The $60 million in lawsuits cover a series of botched deals for art, real-estate and other expensive toys. The root cause, however, as PEHub's Connie Loizos writes, is that Minor has been "living like a billionaire." (Coincidentally, $60 million is also what he hoped to spend on a Gulfstream jet — a deal that he claims fell through because of a lender's misdeeds.)

Minor is contesting all of these lawsuits, and has filed some countersuits of his own. But think about what it says that all these institutions devoted to serving the wealthy are suing the entrepreneur. If they thought there was money to be made with Minor down the road, would they be contesting his dealings in court as opposed to quietly working out a settlement?

What Minor doesn't have, according to at least one lawsuit filed against him: cash on hand. He's being sued by Sotheby's and Christie's for nonpayment of artwork he bid on. Merrill Lynch is suing over a $25 million loan it extended. Silverton Bank, the lender for a Charlottesville hotel, is suing for $10.5 million in missed payments.

Sotheby's says Minor told its employees that he couldn't pay because he didn't have the cash, a charge he testily disputes. In his lawsuit with Merrill, he contends that the investment bank's move to freeze his account forced him to sell other investments at a loss — again, a move he wouldn't have had to make if he had the cash on hand. He also claims Merrill's merger with Bank of America scotched the financing for his Gulfstream jet.

His splurges, chronicled in Portfolio last year include:

• A divorce which cost him roughly half of the $100 million fortune he walked away from CNET with, as well as the $300 million he made as an investor in Salesforce.com.
• An estate in Charlottesville, Va.
• A $15.3 million plantation in Williamsburg, Va.
• A $20 million home in Bel Air, which he's been trying to sell without success; it's now listed at $11.4 million.
• 
  
• A $22 million house in San Francisco's Presidio Heights neighborhood, for which he'd hired celebrity designer Michael Smith to oversee a $15 million makeover.
• A $30 million luxury hotel development in downtown Charlottesville, now on hold amidst a lawsuit.
• A $3 million deposit on the $58.5 million Gulfstream G650 jet.
• A modern art collection, including several works by Richard Prince, whose estimated value runs into the tens of millions of dollars.
• A host of startups under the umbrella of his investment firm, Minor Ventures. One of them, 8020 Media, flamed out spectacularly earlier this year.

The picture that these lawsuits paint is one of an angry dotcom mogul with a vanished fortune who's looking for someone else to blame for his woes. As a riches-to-rags story, it makes for great art.

That CEO, Mitch Fox, has announced the sale of the company's assets to a new company called 8020 Media Inc. If that sounds fishy — 8020 Media buying 8020 Media — it's because it is. The buyers include Adorama Camera, a New York-based photo chain owned by Hasidic Jews, and a group of Las Vegas investors — all represented by Brandon Calder, a Montana-based venture capitalist. An asset sale usually wipes out the company's current investors — in 8020's case, Minor Ventures, the venture-capital firm run by Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET, who has hit hard financial times himself.

8020 began life as JPG magazine and its companion website, both of which were founded by the husband-and-wife team of Derek Powazek and Heather Champ. Powazek and Cloutier cofounded 8020, which then bought JPG. Powazek was forced out in a power struggle with Cloutier in 2007. Cloutier himself left in a hurry a year later.

Meanwhile, the company hired Mitch Fox, a veteran Condé Nast ad salesman who'd just left the publisher (or been fired, depending on whom you ask), a year ago at a staggering $500,000-a-year salary — a figure Valleywag has verified firsthand through a look at the company's 2008 financials (included below). Fox vastly expanded the company, hiring expensive salespeople, launching a travel title, Everywhere, and preparing a fashion magazine. He more than doubled the company's monthly losses. Closing Everywhere did little to staunch the bleeding. 8020 ended the year with $300,000 in the bank and $3.6 million in losses, and Fox announced that the company was shutting down and putting itself up for sale.

Fox also mishandled the sale. SmugMug, a photo-sharing service, expressed interest in buying the company. But then Fox announced that a host of bidders had shown up — at which point SmugMug executives told Fox they weren't interested in a bidding war. Flickr, Yahoo's photo-sharing service, was also a rumored buyer — until Champ, who had joined Flickr as an employee, shot down the notion that anyone at Flickr or Yahoo was talking to Fox about acquiring the business.

8020's lessons? Don't hire a Condé Nast guy to run a startup, for starters. Studies have found that the best predictor of a startup's success is low CEO pay. $150,000 is the figure many cite. Above that, startups are more likely to fail, as the CEO lacks the proper motivation to turn the company into a success. Had Fox paid himself that much, the company would have doubled its cash on hand. Had he merely kept the burn rate at the level where it was when he took over, 8020 might have had another year of cash in the bank. And had he not tried to deceive potential buyers into thinking he was running an auction, 8020 might have ended up in friendlier hands.

