Broadcast.com

Airbnb Hires Former Yahoo Legal Eagle Belinda Johnson as General Counsel

Kara Swisher in Commerce on December 9, 2011 at 7:44 am PT

Here’s the lawyer who’s going to write that ironclad lease — that promised espresso maker better be there! — for the lovely apartment in Italy we rented.

If This Is Age of Web Video, Who’s Buying All Those TVs?

Peter Kafka in Media on May 4, 2010 at 4:00 am PT

People are watching more Web video than ever. And they’re buying more TV than ever. What gives?

RealNetworks' Rob Glaser Talks About Giving the Internet a Voice and, Yes, Woolly Mammoths!

Kara Swisher in News on January 15, 2010 at 5:20 am PT

Rob Glaser called BoomTown when he landed in Washington, D.C., only a few hours after he announced Wednesday he was stepping down as longtime CEO of RealNetworks…Although execs come and go in various and sundry ways–you simply have to give Glaser credit for his pioneering work in bringing both audio and video to the Web.

More Mark Cuban (Trapped in the Green Room at D7 with BoomTown and the Flip Video Camera)!

Kara Swisher in News on June 1, 2009 at 11:05 am PT

Last week, Walt Mossberg and I interviewed entrepreneur, high-definition television fanboy, dancing fool and reliable gadfly Mark Cuban at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference. After our onstage interview, BoomTown also got him to be more specific about his thoughts on a variety of things he discussed, including Google’s underwriting of its YouTube video subsidiary, the problems with broadband and the Internet as a “utility.”

D7 Interview: Mark Cuban

Peter Kafka in D7 on May 27, 2009 at 5:33 pm PT

Mark Cuban was lucky enough to make billions on Internet video during the Web 1.0 bubble, and smart enough to cash out before it burst. He’s spent a bunch of that money on high-profile purchases like a basketball team and a Gulfstream. But much of his investment and energy since then has been directed… away from Web video and toward conventional video, in the form of movies and television. Cuban’s portfolio companies make movies and television shows and distribute them to movie theaters and television sets. And he’s been loudly skeptical about the possibilities of Web video outlets like YouTube–around the time that Google plunked down $1.6 billion on the site, he declared that “only a moron” would want to invest in it. Time to see if still feels the same way.

Mark Cuban to Sam Zell: I’d Still Like to Buy the Chicago Cubs. Just Lower Your Price, Please.

Peter Kafka in Media on January 6, 2009 at 7:51 am PT

Nothing like a billionaire with a blog: Mark Cuban uses his this morning to explain that he’s still in the market for the Chicago Cubs–just not for $1 billion cash. Also, he’d like more time to raise money to buy the team. Sam Zell, are you listening?

Mark Cuban Weighs In on Yahoo (aka, a Jerry Yang Nightmare)

Kara Swisher in News on December 15, 2008 at 3:50 am PT

BoomTown is handing over the stage today to hyperactive entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who just weighed in on what Yahoo should do. Literally, his post yesterday on his Blog Maverick site is titled “What Yahoo Should Do,” and he lays waste to a lot of the conventional wisdom about the Internet portal’s fate. Cuban and Yahoo have a rocky history and, let’s just say, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is not a fan. Ironically, in the piece, Cuban seems to be a big fan of Yahoo, or–more precisely–of its potential.

BoomTown's Short List of Yahoo CEOs (Sorry Jerry, but Fortune Favors the Prepared)

Kara Swisher in News on June 17, 2008 at 4:00 am PT

As Yahoo continues to be in limbo, pressure is sure to mount heavily on its CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang, and it is not a stretch to imagine he will not remain in the top job at the troubled company for the long term. So who would be good to replace him? I have six candidates I like, so here’s my short list (and remember, the last time I made one for the job of the No. 2 leader for Facebook, its current COO Sheryl Sandberg was high on my list).

Memo to Jerry: Mark Cuban, Jethro Tull and Thee!

Kara Swisher in News on May 16, 2008 at 11:43 am PT

It’s clear that Yahoo and its CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang have got to be a little more than miffed that billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is on billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s board as he begins a proxy fight to control the troubled Internet company. As BoomTown noted in a post yesterday, there is no love lost at Yahoo for Cuban (pictured here), who sold Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in cash to the company at the peak of the bubble in 1999, skedaddled quickly and then made bank by hedging his Yahoo shares and enjoying the proceeds extravagantly. But, it is actually quite unfair, given it was Yahoo that did precious little with its Broadcast.com’s assets after paying so much for the company.

The Sweet, Sweet Irony of Mark Cuban and Yahoo

Kara Swisher in News on May 15, 2008 at 4:25 pm PT

Of the amazingly Internet-experience-free board that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has proposed to replace Yahoo’s current directors in this proxy fight, there is one name who does have a lot of Web-related experience, especially with regards to Yahoo. Specifically, in how to make bank from Yahoo’s desperation. That would be entrepreneur and all-around bon vivant Mark Cuban, who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in the heady days of 1999 for $5.7 billion in Yahoo stock.