MobileBeat’s panel of experts
I’m pleased to announce our esteemed panel of experts for MobileBeat.
They’ll listen to the pitches from the MobileBeat presenting companies, and select the winners in various categories. We introduced the MobileBeat Tesla Award yesterday and explained the competition categories.
The panelists are as follows:
John Smelzer, FOX Interactive Media, SVP & General Manager — John Smelzer is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile for Fox Interactive Media (FIM), a role in which he is charged… Continue Reading
Next New Networks raises $15M more for video channels
Next New Networks, the company that publishes thematic channels of video online, including Barely Political (which features Obama-cheering Obama Girl), has raised more capital to keep expanding.
It has taken $15 million more from Velocity Interactive and Goldman Sachs, we’ve just learned. This adds to the $8 million it raised a year ago (see our coverage).
The company now has 12 main channels in its network, with 33 million video views in February, a pace that suggests… Continue Reading
Levinsohn to merge firm with Silicon Valley’s ComVentures
Ross Levinsohn, the former News Corp. deal-maker who led the acquisition of MySpace, has merged his firm with a controversial Silicon Valley firm to focus on media investments.
We first reported rumors that Levinsohn would team up with the ComVentures in October, and this evening Levinsohn confirmed that news. The merger will be called Velocity Interactive Group.
Levinsohn left News Corp. earlier this year to launch a new firm, Velocity, and his stated goal at the time… Continue Reading
Levinsohn to team up with ComVentures on media investments?
updated
We’re hearing Ross Levinsohn, the former News Corp. dealmaker considered responsible for the decision by that company to acquire MySpace in its relatively early days, may team up with ComVentures, a somewhat controversial Silicon Valley venture capital firm, to help invest in early stage investments.
Levinsohn made news recently when he launched Velocity Investment Group, together with Jonathan Miller, a former exec at AOL. (See our coverage) The two want to use the firm to start… Continue Reading
Levinsohn and Miller form Internet roll-up fund
Ross Levinsohn (left), the former News Corp. exec who masterminded the early acquisition of popular social networking company MySpace, has formed a new firm that will invest in Internet businesses.
Levinsohn is reportedly being joined by Jonathan Miller (below), former chief executive of America Online.
It is called Velocity Investment Group, according to the WSJ, and sounds very much like the plan Levinsohn was rumored to be making last November. According to that rumor, he was caught… Continue Reading
Fabrik raises $24.9M more for file storage and sharing
Fabrik, a company that offer online storage and easy sharing of big files, has just closed a $24.9 million deal and added Ross Levinsohn, former President of Fox Interactive Media, to the board.
Its financing came primarily from 3i, with a small chunk from ComVentures.
As noted before, Fabrik competes in an increasingly crowded market, though their website reveals an effort to create a youthful brand (compare their site, for example, to YouSendIt, Box.net, and Omnidrive). Fabrik… Continue Reading
News Corp’s Levinsohn was caught raising roll-up fund
So you thought Ross Levinsohn, the News Corp exec who saw his stature grow after masterminding the acquisition of MySpace, left voluntarily?
So did we.
AlwaysOn’s Tony Perkins, however, provides the real scoop (click on image).
According to Perkins, Levinsohn (pictured left) was forced out when News Corp discovered that Levinsohn was raising money to start his own venture fund. VentureBeat confirmed this Thursday with someone who had talked with Levinsohn.
Here’s what Perkins tells the D7TV interviewer:… Continue Reading
MySpace founders shortchanged, Yahoo’s binge over, Timebridge, Mashery, FON, Workday
The round-up of crucial stuff in Silicon Valley:
Did MySpace’s Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson get shortchanged? — VentureBeat has heard that MySpace, the biggest success of the Web 2.0 wave so far, in terms of users, wasn’t such a great a hit for the co-founders. Word is, Chris DeWolfe ended up with a mere $5 million, even though the company was sold as part of Intermix for $580 million. We haven’t been able to confirm this… Continue Reading