Gawker: valleywag, helio

Palm hires Sidekick, Helio smartphone designer

Owen Thomas — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Has Palm run out of Apple engineers to poach? Or has Steve Jobs's intimidation campaign proven effective? Whatever the reason, Palm's latest hire seems smart: Matias Duarte, the designer of the user interface for the Sidekick and Helio's Ocean.

Virgin Mobile bails out Helio

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Virgin Mobile will acquire failed mobile virtual network operator Helio for $39 million in equity and, if the last two years are a trend, much more in costs. Founded as a joint venture between Earthlink and SK Telecom, Helio burned through $560 million in its first two years. [PaidContent]

Helio-Virgin deal might involve multibillion-dollar Sprint investment

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Helio backer SK Telecom, the Korean wireless giant, is in negotiations to purchase Virgin Mobile USA. The plan: combine the two properties and then invest enough in Sprint Nextel to get all three companies working together. Sprint already runs the network over which Helio and Virgin run their cell-phone services. Complicating the deal: T-Mobile's rumored interest in buying Sprint. "Part of something is better than all of nothing," a source close to Helio tells us.

Helio wants the deal because it will put them into the prepaid market and Virgin wants the deal because it will put them in the subscription market. They also feel that a combined company will give them more clout with Sprint — or T-Mobile if Sprint get purchased. If Sprint is not purchased, look for the combined company to inject a few billion into Sprint and also giving them a 20-30 percent stake in the new firm.

We've not seen a deal so complicated since Park Place was on the table for all the railroads and free rent on Boardwalk for 10 turns, but given Sprint's vulnerable position these days, and the fact that Sprint uses the same technology, CDMA, as SK Telecom — a rarity — there's logic to the deal.

Helio, Virgin Mobile in merger talks

Owen Thomas — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:20:00 EDT

SK Telecom, the backer of money-losing wireless startup Helio, could buy out Virgin Mobile USA and combine it with Helio. [MocoNews.net]

EarthLink's choice: just fade away

Owen Thomas — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Rolla Huff, the CEO of Internet service provider EarthLink, has made a choice many in Silicon Valley find incomprehensible: He's no longer bothering to get new customers. Here, the moment you stop growing — no, the very second your momentum falters — you're instantly written off. But the reason why EarthLink swung to a $54 million profit in its first quarter was simple. Its new dial-up customers — yes, people are still signing up for dial-up — simply weren't worth its while, and EarthLink stopped spending money to market service to them. Huff has also pulled the company out of the municipal Wi-Fi market, selling some networks to city governments and shuttering others. He's similarly disentangling the company from its Helio cell-phone joint venture, a half-billion-dollar fiasco. All of that doesn't leave EarthLink with much of a future.

Yet the cost of dial-up continues to shrink, which means EarthLink can continue to squeeze its current customers for healthy profits, possibly for some time to come. It's not innovative, not sexy. It's not why founder Sky Dayton started the company; it's not a business plan anyone from the Valley would propose, or a job an engineer here would sign up for. SoMa Web designers are offended by the notion that anyone's still accessing their sites through a 56-Kbps modem. EarthLink is not following the set pattern: Set the world on fire, or flame out fast. For the Valley's groupthinkers, the fact that EarthLink still exists, collecting monthly checks, is an idea that must burn.

Helio hires Goldman Sachs

Owen Thomas — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:42:24 EST

Helio has tapped Goldman Sachs, its longtime banker, for a new project, we hear. Signing up a banker is usually a sign that a company is putting itself up for sale. Helio, Sky Dayton's wireless startup, began life as a joint venture of EarthLink and SK Telecom, the South Korean phone company. But EarthLink washed its hands of Helio after the untimely death of CEO Garry Betty, and on Tuesday, Dayton and most of his EarthLink-loyalist management team were ousted. Now SK, too, may be looking for Goldman to rid it of a cash-burning child. Why would anyone buy Helio? Not for its tiny user base. Possibly for its innovative phone designs, like the Ocean, and mobile friend-finding services. It is unlikely those will reclaim the hundreds of millions of dollars SK poured into Dayton's dream.

CFO and three VPs depart Helio, chairman to follow

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:10:25 EST

Helio CFO Todd Tappin and execs Michael Zemetra, Terry Boyle and Kieran Hannon will leave the company by March 31. A source tells us former CEO and current chairman Sky Dayton won't remain long, either. The cell-phone carrier started as a joint venture in 2006 between EarthLink, the Internet service provider founded by Dayton, and South Korean phone company SK Telecom. Since then, it has disappointed, and EarthLink ran short on cash to invest. When SK Telecom reupped with another $270 million last fall, reducing EarthLink's share to 22 percent, this kind of shakeout was expected. In fact, our source tells us most if not all executives from the "EarthLink side of the house" will depart the company on or before March 31.

Sky Dayton just wants to be your friend

Owen Thomas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:14:49 EDT

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Could it be that Sky Dayton is feeling a little lonely? EarthLink, the company he founded, refused to participate in the latest round of financing for Helio, the upstart wireless carrier he now heads. In a keynote speech at Technology Review's EmTech conference, he touted his company's service not as, say, letting you make calls and surf the Web, but "connecting you to your community of friends." So it's a social network! Ah, but a social network that requires buying a phone (as much as $295) and signing up for service ($85 to $90 a month, on average). No wonder Dayton's ersatz social network, cleverly disguised as a cell-phone company, only counts 140,000 users, and is losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Somehow I don't think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is sweating over this one.

