Richard Rosenblatt

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Richard Rosenblatt (born 1969) is a serial entrepreneur, and co-founded the Demand Media company with Shawn Colo in 2006. He built, operated, and sold over US$1.3 billion of Internet media companies.[1] Formerly the Chairman and CEO of Demand Media, Rosenblatt left the company on October 14, 2013.

Early life

Rosenblatt was born in Woodland Hills, California, United States (U.S.) on April 6, 1969,[2] and was raised in Southern California by his physicist father, Martin, and mother Jane, who was a Health Sciences professor.[3] Rosenblatt went on to earn a B.A. from UCLA, and a J.D. from University of Southern California Law School (class of 1994). After getting his law degree, Rosenblatt took a job at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, in Los Angeles, but quit after six months, citing boredom.[4][5]

Career

In October 1994, Rosenblatt co-founded iMALL and served as head of internet media and web development. iMALL's products included a suite of tools to build e-commerce stores and transact commerce over the internet.[5][6] Rosenblatt replaced one of the founders, Craig Pickering, as CEO in July 1996 and took on the additional role of Chairman of the Board in January 1997. Rosenblatt oversaw a restructuring and rebuilding of the business. In 1998, iMALL partnered up with First Data Merchant Services (FDMS) in a deal that provided access to roughly 2 million merchants and included a $14 million equity stake in iMALL.[6] In April 1999, Verio, Inc. teamed up with iMALL and First Data to create VerioStore, a product selling e-commerce services.[7][8] Later that same year, IBM bought iMALL and First Data’s technology for their e-commerce services.[9] In July 1999, Rosenblatt negotiated the sale of iMALL to Excite@Home for $565 million. In 1999, iMALL and two of its founders were sued by the Federal Trade Commission, though Rosenblatt was not among those named in the suit.[10] Rosenblatt became the Sr. VP of e-commerce for Excite@Home for a short period of time.[5][11]

Following iMALL’s sale, Rosenblatt became the founding investor and vice chairman of Great Domains. The company became a leader in the secondary domain market and was acquired by VeriSign, Inc. in October 2000 for $100 million.[1][5]

In August 2000, Rosenblatt became the interim CEO of the ailing DrKoop.com.[4] His participation was part of a larger effort by investors to reconfigure the business into a hybrid online and offline venture that was structured to be less dependent on the erratic flow of advertising dollars.[12] The turn-around was nearly complete when the Internet market collapsed and 9/11 occurred, causing the company to file for bankruptcy in December 2001.[5][13]

Rosenblatt became CEO of Superdudes.net, an online gaming community where users created their own Superhero character and participated in global social networking in 2002. [1][14]

In February 2004, Rosenblatt became CEO of Intermix Media (formerly eUniverse, Inc.), where he led the growth of Myspace.com from an unknown website into a popular Internet property. In 2005 Intermix was sold to News Corporation for US$649 million, $580 million of which was cash, with an additional $69 million paid to private shareholders.[5][7][15][16]

In 2005, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit against Intermix, but Rosenblatt was not among those named in the suit. Spitzer accused the company of installing advertising software without notifying unsuspecting consumers. Intermix acknowledged Spitzer's allegation, but stated that it was part of an outdated practice put in place by previous leadership, and the company no longer installed software without first notifying the customer.[17] The case against Intermix was later settled for a monetary sum, though there was no admission of guilt. The founder and former CEO of Intermix Media Inc., Brad Greenspan, was fined US$750,000 as part of an agreement with Spitzer to end the investigation against him.[18]

In 2006, Greenspan filed a lawsuit against Intermix, claiming the executives and directors, Rosenblatt among them, withheld key information to shareholders regarding the potential revenue generated by the sale of Intermix to News Corp. Greenspan specifically said the sale cheated shareholders by not including the growth potential of MySpace.com in the agreed upon sales figure.[19][20] The case was dismissed on Friday, 6 October 2006, when Judge Carolyn Kuhl determined that shareholders of Intermix Media, Inc. had been lawfully informed prior to voting on the transaction.[21][22] On August 1, 2008, a judge ordered that one count could proceed in the class action shareholder suit brought against the Intermix executives[23][24]

Rosenblatt then co-founded Demand Media with private-equity executive Colo. The company launched in May 2006 with US$120 million in equity, and announced the acquisitions of eNom, Inc. and eHow.com. By March 2008, Demand Media raised the total amount of equity to US$355 million.[25][26] In January 2008, Demand Media partnered with Lance Armstrong and the (LAF) to build the daily health, lifestyle and fitness website, Livestrong.com.[26][27] Demand Media completed its IPO in January 2011 with a 33% increase in price on its first day of trading and market value of over $1 billion. [28] Demand Media's board announced Rosenblatt's resignation from both the Chairman and CEO roles in an October 14, 2013 news release that also included Rosenblatt's response: "I realize that all journeys must ultimately come to an end and want to wish Shawn and the entire team success as they continue to grow the business."[29]

