Despite the slumping economy, and slowdown in IPO and mergers and acquisitions activity this year, big media companies say they're still actively seeking to invest millions into startups.
Earlier this week I attended the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East conference in Boston. It’s one of the dozen or so “innovation-meets-money” gatherings that AO founder Tony Perkins is hosting this year. The event drew about 500 attendees. One of the themes at the conference – at least among the folks I spoke with – was the slumping economy, and what that meant for private companies.
To this end, the panel on what corporate investors are interested in funding in this environment was one of interest. In this video, taken by me with my little Sony video camera, Allison Goldberg, executive director of Time Warner Investments, offers up a detailed outlook of what interests her and her colleagues.
Time Warner Investments invests between $2 million and $10 million and will lead the round and take a board seat.
Sitting right next to Allison at the event was David Horowitz, principal at Comcast Interactive Capital. The moderator was Victor Boyajian, national chair of Sonnenshcein. In the middle of the lineup was Scott English, VP of strategic investments at Hearst Interactive Media. Sitting next to Scott was Alan Spoon, managing general partner at Polaris Venture Partners and next to Alan was Julie Gerstenberger of Kodak.
