Tag Archives: CrunchPad Inc.
Socialcam Raises Funding From 46 Angel Investors
Socialcam is an iPhone app that spun off of video sharing website Justin.tv last year as part of Y Combinators winter 2012 class. Socialcam has raised seed funding from 46 well known angel investors. Socialcam’s fiercest competitor is Viddy. They have been fighting back and forth as the top Photo & Video app recently. Socialcam has reportedly surpassed the 20 million user mark. Below is a list of all of the investors involved as compiled by TechCrunch.
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Categories Alexis Ohanian, Allison Streuter, Andreessen Horowitz, Ari Emmanuel, Ashton Kutcher, Atom Factory, Brian Chesky, Chris Hollod, CrunchPad Inc., Emmett Shear, Erik Moore, Felix Shpilman, Garry Tan, Guy Oseary, Harj Taggar, Jason Johnson, Jason Lublin, Jeff Kapel, Jessica Livingston, Jonathan Abrams, Justin Caldbeck, Justin Kan, Kyle Vogt, Laurene Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs, Matt Ocko, Michael Abrams, Michael Levit, Michael Rapino, Paul Buchheit, Paul Graham, Ram Shiram, Ronny Conway, Shane Battier, Shervin Pishevar, Socialcam, Stacey Rubin, Stewart Alsop, SV Angel, Tim Draper, Trajan Langdon, Troy Carter, Yuri Milner, Zachary Bogue
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Joojoo Tablet Ceasing Production
Chandrashekar Rathakrishnan, the founder of Fusion Garage announced that the joojoo will no longer be manufactured. The joojoo used to be known as the CrunchPad as the idea was conceived by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. The joojoo was a Linux-based tablet that would have WiFi and would be used mainly for surfing the web. Arrington formed a partnership with Fusion Garage, but it ended in a conflict. Arrington almost sued Fusion Garage as a result. Fusion Garage plans to manufacture a different kind of tablet with Android as the OS. [BoyGeniusReport]
Fusion Garage Issues Statement Against Michael Arrington
Fusion Garage has responded to a lawsuit that was filed by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington against them. For previous coverage of the CrunchPad in regards to the lawsuit, visit: http://pulse2.com/category/crunchpad-inc/.
Michael Arrington filed a lawsuit against Fusion Garage for “Fraud and Deceit, Misappropriation of Business Ideas, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unfair Competition, and Violations of the Lanham Act.” And below is the full statement that Fusion Garage has made against the lawsuit:
FUSION GARAGE RESPONDS TO TECHCRUNCH LAWSUIT AND
DECEMBER 11 BLOG POST BY MICHAEL ARRINGTON
COMPANY STATEMENT
DECEMBER 17, 2009
The lawsuit filed by TechCrunch against Fusion Garage and accompanying December 11, 2009 blog post by Michael Arrington are without merit. We will vigorously defend ourselves against the suit’s claims in court. The December 11 blog post by Arrington makes several hollow allegations including:
Lack of Viable Funding/Our Shareholders/Cash Flow:
Fusion Garage is a properly capitalized start up that has received $3M in funding to date and is preparing to announce a new round within the coming weeks. The Company is a viable concern whose financial status more than enables it to fully develop and bring to market its intellectual property commercialized in the form of joojoo. Fusion Garage has various angel investors that are well-respected business people in the Singapore community. Like many international angel investors, Dr. Bruce Lee is a successful entrepreneur with several profitable ventures. Additionally, Fusion Garage is proud of the other investors on its rosters – many of whom have invested in previous ventures founded by Rathakrishnan. Fusion Garage went out and secured funding – tangible proof of Fusion Garage’s “doer” status relative to the alleged yet intangible claims of investment by TechCrunch. Pre-sales have indeed begun and, with or without them, the Company has sufficient funds to bring the joojoo to market and defend itself against the baseless claims of TechCrunch.
