Taking it public. Ethan Hawke is looking for investors for his new movie, "Billy Dead". For $8.75 a share of preferred stock (and only in blocks of 100 - ticker symbol "BILLY"), Hawke hopes to raise about US $7.3 Million through his broker, Civilian Capital. According to a consultant with Civilian, potential investors will be able to "invest in a film maker, a story or a star."

Is this ushering in a new golden age of public media ownership, or an age of increased corporate hegemony? Also, for what other artforms would you like to see such investment opportunites? Finally, in what directors/actors/storylines etc. would you like to invest?
posted by SilentSalamander on Nov 19, 2003 - 29 comments

Terrorist Financing is a new report by the Council on Foreign Relations on al Qaeda's financial network. It claims that the Bush administration "appears to have made a policy decision not to use the full power of U.S. influence and legal authorities to pressure or compel other governments to combat terrorist financing more effectively." The most important source of al Qaeda's funds are charities and wealthy individuals from Saudi Arabia. But while the Bush administration may be unwilling to confront the Saudis directly, they are seeking to have their financial assets in Europe frozen.
posted by homunculus on Oct 18, 2002 - 2 comments

No VC after the dot-com bust? No problem! Just sign up for eight no-annual-fee credit cards with interest rates as low as 1.7 percent (for a few months, anyway), and shazam: You've got $35,000; you're a start-up! Question: Has this guy read a newspaper in, say, the last 18 months?
posted by nathanstack on Jan 14, 2002 - 15 comments

Bye bye Webvan. "Although Webvan would be just one of hundreds of dot-com companies to go out of business, its story is somewhat unique. Webvan was one of the most well funded of all the dot-com companies, having raised, and burned through, around $1 billion in financing."
posted by maura on Jul 9, 2001 - 56 comments

Automatic Media is gone Confirming earlier speculation: Automatic Media's homepage announces that "AS OF JUNE 8, 2001, Automatic Media, Inc. has ceased operations due to an inability to secure additional financing." What does this mean for all the Automatic Media sites? Will Suck's vacation be permanent? Thoughts?
posted by jed on Jun 8, 2001 - 29 comments

Great, but will it work in larger states? "Maine’s Clean Election Law goes into effect for the 2002 governor’s race, establishing public financing for candidates. Political observers are beginning to realize it may cause a revolution. " A green governor? I almost feel ... Canadian.
posted by foist on Mar 13, 2001 - 6 comments

"Accept our valuation or let Sand Hill put you into Chapter 11." This article from Red Herring on bridge financing for cash-strapped dotcoms makes the dire nature of the situation pretty explicit.
posted by JParker on Jan 24, 2001 - 0 comments

Homepage.com just received $12.2 million in financing today. I've never heard of homepage.com, but they claim to have 550,000 users and 1 million daily pageviews. I suppose it must be the draw of the lackluster former TV stars they have peddling their service. Gilligan and The Beav sure make me want to launch a new site...
posted by mathowie on Nov 3, 1999 - 0 comments