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  • deathwatch

    Tesla CEO Says GE's an Investor, but GE Says No

    Yesterday, we noted an upcoming Car & Driver interview with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk in which he claims GE Capital is investing in the electric-car maker. Today, GE told us nuh-uh. More »
    03/30/09
    4,867
    18

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by Lizstless: GE, GE Capital and EFS are three different organizations. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up being right on... 3 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Is Elon Musk Guaranteeing Tesla Buyers' Deposits? Yes and No

    Tesla Motors, the cash-poor electric-car startup which just unveiled a new sedan prototype, may have gotten money from General Electric. But it's really hoping to trick car buyers into investing on the sly. More »
    03/29/09
    6,279
    14

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by 1Melanie: Well it's clear that young model he is dating is just clouding up his life and his judgment. Not to... 1 Responses | Other threads

  • flackery

    Tesla Praises Leaked Car Photos It Wants Erased from the Internet

    Is Tesla Motors mad that Digg founder Kevin Rose spoiled the launch of its Model S sedan by leaking photos on Flickr? Yes and no, depending on who you ask at the ailing electric-car startup. More »
    03/26/09
    20,802
    38

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by leavethegun-takethecannoli: At the risk of being gullible, did he really say that? That's unbelievably rude. I wouldn't cover any of his press... 5 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Schwarzenegger Wants to Terminate His Tesla Roadster

    When Tesla Motors launched its all-electric Roadster sports car, celebrities lined up to order one — including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now we hear he's been trying to return it for months. More »
    03/25/09
    64,635
    53

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by moralambush: I don't understand why not a single company in the States that I've read about, has tried to come out... 2 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    The End of Second Life

    Those who can't do, teach. Second Life, the most overhyped virtual world, has been abandoned even by its most fervent journalistic promoters, like Reuters and Wired. It's now pitching itself as an online schoolhouse. More »
    02/22/09
    59,860
    119

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by SidAndFinancy: I have to agree that "getting into random conversations with strangers from around the world" is "boring or creepy." Am... 8 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Why Tesla's Elon Musk Could Be the New Preston Tucker

    Tesla Motors, the best hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transportation industry, is headed over a financial cliff. The only question is how many customers the electric sportscar maker will take for a ride. More »
    01/30/09
    11,512
    36

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by ludwigk: I actually saw a Tesla roadster the other day driving into my neighborhood, which baffled me. There was this bright orange... 3 Responses | Other threads

  • ooma

    How Ashton Kutcher killed a startup guy's Hollywood dream

    It was a fantasy left over from the last boom: Hire a movie star to pitch your startup, and the dusting of tinsel will turbocharge sales. Those William Shatner ads sold plane tickets for Priceline, right? But the career of hard-partying entrepreneur Andrew Frame did not follow that script. We hear he was just fired as CEO of the Internet-phone startup he cofounded, Ooma. His most notable decision, hiring actor Ashton Kutcher as "creative director," did not pan out; Kutcher made a few incomprehensible videos, and then faded from the scene. More »
    11/21/08
    17,943
    16

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by ElvisWorley: $250? When I can buy a Magic Jack for a fraction of the price and get the same free service. 2 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Glam Media making publishers wait four months for cash

    When will Samir Arora admit that Glam Media, his online ad network, is running out of money? Glam buys up ad space on websites and resells it to advertisers, as well as operating a few token websites itself. But it has overpaid for much of that space, and revenues are running dangerously short of projections. Now, Glam is delaying its payments to partners by up to 120 days, claiming that the move is necessary because advertisers are slowing their payments to Glam. Which is utter nonsense. More »
    11/04/08
    710
    2

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by Robert Barr: The only organization that I know of that pays net 120 is the government. If Glam is have accounts receivables... more » | Other threads

  • Peng Zhou

    The martyr of Tesla Motors

    Having laid off 75-some employees and run his electric carmaker's cash balance down to $9 million, what is Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk busying himself with? Conducting a witch hunt to find who leaked Tesla's financials to Valleywag. The Truth About Cars has published an email it claims is from Musk, which includes a letter apology from R&D director Peng Zhou. The only thing that's curious: Our tipster said he'd been at Tesla for four years. Zhou has only been there for two years. In Musk's haste to find someone to blame, did he extract a forced confession from the wrong man? More »
    11/04/08
    8,698
    10

