September 24, 2007 – LIVEdigitally

EchoStar/DISH Networks is buying Sling Media!

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Holy crap, that’s all I can say. OK, not really, I can say a lot more. Mazel Tov. Congrats. Holy f*ing crap! Sling Media (my former employer) just got picked up for a cool $380 million (nice timeline here too). Holy crap! Sorry for all the pseudo-pottymouthedness, but come on, holy crap!

I think this was a pretty solid win-win relationship. Echostar is in heavy competition with DirecTV (and the cable co’s) today, and needs to start bolstering for the pretty much already-in-progress war with the Internets for TV. Sling brings not just the cool gadgets and yet-to-be-released Clip+Sling technology to the company, more importantly it brings knowhow.

Very few folks out there have really done anything “right” when it comes to PC and TV convergence. TiVo? Yes… Then there’s… uhm… let’s see… Apple? No. Microsoft? Kinda. ReplayTV? Who’zat? Seriously, you can count the successes in this space on a finger or two, and the failures can pile up enough terrible technology to fill HP’s garage! Sling has some knowhow, and Echostar can use it!

I am curious to see what becomes of the hardware side of the business. Will it be “Slingbox from Echostar?” Will we see a combined Dishplayer (the Echostar set-top-box with DVR features) with built-in Slinging? Or will they leave the unit independently running in San Mateo, building up a successful retail/hardware business? After all, they did eat Sony’s lunch when it came to the LocationFree TV (and the Vaio group is lucky they don’t ship laptops, since I could macramé a better one than the SZ-VGN460 – imagine if Sling built one!).

There’s a lot of options for these two companies and I’m excited to watch the future, knowing I was a part of the past. Now for some quick congrats to the whole team, and special thanks to Blake, Jason, and Bhupen for bringing me on board back in June ’04, as well as Rich for always having my back. Even more thanks and congrats to Brian J (best officemate ever), Alex, Raghu, Alexei (no more commuting!), John N, Dee, Cindy, George W (shh!), Brian M (finish your house already!), Vicky (90 hours per week is too many), Dave M (ykhik?), Jamie, Johnny G, Gregg (we’ll always have Orlando), Chris, Jeff (funny guy, no really!), Tami, Dave Z (sure, you’ll work for Brian, but not me?), Sharon (queen of beta), Teresa, Stephan, and every else I’m forgetting but have way too much adrenaline to focus right now.

Mazel Tov!

Unsubstantiated rumor floods blogosphere

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

In the past couple of hours, a story that originated at the WSJ has gotten the entire TechMeme-fueled blogosphere in a tizzy. The story asserts Microsoft’s interest in acquiring a stake of Facebook, which would lock in some advertising dollars and send the valuation of FB to roughly $10(ish) billion dollars (which in a completely unrelated twist is the amount of money the US government claims illegal workers somehow “cost” California each year. I’m in a little bit of a funk about the immigration process these days, so sorry for the bizarre display of cynicism). Here’s a little snapshot of TechMeme:

Now for some quotes from the article:

could value Facebook at $10 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google Inc. has also expressed strong interest in a possible Facebook investment, said people familiar with the matter.

a stake potentially valued at roughly $300 million to $500 million, the people familiar with those talks said.

The people familiar with the matter said that the discussions are still preliminary and Facebook could wind up not taking an investment from either Microsoft or Google.

A Facebook spokeswoman and spokesmen for Microsoft and Google declined to comment.

Uh… hmm. First, maybe we can get the article’s authors a thesaurus (I hear they’re online now!) and find at least one other phrase for “people familiar with…” Second, how do we know this is news? Don’t get me wrong, I believe it’s a possibility, but I’d certainly like to get some substantiation here. I’m a little surprised that this has so much attention at this stage (from Valleywag, Mathew Ingram, TechCrunch, Scoble, Om Malik, etc).

I’m also a little surprised that there was virtually no impact to Microsoft’s stock.

ps – don’t forget, the Sony SZ-VGN460N laptop is still one of the worst laptops on the market and even though that has nothing to do with my post, I’m still so unbelievably angry at Sony that I’m keeping the theme alive. Don’t buy it!

Dave McClure to VCs & Lawyers: Get your act together!

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Ah, I love a good rant. I especially love one that targets industries that move along at ridiculously sluggish paces when it comes to technology adoption. Dave McClure has apparently been spending a wee bit too much time with lawyers lately, and goes on without pulling punches lamenting their holding on to a “lots of paperwork” approach to getting things done. Here’s a highlight to whet your appetite :

Over the past 3-4 months, i’ve made a few small investments in several startups and become an advisor to a few others. The amount of paper, email, & faxes i have exchanged to get these deals done is F’ING MIND-BOGGLING. Aren’t we in the 21st century? Don’t we all use the web & online transactions for everything? Aren’t you supposed to be ADVISORS to startups that make lives simpler & use the INTARWEB to get rid of all the paper, delay, & complexity we HATE LIKE THE PLAGUE?!? Or did you all grow up with Ted Stevens or something?

Now go read the rest, it’s excellent.