Launch Media

More AsiaD Speakers: Sony, Google+, Microsoft, Hollywood, Huawei and Hot SV Start-Ups!

Kara Swisher in AsiaD on August 9, 2011 at 5:00 pm PT

Here’s the latest list of speakers for the upcoming AsiaD conference, which will take place October 19 to 21 in Hong Kong.

Yahoo's Jimmy Pitaro Lands Digital Co-President Job at Disney With Playdom's John Pleasants

Kara Swisher in News on October 3, 2010 at 9:45 am PT

Jimmy Pitaro, who is leaving his job running the powerful media properties at Yahoo, has taken a job as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, with John Pleasants. Pleasants was CEO of Playdom, the online game company that Disney acquired for $763 million in late July. The appointment of the pair, both of whom will report to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, is a big move by the entertainment giant and looks like another attempt to clarify and bolster its Web strategy, which has had a long and often rocky history.

Two Yahoo Music Veterans Resurface with DashBox, a Service You’ll Never Use (Unless You’re a Music Pro)

Peter Kafka in Media on October 28, 2009 at 10:21 am PT

Digital music entrepreneurs Dave Goldberg and Bob Roback, who built up Launch Media in the 1990s and ran Yahoo’s music group for much of this decade, are trying their hands at tunes again. This time, though, they’re not trying to convince consumers to pay for music or asking advertisers to subsidize it. Instead, they’re trying to act as a middleman between labels and publishers who own music and advertisers, Hollywood and other folks who want to use the tunes for commercial purposes.

SurveyMonkey's Dave Goldberg Speaks! (Plus a Tour of His New Planet of the Apes Lair in Silicon Valley)

Kara Swisher in News on August 17, 2009 at 6:09 am PT

BoomTown was as surprised as anyone when longtime Silicon Valley Web music entrepreneur Dave Goldberg said in May that his next move was going to be investing in and running an online survey company with the unusual name of SurveyMonkey. Most expected the former Yahoo music head to land at an entertainment or media giant, running its digital operations. But it is at SurveyMonkey where Goldberg has swung himself and he has now made good on his promise to open a Silicon Valley office of the Portland-based start-up.

Former Yahoo Music Exec Dave Goldberg to Head SurveyMonkey

Kara Swisher in News on April 20, 2009 at 7:41 am PT

Former Yahoo music head Dave Goldberg–who has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital since he left the Internet company more than two years ago–has finally landed at another company, sources said, taking over as CEO of SurveyMonkey. Goldberg will head the Portland-based private company, which is an online survey creator, including offering analytics of the results. Sources said he will also become a minority investor in SurveyMonkey, as part of a deal in which Spectrum Equity Investors and other investors, including Bain Capital Ventures, are acquiring a majority interest in the company.