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jackpot

John Battelle takes $22 million in fuck-you money

Anyone telling you that Federated Media, the online ad network which reps Boing Boing, GigaOm, TechCrunch and other blogs, has raised $50 million from investors is dead wrong. It's true, Oak Investment Partners and others paid $50 million for shares of Federated. But only half of that went to the company, we're told; the rest went to founder John Battelle and other employees. According to our source, Battelle's take was roughly 90 percent of the insider shares sold, or about $22 million. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,969 views, 4 comments

Latest by moore850: Word on the street is, he'll lose most of that in one incredibly bad hand of poker at a suitcase gambling stand by Capitola beach. more »

geeks gone wild

Facebook NSFW! Julia Allison and other pics from Randi Zuckerberg's Vegas bachelorette

Can you imagine a photo op that Julia Allison wouldn't attend? What happens in Vegas goes instantly to Valleywag, Allison knows, and so she flew to Las Vegas to attend Randi Zuckerberg's bachelorette party. Zuckerberg, whose wig-and-sunglasses disguise did not deter the Web's paparazzi, is a budding Web video star, Facebook's marketing director, and, unlike younger brother Mark, an actual Harvard graduate. In what's surely a first, Allison, the tech-obsessed TV personality, managed not to hog the camera; she's in only one of the shots. Facebook's Meagan Marks also appears sporting what looks like a freshly acquired head wound. A slip and fall on the dance floor? Our informants are investigating. In the meantime, enjoy the evidence of Zuckerberg's bacchanal. A warning: If plastic sex toys offend your coworkers, one photo may be unsuitable for office computers. More »

1:20 PM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Owen Thomas
17,507 views, 29 comments

Latest by Hopeless: Is it me or does Facebook employ the ugliest women in the Valley? I've also heard that Randi is a dingbat. Not sure if there's any truth to that rumor. more »

dustin moskovitz

Facebook frayed by founders' feud

Dustin Moskovitz, Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate, recently stopped speaking to him. This has made things awkward at Facebook's Palo Alto campus, as Moskovitz is the last reminder walking around that Zuckerberg was not Facebook's sole founder. The two have resumed talking, but Moskovitz, seeking to dissociate himself from his college chum's creation, had dropped the title of vice president and asked for his bio and photograph to be taken off the company's PR website. He's now taken the title of "technical lead," and is working behind the scenes on Facebook's infrastructure. (Moskovitz was not always so publicity-shy: He gladly spoke about Facebook's wireless initiatives at the CTIA conference last fall, and, in a comment left after this post was published, denies a rift and blames Valleywag for his lowered profile.) Why the reported split, after they've worked together so long? More »

4:20 PM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Owen Thomas
12,242 views, 20 comments

Latest by babyjesus: there are worse things in life than to be the co-founder of a well known company and have valleywag poke at you. i'm sure dustin wouldn't remember me, but we were in a few meetings together a couple years back. he's more »

geek love

Is an Italian hottie the reason why Vista sucks?

In 2001, Brian Valentine, then a top Microsoft executive, was pumped about Windows XP, as a spoof infomercial shows. By the time Vista was getting ready for release, his enthusiasm had waned. The reason? Some believe he was pining for Gianna Puerini, a sales manager who had left Microsoft for Amazon.com in 2003. In July 2006, Valentine secretly signed an employment contract with Amazon.com. Microsoft did not reveal that he was leaving for Amazon.com until September 5, less than a week before he started his new job. The business rationale for hiding his departure was obvious: Valentine ran the team that was shipping its Windows Vista operating system. Losing their leader would have killed morale. More »

12:20 PM on Tue Apr 22 2008
By Owen Thomas
4,722 views, 10 comments

Latest by dangster: Cougars suck. more »

rumormonger

Jingle's free 411 service aiming for $175 million sale

Free directory assistance has a price after all: $175 million. That's the price we hear Jingle Networks is trying to get for its 1-800-FREE-411 service, which gives free business listings in exchange for playing ads. Google, Microsoft, and AT&T are all preparing bids. But a source who has looked at Jingle's numbers say it will be lucky to get full price: "It's maybe worth $90 million." By late 2006, Jingle had raised $60 million; we hear it's since blown through that, and taken on debt besides. More »

2:20 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Owen Thomas
848 views, 4 comments