Instead, to the end, Fox has tried to spin 8020's sale in as grandiose terms as possible, comparing its fate to the shutdown of the Rocky Mountain News. Here's the farewell email he sent:

While it's unfortunate that neither Hallmark magazine , nor the Rocky Mountain News could find buyers, we were able to swim against the tide and secure a great buyer, AND form this terrific joint partnership between these two companies with shared strategic objectives.

And now, after a hectic 47 days, hundreds, maybe thousands, of emails and countless hours on the phone and in meetings, I am delighted to report that the assets of 8020 Publishing, LLC (our official name) have been acquired by 8020 Media, Inc., a new company formed by a group of private investors, represented by Brandon Calder, for the purpose of executing on the unique vision that led to the creation of JPG Magazine, jpgmag.com and everywheremag.com. We are also pleased to announce that Adorama Camera Inc., a renowned leader in photography has reached a multi-year agreement to be JPG's Premier Community Partner and will also become minority owner of the new company.

In this difficult economic climate, business transactions take patience, finesse, intelligence and imagination, and we were lucky enough to find all these qualities in the unique group that brought this deal together. Above all, the new owners are able to see the immense promise that these properties hold to re-invent the media model and truly put the voice of the medium in the hands of its community

Adorama is a unique partner and brings an unrivaled passion for, and long-standing expertise in, the photography industry, which will be evident in the numerous exciting enhancements this relationship will bring to the JPG community.

My role, too, is changing, as I am handing the reins of the company over to my colleague, Mr. Seth Familian, who will become President and CEO of 8020 Media, Inc. As the key driver behind our digital innovation for the past year, Seth has proven to be an exceptionally capable new media leader.

Seth's plans for the business are exciting, ambitious and attainable, focusing on creative, yet practical, ways to grow both traffic and distribution, while effectively monetizing both the internet and print properties. I am sure we will all be hearing a lot about how he will develop these, and other properties on their way to becoming world class businesses.

As Vice President of Product Development for 8020 Publishing, LLC, Seth developed deep respect for the industry and the JPG community. Seth recognizes that member connection to JPG is the engine fueling its success, so member enjoyment of the site remains his core priority.

He understands how to provide opportunities that enhance members' experience, and has plans for new ways for members to share their work in many venues, which will all add to the excitement of the site's development and its value over the coming months and years. Additionally, Seth and the team are able to now reinvigorate the commitment to JPG's ‘sister' property, Everywheremag.com and look forward to developing that title while also exploring other potential opportunities for the company's business model. It's for these reasons that I feel the company is in very capable hands.

I will remain involved in the business as a member of the board of directors, and am excited to help Seth and his team in all ways possible to see 8020 Media, Inc. fulfill its promise and our dream.

In closing, I want to express my thanks to all of you who stayed close during this hectic process, and gave us your good wishes. It's always good to have friends checking in at times like this. I also want to thank Minor Ventures, especially Halsey Minor and Ron Palmeri, for believing in 8020 Publishing, LLC initially, and for working so hard to help set the enterprise off on a path that will launch it to the next level of success.

Below is the contact information for those people involved in the business now, so I guess it's time to update your address books.

See you soon I hope,

Until then, all my best

Mitch

8020 Publishing Profit

I know what you're thinking: Who starts a magazine company in this day and age? Ah, but 8020's founders had a twist on the old ink-on-paper formula: Readers would create most of the content for 8020's magazines on the Web, and a skeleton staff of old-school editors would pull it together into a glossy format. Advertising Age dubbed it 2008's "idea of the year."

Good idea, bad execution. 8020 shut down its second magazine, Everywhere, a travel title, in August. A plan to launch a fashion title came to nothing. And Mitch Fox, the Condé Nast ad-sales veteran hired last year as CEO, announced that 8020 had failed to find a buyer and was shutting down.

Now comes news of a last-minute reprieve: After the magazine world, wracked by advertising losses and shuttered titles, passed on a chance to buy 8020, some Web ventures expressed interest. 8020's one remaining title, JPG, a photography magazine, will likely never see print again. Instead, 8020's potential buyers see it as another Flickr, an online community of photo enthusiasts whose work can be cheaply and efficiently exploited.

Which is rather how Minor views his fellow entrepreneurs, from what we hear. His modus operandi: dribble out cash and keep startups coming back as supplicants, tin cup in hand. 8020 raised a grand total of $6 million in funding, and Minor's VC firm, Minor Ventures, owned more than half the company. That's a lordly sum for a Web startup, but a pittance for launching one new magazine, let alone three. (It didn't help that 8020 lost two of its founders — first, designer Derek Powazek, and then techie Paul Cloutier, the man who drove Powazek out.)

