Fox Interactive Media hints at acquisition of Web 2.0 company during conference.
The one-day Web2.0 Under The Radar Conference took place Mach 2, 2006. It featured "32 of the most
disruptive companies in this space" and took place at Microsoft's Mountain View, CA office.
The companies were divided into one of seven categories: Community 2.0 , Connect 2.0, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) News , Make It Easy, Search 2.0, or When 2.0.
Arguably the biggest news from the first time conference besides the winners occured during Ross Levinsohn's "Fireside Chat" with TechCrunch and Edgeio founder Michael Arrington. During the interview chat Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media, announced that the newly established of News Corp, has purchased one of the 32 companies being spotlighted at the conference. The division already owns MySpace.com and IGN.com along with other internet acquisitions based outside of the U.S. What's more, Levinsohn also said don't be surprised he Fox purchased five of others in the near future.
With Viacom announcing it is getting into the social networking space and NBC Universal getting ready to unveil their Web 2.0 strategy, this will only heat up the mini-bubble faster. Not a bad time to be a startup with some momentum...
List of "disruptive companies":
AirSet | Box.net (Winner Connect 2.0) | Browster | BubbleShare | CalendarHub | Dabble DB (Winner Make It Easy)| Dogster (Winner Community 2.0)| Eurekster (Winner Search 2.0 - Part 2)| Flock (Winner Smooth Surfing)| Goowy | Kaboodle | Loomia | Meetro | Mosuki (Winner When 2.0)| NowPublic | Popist | Rallypoint | Riya (Winner Search 2.0 - Part 1)| Rollyo | SimplyHired | Simpy | Skobee | Sphere | Spy Media | TagCloud | Tagged | TailRank (Winner DIY News)| The Form Assembly | Top 10 Sources | Wink | Zoho| Zvents
Also see:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/02/fox-interactive-announces-acquistion/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2648
http://hq.meetro.com/blog.php?p=102
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Web 2.0 Article in DM Confidential
The Ownership of Traffic
Digital Thoughts - Following the Money, An Investment Recap - Part 1 and Part 2.