GoDaddy Buys Media Temple To Build Up Its Business With Web ...

Domain registration and hosting company GoDaddy is continuing on its acquisitions roll, with the announcement today that it acquired Media Temple, a premium domain hosting and website services company based out of Los Angeles that targets website development professionals. Financial terms are not being disclosed. [Update: But website builder Virb that Media Temple bought in 2011 is spinning out.]

This is GoDaddy’s sixth acquisition in 15 months, but MT (as it is known) will stand apart from the rest in two ways. The first is that it’s taking GoDaddy deeper into premium services, catering to those who publish content specifically to be consumed on the web; and the second is that it will be the first acquisition that GoDaddy intends to operate as a separate business, staffed by MT’s 225 existing employees, rather than integrating into GoDaddy’s existing operations, which currently serve 12 million customers with over 4,000 employees.

Part of the reason for this, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving says, is because of Media Temple’s existing size and position in the market. It has 125,000 customers for its premium website management services, and it hosts over 1.5 million websites, with some 88 percent classified as being for “advanced web and IT services”.

“Media Temple is absolutely killing and a standalone brand, and it has an incredible technology,” Irving said in an interview. “We can learn a lot from them, whether it’s in infrastructure or customer acquisition. There is a ton of things that we can learn on the developer and marketing sides. We can continue and invest in and accelerate its growth without integrating. We think it’s a much smarter move for Media Temple to let them remain as their own business.”

Media Temple is a startup that is a little long in the tooth: it’s been around since 1998, growing up in tandem with the wider web. In that time, its founders have raised money ($16.1 million, almost modest by today’s standards), started their own venture fund (now wound down) and built out an impressive list of customers from a mostly bootstrapped enterprise. (Customers include companies like Fifty Three, Drop Stop and LRG to projects for brands like Sony, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Starbucks, Vogue and Volkswagen.)

As for why MT decided to finally exit after all this time, co-founder Demian Sellfors said that this was always the plan.

“We’ve had our eye on an exit since we started 15 years ago,” he told me. “We regard ourselves as entrepreneurs first and we designed it for exit from the start, even if on the way we accidentally built a phenomenal culture and a business that resounded with the marketplace.” He says that the idea of selling to a much larger company like GoDaddy is to make Media Temple “bigger and better. We are growing nicely but it’s still very humble growth.”

About a year and a half ago, Sellfors helped hire Russ Reeder to run MT, and he will remain in place as its president under GoDaddy, and he echoes the sentiment that this was the best way for MT to continue to grow. “We are excited about this; we’re excited to learn from their scale,” he told me.

For its part, GoDaddy — specifically under Irving (who comes from very senior roles at giants like Microsoft and Yahoo) — has been trying to build out and evolve its business beyond that of a basic web domain registry.

That has included acquisitions and its own product launches to build out different web services for the small businesses that register domains on GoDaddy — these include accounting and payment services, as well as those geared to help them create mobile sites.

Media Temple will help GoDaddy build out more expertise in providing more sophisticated offerings to web-based operations, and will help raise the company’s profile among that class of users for future business. That business, as well, is likely to have higher margins than some of GoDaddy’s existing basic products. MT’s portfolio includes three different classes of web hosting services (priced between $20 and $50 per month), API management, SSL services and CDN (content delivery) services.

Prior to today, GoDaddy’s other recent acquisitions included Ronin for bookkeeping services; Afternic for aftermarket domain registry services (basically a domain resellers’ marketplace); M.dot to help website owners create mobile Internet sites; Locu to help them organize and distribute their business data to other sites/services; and Outright for bookkeeping.

Irving tells me, by the way, that another important area for GoDaddy going forward will be how it expands internationally. Its main site is already available in 30 different languages, but the aim is that by the end of 2015 it will be in some 60 markets with much more localized focus. “Today it’s really about two markets, English and Spanish,” he admitted. “We want to roll out to both Europe and Asia.”

Go Daddy is the Web’s top platform for small businesses and offers everything needed to to grow and manage an online presence, from domain names and website builders to complete eCommerce solutions. The company has earned a place as the world’s #1 ICANN-accredited domain registrar by delivering world-class products at competitive prices and supporting them with industry-best service, delivered 24/7/365.