It's one thing to desire beautiful objects — paintings, historic racetracks, hotels, magazines. It's another to desire them but then change your mind about paying what they cost. It's beginning to look like a pattern with Minor, who is feuding with art auction houses and banks over his various holdings. The demise of 8020 seems peaceable in comparison. But it all points to a wealthy man whose greed is nevertheless larger than his wallet.

The old adage about money not buying happiness has never been truer. Money makes Minor angry. He is thinking about suing his bank. He's already sued an auction house which helped him buy art. And now he's suing an auction house which helped him sell art. When he's not busy filing lawsuits, he occupies himself by posting enraged comments on blogs.

The latest tussle: Minor is suing Christie's for allegedly failing to return seven Richard Prince paintings he had consigned to them. Christie's says his lawsuit has no merit, and it plans to countersue for $10 million plus legal expenses.

If it follows through on the legal threat, Christie's will join Sotheby's, which is already suing Minor for failing to pay for a set of paintings, including Edward Hicks's "Peaceable Kingdom."

Art makes Minor mad. After a spat with Damien Hirst, he removed several of the artist's butterfly tableaux from the walls of Minor Ventures, his San Francisco startup incubator, leaving fist-sized holes in the plaster, according to Portfolio.

So why is Minor spending money on art instead of making it himself? This kind of rage, channeled into creative endeavors, could command high prices even in a depressed market. His Internet comments are a whole new form of literary oeuvre. His work is fresh, surprising, visceral, and inexplicable — everything the jaded art world desires.

Connie, its such a shame you write such foolish prose. Given how poor your facts tend to be I would have expected you to make it up with words that quietly rolled from one to the next. Instead we get “spending up a storm” which is neither informative or elegant.

Did they keep you on at Portfolio after you wrote your silly, pointless and partially accurate story about me being a “Bad Boy” in Silicon Valley, a place I only see from the air if I see it at all.

Either pump up the prose, or secure some facts like other journalists, but this half fact, half invention in a pedestrian form just isn’t interesting.

Sorry, just one man’s opinion.

I can't wait to hear what Minor has to say about my post.

Byzantium Brokerage Services has another 48 photos.

Paul Cloutier, the company's former CEO, has also left the company. Minor is famously erratic and distracted by his art collection and real-estate holdings. And 8020's current CEO, ex-Condé Nast executive Mitch Fox, commutes to the job from Long Island, despite telling the New York Post in March he'd be relocating immediately. For anyone brave enough to walk into the middle of this, here's Dutta's note about the jobs:

I'm the creative director of 8020 Media now, a mag/web media company backed by Halsey Minor. Mitch Fox is the CEO. We're potentially going to launch a fashion title, so we're looking for an art director to help create the visual identity AND a fashion editor (in-chief) to shape the direction of the magazine. The magazine is not high-end established fashion but independent and emerging fashion. Catch: they have to be SF/Bay Area based.

(Photo by Todd Lappin)

CBS chairman Sumner Redstone walked past him at the Bel-Air Hotel, shortly after CBS bought CNET for $1.8 billion. Minor hasn't been at CNET since 2000, and wasn't involved in the sale. So why would he expect Redstone to recognize him? Nostalgia? Pity? Portfolio reports on Minor's many difficult relationships; he told the magazine that Gateway founder Ted Waitt, formerly an investor in one of Waitt's startups, is no longer a friend. Add to the list of those difficult relationships: Minor with facts.

(Photo by Rob Howard/Portfolio)

I ran my company, CNET [a Nasdaq 100 technology news site] during the 2002 bubble [when many .coms dot-coms crashed].... It was a crazy, tumultuous time. But I told everybody, our primary principles are No. 1, we care about our users [clients], our advertisers and Wall Street in that order. There are people who reverse that order and they might make immediate money, but they build nothing with longevity. I recently sold CNET for $1.8 billion to CBS.

Minor stepped down as CNET's CEO in 2000, not 2002. And it strains credulity for him to claim he had anything to do with CBS's purchase of the site. it's quite possible Sotheby's misled Minor, as he claims, in selling him the paintings he bid on. But whoppers like these make me less inclined to believe the missives that issue forth from Minor's keyboard. Minor, a genuinely talented entrepreneur who spotted the potential of the Web long before others, deserves plenty of credit for creating CNET in the 1990s; why does he feel the need to inflate what he's accomplished since leaving it?

