Last week we looked at 5Min’s history on the one-year anniversary of its sale to AOL. Today we mark the five-year anniversary of Google’s acquisition of YouTube, announced October 9, 2006. continue reading...
With the AOL/TechCrunch soap opera finally coming to an end, we thought we would see the forest through the trees and focus on Mergers and Acquisitions, or M&A, in general. continue reading...
You knew this was coming…
When Mahalo launched, the naysayers came out in droves: we penned a post called Mahalo: English for 1996. continue reading...
Online music-focused social network Imeem is on the block, according to our sources, and has hired investment banker Montgomery and Co. to lead the sale. Coincidentally, we have also learned that the company is announcing some layoffs internally today—as much as 25 percent of its around 80-strong workforce. continue reading...
Ron Conway - the gold medal standard of angel investing - and Sequoia - the gold medal standard of VC investing - are announcing impending doom, in essence.
To summarize, their advice can be summed up as: continue reading...
Sure, Cuill (or is it Cuil?) tripped out of the gates after a much hyped launch, that much we know. But with all due respect to the otherwise on-the-ball Matt Marshall and Venture Beat, he’s missing the point on Cuil’s admittedly absurd $200M valuation in the last venture round. We’re not doubting the fact that the valuation was absurd and in hindsight, way over-valued. What we’re saying is that this is typical behavior of VCs who - let’s face it - could not identify a valuable business from a puffed press release if their lives depended on it.
Cuil isn’t worth 200 rupees, let alone 200 million rupees or dollars, but that is not the point. The point is: continue reading...
Step 1: After f*cking over Sean Parker at Plaxo, Sequoia is shunned from participating in Facebook funding, who raises money from former Paypal President Peter Thiel.
Step 2: Sequoia is snubbed once again from Facebook craze when Slide - founded by former Paypal encryption wunderkind Max Levchin - launches slide show maker for social networks. Social networking craze ensues… then starts to fizzle. continue reading...
M&A can happen quickly, but financing is a mind-numbing process that takes 6, sometimes 12 months.
As such, learning that Rock You just raised $35M for Facebook apps, you have to wonder, how do the investors feel upon learning that just yesterday, the #1 in this “space”, Slide, signaled a shift in strategy by stopping to develop new apps. continue reading...
It’s definitely very sexy and easy to argue that traditional media just doesn’t get web video. Some blast NBC for having the audacity to want to be in control of their content’s destiny online; others question the logic of Viacom not wanting 3 programmers and a venture capital fund walk away with $1.65B in capital gains largely - in their eyes - thanks to their content.
The balls these old media types have, is the prevalent vibe… and “they just don’t get it” is the usual conclusion we draw. continue reading...
