieces of linkbait at the time. As far as MORE

Killing Flip was just the beginning

Cisco is reorganizing its consumer business to acknowledge it never really took off. But the company has more divisions to shed before the Street is satisfied.

By Dan Mitchell, contributor

FORTUNE -- There's a certain allure to being a household name, so you almost can't blame Cisco CEO John Chambers for trying to push his company into consumer markets. But that allure is ultimately superficial. Cisco's core products are routers and networking MORE

Should Larry Page break up Google?

A radical corporate restructuring, borrowing a Japanese idea, could help Google instill a permanent culture of innovation, and stave off Microsoft-style stagnation.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- What is it going to take for Google to get its mojo back? Google in the spring of 2011 is a far cry from Google in its startup days. Facing competition from younger companies like Facebook, Google is spending more to hire new talent, MORE

Silicon Valley's impatience: reckless or prudent?

Venture capitalists are hungrier than ever for next big startup, leading them to make some eye-popping investments -- which, for once, may be entirely justifiable.

By Aaron Levie, contributor

FORTUNE -- Having just closed a fourth round of funding, raising $48M from Andreessen Horowitz and other notable investors, I have the dubious distinction of having pitched Box more than a few dozen times on Sand Hill Road over the past five years. MORE

Open Compute: taking aim at Google?

Facebook's new cheap, fast, green data center is really a free blueprint for companies that want to chip away at Google's computing advantage. Including Facebook.

By Dan Mitchell, contributor

The data center business, as it currently exists, is a little too much like  "Fight Club" (The first rule of servers: you do not talk about our  servers) says Facebook's Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of  technical operations.

For that reason, Facebook will share the  designs for its MORE

What green thinkers think about green

Speakers at Brainstorm GREEN have been stopping by Fortune's virtual conference to take questions from online attendees:

Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar, Google (GOOG)

What comments might [you] have about the "Bloom Box" replacing a National Grid?
Weihl: There's a role for both distributed generation and centralized power plants -- I expect we'll see both -- and the Bloom Box will play a part in distributed generation.

Last year Google bought a decommissioned papermill MORE

Airbnb: Changing where backpackers and billionaires sleep-away

The startup with "startling" growth is part of a second generation of disruptors -- improving on businesses like Craigslist, that were disruptors themselves.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- The sad truth about hotel rooms is they are at bottom hostile to the spirit of adventure. They lock tourists away from the city's vibrant social life, isolating their guests in charmless, anonymous spaces with no kitchens but plenty of cable TV and MORE

Microsoft's office: Why insiders think top management has lost its way

Steve Ballmer's slavish devotion to Windows and Office has made them cash cows, but some say revenues have come at the expense of innovation.

By Gary Rivlin, contributor

FORTUNE -- What's the matter with Microsoft?  After spending weeks tracking down and talking with a long list of former Microsoft (MSFT) employees, many of them veterans with fifteen or more years with the company, the question is how long do you have to MORE

Games you can Xerox

Gameloft, a French mobile games company, had its best year yet. But something about its success feels familiar.

By Chadwick Matlin, contributor

Imagine you've finally published that novel you've been working on for the past few years. It's one of those sci-fi epics, where there's an alien invasion to be overturned, a stoic soldier to defeat it, and maybe a cool gun or two to use in the process. And now that MORE

The movie mogul of the Internet: YouTube

Google has long been a media company in denial. Now it's beefing up YouTube to become a studio system for a new era of content production. Keyboard cat, meet the evening news. By Dan Mitchell, contributor