Pegatron IP Ownership:
Another example of Fusion Garage “doer status” in bringing the joojoo to market is the Company’s now defunct relationship with ODM Pegatron. Fusion Garage established this relationship after Arrington’s promises of hardware development support proved to be hollow. Fusion Garage is now working with another top tier ODM to develop a completely new board and mechanical layout that is the basis for the joojoo. To state, as the lawsuit and accompanying blog post do, that Fusion Garage’s joojoo is based on any Pegatron IP is false.
As for the ongoing personal attacks against Rathakrishnan, they do not deserve a point by point
response. Arrington’s attacks on Rathakrishnan’s past business activities are unfounded. The points he raises are old news and raise the question of why he would want to do business with Rathakrishnan if his past was so controversial. Dredging up old and nebulous material only reflects his desperation for material.
Fusion Garage is proud to have introduced the joojoo last week and is equally proud of the positive feedback the product received by industry influencers and media. We have received more than 6,000 email inquiries to our website and pre-orders to date have exceeded our expectations. We have no reason to believe that the legal action taken against Fusion Garage will prevent the joojoo from reaching market.
Since our first public statements on the joojoo, we have taken the high road regarding past interactions with Arrington and TechCrunch. We find Arrington’s ongoing attempts to bully public opinion and members of the media to be the sad rants of a person championing a losing cause.
Categories CrunchPad Inc., Fusion Garage, Michael Arrington
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Michael Arrington Files Lawsuit Against Fusion Garage
Michael Arrington, the powerhouse blogger and founder of CrunchPad Inc. is suing Fusion Garage. Fusion Garage is basically the company that he believes screwed him over with the development of a touchscreen tablet. Both Fusion Garage was the manufacturer behind the tablet and the device was supposed to be called CrunchPad, a name that Arrington owns the trademark of. Fusion Garage decided to rename the device JooJoo and sell it for $499. Arrington planned to sell the original CrunchPad for $199.
Arrington has filed a lawsuit against Fusion Garage through a company called Interserve Inc. Interserve is doing business as TechCrunch and CrunchPad Inc. Below is the document of the filed lawsuit.
For more details, check out what Arrington has to say about the case on TechCrunch.
The Crunchpad Gets Renamed To The JooJoo and Will Sell For $499 Starting December 11
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington wrote a blog post about a year ago that announced his company was working on a touchscreen tablet intended only for Internet browsing. Throughout the past year, he hired a manufacturing firm, partnered with retailers, and made a partnership with Intel for processors. He wanted his device to sell for $199.
The device was supposed to hit the market by Black Friday, but it kept getting stalled. About a week ago Arrington gave an update about the project by saying that it wasn’t going to happen. The Crunchpad would not be released due to the fact that he owned the trademark and Fusion Garage, the manufacturing company contractor he was working with kicked him out.
Earlier today Fusion Garage CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan said that Arrington was “unable to deliver.” Rathakrishnan also criticized Arrington for putting up pictures of the Crunchpad, publicizing news about the product, and talked about how important his role was in the product about what he was going to do while Fusion Garage was doing all the work.
Fusion Garage renamed the Crunchpad to JooJoo and plans to sell it for $499. The device will only work with a WiFi connection and supports HD video. JooJoo has a 12.1″ touchscreen and boots up in 9 seconds. Arrington said that he would not comment on what is going on with the CrunchPad going forward, but assured that there will be litigation involved going forward.
Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad Project Being Killed Off For Mismanagement Reasons
Michael Arrington was about two weeks away from announcing the CrunchPad, but there was a major problem with the management of the project. The CrunchPad prototype worked very well and worked for hours without crashing. Chandra Rathakrishnan, the CEO of the partner company working with Michael Arrington wrote him an e-mail saying that Arrington himself will no longer be part of the project due to a shareholder disagreement.
The shareholders decided to sell the CrunchPad through Fusion Garage without his involvement. Below is the e-mail that shareholders forwarded over to Rathakrishnan:
“We still acknowledge that Arrington and TechCrunch bring some value to your business endeavor…If he agrees to our terms, we would have Arrington assume the role of visionary/evangelist/marketing head and Fusion Garage would acquire the rights to use the Crunchpad brand and name. Personally, I don’t think the name is all that important but you seem to be somewhat attached to the name.” Arrington plans to file a lawsuit against Fusion Garage along with Rathakrishnan as a result of the failed project.
