Fandom's Roving CEO Ready for Growth Opportunity.

DEBRA Streicker-Fine is to the Los Angeles Internet sector what an EMT is to accident victims on the freeways.

For the past two years, the former president of Digital Domain and founder of Cloud 9 Interactive has been reviving ailing Internet companies as a temporary, turnaround CEO.

More recently, though, Streicker-Fine's mission has been simply to take charge of companies and then take them to market.

In fact, it's not so simple.

Consider Fandom Inc., the latest stop for the hired-gun CEO. The Santa Monica entertainment company, like so many startups, burned through cash as it expanded operations last year.

Fandom's goal, according to its then-CEO Mark Young, was to build an "expanded reality entertainment network of multimedia, event and Internet ventures.

"What we do as a business is acquire companies with strong consumer franchises," Young said in December. "You can't limit yourself to one platform if you want to satisfy the consumers' entertainment needs."

After a shopping spree that included acquisitions of Cinescape magazine and fan convention organizer Creation Entertainment, Fandom was running out of cash and operating inefficiently.

That's when investors, including Redpoint Ventures managing partner Brad Jones, called on Streicker-Fine.

"When Fandom was doing its acquisitions, they were essentially doing what (was accepted at the time), which was grow quickly, speed your time to market and acquire revenue streams," said Streicker-Fine, who took the helm of Fandom in January.

By that time, the market was well on its corrective path.

"There was a new focus on getting to profitability," Streicker-Fine said. "People weren't raising third and fourth rounds of financing anymore."

The acquisitions themselves were not irrational, she said, it was the mass of them that was unwieldy.

"Even when you bring on companies, you still have to take advantage of synergies and cut inefficiencies to get to profitability," she said.

In addition, culture clashes erupted with some of the management teams.

"You had companies coming together that are used to running things their own way and with different business models and different interests," she said.

Streicker-Fine declined to get more specific about Fandom's culture clashes, but she did say that she is used to encountering difficult CEOs after a merger has taken place.

"They figure, 'I got acquired so why hang around?'" she said. "Others believe that if they were purchased, then they have free reign to use the parent company's money."

Rather than try to centralize Fandom's online and offline properties, Streicker-Fine prepared the properties for sale, a process that has included layoffs and other belt-tightening measures. In short, she is overseeing the piecemeal liquidation of all the company's assets.

In early April, Fandom sold one of its offline properties, Creation Entertainment, back to its original founders for a "seven-figure sum," according to Streicker-Fine. Fandom bought Creation in November for an undisclosed amount.

A few weeks later, Streicker-Fine negotiated the sale of Fandom Shop -- an online store specializing in merchandise and collectibles - to CMI Holding Group.

Streicker-Fine is currently taking bids on other properties, including Cinescape, the "gem of Fandom's group."

"They run lean and mean and they are very profitable," she said of the Chicago-based entertainment magazine.

But the life of the roving CEO is losing its appeal to Streicker-Fine.

"I've gotten my bruises and whacks," she said. "It's time to go into a growth company."

Clearing Fog Over Field

Despite reports from Variety, Reuters and the New York Post that Ted Field had joined ArtistDirect Inc. as its CEO, the veteran entertainment exec has not yet-inked a deal.

ArtistDirect announced on April 2 that it excepted to hook Field, a billionaire music mogul who left Vivendi-Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M records in February.

The planned agreement includes a five-year contract and the formation of a new record label, to be co-owned by the two parties.

Field could not be reached for comment last week, but ArtistDirect President and COO Keith Yokomoto said, "I'm optimistic that we'll reach a final agreement. Ted is spending a majority of his time with us right now."

Maybe so, but in situations like this, with an established industry veteran aiming to join a money-losing startup, anything can happen. Field's intention to become CEO does not become a reality until negotiations are finalized and shareholders approve the deal on May 29.

Yokomoto said it was immediately apparent that Field would bring traditional business values to the online music company, and that one of his first questions to the ArtistDirect management team was; "'Are you willing to make tough business decisions?'"

Another concern among all of the players at the table, Yokomoto said, is "does the indiscriminate nature of the market kill you after all?"

Despite having about $80 million in cash on hand, ArtistDirect has seen its stock tank. Last week, it was trading at 60 cents per share, where it has been lingering for months. The company received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq National Market and is seeking approval of a reverse stock split from share-holders later this month.

The company reported a net loss of $17 million (45 cents per share) for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to a net loss of $25.3 million ($1.70 per share) in the like year-earlier quarter.

Its revenues for the fourth quarter were $6 million, up from $3.8 million in the like year-earlier quarter.