LiveUniverse Buys Revver for More than a Song (about $5M)
Troubled video site Revver was bought by Brad Greenspan’s LiveUniverse last night for a price “many multiples more” than the $500,000 to $1.5 million reported recently, according to a source close to the deal. Update: We now know that the price was *just* under $5 million, so it seems our source’s math was a little optimistic. We’ll add more if we can get more specific.
Our source would not disclose the selling price, but said “I wouldn’t say anyone got rich, but everybody was happy.” Revver had raised $12.7 million from Comcast, Turner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Richards and William Randolph Hearst III. The Revver team will continue working under the new ownership.
Revver gained goodwill early on for being the first video-sharing site to split revenue with creators. Many independent creators still prefer the service, though web video stars Ze Frank, Ask a Ninja, Lonelygirl15, and Invisible Engine have discontinued using it as their main platform. The company, growing up alongside YouTube, was brought down from the limelight with a combination of bad luck, management problems, and product weaknesses. And oh yeah, the fact that it’s hard to make money on web video. But nowadays if you’re a popular web video creator, people will fight to make revenue on your clips and share it with you.
Purchaser LiveUniverse operates multiple sites, including video-sharing service LiveVideo, which about a year ago instigated a scandal on YouTube when it reportedly paid top YouTube users to come to its platform. LiveUniverse founder Brad Greenspan, who was involved with MySpace early on, is perhaps best known for his lawsuits protesting the company’s sale to News Corp.
To its credit, Contentinople was first to report that LiveUniverse was taking a hard look at Revver. CNET brought the story to the forefront last week when it reported that the LiveUniverse deal had fallen through stalled and Revver was shopping itself for $1.5 million or less in cash and debt assumption.
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Liz,
Hi, you’ve erroneously reported that I and CNET said that the talks had fallen through. I wrote that they were “stalled.” Thanks.
Greg Sandoval
CNET News.com
Leave Liz Alone CNET! Sounds the same to me CNET, fallen through, stalled, whatever. Greg who? Stick to your product reviews CNET.
Something is wrong with the VC community if the source is throwing out the line
“I wouldn’t say anyone got rich, but everybody was happy”
If they sold for under $5 Million on raising $12.7 Million that equates to a minum loss of $7.2 Million.., not quite the return an investor normally looks for from a tech startup.
go to http:www.labratbites.com it will educate you and hope you pass on to friends
@Kaiyzen
I think the more accurate statement the author could have said is:
“I wouldn’t say anyone got rich, but every was happy to get this worthless company off their plate.”
At this stage investors are just itching to get away with anything they can take over $0.
Revver Schmevver. Dime a dozen. Nothing to see there.
Sorry about that Greg. I corrected the wording.
What’s going on with all the comment spam here?
Good news for Revver. Glad to see it survive.
Sorry Brian, we need to separate out trackbacks in a bad way.
BLAME FAILURE ON REVVER”S LAWYERS: KEN HERTZ
That is right, Revver was a good idea.
But it was handled in quite a disastrous style
by a pair of lawyers Ken Hertz and Fred Goldring
I think their names are. I used to work there,
and these guys tried to be ‘creative’ and ‘marketers’ for the web, but ..like the lawyer folks who killed the music biz…they don’t have that skill set ! They alienated everyone in management and marketing, and
now have to sell it at firesale for nothing..
at great loss to investors. What kind of smart
business sense is that? Not very good mssrs
Goldring and Hertz ! Those guys are not very smart, and too bad for Revver and Steven Starr,
if only he had better judgement finding legal
partners than those bunch of clowns…ya know.
Signed a loyal employee 3 years.