Go Daddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar and Web hosting provider *

More than 55 million domain...

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(mt) Media Temple, Inc. is a web hosting and virtualization service provider headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Since 1998, the company has provided businesses around the world with reliable, professional-class services to host websites, email, business applications, and other rich Internet content.

The team is comprised of 180+ incredibly smart and friendly employees who help create an award-winning culture. (mt) is an always-on company (24/7/365) with a U.S. based support department serving customers in over 60+ countries. The company offers...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/godaddy-buys-media-temple-to-build-up-its-business-with-web-professionals/
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Opinion: Why healthcare.gov has so many problems (CNN)

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Reid, McConnell optimistic on debt-shutdown deal

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., is surrounded by reporters as he walks to the Senate floor after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in his office on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. The Senate's top two leaders both expressed optimism Monday that they were closing in on an agreement to prevent a national financial default and reopen the government after a two-week partial shutdown. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., is surrounded by reporters as he walks to the Senate floor after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in his office on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. The Senate's top two leaders both expressed optimism Monday that they were closing in on an agreement to prevent a national financial default and reopen the government after a two-week partial shutdown. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is surrounded by reporters after leaving the office of Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. Reid reported progress Monday toward a deal to avoid a threatened default and end a two-week partial government shutdown as President Barack Obama called congressional leaders to the White House to press for an end to the impasse. "We're getting closer," Reid told reporters. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters as he visits Martha's Table, which prepares meals for the poor and where furloughed federal employees are volunteering, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. President Obama spoke about the government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling during remarks to reporters during his visit. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., walks to his office after arriving on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters as he visits Martha's Table, which assists the poor and where furloughed federal employees are volunteering, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. Speaking there Obama said that if Republicans can't resolve the standoff over the debt ceiling and the partial government shutdown, quote, "we stand a good chance of defaulting." (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of stubborn gridlock, the Senate's top two leaders raced to reach an agreement Monday that could head off a first-ever U.S. Treasury default threatened for midweek and end the 14-day partial government shutdown.

The stock market turned positive on bullish predictions from the two longtime antagonists at the center of the talks, Majority Leader Harry Reid for the Democrats Republican leader Mitch McConnell for the GOP.

The two men met twice before midafternoon, their sessions sandwiched around a White House announcement that President Barack Obama was calling them and the party leaders in the House for the second time in less than a week to discuss the economy-threatening crises. The meeting was subsequently postponed to give the two lawmakers more time to work.

Visiting a charity not far from the White House, Obama blended optimism with a slap at Republicans.

"My hope is that a spirit of cooperation will move us forward over the next few hours," he said. And yet, he added, "If we don't start making some real progress both in the House and the Senate, and if Republicans aren't willing to set aside some of their partisan concerns in order to do what's right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting."

Any legislation would require passage in the Senate and also in the House, where a large faction of tea party-aligned lawmakers precipitated the shutdown two weeks ago despite the efforts of both McConnell and Republican Speaker John Boehner. In the days since, polls show a marked deterioration in public support for the GOP.

McConnell also met with Boehner during the afternoon.

Officials said Reid and McConnell were discussing legislation to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt limit until spring, staving off the possible default. It was not clear if that would permit Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to employ a series of steps that could add additional months to the extension, as administrations in both parties have done in recent years.

In addition to approving legislation to fund the government until late this year, Reid and McConnell considered appointment of House and Senate negotiators to seek a deficit-reduction agreement that could ease or eliminate a new round of automatic federal spending cuts scheduled to begin in January. While the current round of these cuts fell on both domestic programs and the military, the upcoming reductions would hit primarily the Pentagon.

Also under discussion, officials said, was a possible tightening in income verification requirements for individuals who qualify for subsidies under the health care law known as Obamacare.

Separately, Democrats were resisting a Republican-backed proposal to suspend a medical device tax that was enacted as part of the health care law. The tax is widely unpopular among lawmakers in both parties, and the outcome of that disagreement remained unclear.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to comment on the private discussions.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has told Congress the deadline for raising the debt limit is Oct. 17.

