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Tag: Peter Thiel

  • Peter Thiel Retiring From Meta’s Board

    Peter Thiel Retiring From Meta’s Board

    Peter Thiel is retiring from Meta’s board of directors, marking the end of a chapter for one of the company’s earliest investors.

    Peter Thiel has a storied history as an investor, backing some of the tech industry’s greatest success stories. He was the first outside investor in Facebook, taking a roughly 10% stake for $500,000 — a stake which brought him more than $1 billion less than a decade later.

    Meta has announced that Thiel will not seek reelection at the company’s 2022 Annual Shareholder Meeting in May, bringing his 17 years on the board to an end.

    “Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he has done for our company — from believing in us when few others would, to teaching me so many lessons about business, economics, and the world,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO, said. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions. He has served on our board for almost two decades, and we’ve always known that at some point he would devote his time to other interests. I’m grateful he’s served on our board for as long as he has, and I wish him the best in his journey ahead.”

    Meanwhile, Bloomberg is reporting that Thiel is stepping down in an effort to distance his pro-Trump political ambitions from Meta, given that his support of Trump has caused problems for the company in the past.

  • Peter Thiel Invests In Free Speech Video Platform Rumble

    Peter Thiel Invests In Free Speech Video Platform Rumble

    Rumble received a big boost today in its effort to capitalize on the censorship of the political right by YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Well-known Paypal co-founder and libertarian Peter Thiel along with J.D. Vance have invested in the platform in an effort to support its growth.

    “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome aboard investors that are aligned with our long-term vision. This investment is evidence that the market really desires competition and freedom of choice. These funds will help us launch our new cloud services, enhance our video platform, and help create the rails for a new economy that is desperately needed,” said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski. 

    According to the Wall Street Journal the investment is “being led by Narya Capital, a Cincinnati-based venture-capital fund co-founded by Mr. Vance and Colin Greenspon, and by Mr. Thiel, who is also a Narya investor, in a personal capacity. Colt Ventures, the family office of Dallas investor and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, is also part of the investment group.”

    The WSJ says that the investment was described as significant and that it values Rumble at around $500 million.

    During the run-up to the election and afterward many conservative YouTubers have said that they have been blocked or banned on social media for simply espousing conservative views without much recourse. Censorship during the pandemic has been especially rampant where even medical doctors who have personal experience treating COVID patients have complained about being blocked or banned.

    Big tech seemed to have decided that a big tent for thoughts is not a good idea. It’s as if they think there is only one viewpoint that should be allowed on social when it comes to certain subjects like COVID. For instance, some medical doctors posted videos positively discussing hydroxychloroquine as a potentially life-saving treatment for COVID, and their videos were deleted by the platforms. Their voice was silenced.

    Since then studies have shown hydroxychloroquine to be a powerful treatment which simply goes to show how dumb and harmful it is to ban speech.

    Not so coincidentally, Rumble’s monthly viewership has grown from 1.6 million users per month to an average of 31 million per month in the first quarter of 2021 – an increase of more than 1,800%. Rumble says that this growth reflects the increasingly strong market recognition by both users and creators of Rumble’s differentiated value proposition. 

    Just possibly, users want to be able to freely express their own views without fear of social platform retribution. Hence Rumble, and other newer social platforms are starting to gain traction against YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.

    “The investment will add considerable strength to Rumble’s ability to build upon this success,” states Rumble’s press release on the investment. 

    More from the Release:

    Rumble was built on the belief that small creators should be given equal opportunity to freely express themselves, reach their followers, and be provided the same access to tools that are available to larger creators. This investment will allow Rumble to continue to fulfill its mission while providing the platform with more opportunities to build out its infrastructure and launch new cloud services where businesses can feel safe and secure.

    The investment is being led by Narya, a Cincinnati-based venture capital firm co-founded by J.D. Vance and Colin Greenspon that seeks to invest long-term capital in technology that solves significant challenges.

