Broadcast.com
Encyclopedia
Broadcast.com was a web radio company founded as "AudioNet" in September 1995 by Chris Jaeb. Todd Wagner
and Mark Cuban
later led the organization to hugely capitalize on the Dot-com bubble
and be sold to Yahoo.com.
founder Ean Schuessler
and his brother to consult on bringing the idea to the Internet. The Schuesslers expanded the concept beyond sports and produced marketing materials and presentations for Jaeb to promote his idea. Jaeb then began soliciting the rights to broadcast radio live on the Internet. KLIF in Dallas, KFI Los Angleles, KOA Denver, and KPLX in Dallas were some of the first. Later college sports came on and still later the NBA and NFL. As the company grew, AudioNet expanded from mainly broadcasting sporting events to broadcasting presidential conventions and many other events. With the support of his father Tom Jaeb he incorporated, formed a board and sold stock. Todd Wagner, an attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, co-founded the renamed AudioNet.com with Mark Cuban
in September 1995. In 1998, AudioNet was renamed to Broadcast.com set (at the time) a one-day record for IPOs by rising almost 250% percent from its opening price. The stock closed up at $62.75 per share from their initial trading at $18 per share.
The record IPO made instant financial successes out of the company's employees through stock options, making 100 employees millionaire
s on paper (although most of them were unable to exercise their options and sell their shares before the stock price dropped) and founders Cuban and Wagner billionaire
s.
acquired the company for $5.7 billion in stock and renamed it Yahoo! Broadcast Solutions. Over the next few years Yahoo! split the services previously offered by Broadcast.com into separate services, Yahoo! Launchcast
for music and Yahoo! Platinum for video entertainment. Yahoo! Platinum has since been discontinued, its functionality being offered as part of two pay services, AT&T
Yahoo! High Speed Internet and Yahoo! Plus.
As of May 2011, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses; both simply redirect to yahoo.com.
Todd Wagner
Todd R. Wagner co-founded Broadcast.com and now co-owns 2929 Entertainment with Mark Cuban, along with other entertainment properties and has also founded the Todd Wagner Foundation.- Early life :...
and Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
later led the organization to hugely capitalize on the Dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
and be sold to Yahoo.com.
History
The original company was called Cameron Broadcast Systems after its founder's first name Cameron Christopher Jaeb. The original idea, a hand-held shortwave radio that would receive broadcasts inside a sports venue, morphed into a hand-held device that would receive customized satellite broadcasts. The Internet had begun to gain popularity at this time and Jaeb hired Debian Social ContractDebian Social Contract
The Debian Social Contract is a document which frames the moral agenda of the Debian project. The values outlined in the Social Contract provide the basic principles for the rules set forth in the Debian Free Software Guidelines...
founder Ean Schuessler
Ean Schuessler
Ean Schuessler is co-founder, with his brother Erik Schuessler, of Brainfood, Inc., a Dallas, Texas-based digital media consultancy. He is a long-time participant in the Debian project and collaborated in the creation of the Debian Social Contract which inspired the Open Source Definition...
and his brother to consult on bringing the idea to the Internet. The Schuesslers expanded the concept beyond sports and produced marketing materials and presentations for Jaeb to promote his idea. Jaeb then began soliciting the rights to broadcast radio live on the Internet. KLIF in Dallas, KFI Los Angleles, KOA Denver, and KPLX in Dallas were some of the first. Later college sports came on and still later the NBA and NFL. As the company grew, AudioNet expanded from mainly broadcasting sporting events to broadcasting presidential conventions and many other events. With the support of his father Tom Jaeb he incorporated, formed a board and sold stock. Todd Wagner, an attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, co-founded the renamed AudioNet.com with Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
in September 1995. In 1998, AudioNet was renamed to Broadcast.com set (at the time) a one-day record for IPOs by rising almost 250% percent from its opening price. The stock closed up at $62.75 per share from their initial trading at $18 per share.
The record IPO made instant financial successes out of the company's employees through stock options, making 100 employees millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
s on paper (although most of them were unable to exercise their options and sell their shares before the stock price dropped) and founders Cuban and Wagner billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
s.
Acquisition by Yahoo!
In April 1999, Yahoo!Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
acquired the company for $5.7 billion in stock and renamed it Yahoo! Broadcast Solutions. Over the next few years Yahoo! split the services previously offered by Broadcast.com into separate services, Yahoo! Launchcast
LAUNCHcast
Yahoo! Music Radio is an Internet radio service offered by CBS Radio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré and Jeff Boulter, debuted on November 11, 1999, and was purchased by Yahoo! in October, 2001...
for music and Yahoo! Platinum for video entertainment. Yahoo! Platinum has since been discontinued, its functionality being offered as part of two pay services, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Yahoo! High Speed Internet and Yahoo! Plus.
As of May 2011, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses; both simply redirect to yahoo.com.
External links
- Broadcast.com via the Internet Archive