Ripe Digital Entertainment, the LA-based digital entertainment company backed by Hearst-Argyle (NYSE: HTV) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) investments, has closed down, we have confirmed from sources, and the remaining management is trying to sell the company’s assets.
My two cents:
- Both companies raised obscene amounts of money: Mania raised $32M and Ripe $45M. In the history of mankind, more money has not solved more problems; think 99% of VC-backed startups, the NY Yankees, NY Mets, NY Rangers (you get the idea) or of course, Biggie Smalls.
- Sometimes it hurts to be too early in a market. Ripe and Mania were both very early players in the online content space. I wonder at times if WatchMojo.com was too early, but then again we didn’t raise VC money so time is on our side.
- Both companies focused on tough markets, Mania picked music, which I think was suicidal. Ripe chose the lad mag approach. Having been a partner at online men’s lifestyle magazine AskMen from 2000-05 before I started WatchMojo.com, I can tell you that winning over advertisers when half your content is boobs and butts is pretty challenging. I think this is why online video startup Kush TV renamed itself Red Lever and then sold to ad network Adconion (I certainly see ad networks buying online video studios to hedge themselves from exposure to display ads).
To their credit, Ripe over the years started three main brands, RipeTV (men’s entertainment), OctaneTV (auto), and FlowTV (urban), but was bleeding money despite having VOD distribution on Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner (TWX).
Ripe was founded by Ryan Magnussen, Patrick Bradley and Steven Voci, all three of whom were founding partners for interactive agency Zentropy that sold to Interpublic 1999. The main investor is Hearst-Argyle who owned about 23.4% of RDE on a fully diluted basis, according to its SEC filings.
Of course, it’s not just the online video 1.0 companies that are shutting down, 60Frames shut down recently.
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