Intel and a retail partner (who I believe is Best Buy given that their CMO praised the device) helped facilitate the CrunchPad project this far. I would have loved to see the project come into fruition too because at the $300 price point that was set, the CrunchPad would have been an amazing netbook competitor.
Categories Chandra Rathakrishnan, CrunchPad Inc., Michael Arrington
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Crunchpad Will Cost $300-$400 With Sponsorships
The future of the Crunchpad tablet designed by Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch was uncertain for a while until news about the device was brought up during a podcast called The Gillmor Gang. During the podcast Arrington said that the price is $300-$400 and that the Crunchpad is “streamrolling around.” He also mentioned that there is opportunity for “soft revenue” and “sponsorships.” The reason why there has not been much news about the availability of the device is because Arrington is working on making sure that the tablet is “perfect.”
Categories CrunchPad Inc., Michael Arrington
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Best Buy CMO Barry Judge Tries Out The CrunchPad, Says It’ll Be A Hit
As many of you know by now, our friendly rivals at TechCrunch are building a new electronic tablet called the Crunchpad, slated to be released by this November. Apparently Best Buy Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge got a chance to play around with the prototype.
Judge tweeted “Just met chief blogger at Tech Crunch. Talked about the Crunchpad and saw a prototype. Great looking device, think it will be a real hit.” This just tells me a couple of things. The Crunchpad may actually have a chance against a rumored upcoming Apple tablet computer. And this also tells me that Best Buy seems to be a bigger fan of TechCrunch than he is with Gizmodo.
An hour before Judge tweeted meeting Arrington, he tweeted that he met YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley to discuss ways to better leverage the video website. He also asked his followers for ideas on what other retailers do to use YouTube well. Here’s my two word answer for Judge: viral videos. The Improv Everywhere group hit over one million views in their viral video of sending a bunch of blue shirt, khaki wearing agents into a Best Buy store.
Categories Barry Judge, Best Buy, Chad Hurley, CrunchPad Inc., Michael Arrington, YouTube
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Michael Arrington’s Crunchpad Rumored To Be For Sale Starting This November
Crunchpad is an uncoming tablet device that was rolled out of a project by technology blog TechCrunch.com. It turns out that the details of his project have been leaked by the Straits Times in Singapore. Arrington was not very happy about the leak as he wrote the following message on Twitter:
re crunchpad, obviously i’m completely rips**t mad about all this unauthorized bs press: http://bit.ly/2dVjBQ wtf.
The news story by the Straits Times reports that the Crunchpad will be available starting this November, but Arrington denies it and calls the Strait Times b.s. I think that the news story sounds credible because the paper actually met with Fusion Garage, the company behind the Crunchpad production.
The device is expected to retail for $400. Some of the features include WiFi, 3G access (meaning TechCrunch needs to sign a telecomm deal), custom OS based on Webkit, and one USB port. The applications on the tablet will be web-based. Rumor has it that the measurements are 13×8 inches and weight is 2.6 lbs.
More details as they become available.
Categories CrunchPad Inc., Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
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Michael Arrington Hits The Ground Running With CrunchPad
Michael Arrington launched the TechCrunch network about four years ago and now it generates about $6 million in revenue as of last year from advertising, events, and other sources. This year the company expects to bring in more than that.
Now Arrington is turning his focus into the hardware sector. He is working on a new device called the CrunchPad and has registered a company called CrunchPad Inc. The CrunchPad is a touch-screen tablet made for surfing the web and using video chat.
“We’re going to make some really big announcements,” stated Arrington in an interview with the San Francisco Business Times. “We’re full on. These prototypes are real.” CrunchPad Inc. now has 14 employees in Singapore.
Angel Investor Ron Conway said that Arrington “understands the inner workings of Silicon Valley, and because he’s been around the valley so long, people trust him and trust his judgment.” Conway himself is considering to invest in CrunchPad.
Categories CrunchPad Inc., Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
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