Re: Jupiter Sold for $250K to Internet.com parent INT

From: Rick Bruner <rick_at_bruner.net>
Date: Mon 24 Jun 2002 12:07:14 -0500

Cliff,

I'm aware JMM had millions in liabilities (as I mentioned in my piece), but
to what extent those were Jupiter's liabilities vs. Media Metrix's I don't
know, but I would imagine mostly MM's. MM already sold for a song
(relatively, considering what its valuation must have been once), so I was
surprised that the Jupiter assets came in for such a pittance. If INT is
considering changing the name of its entire organization in favor of the
Jupiter brand prestige, as Alexis Gutzman suggests, they certainly picked
it up for a bargain.

I mean, come on, the company that gave us umpteen valuations of
multi-billions of dollar sectors can barely crack six digits for its own
self worth. There is an irony there. That's all I was trying to point out.

Jupiter has got to be one of those love/hate relationships, like the banner
ad. Sure, it's easy for us all to mock them both, and many of us were
critics of them all along, but let's face it, banners and Jupiter did their
parts to help many of us live pretty fat in the late '90s. :-) Of course,
you could probably argue that Jupiter itself bears some responsibility for
helping drive the whole U.S. economy into recession, given its
disproportionate and enthusiastic role in over-hyping the bubble, so
perhaps it deserves what it got.

It's certainly ignominious for them to get sold for chump change -- putting
an actual value on their worth -- as opposed to having the good graces just
to go out of business like the rest of us.

Rick

Rick E. Bruner 646 554-0963 rick_at_e-summary.com
Executive Summary Consulting, Inc. www.executivesummary.com
Strategy, research and commentary on e-media / e-marketing
Author: "Net Results.2: Best Practices for Web Marketing"
Personal musings @ Bruner Blog: www.bruner.net/blog





Received on Mon Jun 24 2002 - 12:07:14 CDT