All posts tagged: Forbes

Tech CEO Austin Russell’s bid to buy Forbes fails

Tech CEO Austin Russell’s bid to buy Forbes fails

Published by skeptic

Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell’s bid to buy Forbes Global Media Holdings has ended. Integrated Whale Media Investments, the Hong Kong-based parent company of Forbes, terminated the agreement with Russell after he failed to secure the ideal group of investors needed to close the deal. Bloomberg was the first to report the news, citing an internal memo by Forbes Chief Executive Officer Mike Federle. “The Forbes acquisition was all about impact, and to further the philosophy of business-for-good and philanthropy with the next generation of capitalism,” a statement provided by Austin Russell’s family office reads. “At this juncture, it was determined that it was in the best interest of the parties that the contract be terminated. We wish nothing but the best to the Forbes team.” Russell, the 28-year-old founder and tech star, announced back in May plans to buy an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the company at nearly $800 million. The intention, which was initially successful, was to bring in a number of investors to …

A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobile

A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobile

Published by skeptic

Hey, folks. You’ve made it to the end of the week — congrats, by the way — and to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering the week that was in tech. Here, in this humble little column of ours, we do our best to curate the top stories that emerged over the past five days. Hope you find it useful. Just a few PSAs before we get on with the news. On May 24, TechCrunch Live, TC’s podcast about founder stories, will host Romi Gubes, the co-founder of Sensi.AI, in a discussion about how the company uses audio-based software to monitor patients and assist medical staff and family members with care. (Register for it here — it’s free.) Meanwhile, TechCrunch City Spotlight will go virtual on June 7 with a focus on Atlanta, where speakers will present about building businesses in the exploding metro and startups will apply to participate in TC’s famed Battlefield 200. Last but not least, Disrupt, TC’s flagship conference, will return September (September 19–21) in San Francisco. Expect six …

Austin Russell became the youngest self-made billionaire in 2021; now he owns Forbes

Austin Russell became the youngest self-made billionaire in 2021; now he owns Forbes

Published by skeptic

Austin Russell is on quite a run. The 28-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar Technologies, which develops vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies primarily for self-driving cars, told the Wall Street Journal earlier today that he is buying an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the company at nearly $800 million. According to the WSJ, Russell’s stake includes the remaining portion of the company owned by its namesake family, which sold 95% of the company to the Hong Kong-based investor group Integrated Whale Media back in 2014. It was essentially on sale from the moment that Forbes was forced to call off its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company last June, after the market soured and investors lost their appetite for SPACs. Luminar itself had better timing; it went public via a SPAC merger in 2021 when retail investors were still clamoring for shares in mobility tech companies. By the time that Forbes was calling off its own plans to become a publicly traded company, nearly every mobility SPAC …