Charles Forman made tens of millions of dollars selling his company last week. And thank God for that: It's been far too long since "fuck you money" went to a tech whiz who was at least marginally interesting.
If history is any guide, tech companies should absolutely not try and become media companies. But the 25-year-old CEO of precious New York blog platform Tumblr has the fearlessness of youth. Which is why he's recruiting his own writer and editor types.
Ugh, Tumblr. The exasperating microblogging site's execs were content to rent luxury cars, ignore emails, party in the Hamptons and take expensive pictures of their Vespas amid mass unemployment, economic collapse, banker bailouts, epic government privacy violations, fraudulent home foreclosures, and the beating of Occupy protesters across the country. But now that a copyright bill has put the startup's bubble jackpot on the line, it's all up in everyone's "Dashboards" with its political conscientiousness. Shut up, already.
The notorious message board 4chan's young founder has fashioned himself as a champion of extreme free speech on the Internet. But blatant censorship is occurring on 4chan right now, after its users attacked a target too close to home.
Tumblr's always been the blogging platform for America's obsessive coastal elites, with its smart-looking templates and its super-easy conversation system. It's appropriate, then, that the precious New York startup plans to make its money selling internet fashion.
Why does the tech world get a throwdown in Austin when the banks have had to cancel their bashes? The news out of South By Southwest shows that Web hipsters are every bit as bankrupt.