He, the president and a wide array of economists, bankers and politicians in both parties — at home and backed by world leaders — have all warned that default could have catastrophic consequences for both the domestic and global economies.

The doubters alternatively say no default will occur or that if it does, it won't be the calamity that others claim.

But after holding center stage for much of the current impasse, there was little doubt that they had been shunted aside as Reid and McConnell worked toward an agreement.

As the Senate opened for business on Monday, Reid said he was "very optimistic we will reach an agreement this week that's reasonable in nature."

Moments later, Republican leader McConnell seconded his assessment.

"We have had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward. Those discussions continue, and I share (the) optimism that we're going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides," he said.

In announcing the lawmakers' meeting with Obama, the White House said the president would repeat a vow he has made consistently in recent weeks: "We will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit."

The prospect of a default and the possibility of a follow-on recession largely overshadowed the partial government shutdown that has furloughed 350,000 federal workers. Government research labs have been affected, veterans' services curtailed and much of the Occupational Safety and Health Organization shuttered.

With federal parks off-limits to visitors, the impact on tourism prompted several governors to petition Interior Secretary Sally Jewell successfully to permit the states to finance some reopenings.

The shutdown began on Oct. 1, at the beginning of the budget year, after the House adopted a strategy of conditioning broad federal spending legislation to a proposal to starve the three-year-old health care law of funding.

The president and Democrats refused, and the long struggle began, merging quickly with the fast-approaching deadline for a debt limit increase.

In the two weeks since, public opinion polls have charted a steady decline in Republican approval ratings, and an increase in the view that the party's lawmakers are acting out of political motivation.

The shutdown has proved problematic for the GOP in the Virginia governor's race, which is on the ballot this fall. Public opinion polls show the Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, ahead of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who is caught between tea party supporters on the one side and the public's general unhappiness on the other, magnified by the large presence of federal workers in the state.

Democrats hope for that situation to repeat itself nationwide in a year's time, when control of both houses of Congress will be at stake.

For now, though, the fear of economic harm produced warnings from around the globe that the United States must not permit a default.

Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, spoke with concern about the disruption and uncertainty on Sunday, warning of "a risk of tipping, yet again, into recession" after the fitful recovery from 2008.

_____

Eds: Associated Press reporters Donna Cassata, Andy Taylor, Alan Fram, Henry Jackson, Julie Pace and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this story.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-14-Budget%20Battle/id-335a260a9fbc4cd0a36ed5e9b480ffa7
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NXT Superstar Xavier Woods rallies WWE Universe to #BringBackBigShow

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Obamacare website shows improvement, new problems emerge

By David Morgan and Lewis Krauskopf

(Reuters) - The Obama administration has made headway against an online bottleneck that jammed enrollment for the president's healthcare reform, but new technical problems greeted users on Monday, showing how difficult it will be to get consumers registered in time for insurance coverage to start January 1.

Three weeks after the launch of new health insurance plans under Obamacare, users were able to create accounts for themselves and begin the process of enrolling through the Healthcare.gov insurance marketplace, according to people aiding the sign-up effort.

But further into the process, error messages and other difficulties were apparent, leading to fresh frustrations for health insurers and nonprofit groups who want to help millions of uninsured Americans sign up for benefits as promised under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

"We have seen progress every day," said Nasim Zahran of Miami's Borinquen Medical Health Care Centers, where hundreds of people are waiting to enroll in coverage.

"Today was the first day that we got all the way to the last screen. But then an error screen popped up saying the site would be down for 72 hours," Zahran said.

Healthcare.gov saw 14.6 million unique visits in its first 10 days, a larger-than-expected public response that raised hopes Obamacare would meet with strong enough demand in its first year.

But the site's limited ability to enroll consumers is becoming an increasing focus of Obamacare's Republican foes, who say the government was not ready to implement the law and should have delayed it.

Experts say the administration has until mid-November to iron out the problems or risk jeopardizing its goal of signing up 7 million people in the first year of the Obamacare marketplaces. The number includes 2.7 million healthy young adults whose participation will help offset the higher cost of insuring sicker and older beneficiaries.