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by YervantTabasco: The original leak was written in clear, no-nonsense English. The use of 'our' to describe Tesla's customers indicates a... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Tesla to borrow $40 million from investors

    The slow-motion crash of Tesla Motors continues. Last week, an insider revealed the electric-car maker, once the best hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transportation industry, had only $9 million in the bank. Now, Elon Musk, the investor who recently deposed the company's CEO, claims the company has commitments for another $40 million in financing from some of its current investors, a group which includes Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former eBay president Jeff Skoll. But that money is debt, not equity. More »
    11/03/08
    3,577
    10

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by TMonster: This company still has some life in it and just might prove all the skeptics wrong. Their failure is by... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Tesla Motors has $9 million in the bank, may not deliver cars

    The Valley's hottest electric-car maker is running on fumes. Tesla Motors, the brightest hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-automotive industry, has only $9 million in the bank, a longtime employee tells us. The company, which recently laid off dozens of employees and announced the closing of its Detroit office, called an all-hands meeting yesterday evening to inform employees of its financial state. What makes the company's low cash balance especially scary, our tipster says, is that the company has taken "multiple tens of millions" of dollars in deposits from customers — anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000 per vehicle — and has only delivered 50 of them. The obvious conclusion: Having already spent its customers' deposits, it may run out of money before it delivers the cars they have paid for. Here's the Tesla insider's report: More »
    10/30/08
    16,130
    52

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by squablow: A Tesla is just a Lotus with an electric drivetrain swapped in. I know guys who do that kind of... 7 Responses | Other threads

  • rumormonger

    LiveUniverse struggling to pay employees, clients

    It's only a matter of a few hundred dollars, but after high acquisitive LiveUniverse acquired affiliate movie marketer Peerflix, blogger Eric D. Snider stopped receiving the until-then-regular checks. Which happened around the exact same time that we got a tip — in late August — that LiveUniverse didn't have enough cash to pay employees on payday. And it's just the latest in a string of bad signs. More »
    10/02/08
    2,697
    6

    By Jackson West

    Comment by SanchitaLumos: Here’s the real deal, folks. LU and Brad G have been totally screwing vendors, service providers and employees for months,... 1 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Uber.com firesale to feature cheap, lightly used Aeron chairs

    And so it begins — like a bad flashback to the year 2000, word comes from a tipster that while investors have pulled the plug on social networking startup Uber the site and service may stay online thanks to some free hosting help from ShareNow. But that doesn't mean there will be any employees around minding the store. There will be nothing to mind, since the company is planning to sell off all its physical assets as a lot, according to a tipster citing a rant from a soon-to-be-ex-employee. The bitterness at what's left of the company is already starting to set in, with particular scorn for co-founder and company president Glenn Kaino who was described as "a real bastard," to paraphrase the disgruntled minion. So while it may not exactly be a chance to save Uber, it may well be a chance to get that deal on a piece of Hermann Miller office furniture if you missed your chance in the dot-bomb. Who'd a thunk a site intended for jetset hipsters would end up a bargain-hunter's dream?
    10/02/08
    2,722
    8

    By Jackson West

    Comment by SajalaAlligator: How did they blow through five million dollars so quickly? I thought MC Hammer had his hands full with dancejam.... 1 Responses | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Uber.com is too legit to quit

    With already pissed off VCs demanding their money back, Uber.com — a social network for hipsters — is doing anything but. Uber.com first called it quits last Friday but the LA-based website is now begging its users to spam its link on Facebook and MySpace in an effort to save it. A cunning strategy to let as many people know how small of a failure you are. [TechNews.LA]
    09/30/08
    1,769
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    By Alaska Miller
  • deathwatch

    Sneaky ad startup Jellycloud deflates, taking $50 million-plus with it

    The online-ad network market is clogged with startups; most are bound to fail. But no death may be greeted with more joy than Jellycloud, the latest incarnation of Gator, a startup whose software was caught spying on users. A tipster tells us Jellycloud, with 36 employees, went under this weekend, with liquidators repossessing their furniture. A hard death, after a questionable birth. More »
    09/30/08
    3,238
    4

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by MelodyLeda: Amazing that exec team was able to get funded, especially as they got rid of all the people that knew/did... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    How long will Randy Falco stay at AOL?