Latest by Tech_info_guru: Actually they raised $73 Million and have little to show for it. Got decent traffic, something like 20 million calls. Tech seems like nothing but klugey off-the-shelf, easily replicated? and there is no "bidding" system for advertisers, so they apparently more »

blogging for dollars

TechCrunch, VentureBeat in merger talks

We hear Michael Arrington is in advanced talks to acquire VentureBeat, a smaller tech blog which, like Arrington's TechCrunch, is trying to expand from the niche of covering startups. When Arrington issued a rant about the dangers of tech blogs raising venture capital, it was easy to dismiss his talk of a blog rollup as drunken fantasy. Arrington's concern: That his competitors, by raising money one by one, would make it financially impossible to assemble a "dream team" of bloggers. But why on earth would anyone accept a lower valuation just to be part of Arrington's team? Arrington, we're told, has tentatively secured venture backing from Eric Chin of Bay Ventures, a longtime business associate. That would give him the capital to buy up at least some of his rivals. More »

3:20 PM on Mon Apr 7 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,994 views, 19 comments

Latest by rumourone: Oh Mike? Mike's a pretty good guy. My friend Lisa had sex with him and she said he was really good in the sack and treated her like a queen. more »

exclusive

Screenshots of YouTube videos in HD

YouTube began testing HD last fall. Now it's here. Sort of. A tipster nabbed this screenshot of a YouTube video which gives the use the option to "watch this video in higher quality." We tried it out and took screenshots from the same frame in the video. Comparison shots, below. More »

3:40 PM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
2,428 views, 6 comments

exclusive

"Rock Band" music video debut with Scoble and the gang

AUSTIN, TX — Randi Jayne (née Zuckerberg) and Revision3 COO David Prager have done it again. She rewrote "Roxanne" as "Rock Band," an homage to the popular Harmonix videogame; Prager, though he didn't pair up in front of the camera with Jayne as they did in iPhone parody "Doncha," helped produce the video. In the clip below, Robert Scoble, Digg CEO Jay Adelson, Facebook fanboy Dave McClure, and media raconteur David Spark headline. They play undistinguished louts who, by playing the game, transform themselves into real rock stars. The backup singers include Jayne and Rana Sobhany, a marketer who's planning a SXSW party tonight at Six Lounge. The video: More »

1:00 PM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,492 views, 5 comments

Latest by OaklandTechie: This is actually damn funny. more »

blogging for dollars

Filthy rich Matt Mullenweg calls rival "dirty"

Automattic, Matt Mullenweg's blog-tools startup, is readying an upgrade to its WordPress software this week. Anil Dash of Six Apart took the occasion to let WordPress users know they can upgrade to his company's Movable Type instead. It's a move straight out of Oracle's handbook. But Mullenweg freaked out, calling the post "desperate and dirty." Dash responded by charging Mullenweg with "slander." Some are under the delusion that this nerdfight is about software. It's not. It's about money. More »

10:00 AM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,858 views, 19 comments

Latest by Joe Clark: Meanwhile, something you clearly don't approve of, Owen, is accuracy. more »

surveys

Cisco employees: are you happy?

A tipster sent us this year's Cisco employee survey. It's 55 questions of "strongly disagree / disagree / neither agree nor disagree / agree / strongly agree / don't know" goodness. Strictly speaking, employees aren't "required" to fill out the survey, but they are strongly encouraged to do so. Welcome to the Fortune 500. If my boss sent me this nonsense, I'd circle "don't know" for every question. More »

5:15 PM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Jordan Golson
2,154 views, 8 comments

wikpedia

Donor, ex-girlfriend accuse Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia extortion

Jeff Merkey, a former Novell chief scientist, has issued a statement accusing Jimmy Wales of extortion. Merkey says that Wales offered him "special protection" for his Wikipedia entry in exchange for a "substantial" donation to Wales's Wikimedia Foundation. After Merkey withdrew his donation over concerns that the funds were being mismanaged, he was banned from the site for "frivolous and unsubstantiated claims." Merkey's not the only one: Rachel Marsden, Wales's ex-girlfriend, has privately threatened Wales with a lawsuit over what she claims are hostile revisions to her Wikipedia entry which began after they broke up. While they were together, Wales promised Marsden swift action on edits so he could "continue fucking [her] brains out." After the jump, Merkey's statement and Marsden's email. More »

9:01 AM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,308 views, 9 comments

Latest by mediawhoremeow: It's like David Koresh just resurfaced and discovered the innernets. At least the feds won't be able to burn the cult down this time. They'll be if they can find Wales. He lives in The Matrix. more »

exclusive

Ask.com CEO's secret weapon: this Marge Simpson video

Before it suddenly wasn't, CEO Jim Safka's plan to save Ask.com was to turn it into a search engine for midwestern women. According to a pair of tipsters, he explained his idea to employees by using this clip of Marge Simpson Googling herself.

