While browsing HuffingtonPost this morning in an attempt to put off being productive, I saw a picture of the main quad; after doing a double take, I read the headline: Stanford U. Looking to Sell $1 Billion in Assets.

(logo from Stanford Management Company, the company responsible for much of the school's assets )

Reuters reports that our school is looking to shed another billion dollars worth of stuff. The school is apparently "weighing offers" on any of its illiquid assets, meaning that it is considering getting rid of any of the parts of the endowment that are not cold, hard cash--including 'private equity investments' and 'timberlands' (not the shoe or the music producer, but, I believe, forests). Since I have limited knowledge of the school's detailed financial processes and limited knowledge of general finance, I have no way of knowing whether or not this is a good move. Future or current investment bankers of Stanford--I am counting on you to weigh in here.

Regardless, this development proves that the campus clean up was the only fire sale happening on campus.

Presented in TIME Magazine under the title Are Oil Prices Rigged?, the controversial Officer-Hayes Hypothesis claims that oil producers have artificially boosted prices by speculating in the oil futures market. It relies on the fact that the futures market is smaller than the physical oil market, so it is in an oil supplier's interest to boost prices in the smaller, price-setting market.

In light of the realization that one firm did, in fact, control 11% of the oil futures market, Officer-Hayes has proved plausible.

Ari J. Officer studies financial mathematics Garrett J. Hayes studies materials science and engineering at Stanford.

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Alyssa Rapp is the Founder and CEO of Bottlenotes, an online wine retail business that helps individuals discover and learn about wine. Alyssa started the company while at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she headed the school's 500-person wine club. In this interview, Alyssa gives key insights on starting and running a hybrid online retail business, talks about her personal and entrepreneurial story for Bottlenotes, and gives leads to the most amazing wine regions in the world. Her goal for Bottlenotes, she says, is to create the "Pandora of wine".

Alyssa earned a B.A. in Political Science and the History of Art from Yale University in 2000 and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2005. In between her first and second years in business school, she spearheaded the sales and marketing efforts at RO Imports, an importer of boutique New Zealand wines in New York.

Thanks to Julio, iinnovate emeritus, and Roger for contributing to this interview.

- Min Liu of iinnovate

ASES SUMMIT 2008
APRIL 6-12, 2008
"Fostering a Global Entrepreneurial Community"
asessummit.stanford.edu | ases.stanford.edu

* Keynote and Speaker Events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC *

Scott D. Cook
Founder, Intuit, Inc.
Monday, April 7, 2008
5:15-6:30PM | Building 320, Room 105, Stanford University
Link to map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-320

Daniel Walker Former
Chief Talent Officer, Apple, Inc.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
6:00-7:15PM | Building 420, Room 041, Stanford University
Link to map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-420

Munjal Shah, CEO, Like.com Inc.
Vineet Buch, Principal, BRV
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
1:00-2:15PM | CIS-X Auditorium, Stanford University
Link to map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-370

Adeo Ressi
Founding Member, TheFunded.com
Thursday, April 10, 2008
6:00-7:30PM | Building 370, Room 370, Stanford University
Link to map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-370

Joel Peterson
Lead Director, jetBlue Airways
Friday, April 11, 2008
5:00-6:45PM | Building 550, Room 550A, Stanford University
Link to map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=02-550

ASES SUMMIT 2008 Stanford Directors: Christian Tabing, '09; In Ho Lee, '09; and Wen Qi Chin, '09.

Seniors: still haven't got a job set up for next year? Interested in trying something different? Juniors and Underclassmen: Are you planning to just serve coffee, fold t-shirts, or bag groceries this summer?

No matter where you are in your career path, you need to check out two great resources for snagging that job or internship you want: the Entrepreneur Career Expo and One Day, One Job .com

Entrepreneur Career Expo
BASES and the CDC do a lot of different things to help students succeed in their careers, and this job fair is one of them. This one brings nearly 100 start-ups to Stanford to look for bright, enthusiastic Stanford students to work on their cutting-edge, curve-jumping, paradigm-shifting, web 3.0 companies.

I imagine most employers will be looking for coders and engineers but fuzzies, don't lose hope! History and English majors often make great marketing interns. I believe our own Editor-in-Chief Christian (History major) is interning at SharpCast.

So get out there and strut your stuff. It's Thursday Feb 28th, 1-4pm on the 2nd floor of Tressider. And don't forget to prepare.

One Day, One Job
This is a really cool blog (and a clever name) started by a Cornell grad that discusses entry-level positions at a different company each day. They've covered some pretty cool companies like Netflix, Bear Naked Granola, and Nintendo. It's a great resource for people who people who don't know where to start looking for a job and don't want to do the same old thing.

They also publish articles on job searching, on topics like How to Use Google to Find a Job. For internships, they've started a similar site called One Job, One Internship. Same idea, but for internships. So definitely check out this cool site. Subscribe to the RSS and get the thrill of a new job opportunity each day!

On Friday, software giant Microsoft offered $44.6 billion dollars to buy enough stock to take control of Yahoo! in an effort to better compete with internet giant Google.

This makes me uneasy.

A Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo would remove a major player in the internet landscape, merging it into the ever spreading software company. This is just plain bad for us--the consumers. We benefit from Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo competing for our attention. As one company innovates, it pushes the others to adapt. And we get better services. Microsoft taking out Yahoo would lead one less reason for Microsoft and Google to develop better technology for its customers. We lose.

And why is Microsoft even trying to compete with Google? Microsoft is a software company at heart, not an advertising company like Google. They aren’t in direct competition. Microsoft’s recent foray into web search and advertising services can be considered as a hobby...at best. They can boast control of about 7% of the internet search market share. Google holds 65%. Microsoft should instead focus on what they do best--software.

Microsoft has had huge successes with its Windows operating system and its Office suite. They should stick to them. Microsoft keeps distracting itself with so many of these projects, resulting in a noticeable decline in quality in the rest of Microsoft’s products. Microsoft’s latest Windows Vista operating system, its main revenue source, is a blatant example. As Vista fails to satisfy customers due to its poor quality, Apple’s OS X and even Linux gain market share, chipping away at Microsoft’s iron grip on the operating system industry.

Microsoft acquiring Yahoo would not only create an increasingly monopolistic internet, but it would cause a thinly stretched Microsoft to deliver increasingly sub-par software to its customers. Microsoft acquiring Yahoo would not be bad new for Google, it would be bad news for us--the customers.

Barry McCarthy joined Netflix as CFO when few were believed the company could rival the industry leader, Blockbuster. Today, Netflix is the biggest player in the video rental market and just finished its first billion-dollar sales year.

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Our guest in this podcast is Barry McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer of Netflix. For the past eight years, Barry has been responsible for all of Netflix’s legal and financial affairs. During his tenure at Netflix, Barry has helped the company grow from a few million dollars in sales to Netflix’s first billion dollar year in 2007. He played an integral role in the company’s initial public offering in 2002 and has helped the company become the most highly valued player in the video rental market.

Barry discusses with Nir the future of content delivery over the Internet and what technologies he sees as opportunities and threats. He also discusses how Netflix stayed nimble and aggressive in the face of powerful competitors. Barry also frankly talks about how he decided to bet on the Netflix business model even when few thought it would work.

Enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think!

-Nir of iinnovate