Sky Dayton's wireless company, Helio, as...

Owen Thomas — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:43:57 EDT

Sky Dayton's wireless company, Helio, as rumored, is getting new funding without help from co-owner EarthLink, an Internet service provider facing financial straits. Joint-venture partner SK Telecom is investing $270 million in Helio and renegotiating its agreement with EarthLink. [Reuters]

Does Sky Dayton need a new sugar daddy?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:32:52 EDT

Helio, Sky Dayton's wireless-service provider, is cutting back, laying off one out of seven employees, mostly in sales. It's now concentrating efforts, the company says, on its 20 largest markets. The company only has 100,000 subscribers, and 600 employees even after the cutbacks, and is expected to lose more than $300 million this year. EarthLink, the troubled Internet service provider founded by Dayton that's one of Helio's two backers, is rumored to be looking to pull out.

A company spokesperson says EarthLink remains behind Helio. But it only makes sense that EarthLink, having just laid off 900 employees of its own, might be looking to cash out its stake in Helio by finding a buyer. That would give EarthLink some immediate cash to shore up its operations, and spare it from making further investments in Helio; having put $220 million into Helio, its expected to sink another $100 million into the wireless carrier this year.

The only problem with this rumor: Having cut back on its municipal Wi-Fi efforts, if EarthLink pulls out of Helio, too, it will have precious few growth businesses with which to tantalize investors. Dayton, of course, will have a much more pressing problem: 600 mouths to feed.

Helio Fights Apple with Official YouTube Over 3G (and the Genius of the iPhone's 2.5G/WiFi)

Brian Lam — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:58:50 EDT

Sky Dayton, who has been quoted several times in the last week in iPhone critique pieces, is officially putting a more powerful set of YouTube features on his 3g phones. Here comes the bloodbath. This is going to be complicated to explain, so sit down and listen up.

With 3G high speed networks, that's anywhere, not just where you have a Wi-Fi hotspot like on an iPhone. And it'll have video upload from the phone's camera, direct to YouTube, with two clicks. (To be Launched later.) That's by dedicated app, that'll let you rate videos and view favorites. And will include access to eBaum's World among other video sharing sites. They're charging $5.99. And Howard forums members have just reported to me that access to m.youtube.com directs them to a purchase page. So it appears no Mobile YouTube unless you pay. This isn't true.

Over the weekend, we reported a mysterious soft launch of mobile youtube (m.youtube.com), and gave you a tour on none other than a Helio Ocean (completely coincidentally). Today, that page redirects to a sign up page for the official service.

There's a workaround. Just enter "m.youtube.com/?s=srf" into your browser to get read access to YouTube on a Helio device. This is the same page that I gave you a tour of over the weekend. Granted, you don't get the upload, or other services. But you can still watch YouTube on an ocean, for as free as you can watch it on an iPhone.

I cannot believe I am muttering these words: Now it becomes evident that the move to put 2.5G EDGE and Wi-Fi in the iPhone was smart for the device. Not only does the iPhone have eight hours of talktime without battery sucking 3g, but they've got full video streaming to the handset without racking up stupendous cellular network bandwidth costs for the carriers and users. The only problem is that you need to be at an access point for the iPhone to stream video at a reasonable pace.

So how is Helio going to pay for those YouTube freeloaders when they soak up the network? I don't know, but I'm glad they're offering a workaround for the geeks, while still managing to up sell something useful with that video upload feature and more.–Brian Lam

Helio Disconnecting EVDO/WiFi Service

Adam Frucci — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:15:12 EDT

Helio, while best known for bringing hot Korean phones to our shores, has also been offering a somewhat unique EVDO/Wi-Fi service for some time now called "Hybrid." It allowed users to connect to the 3G EVDO network, and when they found a Wi-Fi hotspot they would seamlessly switch over to that speedier connection. The service included a partnership with the Boingo Wi-Fi Network, which has 60,000 hotspots around the world, giving people a chance to boost their speed if they were near a Barnes & Noble or another place with one of their hotspots.

Well, it was a nice idea, but apparently no one used it. The service will be disconnected as of May 8th, with customers who have paid beyond that being issued refunds or credits. Our question is this: Are there any pieces of software out there that will automatically switch you from an EVDO connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot when you come across one? It's a neat idea, one that you shouldn't need to sign up for a service to be able to use. –Adam Frucci

PhoneScoop [via CrunchGear]

Tom Cruise and Sky Dayton — the gatekeeper and the keymaster to meet

ndouglas — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:12:10 EST

Fresh from his Yahoo gig, Tom Cruise is headed off to a Scientology temple today. This tip just in:

Just heard that Tom Cruise just showed up at Helio (Sky Dayton's new wireless gig in LA) This was about 30 minutes ago.

As gleefully reported earlier, Earthlink founder Sky Dayton's been a longtime supper of the Scientology Kool-aid. When two high-level Church followers get this close, does the building become a conduit for Gozer the Destructor to unleash hell upon the world?

Earlier: Yahoo goes crazy for Cruise [Valleywag]
And: Auditing Sky Dayton [Valleywag]