Google Bypasses Tech Departments — Again
February 28, 2008
I've been toying around with Office Live recently -- Microsoft's web-based collaboration tool and today Google announces an addition to it's Google Apps package that will let people build Web sites where they can post anything from contact information to presentations to videos. Google says this will make it easier for workers to collaborate on projects. Read more
Intel throws venture cash behind site that encourages tequila-shot contests
February 13, 2008
Something about this just makes me uneasy.
Bragster, a London-based site "for dares and social bets," announced Wednesday that it has secured $3.5 million in Series A venture cash. The funding round was led by none other than Intel Capital, the investment branch of the famed chipmaker.
The premise of the Digg-meets-Jackass-esque site is that members dare one another (or place open dares) to perform ridiculous feats, then insist on video evidence that they were completed. Bragster, co-founded by a former Morgan Stanley employee and an Amazon.com alum, provides prizes to some of the most over-the-top stunts and also sponsors contests like the "Undies at Uni Challenge," which appears to encourage college students to take their clothes off.
So what are some of the top bets and challenges on Bragster? One member has dared another to "slap someone around the face with a fish in a supermarket." O.K., I'd like to see that, however inappropriate it may be. Same thing with "dress like a Spartan and run around in the street shouting lines from the movie 300." Others, like "pour 2 mugs of boiling hot coffee on my laptop," start to make me uneasy. Call me old-fashioned, but somebody could get hurt. At least Johnny Knoxville occasionally informed his viewers that they shouldn't imitate him at home.
Then there's "I bet I can do 15 shots of tequila in 60 minutes." Um, that's called "really dangerous." I hope Bragster has good lawyers.
Dave Morgan, AOL’s EVP-Global Advertising Strategy, Leaving For Startup World Again
February 11, 2008
Dave Morgan, the founder of online advertising firms RealMedia (which later became 24/7RealMedia and sold to WPP for $649 million) and Tacoda, is leaving AOL (NYSE: TWX) exactly three months after being appointed EVP-Global Advertising Strategy, according to an internal memo we obtained. The official announcement will come later today. Morgan came to AOL after he sold his behavioral advertising company Tacoda to it in September, for about $275 million.
The memo, sent by Ron Grant, COO of AOL, outlines a rather cordial parting of ways, and when I reached Morgan last evening by phone, he confirmed his departure, and echoed the thoughts. From the text of the memo:
"Dave has worked side by side with Curt to make sure the integration of Tacoda—his baby—went smoothly...Dave helped us define and implement our vision for Platform-A. We've benefited greatly from his enthusiasm...and we will continue to do so as we bring Platform-A to market this year. In fact, Dave will be working with me to identify start-up opportunities that are strategic to AOL and Platform-A.. Dave, though, is an entrepreneur at heart, and so it didn't really surprise me that he wanted to get back in the start-up game again and we'll look forward to working with him in the future."
Morgan told me he is looking at a couple of ideas in the online advertising field, and will possibly even look at AOL funding some part of it, if it makes sense. But a departure three months after his new appointment at AOL will raise more than a few eyebrows, especially as the big Internet media companies are in turmoil and tussle for consolidation. This is the second major departure from AOL's ad team announced in the last week: Discovery just hired Kathleen Kayse as EVP of digital media sales..she also came from Platform-A where she was EVP of marketing solutions and led ad sales and partnerships.
AOL will not fill the role created for Morgan. Curt Viebranz is currently the president of Platform-A.
These moves come after parent Time Warner announced its intention last week to split AOL into an access business and an audience/advertising business. There is rampant speculation that all of this means AOL will sell off the audience business, or get in bed with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in a bigger way, especially if the MSFT-YHOO deal ever happens.
David adds: I met with Morgan two weeks ago to discuss his views on the state of the online ad industry in general and AOL's ability to continue its string of investments and acquisitions amid widespread recessionary fears. Not giving any hint of his plans to leave his current post, he said companies like AOL will have to be more aggressive about looking outside the U.S. to extend its ad network. "If you believe in the long-term market opportunity, the down markets are when you want to make your strongest moves." Guess he is making his…
Yahoo-Microsoft Photoshop Funnies
February 11, 2008
It’s hard to resist one of the winners from a content sponsored by Valleywag and Fark for the best Photoshopped depictions of what a Yahoo-Microsoft coupling would look like.
Pretty funny, actually, and here is my favorite:
And here is a new cartoon from the Joy of Tech duo, Nitrozac and Snaggy, which is also featured in our site’s Voices section today. It was inspired by a BoomTown post called, “No More Sand For the 98-Pound Weakling of the Web”:
Monaco Media Forum: Barry Diller Is Not Shy
November 12, 2007
Here is a sampling of quotes from my one-on-one interview with him onstage at the Monaco Media Forum on Friday morning, taken from the not-so-audible audio of my Flip video camera. But you’ll get the idea of why Diller (pictured here) remains one of the more robust characters out there.
We began talking about the split of IAC into five parts, lopping off unrelated businesses, with the backdrop of a struggle he has been engaged in with Liberty Media’s John Malone.
Why do it? “We were being superficial managers,” said Diller. For example, of the mortgage business around LendingTree, he said: “I have little to no interest and that is not how I want to live my life.”
(Very few execs, I can assure you, will admit to rank corporate boredom about their businesses.)
But Diller was just getting started, taking shots at everything from the “dumb” Hollywood writers’ strike to the insanity of Facebook’s $15 billion valuation, as well as his own corporate shortcomings.
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