Obvious Corp. Buying Odeo Interesting, But Not Common

October 26th, 2006

Evan Williams and other Odeo employees buying control of Odeo back from their VCs is definitely an interesting piece of news because it’s not that common, and it says something interesting about what some companies are experiencing right now. Williams sees that putting out quick products with small teams and seeing what becomes a hit is a better strategy than planning and growing some specific and larger application, and perhaps things weren’t going as fast as the investors wanted.

Mark Evans theorizes this may become common to Web 2.0 companies who aren’t seeing the amount of progress their investors want.

I disagree, I think that this is a pretty unique case as Evan Williams happens to have millions of dollars to pull such a thing off, while the majority of investors don’t have that kind of money sitting around. Sure, there are a few companies out there that have been started in the last couple of years by entrepreneurs who have had previous successes that may give them that kind of capital, but I think generally it’s not going to be something we see on a regular basis.

• News Corp. Looking For Ad Technologies
• Rumor: Yahoo and Odeo
• Another Great List of Startup Advice
• Fox Interactive Acquires Strategic Data Corp
• Facebook and YouTube Want Top Dollar

Entry Filed under: Acquisitions, Random, Web 2.0