Someone set them up the bomb?
arsdigita.com is accessible again. I also was unable to reach it earlier today. Their uptime seems to have gotten worse in recent weeks, but perhaps it's in the network. DSL companies, for instance, aren't doing so well on uptime lately..
Jamie, and others of similar mindset: I have to think your speculation is rather optimistic. Philip owned 60% shares in a company with $20M annual revenues. Given a 10 P to E ratio, those shares would have a face value of $120M, which is considerably more than the $38M the VC invested. To step out onto a limb, I would suppose that the VCs wouldn't want to spend more than the round 2 financing and Philip wouldn't be interested in the small fraction of the value of his shares. So I'd have to assume that he was 0wned in court; the judge must have decided that investor rights trump shareholder rights, or the case was tending in that direction and Philip settled at some small fraction of his share's worth.
Taking an alternate tack, nowhere in Philip's message does he proclaim a divestment of his shares, just that he will "exercise no ongoing ... stockholder control." Which is, IMHO, an equally bad deal, given that he is majority stockholder. What kind of fair agreement gives a person no voice in their property?
I have some remaining questions, though. Was a ruling made? If so, is the ruling confidential? Can it be used as precedence in future cases wherein investors seek to strip all rights from shareholders? Am I reading too much into this?