Rosenblatt is Chairman of the Board at iCrossing, Inc. and a member of the Board of Directors of FRS.[8][26]

In addition to his internet ventures, Rosenblatt is the co-owner of several Southern California nightclubs named Air Conditioned. The first was established in 2002 in San Diego, while the other two are located in Venice and Santa Monica.[5]

Lecturer

Rosenblatt is a co-lecturer with Peter Guber under UCLA’s MBA program for the course, "New Media: The Convergence of the Poet and the Engineer.” [30] He was also recently named the USC Entrepreneur of the Year 2008.[31]

Philanthropy

In June 2010, Rosenblatt was associated with "several philanthropic organizations," including the Floor Members Outreach Program, the NYSE Fallen Heroes Fund, and, the NYSE Foundation.[32]

Personal life

Rosenblatt is Jewish and is married to his wife of 16 years, Lisa Rosenblatt. The couple are parents to three children (two sons and a daughter), and Rosenblatt purchased a US$26 million Tuscan mansion in February 2011 that is located in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.[5][33]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jackson,Ron."His Companies Have Sold for Over $1.3 Billion: Can Demand Media's Richard Rosenblatt Do It Again with Domains?", DN Journal. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Weintraub, Arlene."Can This Man Cure Dr. Koop.com?", BusinessWeek. 1 October 2001. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Brown, Erika."The Mixologist", Forbes. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "iMALL Completes Year of Transition, Reports Fourth Quarter Results", Business Wire (link published by AllBusiness). 18 March 1999. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Richard Rosenblatt: How I Sold MySpace", bnet. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Verio Chooses iMall-First Data To Tam On Web Store", Computergram International (link published by Article Archives). 7 April 1999. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  9. ↑ Hollander, James."Red Hot iMall Stock Headed for Nasdaq NMS", TechNewsWorld. 19 May 1999. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  10. ↑ Menn, Joseph.“Champion of the Obscure”, Los Angeles Times. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  11. ↑ “Excite@Home Buys iMall, Makes Deal With First Data”, Computergram International (linked by bnet). 14 July 1999. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  12. ↑ Konrad, Rachel.“Dr. Koop hopes Buy will get sales in shape”, cnet. 14 March 2001. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
  13. ↑ “SEC legal document”. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  14. ↑ “10-K SEC filing”, EDGAROnline. 15 June 2004. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
  15. ↑ Francisco, Bambi.“News Corp. to Pay $580M for Intermix”, MarketWatch. 18 July 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  16. ↑ New Corporation to Acquire Intermix, Media, Inc”, News Corp. 18 July 2005. Retrieved 19 November 2008.
  17. ↑ Hines, Matt. “Intermix hit with spyware suit”, CNET News. 28 April 2005. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  18. ↑ Regan, Keith."Spitzer, Intermix Ex-CEO Agree on Settlement", TechNewsWorld (link published by E-Commerce Times). 21 October 2005. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  19. ↑ Gardner, Eriq.“Judge Dismisses MySpace Founder’s Suit”, thres (link published by AllBusiness). 9 October 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  20. ↑ Scott, Katie.“MySpace execs facing lawsuit over sale to News Corp”, Pocket-lint. 4 August 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  21. ↑ “Suit over sale of MySpace dismissed”, Bloomberg News (link published by seattlepi.com). 10 October 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  22. ↑ Hefflinger, Mark.“Judge Dismisses Shareholder Suit Over News Corp. Purchase of MySpace”, digitalmediawire. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  23. ↑ McCarthy, Caroline."Small Victory for Brad Greenspan in Ongoing MySpace Spat", cnetnews. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  24. ↑ “MySpace Shareholders Suit to go to Trial”, CIOinsight (link published by Reuters). 1 August 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  25. ↑ Ali, Rafat.“Demand Media Raises Another $35 Million; Total Comes to $355 Million”, paidContent.org. 24 March 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Menn, Joseph."Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Gets a Boost From Demand Media", Los Angeles Times. 16 June 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  27. ↑ Ali, Rafat.“Lance Armstrong Takes Significant Stake In Demand Media; Launching Wellness Site Together”, 27 January 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  28. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/26/technology/demand_media_IPO/
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Fritz, Ben.“Guber, Rosenblatt to teach at UCLA”, Variety. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  31. ↑ USC Marshall website. Fall 2008. Retrieved on 8 January 2009.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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