Paul Carr of Pando Daily writes about tech news site Re/code’s sale to Vox Media and what it means for founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.
Carr writes, “We can argue — and I do, obviously — that having investors in common with companies you cover, or even having investors you cover, is a conflict that can be managed with fierce reporting an clear disclosures. The best example I can offer is that Pando has investors in common with both Uber and Secret. Swisher and Mossberg have made clear they see things differently: Journalism will always suffer when there are investors in common.
“At least Business Insider, Pando, and the rest are still independently controlled by their founders: Sarah Lacy still owns more than 50% of Pando and no VC investor sits on our board or has any involvement in the running of the company. Kara’s situation is now very different: As an employee of Vox, she doesn’t have final say on how involved investors can be in the running of the business, or on the makeup of the company’s board. If she doesn’t like it, her only choice is to walk.
“On that, by the way, the deal gives Swisher and Mossberg even less control of their company than they had under News Corp. At the Journal, the All Things D site was produced under a contract which could be severed with notice. That’s how they were able to walk away from the arrangement and take every single staffer, and their events business, with along with them. Today’s deal means Vox owns Re/Code outright. If the deal goes sour, Mossberg and Swisher can quit, but Vox gets to keep their company, much like AOL kept TechCrunch when Mike finally departed.”
Read more here.
