05.02.09
Moles Watch: RNC, DataInfoCom, Symform and Microsoft
Summary: A weekly look at important moves that are made by Microsoft employees
RNC
Microsoft’s connection with (ownership of) Slate.com is a subject we have already explored in [1, 2] and the company’s relationship with the Republican National Committee is also an issue that we looked at. Now comes this report about Microsoft hiring a man who was in both
:
Krohn previously worked at Microsoft from 1996 through 2005, succeeding Moore as publisher of Slate.com and working for him at MSN Video. When Moore moved to Yahoo in 2005, Krohn soon followed. He left Yahoo in 2007 to head digital campaigning for the RNC, departing that role in early March. The Washington Post described his resignation as “an especially heavy blow—not just to the RNC, but to the conservative blogosphere.”
DataInfoCom
For future reference, in case DataInfoCom comes up again, it’s worth noting that it has just installed a former Vice President from Microsoft as a board member.
Chris Stanley, former Vice President, Enterprise and Partner Group, Asia, at Microsoft, has joined the Board of Directors of DataInfoCom, a company whose patent-pending technologies not only predict a process’ future, but also produce actionable decisions to take advantage of these predictions.
Symform-Microsoft
Here is a company that was created by a Microsoft employee and is now receiving funds from OVP.
Seattle-based Symform, a small company that provides data storage and backup in the Internet cloud, is announcing today a $1.5 million Series A financing from OVP Venture Partners in Kirkland, WA. This is the first new investment OVP has announced this year; the firm made six follow-on investments last quarter. Managing directors Mark Ashida and Lucinda Stewart are joining Symform’s board.
As for Symform, the young startup we profiled back in February, it’s a significant step forward. The company was founded in late 2007 by ex-Microsoft veterans Praerit Garg and Bassam Tabbara, and has been developing its product for the past year and a half.
It’s worth keeping in mind that xconomy.com is pro-Microsoft press and one of the managing directors from OVP has history in Microsoft, but it’s nothing like Ignition Partners where almost everyone is from Microsoft. They too are venture capitalists. █