    Narya is joined in this investment by Peter Thiel, famed entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has a long and storied track record of investing in frontier technology companies, including PayPal, Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Compass Pathways, and many other ventures.

    Ethan Fallang of Narya will join Rumble’s board. “At Narya, we support founders who combine technical and business model innovation to address large and underserved markets. We believe Chris and the entire Rumble team have built an excellent platform and are thrilled to be part of their ongoing success as they continue to scale,” said Fallang.

  • Paypal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Joins Trump Transition Team

    Paypal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Joins Trump Transition Team

    Reporter Dan Primack reports that tech mogul and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel is joining the Trump transition team:

    Peter Thiel has agreed to join Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

    Thiel, a venture capitalist and hedge fund manager who also serves on the board of directors at Facebook, has been Trump’s most prominent Silicon Valley supporter, even speaking on his behalf at the Republican National Convention.

    There were some interesting reactions to the Thiel appointment on Twitter:

    A week before the election Thiel made a widely reported speech at National Press Club on why he supports Donald Trump for President:

    Primack also tweeted yesterday that the Trump transition team is looking at Rex Tibbens, current Lyft COO and ex-Amazon exec, for Transport Secretary.

  • Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Cites Trade as the Main Reason He Supports Trump

    Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Cites Trade as the Main Reason He Supports Trump

    Peter Thiel, the billionaire Paypal co-founder and apparent financier of the Hulk Hogan Gawker lawsuit, spoke at the National Press Club on why he supports Donald Trump for President.

    Of course, this is only news because in Silicon Valley and especially the young tech and startup world of San Francisco, he’s really going against the tide.

    Thiel’s most powerful argument for Trump is about trade, where even Bernie Sanders voters find agreement. The past strategies of all Republicans and Democrats has left us with a country that is on a direct path to manufacturing nothing, and this is killing the middle class and good paying blue collar jobs.

    Here’s how Thiel puts it:

    Why do voters still support Donald Trump even if they think the American situation is serious? Why would they think that Trump, of all people, could make it any better? I think it’s because of the big things that Trump gets right.

    For example, free trade has not worked out well for all of America. It helps Trump that the other side just doesn’t get it. All of our elites preach free trade. The highly educated people who make public policy explain that cheap imports make everyone a winner, according to economic theory.

    But in actual practice, we’ve lost tens of thousands of factories and million of jobs to foreign trade and the heartland has been devastated. Maybe policymakers really believe that nobody loses, or maybe they don’t worry about it too much because they think they’re among the winners.

    The sheer size of the US trade deficit shows that something has gone badly wrong. The most developed country in the world should be exporting capital to less developed countries.

    Instead, the United States is importing more than 500 billion dollars every year. That money flows into financial assets, it distorts our economy in favor of more banking and more financialization and it gives the well-connected people who benefit a reason to defend the status quo.

    But not everyone benefits… and the Trump voters know it.

  • Gawker Files Bankruptcy, Selling To Ziff Davis

    Gawker Files Bankruptcy, Selling To Ziff Davis

    Gawker announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in order to safeguard its assets and keep publishing while it appeals the $130 million Hulk Hogan verdict. Gawker also said that it has an agreement with Ziff Davis to sell all 7 of it’s brands including presumably Gawker.com. Recode is reporting that Gawker has told its employees the price is somewhat less than $100 million. The Wall Street Journal added, “The sale auction will begin with an opening bid of $90 million from the digital media company and publisher Ziff Davis LLC, according to a person familiar with the matter.” The Gawker network reportedly has 6 million readers each weekday.

    In a memo to staff, Ziff Davis chief executive Vivek Shah said the auction will likely take place at the end of July and that he expected the bankruptcy court to set a schedule to take other bids soon. “There’s a tremendous fit between the two organizations, from brands to audience to monetization. We look forward to the possibility of adding these great brands—and the talented people who support them—to the Ziff Davis family,” he said. (WSJ.com)

    Gawker founder and CEO Nick Denton tweeted about the bankruptcy filing and took a direct stab at Peter Thiel who funded Hogan’s legal team:

    Felix Salmon, Senior Editor of @fusion tweeted that Ziff Davis intends to shut down Gawker.com and focus on its other brands such as Gizmodo.

