I don't buy it. This happened because Apple hasn't launched the rumored tablet, and the potential for holiday sales is huge. Here's the main point:
We think they were attempting to renegotiate the equity split on the company behind CrunchPad, which was to acquire Fusion Garage. Renegotiations are always fine. But holding a gun to our head two days before launching and insulting us isn't the way to do that.
Sounds like Chandra started with a very heavy-handed offer at renegotiation, part of the implied threat being "you can't back out now that you've made such a public commitment to this project". The only way to respond to a heavy hand with with your own heavy hand - and this post is it, it's all just part of the renegotiation. Another point I don't buy:
I never envisioned the CrunchPad as a huge business. I just wanted a tablet computer that I could use to consume the Internet while sitting on a couch. I've always pushed to open source all or parts of the project. So this isn't really about money. It was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the same vision. Now that's going to be impossible.
It's a great story we all know - the "unhyped cool side project" hype, Linux being the best example. From the looks of the demo shot [1], whether anyone "envisioned" it, or not, it will be a huge business, especially with no competitors. Arrington knows it and Chandra knows it. I just hope their lawyers can come to an agreement before christmas, so I can get one :)
The Christmas retail season is here already. It is far too late to "come to an agreement before Christmas".
Even assuming that all the manufacturing, the shipping, the wholesaling, et cetera are done and the product is sitting in the back of the stores waiting to go out tomorrow -- which I seriously doubt -- there's the little question of marketing. There's just no time for it before Christmas, in a crowded market filled with companies grasping for marketshare. The ad space is sold. The magazines have gone to press. So nobody on Earth is going to know about the CrunchPad before Christmas, let alone want one, except for Techcrunch readers and their Twitter followers. Any plan to sell a lot of CrunchPads within a few weeks of launch necessarily relies on the pre-release marketing that has been performed by Techcrunch. But that has just been blown sky high. Are many Techcrunch readers going to be fool enough to buy the product, even if a BUY link appears tomorrow? Even putting aside all notion of reader loyalty, I don't like spending money on products that turn out to have been built by unreliable companies with legal threats hanging over them.
You're gonna need a better conspiracy theory. How about "the Chinese secret service loved the CrunchPad so much that they placed an order for 1 billion units and demanded an exclusive..."
We think they were attempting to renegotiate the equity split on the company behind CrunchPad, which was to acquire Fusion Garage. Renegotiations are always fine. But holding a gun to our head two days before launching and insulting us isn't the way to do that.
Sounds like Chandra started with a very heavy-handed offer at renegotiation, part of the implied threat being "you can't back out now that you've made such a public commitment to this project". The only way to respond to a heavy hand with with your own heavy hand - and this post is it, it's all just part of the renegotiation. Another point I don't buy:
I never envisioned the CrunchPad as a huge business. I just wanted a tablet computer that I could use to consume the Internet while sitting on a couch. I've always pushed to open source all or parts of the project. So this isn't really about money. It was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the same vision. Now that's going to be impossible.
It's a great story we all know - the "unhyped cool side project" hype, Linux being the best example. From the looks of the demo shot [1], whether anyone "envisioned" it, or not, it will be a huge business, especially with no competitors. Arrington knows it and Chandra knows it. I just hope their lawyers can come to an agreement before christmas, so I can get one :)
1. http://cache0.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/cdba...