Underscoring the high stakes nature of the issue, former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told cable-television channel MSNBC on Monday that heads should roll: "I hope they're working day and night to get this done. And when they get it fixed, I hope they fire some people that were in charge of making sure that this thing was supposed to work."

Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas has already called on U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign. But analysts say that would be unlikely anytime soon. Such a high-level departure could complicate the already fragile roll-out and raise the prospect of stormy Senate confirmation proceedings for a replacement.

At town hall meetings originally intended to drive people to enroll, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas is telling consumers not to rush to purchase health coverage through Healthcare.gov, given that the enrollment period runs through March 31.

"What we are encouraging our folks in Kansas to do is give it a few weeks and let the bugs work their way out of the system," said Mary Beth Chambers, spokeswoman for the health insurer.

Virginia-based insurer Optima Health reported receiving their first applications for insurance filed through Healthcare.gov in the last few days.

"We, ourselves, have been testing and we're seeing the same difficulties that folks have been telling us on the phone," said spokesman Bobby Pearson.

Cigna said it has been able to sign up people through the federal exchange, without providing further details.

Other major insurers that have helped test the federal system for months, say the problems were long in the making.

"We were pretty nervous as we got further along. We helped them build blueprints on how to put the system together, and as they started missing deadlines, we were pretty convinced that it was going to be a difficult launch," Aetna Chief Executive Mark Bertolini said in an interview with cable business channel CNBC.

FOLLOWING THE STATES

The administration faces growing criticism for designing Healthcare.gov with a series of gates that require visitors to set up accounts and verify their identities before getting actual information on available insurance plans and their own eligibility for federal subsidies.

"I really don't think that anybody knows how difficult it's going to be to get Healthcare.gov fully functioning," said Jon Kingsdale, a widely respected expert on market exchanges, who oversaw the first such operation in Massachusetts.

"With users stuck in the first couple of gates, they haven't really been able to test downstream gates," he added. "There are literally hundreds of insurers. Each of them has to get this right in their interchange of information with the exchange for the exchange enrollment to become effective. We're not even there yet."

Over the weekend, Healthcare.gov alerted consumers to a new tool that makes it easier to view sample insurance premiums in their area and estimate their subsidy without creating accounts.

"This is perhaps a way to distract visitors or hold them over while (the administration) continues to fortify the web design on the back end," said Austin Bordelon, an analyst for Leavitt Partners, a Utah-based consulting group that is tracking the healthcare exchanges.

The change is more in line with the approach of states like Connecticut and California that successfully launched their own healthcare exchanges.

"States have figured out how to do it. It's a harder lift for the federal government with the volume it has, but it's not different in kind," said Joel Ario, who oversaw the early plans for the state exchanges at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) until his departure in 2011.

"Maybe they need to hire the contractors from the states that have figured this out," he said in a discussion posted to the journal Health Affairs' blog.

(Reporting by David Morgan in Washington and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Leslie Gevirtz and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-website-shows-improvement-problems-emerge-211711095--sector.html
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Taylor Swift Opens $4M Country Hall Of Fame Center

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It might as well be Taylor Swift weekend in Music City.

The pop star opened her $4 million Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday morning, and will accept her record sixth songwriter-artist of the year award from Nashville Songwriters Association International on Sunday.

Swift cut the ribbon on the new education center she donated to the museum as part of its expansion campaign and showed reporters and area high school students the new classroom and exhibit space before the museum opened.

"I'm really excited about this music education center and the fact that right now they have three different classes going on today," Swift said in an interview after the ceremony. "It's really exciting that we can be here on a day when they're not only unveiling it, but they're starting to actively use it today."

The center will have classroom space, a hands-on instrument room and ongoing education opportunities. Museum officials say the new center will increase educational opportunities sevenfold going forward.

And who knows? Maybe users will find the 23-year-old Swift hanging around some day.

"We've been talking about different programs I can be involved in," Swift said. "I hate to call it a lecture because that sounds like I'm yelling at people, but we could do a Q&A talking to students here and a songwriters discussion would be really fun to have at some point."

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=232689207&ft=1&f=
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Step Aerobics Group Fitness Class - Calendar : Student Life

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