Carl Page’s “shell” public company, Handheld Entertainment

March 21, 2006 | Matt Marshall | Comments | |
zvue.bmp

Carl Page was an Internet success before his younger brother, Larry Page, made billions as co-founder of Google.

Our Mercury News colleague Mike Langberg catches up with Carl Page’s latest effort (free registration) at Handheld Entertainment of San Francisco, which makes a portable device called the Zvue for playing audio and video.

But Langberg is somewhat critical, saying Page is using a tactic tainted by a long history of scams: purchasing a dormant or “shell” public company and merging into it, instead of slogging it through the conventional initial public offering process. Read the story and decide for yourself what you think.

Separately, Dan Primack weighs in on the totally different “blank-check” entity, Acquicor created by Steve Wozniak & Co. We mentioned it a few days ago, and now Primack seems to have the same questions. Though he takes the extra step, and raises the “fraud” question.

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Ashwini
    Did you hear about thr Google and Nike tie-up for a football Web site?
  • Yes, I did. It is pretty uncharacteristic of Google (it is a content creation play), and noteworthy for that reason. But at the same time, didn't rush to blog it here because how many folks here in Silicon Valley really care about soccer? Ok, before you scream back at me, there are lots, but I'd wager no more than 15 percent of readers...
  • Rusty
    Isn't this exactly what the New York Stock Exchange did? Langberg is always critical.