Last Thursday, Bloomberg announced that it has begun integrating Twitter functionality into its service platform. It filters company and market-centric tweets for its base of over 300,000 subscribers. This came shortly after the SEC provided guidance that would allow for companies to distribute their announcements and press releases through social media websites.

Bloomberg's service is heavily filtered and entirely focused on providing high quality, potentially market moving news to its users. Traditionally, banks and trading houses have restricted use of Twitter at the office for compliance reasons, so this service offers traders and Analysts a means of keeping up with twittersphere without resorting to their phones and without worrying the firm's legal staff.

I think that this goes a long way to confirm what we already know, that Twitter and other social media can move markets. I was curious to get an insider's view of just how important social media is in the trading world, so I reached out to a trader friend of mine for his view. Read on to hear what he had to say...

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you've probably heard the word Bitcoin thrown around in the news quite a bit. If you're a bit more web savvy, or an active Redditor, chances are you've known about it for a few years. But, do you really know what Bitcoin is, how it works, or where it comes from?

Given the recent uptick of interest in, and value of, Bitcoin, I decided to do a little digging to see what I could find out. Going into my investigation into the so-called virtual currency, I found myself pleasantly surprised about a number of things. Specifically, how it functions, how it's created, and the mystery surrounding its founding father.

Since taking over Yahoo back in July 2012, Marissa Mayer has been on a mission to transform the company into a modern web power player. Yahoo, with its massive and diverse array of content, is a portal for millions of people on the web. Whether you're interested in checking out share prices, reading up on your favorite NBA team, or entering a fantasy football league, you can do it, and much more, through Yahoo.

With that said, Yahoo continues to get crushed in search and email and is seen as something of a dinosaur in the age of Web 2.0. Ms. Mayer's job is to make Yahoo cutting-edge again. As the youngest female Fortune 500 CEO and the 20th employee of Google, it would seem as though she's an excellent pick for the job.

This week, Marissa Mayer made a striking and attention-getting move to help expedite Yahoo's trip towards the cutting-edge. The company acquired Summly, a two year old startup whose founder is only 17 years old...

So, I've taken some time to peruse through WSO's 2013 Compensation Database, and it's honestly awesome. I've been on WSO for a while, from my time as a bright-eyed undergrad trying to break into a summer analyst gig, to my time as a jaded banking analyst, seeking out the greener pastures of private equity. The site has always provided tremendous value.

With that said, I think the 2013 Compensation Database is among the most interesting and useful things I've ever seen on the site. The sheer amount of information is astounding, and the presentation and formatting would please even the most hardass of Managing Directors.

I highly recommend you do what you have to do to gain access to it. Whether that's adding info a review for the company you work for, insight into an interview you had, or detailing your comp last year, it's worth it. Plus it's anonymous, so there's no fear of anyone finding out who you are.

Now, I'm not here today to drone on about the benefits of the database, rather, I'm here to share a few of the fun things I found while I was digging through it. Read on to find out what I found...

Back in February, Dell announced that it had reached an agreement in principle to be taken private by its founder, Michael Dell, and Silver Lake, the Silicon Valley based technology private equity firm. Microsoft would also be investing in the deal, but would have no equity ownership or board representation post-close. Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders would receive $13.65 a share, a 25% premium over the share price on January 11th, the last day the stock traded before rumors of a buyout started running rampant.

Dell, the world's number three PC manufacturer, is in the middle of an ongoing effort to transform the company into an enterprise solutions business for small and medium size businesses. A mini-IBM of sorts. Over the last three years, the company has made a number of acquisitions to bolster its enterprise credentials, though its lower-margin PC business still accounts for about half of the company's total revenue.

Taking the company private would enable the company to accelerate its transformation without the scrutiny of the public markets. Unfortunately for Mike and his Silver Lake pals, Carl Icahn has other plans for the business.

While Google has been hard at work on its vision of mainstream Geordi La Forge eyewear, Apple is searching for its next disruptive innovation. And while fan boys and investors alike have spent years waiting for Apple to unveil a TV, it appears as though the next Apple product line might come in the form of a watch.

The iWatch.

There is some palpable excitement building among members of the tech community. But, is it warranted? Let's give it some thought.

On Tuesday, I gave a thorough breakdown of how a pre-MBA candidate should approach the Private Equity Interview Case Study. In keeping with the PE interview theme, I thought I'd touch upon the actual interview portion of the process.

Rather than doing a deep dive into answers to technical questions and related minutia, which is better suited for a formalized interview guidebook, I thought I'd give a brief overview of the more easily brushed over aspects of PE interviews. Things that can easily be missed when you're busy prepping your technical knowledge and brushing up on your deal experience.

To be clear, my focus is on superday style interviews, the kind in which you've already completed your case study and are meeting with multiple members of the firm. A day in which you should expect to meet anyone, from Associate on up to Partner and everywhere in between.

Without further ado, let's have a look at three Do's and three Don'ts of private equity superday interviews...

When you go through the interview process with private equity firms, particularly if you move along in a process at a middle market PE shop, you will almost certainly be asked to do a case study. I know from personal experience that I had to do it with the middle market firm I ended up working at in my post-banking days.

So, just what is the case study? While it varies from firm to firm, here's what it generally will look like. You get a copy of a CIM (Confidential Information Memorandum), usually from an old sell-side process that the PE firm took part in, and are asked to throw together a basic LBO and write up a basic buy-side investment memo.

The fun of this sort of process is that the end product is often very much in your hands. In my interview process, I ended up going with a two page memo that more or less condensed the important parts of the CIM, analyzed the pros / cons of the business, and included a SWOT analysis. While I went for brevity, I've also seen people throw together brief PowerPoint decks. If you aren't given a particular format, you can run with it in whatever way you think will be most effective.

Format aside, let's breakdown some of the important elements to keep in mind when you're putting together a memo for a Private Equity Case Study.

Last week, I wrote out my thoughts on the future of television and argued that Netflix's House of Cards and subscription streaming service was a major key to understanding where TV and original programming was headed. It prompted a great conversation, both on the excellent first season of the show and on our views of television's future. In reviewing my thoughts and the comments, it seems as though there was a reasonable consensus that some combination of streaming services and a slate of basic channels for news and major live events was the inevitable end game for TV.

A recent guest post on TechCrunch takes a very different view. The author, Mark Suster, is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with experience investing and evaluating companies in and the new-media space. The heart of his argument is that the future is in participation. His primary example to illustrate his point? The Harlem Shake.

Quick post today on a potential interview question that doesn't often get covered on WSO.

It's not one you'll hear during on-campus interviews for your first gig out of college, but it's something you'll likely encounter somewhere down the line. Namely, you'll come across it when you're looking to move into a new position with a new firm. So, what's the question I have in mind?

What's your current compensation?