Karissa Hosek courtesy of RM Sotheby's

The BMW Z8 once owned by Steve Jobs will be put up for auction in December. The sleek sports car is expected to sell for between $300,000 and $400,000. Jobs bought the car in 2000, after being named permanent CEO of Apple.

 

If you have the cash, you can now cruise around in the same BMW Z8 roadster once owned by Steve Jobs.

The vehicle, which was first owned by the late Apple cofounder, will be put up for auction in New York City on December 6. It's expected to sell for between $300,000 and $400,000 — at least double what Jobs paid for the car in October 2000. He sold the car three years later.

The silver convertible comes with a copy of its old California registration, under the name "Jobs, Steven P.," and the original Motorola flip-phone built into the display.

"Interestingly enough, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Jobs was known to have hated the Motorola phone," according to the listing on auction house RM Sotheby's website.

Karissa Hosek courtesy of RM Sotheby's

Jobs was not known as a car enthusiast, but he took a liking to German design, RM Sotheby's said. The tech visionary also owned a Mercedes-Benz SLs and BMW motorcycles. According to legend, tech billionaire Larry Ellison convinced Jobs to buy the BMW Z8, comparing its modern automotive engineering and ergonomics to Jobs' own products and personality.

In 2000, Jobs was installed as the new CEO of Apple, after serving as an interim replacement for ousted executive Gil Amelio. The company was worth about $5 billion that year.

His  car has a "titanium" exterior and black leather interior. It has clocked about 15,200 miles.

History buffs and Apple fans will certainly be drawn to the car, which is marked up because of its history. But the price is still reasonable for the car. The BMW Z8 cost $129,000 when it launched in 2000, and sells for more than $200,000 today, according to Autotrader's Doug DeMur.

Original author: Melia Robinson

Atlassian is opening a big new office in Mountain View, CalifThe office is eight times larger than its existing office in Mountain ViewAtlassian says it plans to hire engineers and programmers in Silicon Valley

Atlassian, the company behind popular business software like Jira, HipChat, and Trello, is going into November on the right foot: The Australian software giant crushed its most recent quarterly earnings, propelling it above a $10 billion market cap for the first time ever. 

For its next act, Atlassian announced this week that it will be opening a new, 130,000 square foot office in Mountain View, Calif., the heart of Silicon Valley, and spitting distance from Google's global headquarters. This new office will be focused on research and development, as Atlassian hustles to stay ahead of competitors like Microsoft and $5 billion Slack.

This is only Atlassian's second year in Silicon Valley proper. Last year, the company opened a 16,000-square-foot office, also in Mountain View, to complement its existing three regional headquarters in Sydney, San Francisco, and Austin. It's a sign of how fast the company's Silicon Valley presence is growing, says Atlassian CTO Sri Viswanath.

Viswanath, who joined the company from Groupon almost two years ago, is the executive largely responsible for Atlassian's push into Silicon Valley. He says that the company plans on growing even further in Mountain View, with the intention to staff up significantly with engineers and programmers.

Viswanath won't go into how many engineers Atlassian is looking to hire, but says that the fact the team is going from 16,000 square feet to 130,000 "should give you a sense." 

Downtown Mountain View, where Atlassian is expanding its Silicon Valley presence.Wikimedia

Generally speaking, Viswanath says that the growth in Silicon Valley is a reflection of the importance Atlassian places on R&D. He says that Atlassian has spent about $95 million on research alone this year, which is equal to about 49% of the annual revenue it's generated so far this year. 

As for why Silicon Valley at all, Viswanath  acknowledges that the zip code carries some baggage with it — hiring is extremely competitive, given its proximity to the likes of Google, Facebook, and Apple. And yet, it's still where Atlassian has to go to find top talent, Viswanath says, making a Silicon Valley office a necessity. 

Atlassian President Jay Simons tells us that the company is finding it easier to attract that talent than it used to: As Atlassian's trademark Jira bugtracking software and its other products grow in popularity, the company's cachet grows. Plus, Simons says, lots of developers are attracted by Atlassian's strong stance on social issues, with the company's co-CEOs making their support for same-sex marriage in Australia very publicly known.