    Gawker founder and CEO Nick Denton commented in the release, “We are encouraged by the agreement with Ziff Davis, one of the most rigorously managed and profitable companies in digital media. A combination would marry Ziff Davis’ strength in e-commerce, licensing and video with GMG’s premium media brands.”

    Bankruptcy is necessary in order for Gawker to sell the business free and clear of legal liabilities at its maximum value:

    Gawker Media Group is putting its properties up for sale after a coordinated barrage of lawsuits intended to put the company out of business and deter its writers from offering critical coverage.
    The protection afforded by the bankruptcy filing will allow GMG to exercise its rights to due process. The company is confident it will ultimately prevail in the Hogan lawsuit, but was not able today to obtain from the trial court even a brief stay without onerous conditions to seek relief from the appeals court.

    The Wall Street Journal added that, “Gawker will sell its business at a bankruptcy court-supervised auction. It has arranged a $22 million bankruptcy loan to stay open pending the sale. The company listed Mr. Bollea as its largest creditor with a $130 million claim. (He was also awarded an additional $10 million in damages from Mr. Denton himself.)”

    Gawker’s release went on to recap its accomplishments over the years:

    With a distinctive commitment to journalism as an honest conversation between writers and readers, GMG is the only interactive media group to have achieved scale and profitability without outside capital. The company is a leader in online commerce, native advertising and online discussion software, but the driving force is its distinctive editorial mission.

    Writer for writer, GMG has broken more important and interesting stories than any other digital news venture.
    Gizmodo, the company’s technology flagship, has energized the debate about Facebook’s control of the news, for example. Deadspin, which provides sports news without access, has exposed the cover-up by the NFL of domestic abuse allegations against players. Lifehacker is the smartest how-to site on the web. Jezebel has defined modern feminist thinking. Jalopnik and Kotaku are among the web’s leading sources for news and reviews of cars and video games. And the flagship site itself has shone light on powerful figures from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to the new industrialists and investors of Silicon Valley.

    “Authentic writing, whether it takes the form of honest reviews of technology, video games and entertainment, or revelations about the way the system works, is more important than ever,” says Nick Denton, the founder of GMG. “We have been forced by this litigation to give up our longstanding independence, but our writers remain committed to telling the true stories that underpin credibility with our millions of readers. With stronger backing and disentangled from litigation, they can perform their vital work on more platforms and in different forms.”

  • Twitter Execs Are Too Baked to Properly Run the Company, Says Billionaire Investor

    Twitter Execs Are Too Baked to Properly Run the Company, Says Billionaire Investor

    Peter Thiel, Billionaire investor and co-founder of PayPal, thinks the folks over at Twitter should probably lay off the pot.

    In an interview with CNBC, Thiel called the company “horribly mismanaged” and said that it’s hard to evaluate its potential going forward.

    “Twitter is hard to evaluate. They have a lot of potential. It’s a horribly mismanaged company – probably a lot of pot-smoking going on there. But it’s such a solid franchise it may even work with all that,” said Thiel.

    “One of the paradoxes is when you have a business model as good as Twitter – where you have 140 characters, no one can copy it, no one can compete – you can be screwing a lot of other stuff.”

    Thiel’s clearly not a huge fan of Twitter. He doesn’t own any Twitter stock and has only ever tweeted one time, despite joining the service in 2009. He hawked his new book on September 8th.

    I guess this should be expected from Facebook’s first outside investor.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • 3D Printed Meat Just Got Backing From PayPal Founder

    3D Printed Meat Just Got Backing From PayPal Founder

    Everybody loves a good hamburger. Part of the reason for that is that its a safe food. We all know where it comes from and how it was made. It’s hard to screw up a hamburger beyond undercooking it. Would you still eat a hamburger if it was made by a 3D printer?

