Roo: Will it Ever Stop?
Days like this make me miss one of the staple websites of the first dot-com bubble, FuckedCompany. I can’t help but imagine that Roo Media would be on the top of the list. I’m still baffled by the inner workings of the online video syndicator, but this is a roller coaster ride that everyone seems to want to get off.
Today, four members of the Board of Directors resigned. Three of them were named to the board on May 30th of this year.
Before joining the board at Roo, Simon Bax was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Pixar Animation Studios; Stephen Palley is Executive Director of Pali Capital; Scott Ackerman is a partner at Wagner, Francis, Richman & Ackerman; and Doug Chertok is a Senior Managing Director at Hudson Ventures.
The resignation of these four directors leaves only two directors on the board: Robert Petty and Robin Smyth, the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, respectively. As I write, Roo’s stock has hit a new 52-week (and possible all-time) low of $.14.
Whats going on over there? And when is News Corp going to step in to protect their strategic investment?
December 18th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Seems to me there isn’t much value left to their Strategic investment…it was all flushed away by poor investments (see: Wurld Media) and poor strategy.
December 18th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Petty may be a good talker but it’s apparent he is not much of a businessman sad to say.
He has a very decent player, wonderful tech and very decent partnerships when you consider the Fox properties he services.
The shares issued today (confusing deal when you read the SEC filing) will keep them afloat until this time next year it appears. Who knows if this will be enough time to get the boat righted.
I have a thought that NewsCorp will indeed come in as majority shareholder, bump Petty down to a sales spot, and the Fox people will give it the scale it needs to become profitable.
Right now Fox uses Maven for Fox Business Channel, Brightcove for WSJ and Roo for the majority of the newspaper sites including The Sun, NY Post, all the Australian papers and Fox Local TV.
Too much there to send to the trash heap I feel.
December 18th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Mike- I completely agree with your assessment. They seem to have all the right pieces, but can’t seem to put the puzzle together.