My buddy Tony Conrad, co-founder & CEO of Sphere, just called to let me know that he had sold his company to AOL for an undisclosed amount of money. The details of this announcement are on TechCrunch and also on the Sphere blog.
From start to finish, it took about 30 months for Conrad & his cohorts to get to this point. I can clearly remember the summer of 2005, sitting outside The Grove on Fillmore Street in San Francisco with Tony Conrad and listening to him talk about his new startup, which at the time didn’t have a name.
Given the locale, I was easily distracted, but nevertheless listened to his pitch for Sphere, which at the time wanted to be a relevant blog search and had a working name: Yodel. After raising around $3.75 million in Series A funding, Sphere went through a sea change, changed its business model, and instead of search started offering publishers a widget. The widget, essentially a few lines of html and JavaScript code, would find relevant content across the blogosphere. I became one of the early adopters of the widget that has since become nearly ubiquitous.
I haven’t written much about them since their funding, mostly because True Ventures, where Tony is a partner, invested in the parent company of this blog. Secondly, I sat 10 feet away from Tony in the True offices in San Francisco, making me privy to more information than I really needed to be.
Most importantly, the Conrads adopted me as a proverbial son, even though Tony is only a few years older than me. For the first time as a reporter I got to see the sacrifices a family has to make when one of them is following their entrepreneurial spirit. The sleepless nights of a founder are not just his — his wife and kids suffer silently as well. Today, I am happy for Tony, but thrilled for Mary and the boys.
Congrats Tony!
13 trackbacks so far
9:45 PM PT
[...] Tomorrow AOL will announce the acquisition of San Francisco-based Sphere, a blog content engine that launched in 2006. The price is not being disclosed, but sources are suggesting it’s in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more. More details from Om Malik [...]
10:54 PM PT
[...] Sources: [1] GigaOM: Personal Note: Conrad Got Mailed by Om Malik [2] TechCrunch: AOL Buys Sphere’s Blog [...]
11:27 PM PT
[...] Tony and the entire Team at Sphere on the AOL acquisition. This is a spectacular accomplishment, and it is a testament to your outstanding efforts and [...]
11:38 PM PT
[...] has found a home at the prescient AOL, as talked about on their blog, GigaOM, and Techcrunch. Sphere is a great company and the folks who made this happen at AOL will look like [...]
12:58 AM PT
[...] Personal Note: Conrad Got Mailed. [via Zemanta] [...]
2:21 AM PT
[...] 明日（米国時間4/15）、 AOLは2006年に創立されたサンフランシスコのブログ・コンテンツ・エンジン、Sphereを買収することを発表する。価格は明らかにされていないが、情報源によると$25M（2500万ドル）、あるいはそれより少し上だろうという。Om Malikが詳しい記事を書いている。 [...]
6:15 AM PT
Sphere acquired by AOL; when did their blog search disappear?…
Sphere announced today that they’ve been acquired by AOL:
We think it’s a huge advantage to become part of a suite of services that understands how Internet users access/ consume content, and how…
7:35 AM PT
[...] whose plugin I have been using here for some time — has been bought by AOL. As my friend Om Malik is, I’m happy for Tony Conrad and the team. At the same time, however, I have to wonder whether [...]
10:29 AM PT
[...] the fastest tracking system and get more ides, knowledge about web spheres. [via techcrunch | gigaom | sphere blog ] Share This Random PostsConvert Your Favorite Web Pages, Documents to MP3 [...]
6:44 PM PT
[...] Tomorrow AOL will announce the acquisition of San Francisco-based Sphere, a blog content engine that launched in 2006. The price is not being disclosed, but sources are suggesting it’s in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more. More details from Om Malik [...]
1:52 AM PT
[...] has been purchased by AOL. Congrats to Tony and his [...]
11:17 AM PT
[...] Tomorrow AOL will announce the acquisition of San Francisco-based Sphere, a blog content engine that launched in 2006. The price is not being disclosed, but sources are suggesting it’s in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more. More details from Om Malik [...]
1:38 PM PT
[...] Sphere is a San Francisco based blog content engine. Press Release | TechCrunch | BNet GigaOm [...]
5 comments so far
9:55 PM PT
OM-san - as always, you see the bigger picture. Thanks for being you.
10:17 PM PT
well done! any hint what a price is?
11:03 PM PT
TC and Team,
Congratulations on building such a successful company and realizing a terrific exit. AOL just acquired a remarkably large, growing network and a smart, nimble team.
On a personal note, watching you and the team navigate this changing space has been inspiring to all of us at True and to the rest of the CEOs in our portfolio.
Congratulations on a much deserved win for all, and thank you from all of us at True for your outstanding efforts.
Best,
Jon
11:44 PM PT
Congrats to the Sphere team for a good 10x exit.
Tony, you can also call him ‘Om-ji’ instead of ‘Om-san’ (same amount of respect!) :)
Indus
8:40 AM PT
We had the pleasure of doing a little bit of work for Tony and his team and we’re thrilled to see them do so well. Congrats.
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