Broadcast.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Broadcast.com was a web radio company founded as "AudioNet" in 1995 by Chris Jaeb. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban later led the organization to enormous financial success via its sale to Yahoo.com.
The company had unassuming beginnings; it was initially conceived by Chris Jaeb in a one page summary as a way to have access to sports games of his alma mater. In discussions with Ean Schuessler and Erik Schuessler the company's business plan evolved to be a "short wave radio" for internet audio carrying any media that could legally be made available. Chris Jaeb solicited interest from Todd Wagner who was an attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld at that time. Wagner brought Mark Cuban into the deal.
As the company grew, AudioNet expanded from mainly broadcasting sporting events to broadcasting presidential conventions and many other events.
In May of 1998, AudioNet renamed itself Broadcast.com and on July 17, 1998, Broadcast.com had their initial public offering, setting (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 millionaires 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 billionaires.
In April 1999, Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in stock and became 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 2006, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses; both simply redirect to yahoo.com.