"We've become more of an attractive employer overall," says Simons.

Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.

Original author: Matt Weinberger

Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas

Original author: Dave Mosher

Alex Gallardo/AP

Ratings have been solid for the World Series, which demonstrates the massive amount of advertising exposure big TV events can deliver. To date, the games have generated over 5.1 billion ad impressions and over five hours of pure advertising time on TV sets across the US. People on average are watching 86% of the ads during the games, which for the most part have discouraged people from flipping around.

The World Series has been absolutely wild, and ratings — though down from last year's historic run for the Chicago Cubs — have been solid for Fox, even topping "Sunday Night Football," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Besides attracting a large audience, the games have provided a text book example of why advertisers are still in love with TV, despite all of its flaws and challenges.

For one, across the first five games, World Series ads on Fox have generated well over 5.1 billion impressions, according to the analytics firm iSpot.tv, which measures attention for TV ads using a panel of 7.3 million Smart TVs.

An ad impression in this case is recorded every time a person watches at least three seconds of an ad from the start. That metric is probably about the closest thing to a view in web video, depending on the media company involved. Delivering that much ad exposure in such bursts of time is TV's enduring strength.

Though 7.3 million TVs represent only a slice of total TV viewership in the US the iSpot data is able to compile a comprehensive list of which advertisers ran during the game and how people responded. 

Overall, iSpots says that over the first five games:

142 advertisers have run a total of 226 ads There have been 601 ad "airings" to date That translates to over five hours and 10 minutes of pure advertising 

YouTube TV has had a huge sponsorship presence during the series. But interestingly, Fox itself has been the biggest advertiser during the games, found iSpot:

Here are some of the biggest World Series advertisers iSpot TV

Meanwhile, given the riveting, tight nature of this year's World Series, people have stayed tuned in. According to iSpot, the ads run during the games have been watched to completion by an average of 86% of the viewers.

That puts the World Series' ad attention score above some kinds of TV programming, like say morning news shows, though its score is behind ads showing during serialized shows like "Law and Order SVU" and "The Walking Dead" – which boast of ad attention rates above 90% on average.People are sticking with World Series adsiSpot TV

 

 

Of course, some people do flip around during commercials. Here's a second by second look at viewership during the games from Inscape.tv:

Second by second viewing during the World Series Inscape

Original author: Mike Shields

Why don't more people want this car? Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

As Chevy Bolt EV sales have increased, sales of the gas-electric hybrid Volt have declined. The Volt was never as successful as GM hoped, but it paved the way for the Bolt. We could be at the beginning of the end of the hybrid era.

Talk to anybody at General Motors about the Chevy Volt hybrid and they'll tell you that the company learned a lot from the car.

In fact, the automaker may have learned so much that the Volt could have contributed to its own demise.

GM hasn't made any announcements to that effect, but WardsAuto's James M. Amend reported that ever since the all-electric Chevy Bolt arrived late last year, Volt sales have slipped.

"According to  WardsAuto  data, the Bolt has sold 6,710 copies in the past three months compared with 4,416 deliveries of the Volt," Amend wrote.

"The Volt leads in calendar-year sales with 19,039 units, vs. 14,302 for the Bolt. But the Bolt was not available in 50 states until late June and even now availability remains thin."

A new kind of hybrid

The Chevy Bolt. Hollis Johnson

The Volt was never a great seller, but it did offer a step beyond other hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius. The Prius is a parallel hybrid, meaning that its electric and gas motors run at the same time to max out fuel-economy (some plug-in and later semi-electric versions of the Prius can run for short distances on battery power alone).

The Volt is a serial hybrid. When its rechargeable batteries are drained, a small gas motor kicks in and powers a generator that makes more electricity, which in turn spins the motors that drive the wheels (the gas motor doesn't directly motivate the powertrain).

This extends the Volt's range and makes it comparable to a regular gas-engined vehicle. But if you only drive 3o or 40 miles a day, you can never tap into that "range extender." Total range is over 400 miles, and the Volt goes for about $34,000 base.

