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March 12, 2003
Caffeine Wishes and Takeout Dreams: Dealtime Buys Epinions
Sitting in Property one day, about a month ago, I was distracted by a familiar image. A girl in the row in front of me was looking something up on Epinions. Once I got over the initial shock of seeing someone actually use the site, I had the joy of reflecting on the dot com days and telling her about the company after class. A few short days later, Andy linked to the press release announcing that they were profitable last year. Wow.
Now, Epinions got bought. Busy year for them, it seems. It's an all stock deal. Does it affect me? Probably not. As one former co-worker put it on hearing the news, "I think we just get rid of our worthless Epinions stock and gain worthless Dealtime stocks..." Heh.
In the NYT article, Nirav -- Epinions' CEO and soon-to-be-COO of the merged company -- says, "We felt we couldn't finish what we started because we had a little problem...We needed a viable business model." Kudos to that. Pity it took almost four years to reach that conclusion.
I sure hope when they complete the merger, they don't do away with all the great reviews on Epinions. I mean, there are some real gems, like smooth_lando_c's review of Return of the Jedi and advice on vehicle maintenance. And jesus_h_christ's review of the Ten Commandments. We used to have a list of this stuff floating around.
Posted by buddha at March 12, 2003 04:57 PM
Comments
I have a huge folder of saved Epinions that would be almost impossible to locate these days given the web of trust algorithms. I shall post them soon. I promise.
p.s. I talked to [friend] last night and he said that 1) He was really glad to hear you were in law school and kicking ass. 2) The deal with dealtime essentially renders Epi common shares worthless.
The city misses you, JuBu. She sends her love.
Posted by: shoop at March 12, 2003 06:26 PM
I sorta figured the buyout would provide the opportunity necessary for them to "restructure" the old common stock out of existence. Not surprised, nor would I blame them. There goes the Ferrari I've been dreaming of.
If you talk to [friend] or any other campers again while you're out there, say hello.
Posted by: buddha at March 12, 2003 07:27 PM
Malheuresment, I have just returned to the sleepy south. No more random Epi Camper sightings for me.
Don't lose sight of your ferrari dreams, futureLawyerPal.
Posted by: shoop at March 12, 2003 07:40 PM
note: I changed the name in the above comments because the friend in question is still employed at Epinions and preferred his name not be associated with this discussion, which I respect.
Posted by: buddha at March 13, 2003 11:47 PM
Sorry [friend]. I usually don't use people's real names. please accept my apologies.
Posted by: shoop at March 14, 2003 12:50 PM