Industry Note: Ninged 07 and Let The Devil Take the Hindmost
Last year, I discussed getting Ninged as one of the cardinal sins a startup could make.
This year, getting Ninged is one of the cardinal sins an investor can make. Why would Legg Mason and pals dump
north of $40m into Ning's sideways strategy - a hypothesis the market whose validity, by now, disproven with a vengeance?
Two words - dumb money.
I'd be surprised if even the usual M&A suspects are interested in Ning. But if they are, cash in your chips - then the bubble is definitely on.
So far, we haven't seen many (almost any) examples of a let-the-devil-take-the-hindmost mentality in the new media space.
But this deal may (really) be the inflection point which cascades the industry into full-on infectious greed.
There's money piling in from some other unexpected sources. How about Videojug getting $30m back in May from private equity financier Jeremy Coller, founder of Coller Capital and the VC arm of the hedge fund Sloane Robinson?
http://mashable.com/2007/05/08/videojug-funded/