    Let us say it, since every other writer seems too kind: As CEO of AOL, Randy Falco is an utter embarrassment. Silicon Alley Insider recounts his perplexing performance in front of a crowd of media executives gathered for Advertising Week in New York. "Radio was supposed to die 50 years ago," Falco said. "The reason radio is still around is because of mobile. The reason broadcast will still be around 50 years from now is because of mobile. All of our businesses up here will continue to grow because of video applications on mobile." What? More »
    09/22/08
    1,743
    5

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by Rachel Marsden: ROCK ME AMADOUCHEBAG!!! Falco's dead. more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Barry Diller's finance site: "Completely pointless"

    FiLife, a personal-finance site backed by IAC and the Wall Street Journal, is struggling, according to one ex-employee we eavesdropped on at the City Bakery, a coffeehouse in Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood, as she interviewed for a new job. "The business model completely changed," she said. "It used to be personal finance for people in their 20s and 30s. Now it's just completely pointless." An embittered writer? Perhaps. FiLife hired a batch of journalists, only to switch gears shortly before launch and realize that the Web didn't need another content site. But their replacement — a set of automated tools to evaluate one's place in the financial pecking order — do seem pointless. The site only attracts 31,500 users a month. In this regard, FiLife is utterly typical — of both its backer and its genre. More »
    09/22/08
    1,960
    1

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by sggrf: must make one proud to work at IAC:) more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Wallop belly-flops

    Former Keen and Cloudmark CEO Karl Jacob set high expectations for Wallop, a social networking site that hoped to sell widgets to users rather than showing them ads. Valleywag liked Wallop because it let you physically drag losers out of your social circle. But Wallop never made it out of beta. The site now says it will terminate service on Thursday. TechCrunch reports that their email to the company's press contact bounced — that's all, folks!
    09/15/08
    435
    2

    By Paul Boutin

    Comment by Shadowlayer: e-losers represent 90% of SN users, and they'll refuse to pay for anything, nuff said. more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    How bringing in the "grownups" killed Heavy.com

    The boom in online ad networks, those automated brokers of discount banners patronized by websites desperate for quick cash, is at long last turning to bust. And the shakeout couldn't have started with a more deserving company. Amid lawsuits and layoffs, Heavy.com has seen two-thirds of its once-15-strong salesforce leave, a source familiar with the company tells us. Meanwhile, the company is trying to sell its Heavy.com, a video destination targeted at young men, so far without success. The plan is to focus on its porn-friendly Husky ad network. Who's to blame? Recently hired "grownups," says our source. More »
    Feature Feature
    09/12/08
    6,995
    12

    By Nicholas Carlson
  • deathwatch

    Flagship Studios' bankruptcy a cautionary tale for startups

    The bankruptcy of Flagship Studios, an ambitious videogames startup, provides a startling example of what not to do when it comes to finding funding for your startup. The company, founded by CEO Bill Roper, formerly of the Starcraft team at Blizzard North, leveraged the intellectual property rights for its two games, Hellgate: London and Mythos, as collateral in order to secure loans to keep the company afloat. When the company finally ran out of that money, the two core projects immediately reverted to the lenders, Comerica and HanbitSoft, respectively. HanbitSoft, a Korean company which had the exclusive rights to market the games in Asia, ended up in a position where it was in the company's interest to let Flagship go under: Why pay licensing fees when you can own the game outright after the owner goes under? More »
    07/15/08
    2,410
    2

    By Jackson West

    Comment by Shadowlayer: Meh, all these small studios pumping new MMORPGs after the financial success of WoW are the equivalent of the web... more » | Other threads

  • rumormonger

    Robert Scoble's former employer PodTech about to get sold

    PodTech, once described by Valleywag emeritus Nick Douglas as "the video podcast network apparently dedicated to screwing over as many people as possible without actually profiting from it," will be sending out a cheery press release touting its acquisition as soon as today, I've been told. The company has also been meeting with potential clients who are being told that the company's just fine, thanks. Except what did the acquirer buy? Not inexplicable geek celebrity Robert Scoble, who decamped for Fast Company months ago, and was the company's only real, if questionable, claim to fame. More »
    07/10/08
    866
    3

    By Jackson West

    Comment by esyn: Podtech has been way behind paying its vendors. I know that they have not paid their podcast transcription vendor for... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Wantrepreneur no more

