Very interesting denouement going on stemming from comments made by IDG chief pertaining to the blocked sale (3 times, apparently) of Web 1.0 bible The Industry Standard.
On the one side, you have former CEO John Battelle, former minority investor Fred Wilson; in the other, you have Pat McGovern, founder and CEO of IDG.
What’s fascinating, frankly, is the real-time debate, something that we only are privy to thanks to everyone having a blog, something that someone’s already pointed out today, mind you.
I know, for the record, not everyone blogs, in fact, a tiny percentage of the world does, and we should not all get a big head and think that blogging is more important than it is, but that being said… I am sure that before “everyone” openly addressed such things, the same kind of exchange would take place, probably, but behind closed doors, via phone and what not. Today, it’s out there in public, so you have to be careful what you say, cause the truth comes out… that’s something I abide that…
I don’t know the players well enough to judge who is right, but what is fascinating, as an entrepreneur and advisor to companies, is that Fred Wilson said he regretted investing as a minority investor along with a corporate backer. Up to now, the conventional wisdom has been that VCs and angels oftentimes welcome investing on a small scale along with corporate backers because the corporate backer presents an obvious exit. With that upside, comes the downside that they will block sales to competitors, no?
While I do not know the players enough to judge, I do wonder this, if the VC and CEO wanted to cash out, why didn’t IDG simply make them an offer to buy them out and replace the CEO with new blood?
I still think that in hindsight, there’s three sides to every story: in his mind, McGovern is probably right, as are Battelle and Wilson. No one is ever 100% right because everyone is biased and has something to gain or lose from the facts being fully unveiled… but people have a tendency to buy their own PR and McGovern probably really believes his version of the facts.
All I know is that beneath the “he said, she said” saga is a great lesson for all entrepreneurs currently riding the wave, and to avoid making this post any longer, I’ll let Valleywag tell you what that is: funny money doesn’t last.
History repeats itself, after all… I’m not saying we’re in funny money times, but…
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