Duking it out in the comments at Amanda’s place, Drew tries the rope-a-dope, while Amanda calls him on his hostage taking behavior. Meanwhile, Mario has already rescued the princess and I’d say that this game of Donkey Kong is over!
Link via Amyloo via Dave Winer…
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Frank,
The conflict between Amanda and Andrew is likely due to an unresolved 51/49% ownership of RocketBoom. Amanda’s recent comment states:
“(Andrew) I know it must hurt that I still own the 49%.”
Andrew is probably (on advice of counsel) seeking to indicate that Amanda took some of her 49% with her, in the form of “goodwill” and contacts. While she might claim that her recent work is free and clear of RocketBoom ties it won’t be completely defensible if she still wants a payout from Andrew, IMHO.
Andrew likely wants to have counter claims against her subsequent work to prevent him having to pay forever on his subsequent RocketBoom work. I can’t blaim him for that but I do wish he’d pick a number to settle or drop the RocketBoom brand as permanently taintly legally and just re-start building a brand like Amanda did. He’ll get the same benefits from RocketBoom that she did (plus a little more since he has the archives of media).
50 and 49% of nothing is well… not worth fighting over. Jason Calacanis told him to just drop the brand and start again. Andrew has elected to fight to keep using it.
Like any “divorce” Amanda wants her cut of the business and until they negotiate a settlement it’s going to linger and resurface since they don’t seem interested in settling quietly.
For me, it damages them both as people. Neither is being completely candid about the real issues and we are being manipulated to apply leverage.
It’s so old school: contracts, lawyers, and trash talking in the media/blogs. But money, ego and hurt feelings are potent chemicals.
Frank,
It looks like Andrew is going to abandon the RocketBoom business as a way of getting out of having to cash out Amanda’s 49%:
http://www.dembot.com/012053.html
It also appeared that Mike Arrington’s “TechCrunch.UK” relationship was a “franchise” but Mike seemed to treat is as a owner outlet that he could control as an executive editor… but in the aftermath is was made clear that Sam Sethi had been making side bets:
“Sam took direct payment from a number of sponsors for an event he held earlier this year. Despite repeated requests he has never sent the portion of that payment, about $17,000, owed to us. We are never going to see that money.”
No, Mike, you probably won’t see that money. I, for one, frankly don’t even care. Sam’s lucky to loose the overlord.