    BricaBox founder Nate Westheimer didn't like it when we called him a "wantrepreneur" in our posts about his various publicity stunts. With BricaBox closing, Westheimer won't have to worry about that anymore! [CenterNetworks]
    06/19/08
    843
    7

    By Nicholas Carlson

    Comment by innonate: For the record, two hours after this article was posted, I was hired as Entrepreneur in Residence at a local... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Steve Case's Revolution Health to lay off another 35 to 45, seek bailout merger

    Following last month's layoffs, Revolution Health, the healthcare-transforming startup started by former AOL CEO Steve Case, will shrink yet more by the end of this month, a tipster tells us: More »
    06/05/08
    2,965
    3

    By Nicholas Carlson

    Comment by saywho: This isn't really surprising considering the extreme lack of leadership and communication in the organization. I would assume that anyone... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Akimbo's last-ditch plan: Porn!

    An Akimbo employee detailed the twists and turns in strategy at the now dead startup, mostly from the point at which Tom Frank (pictured) took over as CEO. Frank stalled development on content for investor AT&T, killed a product a month after it was shipped to Novato-based Sonic, switched products on client CenturyTel with two months notice, then decided they needed to acquire Canadian startup iWave's software. Only after founder Jim Funk left, along with legions of engineers, did executives decide to resuscitate tech built in-house. The nail in the coffin? More »
    05/29/08
    2,022
    11

    By Jackson West

    Comment by IgnatiusWorm: You can still see their site, it's just hidden at http://carnaltv.akimbo.com/default.aspx more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Oh, Canada? Red Herring postpones event from May to June to September

    With constant staff turnover and an eviction from its offices, at this point it would be more surprising if Red Herring managed to put together an event at all. Its Canadian startup showcase was originally scheduled for this week; citing a conflict with a Canadian venture-capital conference, the Herring moved it to June. Publisher Alex Vieux missed a poorly attended "introductory cocktail" party for the event in March; his staff put his absence down to a missed flight connection. Now the event has been rescheduled for September — the same month as the Herring's hastily postponed wireless conference in Beijing, and its Asia conference in Hong Kong. Vieux will have plenty of opportunities to miss flight connections — if any of the events happen at all.
    05/27/08
    639
    5

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by bragball: bad managing a magazine is one thing... now Vieux screws up planning/organizing events as well.... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Ding, dong, Akimbo's dead

    Akimbo, the online video company that just laid off most of the staff, has finally closed its doors. Its failure comes only months after a fresh infusion of $8 million from investors, including AT&T. The telco giant was looking for Akimbo's content to fill out the company's HomeZone TV offering. Only problem? Akimbo lost all its content licensing deals, according to a tipster. [VentureBeat]
    05/23/08
    918
    9

    By Jackson West

    Comment by whoindatgarden: Funny how little people know and yet comment as if they are well informed. Scientific Atlanta (Cisco company) and General Instruments... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Red Herring website outage an unfortunate coincidence

    Alex Vieux's Red Herring isn't just poorly managed; it's unlucky as well. I just got off the phone with Vassil Mladjov, CEO of Blogtronix, the blog-software company which hosts RedHerring.com. He blames the site's outage — which comes the same week as the Herring's eviction from its offices and the cancellation of a Herring event in China — on a bug involving log files, and says the site will be back up shortly. Mladjov adds that unpaid bills aren't the issue; Blogtronix arranged to get paid through a barter deal.
    05/23/08
    613
    3

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by NoDomainsForSale: The old Red Herring zeitgeist lives on at: [alwayson.goingon.com] AlwaysOn was founded by Tony Perkins, one of the original editors at Red... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Red Herring cancels China event with one week's notice

    Red Herring's magazine has not been regularly printed in ages. Today, its its website has been displaying error messages — not that readers are missing much of the understaffed RedHerring.com's output. Herring's conference business alone has been sustaining Alex Vieux's rocky tech-publishing empire. But that, too, seems to be falling apart. A commenter has posted what he claims is an email from Vieux announcing the cancellation of next week's Red Herring Wireless conference in Beijing. At first it struck me as ludicrous that Vieux would cancel one of his cash-cow events. But I called the host hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Beijing, and staff there confirmed that the event was off. Vieux's email cites "difficult personal family health problems" as the reason. If true, it is most unlucky for Vieux that these health issues just happened to coincide with an eviction from Herring's Belmont headquarters. More »
    05/23/08
    815
    1

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by wavalley: This is absoultely ridiculous. There is clearly no way Herring will pay back registration fees; not to mention reimburse travel... more » | Other threads

  • crime

    Did Red Herring employees break into their old office?

