Gawker: valleywag, brad greenspan

MySpace foe can't keep it up

Owen Thomas — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Brad Greenspan, the former CEO of Intermix Media, the company which launched MySpace, loves to make trouble for News Corp., the media giant he claims bought Intermix and MySpace for a song. Too bad he pays more attention to his ongoing, one-sided feud than his revenge vehicle, LiveUniverse. Greenspan's startup is having trouble with his uptime; a tipster says his LiveUniverse and LiveVideo sites have been down for two days running. That's not the real problem; the real problem is that it took two days for anyone to notice they've been down.

LiveUniverse struggling to pay employees, clients

Jackson West — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:40:00 EDT

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.

Besides Peerflix, the company started by jilted MySpacer Brad Greenspan has also purchased struggling companies PageFlakes and Revver in the last year, and Greenspan made a personal investment in Flurl, but was turned away by JumpTV.

All that wheeling and dealing while not paying attention to basic operations like payroll? Flashy products and technology that may or may not actually exist? "Out of touch" sounds about right.

Greenspan and friends will probably just blame the market as management shorts employees, since that's all the rage these days. But this looks a lot like a textbook case of "excess and lack of self-discipline" to me. Who may end up the winner in all this? The Hollywood Hills Cat Burglar, who seems to have gotten away from Greenspan's mess just in time. (Photo by Getty/Alberto E. Rodriguez)

JumpTV rejects MySpace creator Brad Greenspan's takeover bid

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:40:00 EDT

Brad Greenspan swears he was the guy who actually created MySpace. Chris DeWolfe and everybody's friend Tom Anderson? They stole the idea from him! (After he stole it from Friendster!) Anyway, you'd think that creating the world's second most popular social network would lend Greenspan some street cred with aspiring entrepreneurs. Nope. Online video startup JumpTV just rejected Greenspan's$12.6 million for 25 percent of the company and went for a merger offer from NeuLion instead. "Mr. Greenspan's proposal was not in the best interests of the Company," reads JumpTV's release on the news. Maybe next time don't spend so much money on a failed Web video startup like Revver before trying to buy another one?

Ex-MySpace boss Brad Greenspan possibly robbed by Hollywood Hills cat burglar

Jackson West — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:20:00 EDT

The Hollywood Hills home of MySpace quasi-cofounder and acquisitive LiveUniverse CEO Brad Greenspan was broken into over the weekend, and authorities think it could be the work of a cat burglar who has preyed on the wealthy, including the likes of Charlize Theron and Faith Hill, and their hillside hideaways. Looks like everybody's MySpace friend, Tom Anderson, made the right move by choosing Santa Monica.

LiveUniverse execs "out of touch," engineers leaving

Jackson West — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:20:00 EDT

LiveUniverse, the often acquisitive company founded by tetchy former MySpacer Brad Greenspan, is bleeding engineers. That's according to one LiveVideo codemonkey who's begun applying for work at the company's competitors. Why? Because executives, like Greenspan, are "out of touch with the employees, the industry, and the company itself." The straying underling was especially concerned about being outed, because apparently said executives are regular readers of Valleywag. Hey guys! How about getting in touch with your employees by reading the lament of one geek for hire who's formulating their own exit strategy.

leet&leavin: oh I so hope this doesn't come back to me - but yes people have been leaving LiveVideo — more than I can count on one hand leet&leavin: everyone works their butts off but no there basically is no middle management and the exec's are out of touch with the employees, the industry, and the company itself leet&leavin: but a bunch of people working hard in 50 different directions with no unity is useless leet&leavin: it just costs a lot of money leet&leavin: and nothing really gets done

Video startup Revver sells to unpredictable ex-MySpace boss

Owen Thomas — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:00:07 EST

Last we heard, Revver, the YouTube wannabe which promised a cut of revenues to video creators, was on the ropes. LiveUniverse, the Internet vehicle of former MySpace boss Brad Greenspan, had walked away from a deal, reports had it. That left Revver grasping for a lifeline and willing to sell itself for as little as $1.5 million. Now, NewTeeVee tells us LiveUniverse has bought Revver for less than $5 million.

One could go into a longwinded dissertation on how rumors like this spread, how word leaks in the midst of negotiations, and how the press gets inadvertently roped into fraught negotiations. But I prefer one peer's much simpler explanation: "Brad Greenspan is crazy."

Brad Greenspan buying Revver?

Owen Thomas — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:51:55 EST

If at first you don't succeed, buy someone who hasn't succeeded, either. Such seems to be the motive behind obstreperous entrpreneur Brad Greenspan's rumored purchase of Revver, a second-tier video portal. Greenspan, the former CEO of MySpace parent Intermix Media, who bears a grudge over the social network's sale to News Corp., now runs LiveUniverse. Haven't heard of LiveVideo, LiveUniverse's leading property? Exactly. Revver, notable mostly for being more generous with sharing what little revenue it garners with video creators, would not do much to help Greenspan's lack of renown.

Credit where credit's undue

Owen Thomas — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:55:52 EDT

Facebook isn't the only social network over whom people are scrapping for credit as founders. Brad Greenspan, the former CEO of MySpace parent Intermix Media, disputes Brett Brewer's claim to having founded MySpace. What's more amazing is that the founder-status mention appeared offhandedly in a TechCrunch company profile — but Greenspan nonetheless found it, and left a comment. One wonders — does Greenspan have Google News set to email him an alert whenever someone uses the words "MySpace" and "founder"? At any rate, Valleywag's reinvention of the old saying remains true: success has many founders.

Fox Interactive head: Brad Greenspan is a loser

Nick Douglas — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:20:13 EST

Fox Interactive head (and MySpace buyer for News Corp) Ross Levinsohn (pictured) on Brad Greenspan, the former MySpace founder who's sued MySpace for allegedly lying about its value to investors, and Fox for allegedly censoring him:

He's lost every single motion he's charged against us. It's like when Mike Tyson kept trying to win this fight, and the guy kept getting up, and Tyson kept knocking him down.

It's kinda sad...two years before we bought the company, they kicked him out. For a guy who got $40 or 50 million from the sale, I mean...life's too short.

[Spoken onstage at Web 2.0 Summit]

Embittered MySpace Founder Invests in Flurl

rabruzzo — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:55:15 EDT

MySpace founder, Brad Greenspan, has acquired a majority stake in Flurl, an online video search engine. This is the first acquisition by LiveUniverse, which Greenspan founded to focus on video, entertainment and social networking.

Valleywag hopes we can search Flurl for the video of Greenspan bitching about how the MySpace purchase ripped him off.

MySpace Founder Acquires Stake in Flurl.com [Primezone]
MySpace Founder Accuses Company of Defrauding Investors [Valleywag]