Posted by Alan on September 07, 19100 at 23:10:50:
You may have heard something about Steven Spielberg failing at something, or closing an internet company down or something...?
Well, it's true. I was in the middle of it and am currently unemployed. More on all this after the article:
05:44 PM ET 08/31/00
DreamWorks Might Sell Web site
By GARY GENTILE=
AP Business Writer=
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Pop.com, the long-awaited entry into the Internet entertainment world from Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio, may be sold before it even debuts.
DreamWorks is in talks to sell its struggling Web site to IFILM, an independent film portal, said Vivian Mayer, a DreamWorks spokeswoman.
It was not clear whether the deal would be a merger or an acquisition or how the privately held companies would finance the transaction.
The fate of the management team at Pop.com was also undetermined, as was the status of deals Pop.com has already reached with artists such as Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy.
DreamWorks and director Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment announced the creation of Pop.com in October, back when several high-profile Web sites talked of becoming networks, creating a lineup of original television-like shows, animation and short
films.
The sites were the darlings of investors, who poured millions into such promising ventures as the Digital Entertainment Network.
Then DEN suddenly closed its doors in May after burning through millions and filing for bankruptcy protection. About the same time, stock valuations for Internet companies began to drop as investors became wary about companies that accumulated losses without any clear plans for profitability.
``The whole business climate changed,'' Howard told The Associated Press recently. ``It used to be you staked a claim, went out with an IPO and the public would back you. That's the not the case anymore.''
Howard admitted that the delay in launching Pop.com was due to the inexperience of managers who failed to understand how much work it would take to launch such an ambitious project.
``We underestimated the technical complexity of getting it up and running,'' Howard said. ``We were maybe a little overzealous and naive on what it takes to get a site running that doesn't
crash.''
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Alan, here, again.
Well, by the end of the next day iFilm passed on buying POP.com, so I thought, this is great! I'm safe!
Not so.
Spielberg and the rest were only hoping to unload the company gracefully, but when the deal fell through, he and his partners decided to call it quits.
Other than our reunion (and the mini-reunion in SF), I've had a pretty shitty month...
Here's hoping I've used up all the bad luck for the class for a while,
Alan