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Acquisitions, news corp., velocity interactive group, yahoo, comventures, fox interactive...

Ross Levinsohn gets ready for another knife fight

Former Fox Interactive exec turned venture capitalist Ross Levinsohn only needs to finish the paperwork to become the biggest name on Microsoft's list of 10 nominees to replace Yahoo's board, TechCrunch reports and BoomTown confirms. The high-profile rubber-stamping position should suit Levinsohn's ego just fine.

We've heard Levinsohn likes to trade on his MySpace-to-News Corp. deal by "bullying around little startups, demanding special deals because he's a famous 'CEO'." Problem is, Levinsohn may have run Fox Interactive, the News Corp. company that purchased MySpace, but he never exactly wrested control of MySpace, the only Fox Interactive property that matters, away from Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. Levinsohn's attitude is known to irk the Valley's influential, particularly angel investor Ron Conway.

Still, we applaud Microsoft's selection. Joining ComVentures, now renamed Velocity Interactive Group, at the expense of two partners last December, Levinsohn neatly proved his worth in a knife fight.

5:35 AM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
601 views
7 comments

Comments

sggrf at 06:17 AM on 04/30/08
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hillarious, sad and, I suspect, quite true.
valleypro at 07:53 AM on 04/30/08
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Ross is perfect -- a good businessman who buys only a modicum of Silicon Valley's rampant hype. If you think deflating egos and bullying someone are the same - then I don't want to do business with you.

Oh - don't forget, Ross is very smart - don't underestimate him.
theglue at 09:01 AM on 04/30/08
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ross is an old school, no bs, straight forward, New Jersey guy.
robinwauters at 10:42 AM on 04/30/08
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He looks like Alec Baldwin

[www.famousfools.com]
matto at 11:35 AM on 04/30/08
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@robinwauters: more like Billy, actually.
SandHillSnobbery at 12:54 PM on 04/30/08
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Ross thinks Silicon Valley is full of a bunch of clowns. Thats's why he has a bad rap with some Internet folks. The guy is shrewed, smart and doesn't kiss the requisite Bay Area ass...
Minna at 03:25 PM on 04/30/08
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Shrewd? You give Ross way too much credit. Nobody has "failed up" like he has. He's made his money spending other people's money. Operations? Um, yeah, Ross doesn't do Operations. You should ask him what Sportsline got out of his $60K investment of a personal trainer's website in the late '90s. Then ask him what he got. Now that's shrewd.