The dot-com bust may be a fading memory, but media broker James Martin still sees a bright future for a profane Web site best known for mocking bumbling Internet startups as they sank into a morass of dumb ideas a few years ago.
Convinced that business blunders will never end, Martin is determined to locate an owner for FuckedCompany.com (FC) to recapture some of the buzz that has been lost since the Web site's irreverent founder, Philip Kaplan, began focusing on another venture two years ago.
"A bubble is always going to burst somewhere and people are always going to make business decisions that hurt someone. And other people are always going to want to criticize what went wrong," Martin said. "That's why this site is so important. This idea must continue."
Martin, a former community newspaper publisher now based in Madison, Wisconsin, said he has received about two dozen inquiries since FC and three affiliated Web sites went on the sales block last week. He declined to specify an asking price for the package of sites, which includes InternalMemos.com, PhotoDump.com and MoBog.com.
Kaplan, an inveterate prankster nicknamed "Pud," complicated the effort to sell FC by conspiring in an April Fool's Day joke to make it seem as if it had already been bought by TechCrunch, a closely watched Web log that focuses on promising high-tech startups.
"With the combination of these two companies, we can now effectively cover a startup from the idea stage, through the hype and funding stage, and then cover its inevitable bankruptcy and liquidation as well," TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington wrote in a playful post that many people took seriously.
Both Martin and Kaplan are now trying to clear up the confusion in hopes of finding a buyer for FC, which was drawing as many as 4 million monthly visitors during 2000 and 2001 as the site gleefully skewered dying dot-coms. FC became so popular that Kaplan began charging to see some content, generating monthly revenue of US$90,000 back in the site's heyday.
By Kaplan's own admission, FC has been decaying since he moved from New York to Silicon Valley in early 2005 to build an online advertising startup, AdBrite. FC mostly focuses on the follies of companies whose operations aren't entirely dependent on the Internet.
"It sort of breaks my heart because [the site] has been totally neglected," Kaplan, 31, said.
This isn't the first time Kaplan has considered selling FC. He listed the site with online auctioneer eBay Inc in 2000 and attracted more than 60 bids.
Although that offer turned out to be bogus, Kaplan wound up selling a 50 percent stake in the site for an undisclosed amount to an investor he won't identify. Kaplan will share any proceeds with his partner.
Martin, 61, does not rule out the possibility of attracting a seven-figure bid for FC, despite the recent deterioration of the site.
"We are talking about a brand that involves one of the favorite four-letter words that people use in times of anger, frustration and excitement," Martin said. "The brand will have immense meaning to someone."
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last