But this is a very special day for Spot Runner. Today they release Project Malibu after 2.5 years of development.

Goooooooooooo Malibuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: I wonder what features they are going to add to V2 of Malibu without any customers for any feedback?

PPS: When are the bonuses going to happen?

Today they have some 85 employees with 45 in management and 20 VPs. This is a dead company

No promise Spot Runner ever made was delivered. Self-service TV never worked and was abandoned. The national TV business completely failed. Search was abandoned right after they started it. The only revenue came from being a TV ad agency with the help of a partially-built platform. Now that’s gone, they’re still bleeding money and Spot Runner drops it’s plan *again* and moves to another “great idea”.

Grouf, Waxman and Gentry “run” the company but they are possibly the most disconnected, un-involved trio in the business. There is no management or even simple involvement between these guys and the people they task to make it work. Is there even an operating Plan? Grouf talks a good game, then does literally NOTHING you would expect from a CEO. No meetings, no guidance, no collaboration, no accountability. People are left to fend for themselves without support and resources. So they quit or get laid off.

Grouf is too immature to know what his self-styled Nice Guy image requires. Investors and employees put huge stake in Spot Runner based on buzz and Grouf’s salesmanship. Then Nick and his guys provide ZERO added value, and blame the economy for their troubles. Who looses? The investors, clients and staff. Who gains? Grouf, Waxman and Gentry receive HUGE bonuses. Sounds more like AIG, Citibank and Countrywide…..

Three layoffs in three quarters. Now the company’s primary business is shelved and the company’s down to one-fifth it’s size from just last summer. This all started before the economy went south. It started when Grouf received funding.

He must have not believed that the bonuses were going to happen either.

http://ceo.ulit...om/node/1039659

Happy 3rd of July or should I say Happy 2nd anniversary of the Publicis “contract”. Oooooppppsss did I just say that?

Nick keep using the suckers. You are a smart guy.

salaries were leveraged against inflated and now fictitious stock prices.
does that count for nothing

I sure hope before they close the doors they have “Spago’s with Nick” and rack up a nice $30mm bill..

AKA “mr lobo” AKA “Jason” AKA “ken grouf is a midget douchebag”,

First, Read the comment from 20,000 Feet “April 18th, 2009 at 4:03 pm PDT”. the poster makes a good point.

Second, You have repeatedly written posts trying to pursuade people to “fix the problem” and continualy bitch about the Circle of Five. honestly, who fucking cares? why are you still yelling and poking fun at the whistleblowers? i am embarrassed for you because you don’t see the real problem. who fucking cares what the circle said or did if they actually did anything. who cares if WPP is so greedy they want to sue Spot Runner because they couldn’t get in on the selling spree because spot runner needed to keep them on the roster to continue to sell shares. nobody has actually started helping the remaining employee’s futures which means nothing at Spot Runner has changed.

let’s not lose sight of the single most important issue,

***Spot Runner executives sold shares and fleeced you all***

you all were hired with promises and you all came on board because you thought the founders believed in the company. they did not sell their shares because they didn’t want to dilute the pool, they knew the business plan was a failure and the Microsoft deal fell through because Microsoft saw the numbers. that means, in breach of employement contract, Spot Runner hired you, gave you options that they said were in “good faith” and secretly cashed out, if you had known, you very likely would not have accepted the position. that is the real problem here. who cares about the legal case or the outcome, what they did was unethical and they should be tared and feathered and ridiculed.

so stop acting like you are trying to buddy up with the readers by throwing out childish rude comments about the execs and acting like you hate them and blaming some rogue vigilante group who brought this to everyones attention. you have been seen meeting with david waxman and nick about how to respond to these posts. enough treating people like children and manipulating them, for fucks sake!

there was no “fixing the problem,” there was only sheading light on the truth. what is done is done. stop beating a dead horse and you help fix the problem by aligning with the rest of the organization and ousting the people who have given Spot Runner a black eye.

you, sir, are being laughed at.

First, isn’t your name redundant! Are there any ex SR employees who are happy?

As for the class action case there probably is grounds but the SR employees would be at the back of the line behind WPP, CBS, Grupo Televiso, LVMH, Legg Mason and the rest of the investors.

And it sounds like there will not be much money left for the investors any way!

Best we can hope for is jail time for Nick, David, and possibly Gentry.

In jail they might enjoy a very different kind of pump and dump scheme!