Userplane

L.A. Stories: Mike Jones and Peter Pham Talk About the Science of Tech Studios (Video)

Kara Swisher in News on April 4 at 1:27 pm PT

Down in SoCal, there is some serious start-up experimentation going on.

Former Myspace CEO Mike Jones Brings the Science of Start-Ups to Los Angeles

Liz Gannes in Social on November 16, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

Perhaps building a tech company is at the point where it’s more of a science than an art.

Owen Van Natta Out at MySpace

Peter Kafka in Media on February 10, 2010 at 5:45 pm PT

Owen Van Natta, the prominent Internet executive brought in to overhaul MySpace, has left after less than a year. News Corp., which owns the social network, has replaced the CEO with his former lieutenants, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who have been named co-presidents.

Sphere Leader Has Exited AOL–But Staying on as "Special" Venture Advisor

Kara Swisher in News on November 4, 2009 at 9:30 am PT

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-founder of Sphere–the contextually relevant content engine AOL bought in the spring of 2008 for upward of $25 million–left the Time Warner online unit last month, several sources have told BoomTown in recent weeks. But, in an effort by AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong to hold onto entrepreneurial talent, Conrad has agreed to become “Special Advisor” to its AOL Ventures Unit. Apparently, he is also mulling a new start-up and remains a VC too.

Exclusive: Patch Media CEO Brod Now Heading AOL's Venture Unit

Kara Swisher in News on July 17, 2009 at 2:39 pm PT

In yet another appointment of an exec close to AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, Patch Media CEO Jon Brod has taken over the new venture arm of the Time Warner online unit. He ran Patch for Armstrong and was president and COO of Polar Capital Group, Armstrong’s private investment company, which is focused on the media, technology and sports sectors. Now Brod will helm AOL Ventures, a new unit of AOL that Armstrong created as part of a larger new strategy to invest in new things, and he will manage a portfolio of some of its more difficult recent acquisitions.

Back to School: New MySpace CEO Van Natta Starts Today (Joined by Former AOL Exec Jones as COO)

Kara Swisher in News on April 27, 2009 at 12:44 am PT

New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta starts his first day on the job at MySpace bright and early this morning, coming to its Beverly Hills HQ as he takes over for co-founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe. Along with him will also be a new COO, former AOL exec Mike Jones, whose appointment will be announced this morning, sources said. Jones was the founder of Userplane, a social-networking application maker that was bought by then-AOL head Jon Miller in 2006. Miller is now the digital chief at News Corp., which owns MySpace. With a strong product and technology background, Jones is an excellent choice to be a partner to Van Natta–who was hired by Miller last week in a flurry of change at the social-networking site.

What Does Microsoft Really Want?

Kara Swisher in News on June 24, 2008 at 5:20 am PT

Microsoft does not have a secret plot to buy Yahoo. Maybe Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer should be hovering in the wings, like a digital Simon Legree ready to pounce again on poor Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. But he’s not. And still the hopeful, the suspicious and, most of all, the beaten down Yahoo shareholders continue to jump on any utterance from the software giant, even woefully mistranslating interviews with its top execs, to make it so.