The Bolt is an all-electric vehicle that Chevy says will provide about 240 miles of range before it needs a recharge. The base price is $37,500, and it was designed to go up against Tesla's $35,000 Model 3.

The perfect car?

No perfect enough. Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

I always thought the Volt was basically the perfect car: lots of range, flexible all-electric operation, fun to drive. When the vehicle debuted in 2010, I calculated that in normal use, I might gas up half a dozen times a year, at most. When I reviewed the vehicle a while back, I wrote that it's "a thinking man's car."

"It had always been a thoughtful undertaking, from General Motors, the company that gave us the EV-1 all-electric car, but then missed the Prius revolution. How can we advance beyond the Prius, GM thought. And ... Presto! the Volt, a visionary machine. "

As it turns out, the Volt's value for GM might have been to set the stage for the Bolt. Various engineers and executives I have talked to over the past few years have suggested as much. 

It could be that the hybrid age is now entering a period of decline. The vehicles have been rendered less popular thanks to a comeback by SUVs, and automakers often now think of hybrid tech as a way to add performance to a vehicle rather than to increase MPGs.

Meanwhile, a new generation of longer-range electric cars that are also affordable is arriving. I actually thought this would probably be the case, but I also expected extended-range hybrids like the Volt to be more popular.

As it turns out, automakers learned that while range-extended EVs captured some consumers, many just wanted an all-electric car that could go a long way between charges. 

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Original author: jyotsna popuri

I just finished the near-final draft of Cat Hoke’s upcoming book Second Chance. It is incredibly powerful on multiple levels.

I’ve gotten to know Cat reasonably well over the past year. I first heard of her through the Techstars Foundation, where we gave her organization – Defy Ventures – one of our very first grants. I first met her a few months later in my office. After hearing her pitch for 15 minutes, I said “Cat – I’m all in – no need to sell me. What can I do to help?”

Cat, in her inimitable style, said, “The first thing you should do is to come to prison with me.”

A few months later I spent the day at California State Prison, Los Angeles County in Lancaster with Cat, 50 EITs (Entrepreneurs-in-training), and 75 volunteers. I wrote about it as one of my top ten life experiences in my post Understanding Privilege – My Experience in Prison. Amy and I made a significant gift from our foundation (the Anchor Point Foundation) immediately after the trip and I joined the Defy Ventures board two months later.

Since then I’ve gotten to know Cat, her husband Charles, and the Defy Ventures organization. While I’ve learned a lot about prison, the criminal justice system, and the concept and experience of privilege, I’ve learned even more about myself. And I have Cat, Defy Ventures, and all of the people around Defy (both inside and outside of prison) to thank for that.

But, as Cat so eloquently says, she doesn’t scale. When I first heard of Defy, it was about 20 employees. Today it’s over 50 going to 100. Like many fast-growing startups, the CEO (Cat) has to evolve in her role. While it’s hard, Cat is doing a magnificent job of it. It was logical that she’d write a book about herself, her own second chance, Defy, the work that it does, and how/why it matters and impacts people and society.

Writing this book must have been incredibly challenging. Cat is an extremely hard worker. She travels constantly. Her work is emotionally intense and she puts 100% of herself into it. So, when I was on about page 80 of Second Chance, I thought to myself, “This is incredible. I can’t imagine how much extra energy of Cat’s went into this.”

She had one of the best guides in the world – Seth Godin. I’ve been friends with Seth since the mid-1990s when I met him doing diligence for SoftBank in conjunction with Fred Wilson on the investment that SoftBank and Flatiron Partners (Fred and Jerry Colonna’s new VC firm at the time) made in Seth’s company Yoyodyne (later acquired by Yahoo!). I felt a deep connection to Seth from day 1 and even though we don’t spend much time together, ever interaction with him is treasured by me.

I can see Seth’s fingerprints all over this book. As an enormous fan of Cat’s, I’m so glad Seth took this project on. I expect their collaboration will have an important and lasting impact on the world.

You’ll get more specifics, and a full review, once Cat’s book is published. Until then, if you are interested in learning more about Defy Ventures or getting involved in any way, just This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I’ll connect you.

Also published on Medium.

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