    PayPal founder Peter Thiel thinks that 3D printed hamburgers are pretty neat, and he bets that you will too. That’s why he recently donated anywhere between £160,000 to £220,000 to Modern Meadow, a Missouri-based company that wants to make meat with 3D printers.

    So how exactly does this 3D meat printing work? Modern Meadow says that they can layer mixtures of cells via 3D printers and come out with a specific structure. In this case, the structure would be a hamburger, steak, or any other kind of meat. Their current goal is to print an edible piece of meat that’s less than a half a millimeter thick.

    The kicker here is that their meat wouldn’t be real meat, but just have the flavor and consistency. They hope that the food will appeal to vegetarians or religious folks whose doctrines forbid them from eating meat. They do foresee, however, that general consumers might be somewhat turned away by the idea even though 3D printed meat promises to be safer on the environment and your heart.

    I for one welcome the idea of 3D printed meat. If the taste and consistency are right, it would be great for those of us who don’t eat beef and don’t like the current vegetarian options. Vegetarians may even one day be able to experience the joy that is Five Guys.

    [h/t: Wired UK]

  • Pay Pal Co-Founder Funds A Floating City…For Science

    Pay Pal Co-Founder Funds A Floating City…For Science

    Blueseed co-founder and CEO Max Marty has a dream. In his dream there is a floating city of sorts 12 miles off shore from Silicon Valley in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. The project, named Blueseed, is an idea that it would operate as a kind of floating laboratory for entrepreneurs who can’t officially immigrate to America due to restrictions on work visas.

    The project is being funded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, he has become an important philanthropist and venture capitalist investing in companies such as SpaceX, LinkedIn, and Spotify.

    Marty told Reason TV that:

    “The idea of a city in the bay is both a reaction to and a solution to U.S. laws that prevent foreign innovators from coming to Silicon Valley. But by placing Blueseed just a half-hour from the shore, these innovators would be close enough to access Silicon Valley’s infrastructure. Once their companies are large enough, Marty says they’ll be able to move to the mainland and become a part of the U.S. tax base.”

    The Blueseed city/ship would combine both work and living spaces and even contain trees and lawns. The design shows an obvious influence from Google’s famous headquarters. In fact, Blueseed calls it the “Googleplex of the Sea.”

    People accepted into the program would have to pay about $1,200 a month which would cover the price of the room and the office space. Food and security will be available but no word on if the food is included in the price or if you have to pay more.

    Blueseed is planning on launching it’s ship in the 3rd quarter of 2012.

    photo courtesy of blueseed.co

  • Facebook Investor Rules Out 2011 IPO

    Facebook Investor Rules Out 2011 IPO

    Would-be Facebook investors will have to wait a while before the company has a ticker symbol like GOOG, MSFT, and YHOO.  Peter Thiel (re)confirmed this afternoon that Facebook won’t go public until 2012 at the earliest.

    Bloomberg reported the same thing in July, meaning this isn’t exactly breaking news, but there is a difference between three anonymous sources and Thiel.  Thiel’s about as close to Facebook as anyone other than Mark Zuckerberg can get.

    The evidence: once upon a time, Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook.  In return, he got 10.2 percent of the company.  Also, Thiel sits on Facebook’s board of directors, meaning he’s aware of the company’s goings-on, and not just sitting back, waiting to profit.

    So again, it’s important that Thiel told Fox Business, "[Facebook] will not IPO for awhile.  I think we will follow the example of Google which is you do not go public until very, very late in the process.  This is a by-product of Sarbanes-Oxley.  At least two years.  I think the company is on record saying it will not go public until 2012 at the earliest."

    It should be very interesting to see what Facebook’s user count and revenue figures look like at that point in time.

    Anyway, a hat tip goes to Roger Nachman.