Since being pushed out of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe has tried to raise money to roll-up social games and compete against Zynga:
DeWolfe is likely looking at very small gaming companies run by a handful of stellar developers but that lack the legal, business development, and dealmaking resources to make any kind of a dent in the current social-gaming market. continue reading...
The Four Horsemen
Some of you might recall that after eUniverse - renamed Intermix - launched MySpace, it got into some problems with the SEC and its board forced CEO Brad Greenspan to resign. Greenspan remained a big shareholder, but the Board brought in Richard Rosenblatt to run the company. Rosenblatt is the executive (with an impressive track record in social media dating back to the late 1990s) who ended up selling Intermix to News Corp. for $580M. Rosenblatt orchestrated the deal with his counterpart over at News Corp, Ross Levinsohn, who was responsible for building up News Corp.’s digital strategy for Chairman Rupert Murdoch. continue reading...
I’ve been following funding in online video for some time. Check out a fairly complete list, here.
Yesterday, some were asking: has Web 2.0 investing peaked? Yes. Just ask the VCs themselves. continue reading...
Despite the tough financial climate, the week ushered a sizable investment in content producer Next New Networks (N3).
Blue-chip investor Goldman Sachs and media-oriented Velocity Interactive Group (VIG) led a $15M Series B investment round in N3. VIG is the fund that was created by way of a merger between ComVentures and Jon Miller and Ross Levinsohn’s new endeavor. Miller was actually a member of N3’s board. continue reading...
When former AOL CEO Jon Miller hooked up with former FOX Interactive Media CEO Ross Levinsohn, rumor had it that they would partner with a private equity firm, spend billions and roll-up media companies.
Frankly, in their hands, I’m not sure that would have been a bad idea, but with billions of dollars invested, the kind of return investors would have expected in absolute dollar amounts would have left very little room for errors. So the two men went back to the drawing board, shuffled their cards and came out with a slightly different strategy: the two would partner with a VC, invest smaller sums and set up a fund with holdings in independent companies. continue reading...
If you thought financing rounds were raising eyebrows, here’s a prediction, it’s about to get a lot more interesting, and competitive, starting… now. Part of the reason why is that exits are about to get more competitive.
Tech Crunch points to a press release that $15 billion hedge fund General Atlantic is backing Jon Miller - former CEO of Time Warner’s AOL - and Ross Levinsohn - former CEO of News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media’s roll-up fund. We’d heard a lot about these roll-up funds, and now we’re seeing that move from concept to reality. The challenge, now, is the execution. continue reading...
