loser-generated content, al gore, current, ipo

Al Gore's Current files for $100 million IPO

So much for the notion of cheap, user-generated content. Current Media, the operator of the Current TV cable channel and Current.com, hopes to raise $100 million in an IPO. Last year, the company, cofounded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, had revenues of $63.8 million and lost $17.1 million. Current's website isn't generating significant advertising, and the company makes most of its money in an old-fashioned way: fees from cable providers. The company is desperately short on cash; as of December 31, it had $2.2 million, and this month, it opened up a $50 million line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, in exchange for the right to take the company public. But the most puzzling thing in the prospectus is this: Current spent $31.4 million on programming and production in 2007. Isn't it supposed to run entirely on submissions from viewers?

3:00 PM on Mon Jan 28 2008
By Owen Thomas
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10 comments

Comments

Daikana at 03:37 PM on 01/28/08
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They must have spent at least $20 million on the web 2.0 design:
- AJAX: checked
- Background stripes: checked
- Glossy tabs: checked
- Fat fonts: checked
- BETA added to Logo: checked
- Video of Owen naked: checked [current.com]
yummyporky at 04:20 PM on 01/28/08
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anyone can make money by submitting videos, they also have studios in LA that employees failed actors who are either to proud or lack the goods to join the porn industry to do "wrap around's"

[current.com]
joeduck at 04:21 PM on 01/28/08
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C'mon, it's a simple calculation here:
* Current TVs success is based on hell freezing over.
* Global Warming will *increase* the global temperature and thereby bring on huge *decrease* in the actual temperatures, bringing ice storms and climate catastrophes just like in "Day after Tomorrow".
* Then Hell, having frozen over, will bring huge revenues to CurrentTV. It's simple, you silly non-believers!
deathbychichi at 05:48 PM on 01/28/08
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Channel's unwatchable. It's nothing like Youtube, which it sort of pretends to be. Fail.
AlfGored at 07:18 PM on 01/28/08
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Check out Gore's blog...

[www.AlGoreLabs.com]
Preston at 08:17 PM on 01/28/08
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That powerpoint didn't have anything in it about IPO timing did it? Seems like it said one of the best years to start prep on an IPO like this was 1999.
mandarin at 11:15 PM on 01/28/08
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Over priced for a website and channel that shows tv shorts of people's boring lives.... Dont we get this free in youtube?
tpsreport at 01:56 PM on 01/29/08
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I work in the same building as Current, and am positive that they're not going anywhere. Even though they've grown so much that their lobby has turned into a cube farm, there is one criterion that dictates their success: the hottie quotient.

As an entertainment company, the number of hot co-eds trying to work their way into the industry is woefully low. The ad agency AKQA in the same building has talent that runs rings around Current staff.
mandarin at 09:20 AM on 01/30/08
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The shorts are monotonous, the topics go from crappy to super-crappy and these aren't worth anything. Are they still using ads from DeVry University and some home-exercise equipment? I heard the VPs there are overpaid.
Fidel on the Roof at 12:24 PM on 03/07/08
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It is like a facebook for tv. Bulls___ hype with no real valuation, purpose and long (heck... short) term viability