lazy-valleywag

Gofish's Bolt buyout swims with the fishes

Owen Thomas · 08/01/07 01:29PM

GoFish, the online-video site whose IPO we took as a sign of stock-market froth, hasn't been producing as many bubbles lately. A deal struck in February for GoFish to buy Bolt Media, a rival video site, has fallen apart, according to Digital Music News. DMN says that licensing video rights for both GoFish and Bolt proved too complicated, and GoFish decided to go it alone. But we think there's more to this story. And yes, there is.

Steve Case's Revolution Health looking sickly?

Owen Thomas · 07/31/07 12:38PM

Former AOL CEO Steve Case has been aiming to turn the healthcare industry upside down with his startup Revolution Health. Instead, it seems, the company is the one getting shaken up. "Layoffs last Friday," says a tipster, who adds that two lead developers resigned yesterday, with a top product manager set to head out the door, too. Hardly a surprise, though, after the company just barely managed to scrape up enough money to buy its employees group-health policies. Anyone know more about Revolution Health's prognosis? Send in a tip. Update: We now hear that three out of four lead developers are now gone. This revolution will not be computerized, from the sound of things.

Why is Netflix's site out of commission?

Owen Thomas · 07/24/07 03:51PM


Netflix, already losing customers thanks to a fierce rivalry with Blockbuster, is now offering customers another reason to ditch. Its site has been down since 9 a.m., with no promises of when it will be back online. A company spokesman blames the outage on an "unanticipated problem." Update: The site's back up, after what spokesman Steve Swasey says was "a database problem," unrelated to today's massive outage in San Francisco.

Who did Ryan Carson dump DropSend on?

Owen Thomas · 07/22/07 07:27PM

These days, Web startups are easier than ever to start — and harder than ever to sell. Carson Systems has apparently found a buyer for DropSend — eight long months after founder Ryan Carson first put the file-sharing Web application up for sale. DropSend has gotten good reviews, but it's in a hotly competitive space, facing rivals as diverse as Pando, Pownce, and YouSendIt, and Carson's conference business appears more promising. (Why bother actually writing Web apps when you can just get people to pay to talk about them?) Anyone know the name of the buyer, and the purchase price?

Owen Thomas · 07/10/07 01:52PM

We hear Wired Digital, Wired's online arm, splashed out some dough on a startup developing Facebook apps. Anyone know which one? And why the Reddit team, purchased by Wired Digital last year, wasn't deemed capable of writing apps for Facebook?

Did CNET just axe its video team?

Owen Thomas · 07/10/07 12:24PM

Here's a strange rumor: We hear that CNET, the tech publisher that's desperately trying to hold onto its audience, just laid off its video news team. "Major, major changes," says an insider, including the canning of news director Harry Fuller and some video reporters. Strange, if only because online video is supposedly hot with advertisers. With CNET's audience, perhaps not so much. Anyone know more?

Find the Mountain View Kwik-E-Mart

Nick Douglas · 07/02/07 01:10PM

Nothing to do with tech, but 7-Eleven turned a store in Mountain View into a Kwik-E-Mart. It's presumably a promo for the upcoming Simpsons movie. The chain's official site has an artist's rendition, but we'd love to see photos of the real thing. (Send to tips at valleywag dot com.) The address is 1380 Pear Avenue, between the 101 and the Googleplex. Update: Flickr user Mlaaker took shots, including the one shown here: Kwik-E-Mart Photo Set

TiVo's CFO takes a season pass

wagger1 · 06/21/07 11:54PM

TiVo, the troubled DVR maker, will soon be on its fourth CFO in less than 18 months. Looks like Steve Sordello, the company's most recent finance chief, has crunched the numbers and found them wanting. He's left for an undisclosed - but "well known" - venture-backed startup. One possibility: LinkedIn, which insiders say plans to hire a CFO this year. Anyone know exactly where Sordello's headed - and what he found wanting about TIVo?

Nasty nicknames for AOL's bosses

wagger1 · 06/14/07 12:23AM

We're told that AOL CEO Randy Falco and chief sidekick officer Ron Grant are so annoyingly inseparable that they've been dubbed "Rondy." But we also hear that the rank and file, ticked off by moves like Rondy's rerouting of the corporate jet, have much meaner monikers for their new overlords. Heard any good ones?

No Schmidt, Sherlock: Why wasn't Eric at WWDC?

wagger1 · 06/11/07 03:12PM

The leaked outline of today's Stevenote was apparently wholly spurious, including the promise that Google CEO Eric Schmidt would get on stage at Apple's WWDC to talk about a Google-Apple deal. The unfulfilled rumor was that Google's Web apps would replace or enhance Apple's .Mac email and file-storage service. But the consensus seems to be that the logic of such a deal is still compelling. So, tell us, readers: Was Schmidt, an Apple board member, supposed to show, and backed out? Did Jobs nix an appearance at the last minute? Or was there really nothing to the Google-Apple rumor after all?

Major shakeup at MSN?

Chris Mohney · 02/22/07 04:10PM

We hear there's a big showdown and resulting re-org in the works at MSN, Microsoft's online unit. The conflict has been framed in terms of relative newcomer Steve Berkowitz (of Ask Jeeves fame) versus the resisting remnants of the old online regime, i.e. online senior VP David Cole and his pal Yusuf Mehdi. True or false or somewhere in between. You tell us.