First, Minor disputes the contention that he advised CNET employees to hold onto their shares when he stepped down as CEO of the Web-content company in 2000:

man, whats the deal with the content?  i never told anyone to keep their options, quite the opposite. 

this seems like the angry people of America convention.  I have heard how nasty Valleywag can get and i guess this is just the first time i have been in your scope.  why i have no idea. 

I guess i should make sure i don't get into another lawsuit with sotheby's, the firm whose prior 2 top executives went to sing sing.  the only problem i have is since they are the ACTUAL wrong doer, but first filer,  i am not sure i'll be able to keep that promise.

How about giving them a hard time next time.  They have a website so they should be fair game.

I then asked Minor about Sotheby's claim that he told the auction house that the reason he hadn't paid for the paintings was that he had to collect on money owed to him by others, not the conflict of interest issue he brought up later. He also suggests he's still interested in buying the Hicks painting, but at a "big fat discount":

why would they discuss various conversational scripts before they were due the money?  what is the purpose?  just say i didn't pay them.  I will tell everyone i didn't pay them.  they are correct.  Just so you know if they were to sell the art they still hold they may lose $1 mm to $2 mm which i would be responsible for.  The $16 mm lawsuit makes it seem like i torched the art with a blow torch and ran.  Usually they immediately go back to the next highest bidder in a situation like this.  this time they did not.

now lets discuss why i did not pay.  they were owed $11.5 mm from a bankrupt jeweler, and were having account receivable problems noted in the WSJ and Portfolio magazine at this time, and they had one painting to get it all back.  No Peaceable Kingdom had ever sold for more than $6  mm.  that means they owned the painting since it was there only means of getting paid off.  its just like a broker showing you houses. he has to let you know if one belongs to him if he was showing it to you.  Sotheby's must show a triangle by the lot number in these cases.  Many people believe it should be way more evident.  I was sold this painting by the American specialist.  I thought she was serving as an expert but in fact she was a saleswoman for Sotheby's.

The reason they can't sell my art to the next bidder or say I am incapable of paying (notice that has never been said) is because their liability only goes up.  Instead we get a story about the dog who ate my money.  well he barfed it back up and in 30 days unless there is a big fat discount offered they will be looking at a counter suit coming right back at them.  This time the dog ate my money story will be old hat but the facts they hid will be new juicy news.

They tried to intimidate me and the story grew far larger than they expected and blew up in there face.  I enjoy collecting art but its not my business.  It is there business and they rely on people's trust and confidence.  Even if they were right I would be creating a reasonable doubt about there business practices.  Considering the last CEO and Chairman did jail time I think I would have taken another tact.  i would have confessed and tried to work something out. I would have been reasonable then but not now.

Now you can call off the Society of Angry People and have the story make sense.

Minor then elaborated:

And Owen you were listening to 2 PR flacks who spent the weekend with a whiteboard strategizing what to say and were never part of ANY of the conversations.  You should call them up and ask them if they actually heard — themselves — any of the things they are quoting out of my mouth.

Rule 1 of the internet is communication is direct and transparent even if it can get combative.  No one hides behind anyone else.  As a group that should get the web I am shocked you didn't call the PR team up and ask them if they actually heard these things.  why doesn't the ceo speak or some one i was talking to.  Owen you guys can do anything you want on your blog but when you perpetuate the PR flack model it irks me.  Its not old school its idiotic for spinmasters to comminate instead of real people.  The New York Times was more skeptical of the "pr team" then you guys were.  To me there is no more basic rule of journalism today then you speak for yourself. And no this is not a dog writing.

"They have a massive failure to disclose,'' Minor told Bloomberg. "They have an economic interest to misrepresent the facts." Minor plans to countersue.

Longtime CNET employees might say the same about Minor. In March 2000, when he stepped down as CEO right before the Nasdaq peaked, he said, "As a large shareholder, I would not have made this move unless I thought I would generate more value to shareholders this way." Inside the company, he encouraged employees to hold onto their shares, too.

It was technically true that Minor remained a large shareholder. But through a financial maneuver known as a collar, he guaranteed that his shares would hold their value, even if the stock price dropped. The CNET employees he encouraged to stay and hold onto their shares had no such protection. It was a massive failure to disclose. He had an economic interest to misrepresent the facts.

The curious thing: Having protected his CNET fortune eight years ago, why did Minor claim he didn't have the money to pay for the art he purchased? He's spending heavily on real estate, including a $15.3 million, 476-acre estate in Williamsburg, Va., and Florida's Hialeah Park racetrack. Could Minor's investments have gone so sour that he's been caught in a cash crunch? If so, forgive CNET employees who saw their options sink underwater, on Minor's advice, a moment of schadenfreude.