LOS ANGELES--Michael Eisner wasn't miffed enough at Veoh to stop him from investing in the company once again.
Dmitry Shapiro, Veoh founder
Last week, the former Disney chairman took the stage at Digitas' "Newfront," a showcase of Web video for potential advertisers held in New York. Joining him was Veoh's founder Dmitry Shapiro.
According to Silicon Alley Insider, Eisner used the opportunity to chide Shapiro about when Veoh, a company that bills itself as a Web TV network, is going to pay off. Silicon Alley Insider called the exchange between the two men "uncomfortable."
On Tuesday, Shapiro was at the OnHollywood Conference and he said he was dumbfounded after reading the story. He and Eisner were joking around and that everyone in the audience understood that except Silicon Alley Insider. What should have tipped off the blog's reporter, according to Shapiro was when Eisner started picking fun at Veoh for posting an ad for a penis enlargement herb.
Shapiro said Eisner is pleased with Veoh's progress and was part of a $30 million funding round the company closed recently that included such other investors as Intel and Adobe Systems. This was Eisner's second investment into the company.
Maybe the important question is whether Eisner should be down on Veoh. In a sector where YouTube has devoured almost everything video on the Web, Veoh says it has 28 million unique visitors worldwide. They spent more than 100 minutes each month on the site. The company is able to keep them there so long because it offers long-form content and a recommendation search engine that helps people find the clips that appeals to them.
Veoh's goal is to attract the best videographers on the Web or the people Shapiro calls "the YouTube graduates."
But when can he start putting cash into Eisner's already deep pockets?
"We'll be profitable in 2009," Shapiro said.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says he knows exactly what Yahoo is worth and isn't willing to go a dime over that, Silicon Alley Insider reported Thursday.
Ballmer, speaking to Microsoft employees in a so-called town hall conference call Thursday, also said an announcement regarding Yahoo is coming "in very short order," the blog site reported. But what he meant by that is unclear, since he also noted that he had "nothing to say today." A reporter for Silicon Alley Insider apparently listened in on the call.
Balllmer says he knows what Yahoo is worth.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)Ballmer also didn't put a price tag to what he thinks Yahoo is worth, but his comments may indicate that talks between the two companies are still going on. The Yahoo comments came up during a question-and-answer session in which he reiterated Microsoft's three options: Make a friendly deal, go hostile, or walk away.
The Microsoft chief exec also explained to his employees that Microsoft needs Yahoo in order to gain scale in the online market. "(Yahoo) accelerates scale. Gets us more advertisers, gets us search. Yahoo's not a strategy. It's a part of a strategy. We're interested in paying for it at some level, and beyond that level we're not willing to pay for it," Ballmer said, according to Alley Insider.
Interestingly, Ballmer seems to believe that on the Internet, many people would think of his company as the underdog as it tries to play catchup with Google. "The world," he said, "is rooting for us."
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