Citigroup has fired technology analyst Mark Mahaney. This is because a Massachusetts securities regulator fined Citigroup $2 million for disclosed confidential information to journalists at popular technology blog, TechCrunch.com.
TechCrunch editors Eric Eldon and Alexia Tsotsis said “we’re not being sold.” Instead TechCrunch has hired a bunch of “brilliant writers and a new COO.” Over 1,000 people attended their TechCrunch NYC meet-up last night as well. Traffic has been up with regards to unique visits year over year. They did hear about sales rumors as well with interest supposedly from Jason Calacanis.
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AOL is exploring the sale of technology websites Engadget and TechCrunch according to Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily.com. They are also considering selling off TUAW and Joystiq as a package along with those other two websites. The price they are seeking is around $70 to $100 million for all of the properties.
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AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) is having a hard time retaining some of their talent. Within the last couple of days, AOL saw Brad Garlinghouse and Sarah Lacy leave the company. Now former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde is leaving the company. Harde became an executive at AOL after technology blog TechCrunch was acquired. It is believed that Harde was pissed when a Huffington Post CEO sent out an e-mail bashing TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
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AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) has posted revenues of $532 million with an earnings loss of $0.02 per share. This is great news for the company because Wall Street was expecting the company to hit $524 million and a loss of $0.06 per share. The company was able to gain revenue from their gains in The Huffington Post and the TechCrunch acquisitions.
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Michael Arrington has poached MG Siegler from AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL). Siegler was brought into AOL through the acquisition of TechCrunch, a tech blog founded by Arrington. TechCrunch was sold to AOL for roughly $25-$30 million. AOL is also an investor in CrunchFund. Siegler will become a general partner at CrunchFund. Siegler has been approached by numerous VC companies and other writing gigs since he became a top editor at TechCrunch. [Uncrunched]
Yesterday Google’s Vic Gundotra told TechCrunch that the way the company handled the Google+ brands pages was “probably a mistake.” Given the backlash Google is currently receiving for their poor handling of Google+ business accounts, it’s good to hear Google acknowledge their mistakes. Google warned Google+ users that the service is currently for real people only and that brands would be shut down, but when the culling happened yesterday, no one seemed prepared. Furthermore, a few people were extremely vocal about their displeasure with the situation. Possibly because the situation hasn’t exactly gone the way it was announced.
Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis filed a lawsuit against TechCrunch in November 2010. Calacanis and Arrington are former partners on the TechCrunch50 events. Calacanis also wanted some proceeds from TechCrunch’s sale to AOL. One business day after Calacanis’ Launch Conference, he dropped the lawsuit against Arrington. [TechCrunch]