    A call to Red Herring publisher Alex Vieux through his old office line, 650 428 2900, was answered today by a man with an Eastern European accent who said Vieux wasn't there. Why was anyone there to answer the phone? Yesterday, the Herring's landlord sent a locksmith, an attorney, and sheriff's deputies to evict Vieux from the building, prompting a hasty exit. Vieux claims he has a new office, but wouldn't give out its address. If so, it's possible Vieux had the phone line forwarded there. But it's also possible, a former employee says, that Herring employees broke into their former office: "I wouldn't be shocked if Vieux & Co. just went in through one of the side doors that is not well secured." Wouldn't that be trespassing, though?
    05/22/08
    876
    4

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by johnnypotatoes: The site was up the other day, and even had fresh (or at least freshly timestamped) content. It's down now. [downforeveryoneorjustme.com] more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Startups brag about homeless Herring honor

    The news of Red Herring's eviction from its office has not given the Valley's PR machine even a momentary pause. At last count, 89 press releases have hit Google News touting some startup's listing on the Red Herring 100 North America. What none disclose: Whether they paid Red Herring to be included on the list. Several companies have told Valleywag that publisher Alex Vieux emailed them after naming them as "finalists" for the Herring 100, suggesting that they buy event tickets or pay for a promotional video. Vieux's landlord must be flabbergasted that despite these surely lucrative quid-pro-quo awards, Vieux still wasn't able to pay his rent.
    05/22/08
    663
    9

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by bierhausser: So what's the herring's new digs like? do they still have the FLAGPOLE and the Herring Flag? jimski more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Alex Vieux to publish Red Herring from undisclosed location

    The delusional Alex Vieux's powers of spin are prodigious. He has characterized the eviction of Red Herring, his tottering tech-publishing enterprise, from its Belmont office to News.com as an "economic decision." An economic decision which involved a locksmith, the landlord's attorney, and assorted sheriff's deputies. Normally, working out a rent dispute doesn't require officers of the peace. Were Vieux to be convicted of a crime and jailed, would he describe his sentence as a "period of voluntary seclusion"? (We speak theoretically, of course.) He also told News.com that he had secured a new office, but would not say where it is.
    05/22/08
    945
    5

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by freshtaste: Also, the labor practices. We need to get into this. Red Herring liked to hire immigrants and exploit them because... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Meetro dies, but love lives on

    Location-based social network tool Meetro is closing the doors. In the goodbye letter founder and CEO Paul Bragiel explained how a small community of users in Chicago wasn't enough — the company couldn't get much penetration in the markets in New York or San Francisco, where services like Dodgeball and Yelp have acquired large followings (though Dodgeball has since withered and Yelp isn't huge outside of the Bay Area). And the fact that users had to download software didn't help. But hey, one of Meetro's execs met a girl:
    We had hundreds of active users and you could feel the buzz around it. We threw a few parties that continued to support the good mood all around. Hell, our CTO Sam even met his current girlfriend at one of them.
    05/21/08
    346
    1

    By Jackson West

    Comment by raincoaster: Having worked for a company in the same business, I can tell you that this is what happens. Social sites's... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Sheriff's deputies evict Red Herring from Belmont office

    More »
    05/20/08
    4,706
    18

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by freshtaste: @valleygal33: It will sink through the bottom of the ocean, to where the magma is. That's his secret plan! mwha... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    The Omnidrive story you won't read on TechCrunch

    Until a recent article from ReadWriteWeb declaring online file-storage and sharing service Omnidrive dead, founder and CEO Nik Cubrilovic was missing in action. The support forums for customers went unattended even as the site went down. An investor, Clay Cook, who sunk six figures into the company couldn't get a reply to his email. Also nowhere to be found? Any reporting from TechCrunch. More »
    05/06/08
    2,822
    19

    By Jackson West

    Comment by jackparsons: Meet your new TechCrunch writer: Nik Cubrilovic: [www.techcrunch.com] more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Internet-TV startup Akimbo meets its iceberg

