NewCo Thinks It’s Worth a Billion Dollars
The pace with which the much-ballyhooed “YouTube killer” joint venture proposed by NBC and News Corp, code-named NewCo, is moving, we might as well call it OldCo.
But the company, which still doesn’t have a name, is making the rounds meeting venture capitalists, and private equity people trying to raise $100 million on a valuation of about $1 billion. Multiple sources both in New York and Silicon Valley have confirmed NewCo’s attempts to raise cash. PaidContent had reported on this last month, and since then things haven’t changed much.
Talk about chutzpah! Nevertheless, so far they have had very little luck in getting some investor to write the check for what remains to be a grand idea — and that’s all. There is a good chance that they might settle on a name very soon — that is before I start my holiday shopping.
I am still scratching my head on why this phantom company is proposing a valuation of a billion dollars. The glacial progress made by the so-called NewCo explains why MySpace launched MySpaceTV — a site that will showcase professional video, and will help Fox Interactive get a bit of online video advertising gravy on their plate.
Despite all the talk, it is hard to buy into the fact that this new company is going to be able to beat YouTube. According to Hitwise, the traffic at YouTube still is rising like a rocket. Its data shows that YouTube’s market share of U.S. visits has increased by 70 percent when comparing January 2007 to May 2007 (this only includes site visits, not streams or streams from views on embedded videos).
Hitwise says that in comparison, 64 other video sites increased by only 8 percent in that period. As of May 2007, YouTube’s market share was 50 percent greater than those 64 sites combined, Hitwise says.
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Veetube.com wont be a bad name to call it, if they do have name problem.
victor on June 27th, 2007 at 4:10 pm - Permalink
I really think the NewCo guys are selling themselves short. Why settle for a billion dollar pre-money? I suspect the arguments for their current valuation would only be more compelling as they increased the pre-money. In fact, my guess is that NewCo 2.0, NewCo’s come lately competitor will be raising money at 2-4x NewCo’s pre-money. Their inflated pre-money valuation will give NewCo 2.0 a leg up and likely put the nail in NewCo’s gold plated casket. Just my two cents…
Alexander Muse on June 27th, 2007 at 9:08 pm - Permalink
[...] this post on his NewTeeVee site, Om Malik said organizers of the still-in-the-planning-stages joint venture [...]
In a Word | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD on June 28th, 2007 at 12:02 am - Permalink
[...] NBC U. It is seeking, though not finding, $100 million in funding on a $1 billion valuation, as Om reported [...]
NewTeeVee NewCo Names Jason Kilar CEO « on June 28th, 2007 at 9:25 am - Permalink
[...] Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 9:49 AM PT | No comments The wannabe YouTube killer that fancies itself as a billion dollar company, thanks to reputation of its backers NBC and News Corp., a press conference, and lot of talk, has a [...]
GigaOM NewCo Now Has New CEO « on June 28th, 2007 at 9:49 am - Permalink
Youtube is very very strong competitor. So it will not be easy to kill.:)
Sameer on June 28th, 2007 at 10:35 am - Permalink
[...] June 28, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — teksht @ 10:22 pm There is an article of NewCo claiming they are worth a billion [...]
Is NewCo worth $1,000,000,000? « Round and round on June 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm - Permalink
Is NewCo worth $1,000,000,000?
There is an article of NewCo claiming they are worth a billion dollars.
They are in a video market like YouTube. YouTube was sold for 1.65 * 101010101010101010 US dollars. Are NewCo worth that much? I doubt that.
However, I was originally ten…
Round and round on June 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm - Permalink
[...] NewCo Thinks It’s Worth a Billion Dollars The pace with which the much-ballyhooed “YouTube killer” joint venture proposed by NBC and News Corp, […] [...]
Top Posts « WordPress.com on June 28th, 2007 at 4:58 pm - Permalink
[...] wannabe YouTube killer that fancies itself as a billion dollar company, thanks to reputation of its backers NBC and News Corp., a press conference, and lot of talk, has a [...]
Crenk » NewCo Now Has New CEO on June 29th, 2007 at 2:47 am - Permalink
[...] named Jason Kilar, a Harvard MBA and former Amazon executive, to lead the unit. And now there are reports saying they’ve been out trying to raise $100 million in venture capital on a billion dollar [...]
Everyone’s Gunning For YouTube on June 30th, 2007 at 4:26 am - Permalink
[...] named Jason Kilar, a Harvard MBA and former Amazon executive, to lead the unit. And now there are reports saying they’ve been out trying to raise $100 million in venture capital on a billion dollar [...]
Everyone’s Gunning For YouTube | moraaz.org - feed all tech! on June 30th, 2007 at 5:02 am - Permalink
[...] named Jason Kilar, a Harvard MBA and former Amazon executive, to lead the unit. And now there are reports saying they’ve been out trying to raise $100 million in venture capital on a billion dollar [...]
Ajax Girl » Blog Archive » Everyone’s Gunning For YouTube on June 30th, 2007 at 5:38 am - Permalink
[...] named Jason Kilar, a Harvard MBA and former Amazon executive, to lead the unit. And now there are reports saying they’ve been out trying to raise $100 million in venture capital on a billion dollar [...]
Just a random blog ! on June 30th, 2007 at 12:10 pm - Permalink
[...] このプロジェクトは名前がないのをモノともせず、大胆な動きを見せている。今週はハーバードのMBAで以前Amazonの幹部だったJason Kilarがこのユニットの責任者に任命された。またベンチャーキャピタルから$100M（１億ドル）の資金調達（会社全体の評価額は10億ドルとなる）を目論んでいるという記事も出ている。YouTubeが以前に調達した資金はそれよりはるかに少ない。 [...]
TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 皆が必死にYouTubeを追いかけているが… on July 1st, 2007 at 4:01 pm - Permalink
[...] et est un ancien manager d’Amazon, pour diriger la compagnie. Un certain nombre de sources affirment qu’ils sont actuellement entrain de lever $100 millions pour une valeur sur le marché [...]
TechCrunch en français » YouTube peut-il être détrôné? (sondage) on July 4th, 2007 at 12:12 am - Permalink
[...] et est un ancien manager d’Amazon, pour diriger la compagnie. Un certain nombre de sources affirment qu’ils sont actuellement entrain de lever $100 millions pour une valeur sur le marché estimée à [...]
Video Sphere France » YouTube peut-il être détrôné? (sondage) on July 9th, 2007 at 8:06 am - Permalink
[...] Om Malik mocks the supposed “chutzpah” of publicly traded corporations performing their legally mandated dutiy to maximize shareholder value: The company, which still doesn’t have a name, is making the rounds meeting venture capitalists, and private equity people trying to raise $100 million on a valuation of about $1 billion. Multiple sources both in New York and Silicon Valley have confirmed NewCo’s attempts to raise cash. [...]
Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin » $1 billion YouTube Killer? NBC, Fox JV: Deal or No Deal on August 9th, 2007 at 5:50 am - Permalink
[...] had reported NewCo’s fund raising efforts a few months back, wondering what a prospective investor would see in this new online video [...]
NewTeeVee NewCo: No Name and $100 million in the bank « on August 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm - Permalink
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding , but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong :)
Daniel on August 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm - Permalink