HOT EXCLUSIVE: The Insider has learned that Jason Calcanis‘ stealth start-up backed by Sequoia Capital has closed on a round of funding from Sequoia, News Corporation and CBS. The undisclosed funding is interesting. Two strategic investors and the hottest Silly-con valley VC.
We hear that the News Corp. investment is not from Fox Interactive Media, but from Jeremy Philips who acts as Rupert’s eyes and ears on the internet. This venture play seems a bit at odds with the News Corp. strategic joint venture with Google. Philips has begun to make his mark as a force at News Corps., recently cutting a deal with ROO Networks. The CBS investment was led by Quincy Smith. Another oddity here — CBS has now made a few venture bets and one acquisition — Max Preps. It would make more sense to be building their base then making venture investments.
News Corp’s massive bid for the WSJ will be played out for the next few weeks with massive speculation. The Media Insider thinks the real drama will be in the corporate suite of News Corp where should this deal happen, it may pave the way for scion James Murdoch to return to the mothership. Murdoch Senior is anxious to bring young James back after his stellar job with BSKYB and Star. This could be the impetus. It could also prove troublesome for COO Peter Chernin.
Lastly, Yahoo’s desperation play for Right Media is the move of a flailing company. Two days after CEO Terry Semel’s $40m payday was announced, the company paid 700 million times 06 earnings…which were ZERO. For a company with $70m in topline revenue to garner $680m for 80%, it was a bubble trade. Different from Googles buy of Doubleclick, which was profitable, did more than $300m in revenue and was a market leader. Someone put a bullet in this companies head. Can you say — Microsoft take us away?
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August 10, 2007 at 11:53 pm
[...] Sequoia, as earlier reported, and also apparently from News Corp’s Jeremy Phillips and CBS, if you believe this report. We’re trying to [...]