Loose Threads: Roo, Vator, Wappy.to
After spending 10 days looking mostly at the inside of my eyelids, I’m hoping to get back to to work this week. But first, here’s a few items from while I was out sick:
Roo, the troubled online video service provider, is moving on from its Wurld Media debacle. After buying peer-to-peer provider Wurld for $4.3 million a year ago, seeing its executives face multiple lawsuits, and laying off its workforce, Roo last week announcedtwo deals with other P2P vendors. Roo will integrate and resell Abacast for live-streaming video and Pando for video on demand. It’s the kicker on a story that involved a lot more drama than technology.
Andy Plesser at Beet.tv reports Vator.tv has raised “a second seed round of just over $1 million.” Vator encourages entrepreneurs to submit video pitches and also creates some original content.
Russian mobile content provider Playfon has bought mobile video- and photo-sharing community site Wappy.to for about $5 million, according to the Quintura blog. We haven’t been able to verify the deal. Update: Here’s the press release and some coverage, both in Russian.
Oh also, just saw that Rafat Ali at paidContent is reporting that Kevin Swint, who had lead digital media at Wal-Mart, has left to head international movies and TV at Apple. Wal-Mart recently closed its digital movie service, while Apple just expanded its own.
There have also been a ton of great video memes while I’ve been down and out — check out the “what we’re watching” bar at the top of the page for a sampler.
Recent
GigaOM Network
- Pencil Turns Firefox into a Drawing Tool [WebWorkerDaily]
- Independence Day Vid Pick: Muppets Salute America [NewTeeVee]
- Muppets Do Stars and Stripes Forever [NewTeeVee Station]
- Open Thread: Web Worker Independence [WebWorkerDaily]
- Structure 08 Recap: Yo Founders! There’s Gold in Them Clouds! [GigaOM]
Copyright 2001–2008 Giga Omni Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
Hope you feel better, Liz.
I love that “Frozen Grand Central” video.
How is vator.tv doing? Has anyone been funded as a direct result of submitting their video to them (meaning, truly as a result of it)? Would be interesting to know.
Frank Sinton on February 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm - Permalink
Rip off artists. Roo and Wurld Media ripped off investors and former employees! Where is my backpay!
Joe Hatch on February 4th, 2008 at 3:32 pm - Permalink
Joe, Joe, Joe you were there long enough and should have been smart enough to know a lie when you hear one.
URLiars on February 8th, 2008 at 10:33 am - Permalink
In the January 14 Blog…I wrote the information below and just last week Tuzman fired Steve Quinn…Maybe someone is listening–it just doesn’t seem to be Greg Kerber and Rick Saxton–they know what happened and they don’t want to take care of themselves, their families or ANY OF THE INVESTORS OR EMPLOYEES THAT THEY CONSPIRED AGAINST–WHY NOT?
I can’t figure out why Greg Kerber and Rick Saxton aren’t smart enough to realize that they were out witted by Robert Petty ex-CEO of Roo, Robin Smyth acting CFO for Roo and Steve Quinn COO of Roo and that Roo conspired to steal the technology for nothing via the fake $400m note and the absence of a WMI shareholder vote…..Instead of taking the heat from the Saratoga DA’s office–they should reveal how Roo forced them to sell the technology illegally–let’s get the real bad guys……….But since they seemed to be so stupid in their business dealings…stands to reason they would continue being stupid on their own account…..”Stupid is as Stupid does”-Forest Gump
Little Mother on February 11th, 2008 at 6:08 am - Permalink
Again, I posted this on the Jan. 14th Blog….is only ROO listening (they fired Steve Quinn, the main “control guy” for the WMI transaction to sell its assets to Roo—Greg/Rick — you guys got out played, take care of those that have supported you–tell the Cops what happened..
“Whatever Tuzman decides now as it relates to P2P does not eradicate the possibility that there was illegal or at the very least unethical behavior on the part of senior executives from a publicly traded company (Roo) towards a private company (WMI). Criminal charges related to the executives of WMI could certainly pass over to the other side of the table related to this transacion. Remember the entire external members of the Board of Directors of Roo quit in December 2007 related to the activities of the other BOD members. The only two other members were Robert Petty and Robin Smyth. Both of these gentlemen seem to have been involved directly with the negogiations for WMI’s technology along with Steve Quinn. Interesting….where will the wheel stop?”
Little Mother on February 11th, 2008 at 6:12 am - Permalink
This was an interesting analysis from the January Blog:
I found out something for the wurld investors.
Rather than becoming leaner and focusing, Roo has expanded globally. It gets better, former Jump TV president Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is now the CEO of Roo. Guess who the new global managers are, yep his cronies or ex-Jump colleagues. Guess what technology he’s behind, gee - hmm.
So did the wurld leaders get outplayed again, it appears so. Was Jump acquired under suspicious circumstances too or did they only take the assests on that one as well and leave investors high and dry?
Whose pockets got lined on this deal and whose left standing in the cold?
http://www.iptv-watch.co.uk/16012008-us-roo-group-plans-global-expansion.html
Wurld/Roo got Jumped on February 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am - Permalink
Little Mother on February 11th, 2008 at 6:46 am - Permalink