3 posts and columns on X Me

RockYou: The $400 Million Widget?

in News on March 19, 2008 at 1:58 am PT

RockYou, widget maker, is the latest example of a sane valuation heartbreaker, as it is undertaking efforts to secure an investment from mainstream financing firms that would value the company at between $300 million and $400 million. First reported by Valleywag last night, the start-up, said one source, “is being squired around Wall Street” by investment behemoth Morgan Stanley, in search of the same kind of deal its rival Slide got in January.

Kara Visits the Offices of RockYou

in News on October 22, 2007 at 8:59 am PT

So I recently ventured into the heart of the empire of toddler developers with a visit to the San Mateo, Calif., HQ of RockYou, the super-popular maker of third-party apps on hot social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. I have been on a bit of a grumpy tear of late about the juvenile nature of [...]

The Children's Hour: Facebook Apps Are for Toddlers (There, We Said It)

in News on October 9, 2007 at 11:37 am PT

Fine, call me a grumpy old lady, because I don’t want to pass around a toasty complex carbohydrate globally. Right now on Facebook, I have been trying to decide what to do near on two weeks or more, after receiving a “Hot Potato” tossed to me by my old boss, Washington Post Co. CEO and Chairman Don Graham. For those who don’t know what a digital Hot Potato is: It is an widget (also called a third-party app) created by a very nice-looking group of guys at a design outfit called Hungry Machine for the Facebook platform. “You have to pass it on and watch it travel around the world. 27,012 other people did!” With all due respect to Don Graham (who is a mentor of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, by the way), Hungry Machine and all world-trotting spuds, I don’t think so.