    One anonymous source has now become three, so we're calling it over for Akimbo, the TV-over-the-Intenet startup which no amount of new CEO Thomas Frank's winning smiles could save. Writes an ex-employee:
    It's true. I used to work for them over 2 years ago and all of my friends that were there are now gone. They laid off the last of them today. It's sad but LONG OVERDUE. Akimbo is now officially dead although the heartbeat died over a year ago.
    So who's left to move the deck chairs? More details on the sinking of the startup, which had raised $47 million in venture capital, after the jump. More »
    05/02/08
    1,312
    7

    By Jackson West

    Comment by ryaninmtv: I had the original Akimbo box a couple years ago. There was some niche programming from the UK and... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Hard-up Herring shakes down startups

    At Red Herring, every startup is a winner — but publisher Alex Vieux is the one who takes the prize. Indeed, handing out prizes seems to be the main way Vieux is keeping it afloat. The once-vital technology publisher, which Vieux has all but run into the ground, no longer prints a magazine. A tipster says healthcare for its workers has been cancelled for nonpayment. Its website, which used to mostly carry wire copy, now produces a pitiful handful of stories each day. But the Herring is still flopping around with an events business. The next one, Red Herring 100 North America, due to be held in San Jose later this month, will celebrate 100 startups of Vieux's choosing. And how does he select them from a list of 204 finalists? A come-on email and phone call one startup received is revealing: More »
    05/01/08
    1,274
    6

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by myfriendster: After all we know about the RH, I found amusing to see that Monsieur Vieux is calling start-ups to fire... more » | Other threads

  • rumormonger

    Will the last Akimbo employee please turn out the lights

    Akimbo has laid off nearly everyone except for its executives, according to a tip we just received. An early entrant in the TV-over-Internet field, Akimbo saw its original CEO Joshua Goldman leave for the luxury of investing in other video startups. The company dumped its set-top box business to sell Internet video-on-demand software to other hardware manufacturers. So far $47 million has been poured into the company by the likes of Cisco Systems, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Kleiner Perkins' William R. Hearst III, who serves on Akimbo's board. Any Akimbo employees out there want to confirm or contradict our tipster's impression that CEO Tom Frank and COO Neil Goldberg are mismanaging the aging startup?
    05/01/08
    1,084
    10

    By Jackson West

    Comment by sadakimbo: Truthmonger,So you have anything to say to the sad CinemaNow folks who probably put their eggs happily into Mr. Frank's... more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    CNET's Caroline McCarthy pours water on Web 2.0 hotheads

    After a week of browsing booths and attending parties in San Francisco for the Web 2.0 Expo, New York-based tech reporter Caroline McCarthy rained on the local bubble's annual hype parade. [News.com] (Photo by Brian Solis)
    04/25/08
    3,190
    1

    By Jackson West

    Comment by CharBo: That was a great article - informative and amusing! more » | Other threads

  • exits

    Jeff Pulver resigns from eponymous tradeshow producer Pulvermedia

    Jumping ship from a company that had already lost the confidence of its investors, Jeff Pulver, the pioneering VOIP promoter, has left Pulvermedia, the company he founded to put on tech tradeshows like VON.
    Just wanted to share the news that I have resigned as a director from Pulvermedia. And I am not able to say anything else nor can I address any questions about this.
    Silence implies that either it was offered in exchange for something, or that lawyers are involved and lawsuits are pending. (Photo by Randy Stewart)
    04/24/08
    335
    1

    By Jackson West

    Comment by Dweezil: This is why you should not name companies after yourself. more » | Other threads

  • deathwatch

    Ex-Yahoo Russell Beattie blames industry trends, not self, for startup's failure

    If at first you don't succeed, cast your failure as part of an industry trend. That's the exit strategy of Russell Beattie, who launched mobile startup Mowser after being fired from Yahoo in 2006. Fired, mind you, when Yahoo was firing very few people. Beattie's tale of woe explains Mowser's failure thus: Designing Web pages for cell phones was always a short-term game, and his bet came out wrong. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington plays right into Beattie's hand, arguing about the future of the mobile Web instead of asking why Mowser failed. He encourages Beattie to launch a new startup building applications instead of a mobile Web browser. More »
    04/15/08
    931
    2

    By Owen Thomas

    Comment by Rock tha Hizzee: But he's a blogger? Where did it all go so wrong? more » | Other threads

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