Comments on: Sky Dayton Steps Down As CEO of Helio

By: Helio Hangs it Up

Helio Hangs it Up — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:05:16 +0000

[...] received investments from Earthlink, but when Earthlink pulled out last year and charismatic CEO Sky Dayton stepped down it was clear something was [...]

By: Helio Hangs it Up

Helio Hangs it Up — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:05:16 +0000

[...] received investments from Earthlink, but when Earthlink pulled out last year and charismatic CEO Sky Dayton stepped down it was clear something was [...]

By: Levi McCallum

Levi McCallum — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:43:18 +0000

I hate Helio. I got the Ocean, realizing that it wasn’t the phone for me and returned it. I took me over 50 calls and 3 months of waiting, and I still haven’t received my money. I will never outsource a company’s customer support no matter how expensive it is.

By: smartphone Addict

smartphone Addict — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:30:14 +0000

I personally don’t see how these guys will survive. Why would anyone want to choose them? They have two main problems:
1) VERY limited choice of phones. It was great when they were an early leader in providing a smart device. I can’t see how, with the number of models offered by the big providers, they can attract interest with such a limited choice of devices.
2) Minutes - All the big providers have “in calling” which allows most people to purchase a much lower price plan. How many “in” calls can you make to/from Helio phones?

Good luck, but I see their biz plan as one that is flawed.

By: Lance Weatherby

Lance Weatherby — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:28:24 +0000

mikebk: Sky is a scientologist. He is a visionary, not an operator.

EarthLink is not run by Scientologists. Most of them left long ago. It is run by operators, not visionaries.

Trust me, these thing I know.

By: Ol Yeller

Ol Yeller — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:39:21 +0000

Being kicked upstairs to non-executive chairman definitely isn’t a promotion. Attempting to call it that is silly, but that is what PR agencies are paid to do.

“A non-executive chair is a part-time officeholder who sits on and chairs the main board of a company, and also usually provides support and advice to a CEO. This position usually entails fulfilling a similar function on a number of ancillary board committees, as well as being a political figurehead of the Company.”

SKT never actually wanted Sky to be CEO of Helio, but through his tacit control over EarthLink’s management team, Sky was able to lever himself into the role as a condition of EarthLink’s initial investment into the Joint Venture. Now, just months after assuming control of Helio, SKT has acted upon their original desires - which evidently haven’t been changed by the ’success’ of acquiring 200k subscribers for $600M. A steal at $3000 per subscriber!

Tough business MVNOs.

What percent of Helio do you think EarthLink still owns? I guess we’ll probably see a huge writedown of their investment in one of their next quarterly statements. I can’t imagine SKT didn’t use every ounce of leverage against EarthLink in that negotiation.

By: AB

AB — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:02:55 +0000

Do you mean “stem its losses”? Stymie means to “hinder progress.”

By: JetteroHeller

JetteroHeller — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:30:28 +0000

That’s pretty lame to misconstrue “steps down” with “promoted to Chairman of the Board”. That’s why I love media!

By: EH

EH — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:30:50 +0000

And tomorrow he will be jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch.

By: condoms.

condoms. — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:04:16 +0000

Techcrunch is getting much funnier than before. First Google jet kick out. And this condoms promotion.

HAHAHHAH

By: Brooke Hammerling

Brooke Hammerling — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:51:43 +0000

Erick — You say Sky is remaining as Chairman when in fact he was not Chairman before today. Today’s announcement was about Sky shifting his role from CEO to Chairman of the Board.

-Brooke

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:28:45 +0000

Thanks Dale, the whole story is here: http://thenextweb.org/2008/01/.....-promoted/

By: mikebk

mikebk — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:28:10 +0000

Considering that Sky Dayton’s a scientologist (so says his Wikipedia bio) and Earthlink is run by Scientologists, could Anonymous be behind this disaster?

By: dale

dale — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:26:18 +0000

That is funny to here Boris!!

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:24:54 +0000

I asked Helo PR for an official comment on this story and they gave me a funny reply. Their story “Nobody is stepping down, people are just moving around”. Guess it all depends on how you look at it…

By: Dan Sherman

Dan Sherman — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:23:58 +0000

I signed up and was very very impressed with their phone UI. Best in the biz. However, the Ocean is WAY too fat. They need to come out with a killer phone and they’d grow so fast, it’d make their head spin. They have a GREAT service with a great UI… they just need to get something very unique for their hardware and viola… minting money.

By: Google Jet is extremely funny story !!!

Google Jet is extremely funny story !!! — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:07:38 +0000

Heehheheh.