Valleywag
Microsoft will acquire San Francisco-based Rapt, which helps publishers manage their ad inventory. VCs Kip Sheeline of Levensohn Venture Partners and Arthur Patterson of Accel Partners saw their firms cash out on the deal, along with cofounder and CEO Tom Chavez. But not without a little founder blood on their hands.
Back in 2006, Rapt cofounders Adam Galper and Paul Dagum sued Sheeline and Patterson's firms, accusing them and Chavez of unfairly bolstering their stakes in Rapt. But that's sometimes what happens when a startup needs four funding rounds. The parties settled 10 days later. We're hoping somebody remains bitter enough to tell us how much Microsoft paid.
Comments
I didn't know Tom Hanks-circa 1985 ran a startup! Cool.
Didn't this company start as "supply chain enterprise vendor"? Now ad network? Yikes!
How much could this possibly cost Microsoft? $100 million? 200 million?
Also, notice that Yahoo is a client, which means that Yahoo depends on Rapt to price its banner inventory, which is probably a 30-40% chunk of Yahoo's revenue. So, I wonder if this is really about Microsoft tightening the screws on Yahoo. Given the $44 billion on the table for Yahoo, an extra $100 million seems like a drop in the bucket.
Let's hope the founders made more money on their remaining holdings than they would have made had they kept control. It ends up that way more often then not, though it makes for a less exciting story.
Not to mention when the company fails after a squeeze play....plenty of room for coulda/woulda/shouldas
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