Venture capital firms buy into Curry's PodShow [$8 million+ for ex-MTV VJ Adam Curry's podcast co.]

Billboardradiomonitor.com via The Hollywood Reporter ^ | Aug 17, 2005 | Tony Sanders

[summer]

The business of podcasting has just garnered some of its first serious venture capital.

According to a press release from PodShow, Inc., three investment capital firms have bought an undisclosed share of Adam Curry's and Ron Bloom's new business venture that seeks to commercialize podcasting by aggregating the "large and disenfranchised audience" of podcast listeners. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Sherpalo Ventures have bought into PodShow, Inc., for $8.85 million, according to the press release.

In the statement, PodShow, Inc., said, "With its new infusion of capital, Management expects to announce additional features, programs and technologies that will further enhance its PodShow Podcast Network in the immediate future." (Tony Sanders, Billboardradiomonitor.com)

[summer]

The entire press release is HERE. Some of it is interesting. I'll post an excerpt below.

[summer]

Excerpt from above link:

The PodShow PodCast Network includes some of the most popular shows in podcasting. The Company's CastBlaster production tools have been embraced by the podcasting community as the most simple and innovative production tool for creating professional quality podcasts.

The company is at the center of the independent podcasting community and operates the premier independent podcast directory with over 100 categories managed by podcast aficionados. With its new infusion of capital, Management expects to announce additional features, programs and technologies that will further enhance its PodShow Podcast Network in the immediate future.

"The explosion of podcasting is unique for two reasons ... first, it has been driven by an almost insatiable consumer demand, and secondly it has successfully extended the benefits of the internet beyond the computer and into the ears of millions of eager listeners," said Ron Bloom, PodShow co founder and CEO. "PodShow intends to remain the most successful brand in podcasting..."

Over the last year, PodShow has worked with leading companies like Apple Computer, Warner Brothers and Sirius in extending the reach of podcasting....

[NathanBookman]

"Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Sherpalo Ventures have bought into PodShow, Inc., for $8.85 million, according to the press release."

Good signal that the iPod bubble is on its way to bursting.

[summer]

I don't think so. I think it has to go public first! And, I actually think podcasting may stick around for awhile because anyone can do it. We are not anywhere near a bubble or a burst yet.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

My thoughts exactly - that $8.85M is toast. The blue sky treatment of this as a 'radical new music delivery avenue' could be cloned from the bullshit that was being spewed with regularity in 1999 about every Internet application. Perhaps I'm too old, but I fail to see the significance of this.

[summer]

No, because it's not just music. It's also talk and everything else on radio. And, just as the VCR and DVDs have changed the move theatre experience, and hurt the box office, so, too, will podcasting eventually impact radio as we now know it. Just like our computers have changed us, in that we no longer reply solely on MSM. This is a big change coming. More regular people will be creating the content of radio programming. As online.

[NathanBookman]

"And, I actually think podcasting may stick around for awhile because anyone can do it."

And anyone can create a blog, how much do they make?

I'm not trying to be a d*ck, but I just don't get it. Of course, if someone traded stocks based on the opposite of what I do, they would be a billionaire.

[summer]

Yes, you're right - I should have mentioned blogs. I think podcasting will be to the airwaves what blogging is to the Internet.

And, BTW -- blogging is also in its infancy. Yet, now, people are selling ad space on their blogs. That hasn't always been the case.

But, it's all too early to tell what will eventually happen; that's true. However, I don't think this is all a fad. Kids today have grown up with computers and everything else that caters to their individual preferences. They did not grow up on three network anchors and nothing else. That era is gone forever.

[summer]

FYI. :)