3:40 PM on Fri Mar 7 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,630 views, 5 comments

exclusive

Transcripts of Wikipedia founder's sex chats

In which Wikipedia's chief non-expert Jimmy Wales worries that Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be able to read their instant messages, talks dirty about broadband infrastructure, and says his "Google killer" startup Wikia needs to make him enough money so he can buy a jet where he and Canadian girlfriend Rachel Marsden can have even more sex. Friends claim that Wales, worried Marsden would leak the chats, threatened her with blackmail charges over the transcripts, and talked about jail time and deportation back to Canada for her. That got her so upset she sent copies to one or more friends. They've landed in our inbox. Good job, Jimbo. The best bits: More »

3:00 PM on Fri Feb 29 2008
By Owen Thomas
75,902 views, 19 comments

Latest by macewan: Deportation to Mississippi would have been more effective. more »

military intelligence

Airman says Air Force Web ban hurts military

Type "dildo" into Wikipedia's search bar and what do you get? If you happen to be on a U.S. Air Force computer, a warning that the link you were about to view has been blocked. No big deal, right? At stateside bases, the Air Force justifies blocking Web pages as a productivity move. Similarly, crossword puzzles, Flash videogame sites, YouTube, and even eBay are now off-limits. Understandably. But blogs — some of the Web's most diverse sources for news and commentary, which we might translate into actionable intelligence? With each passing week, fewer and fewer remain available. More »

1:00 PM on Thu Feb 28 2008
1,475 views, 6 comments

Latest by MasterSergeant: This is bullshit. I can tell you that this young Airman who is whinning about his ability to access "youtube" instructional videos is simply doing that... whinning. There is no job in the Air Force that requires anyone to watch more »

exclusive

FCC contemplating do-over Comcast hearing at Stanford

The FCC is considering holding a fresh hearing on net neutrality, with Comcast and Verizon again in attendance — and this time it may be at Stanford. The do-over comes after a mini-scandal erupted over the first hearing, held at Harvard; Comcast flacks confessed they'd paid people off the street to act as seatwarmers. Let this be a lesson to you all: If you're going to meddle in politics, do it skillfully enough not to get caught. More »

12:45 PM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Jordan Golson
8,554 views, 9 comments

Latest by Dweezil: @wordsmithy: I believe the accurate tag would either be Harvard: The Oxford of America, or Harvard: The less wordy University of Chicago of the East. more »

exclusive

Leaked screenshots of Tumblr's new front page

Tumblr founder David Karp plans to make money off his microblogging platform — the one used by Julia Allison as well as dirtier, more creative types mostly found in San Francisco's Mission District and Brooklyn's Williamsburg — by creating a front page kind of like Digg's. Except on Tumblr Radar, a video, post or image's popularity will be determined by how many times its "reblogged." The idea is to help users discover other Tumblr blogs while serving them brand ads. Karp was overheard talking to former DoubleClick founder Kevin Ryan about the prospect last week. Karp has told us this front page will end up looking like a cross between Apple's iTunes store and Ffffound.com. Thanks to a rule-breaking beta tester, we won't have to wait to find out if that's true. Here's a leaked screenshot of Tumblr Radar: More »

8:57 AM on Mon Feb 25 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
3,598 views, 7 comments

Latest by sggrf: It's absolutely horrible. I like Fred Wilson's blog MUCH better! No, seriously, it's awful, no joke! more »

exclusive

Gaming Digg costs $300 million, or at least an offer

Acquiring Digg costs $300 million, we hear. Learning how to game the social new site, however, only costs the time to write an offer. At last night's Founders Club party in New York — well-attended by executives from CBS, NBC, Disney, and IAC — one media suit inadvertently confessed as much. "Digg traffic is crucial for us," this exec said. So his team called Digg to ask how it all works. What can they do to get more items on the front page? "And they just started giving us all this really detailed information we never expected," this exec was overhead saying. Like how to avoid triggering the algorithm's ire by not having everyone in the company Digg a story until after a certain amount of Diggs, he said. "Only later we realized — oh yeah — it's cause we're talking about buying them."

12:20 PM on Thu Feb 21 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
2,344 views, 2 comments

Latest by godospoons: Once rotated 180 degrees, it would be clear that the once-predicted successor--"Digg with a third 'g'"--would be proudly funded by Mephistopheles Venture Partners LLC, with offices on Sand Hill Road and Winter Street. more »

exclusive

CollegeHumor and MTV make like Jake and Amir

The deal isn't official yet, but CollegeHumor and MTV plan to launch a TV show together. In the finished pilot, the Tumblr-popular Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld host, rolling clips between skits like the one in the clip below. Sam Reich plays College Humor cofounder Ricky Van Veen. Word has it CollegeHumor insisted on getting online distribution rights and that MTV readily complied. More »

7:00 AM on Thu Feb 21 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
6,892 views, 18 comments