Boy wonder at eUniverse quits as investor group raises profile.THE youthful mastermind behind eUniverse Inc. has stepped down from his executive role just three days before the former Internet high-flyer announced a new financing deal. As a 20-something UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX graduate, Brad Greenspan Brad Greenspan is an internet entrepreneur who has been involved in the founding and proliferation of web properties including MySpace. Greenspan founded eUniverse Inc. (later renamed Intermix Media) in 1998, which went public in 1999.[1] The company survived the . had assembled a hodgepodge hodge·podge n. A mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumble. [Alteration of Middle English hochepot, from Old French, stew; see hotchpot. of Internet assets into a thriving public company with big-name investors such as Sony Corp., then managed to survive the dot-com bust Refers to the years 2000 to 2002, when the bottom fell out of the dot-com industry and hundreds of dot-com companies went bankrupt. All the rest lost a huge amount, if not almost all, of their stock valuation. See dot-com bubble. . But Greenspan's--and eUniverse's--fortunes have fallen since early May, when it announced that it would have to restate re·state tr.v. re·stat·ed, re·stat·ing, re·states To state again or in a new form. See Synonyms at repeat. re·state three quarters of financial results. That resulted in a nearly four-month halt in the trading of its stock. The accounting problems had already led to the replacement of eUniverse's auditor in May and the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Joseph Varraveto in September. On Oct. 31, the company announced without explanation that Greenspan had stepped down as chief executive and as chairman, although he will remain on the board. Then on Nov. 3, the company said VantagePoint Venture Partners had invested $8 million in the company. In turn, the San Bruno-based venture capital outfit received 5.3 million Series C preferred shares Preferred shares Preferred shares give investors a fixed dividend from the company's earnings and entitle them to be paid before common shareholders. See: Preferred stock. that, along with a previously announced investment, could give VantagePoint a 30 percent stake in the company upon conversion. Prior to VantagePoint's investments, Greenspan held a 28.2 percent stake in eUniverse, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of the firm's latest investment, VantagePoint managing directors David Carlick and Andrew Sheehan took two seats on the eUniverse board. Two other new directors joined the board, including entrepreneur Jeffrey Edell, who replaced former Sony executive Thomas Gewecke. "Brad led our team through some very exciting times, and we are thrilled at all we've been able to accomplish," said eUniverse President Brett Brewer in a press release. Brewer will take over Greenspan's executive duties until the board completes a search for a permanent replacement. Brewer ran the company's CD Universe division, which has since been sold, before becoming eUniverse's president three years ago. EUniverse spokesman Chris Scanlon had no comment on Greenspan's departure. Calls to Greenspan were not returned. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion