Broadcast.com
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Broadcast.com was a web radio company founded as "AudioNet" in 1992 by Chris Jaeb. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban later led the organization to enormous financial success via its sale to Yahoo.com.
The original company was called Cameron Broadcast Systems after its founder's first name Cameron Christopher Jaeb. The original idea; a hand-held shortwave radio that would receive broadcasts inside a sports venue then morphed to a hand-held device that would receive customized satellite broadcasts. The Internet had begun to gain popularity at this time and Jaeb hired Debian Social Contract founder Ean Schuessler and his brother to consult on bringing the idea to the Internet. The Schuesslers expanded the concept beyond sports and produced marketing materials and presentations for Jaeb to promote his idea. Jaeb then began soliciting the rights to broadcast radio live on the Internet. KLIF in Dallas, KFI Los Angleles, KOA Denver, and KPLX in Dallas were some of the first. Later college sports came on and still later the NBA and NFL. As the company grew, AudioNet expanded from mainly broadcasting sporting events to broadcasting presidential conventions and many other events. With the support of his father Tom Jaeb he incorporated, formed a board and sold stock. Todd Wagner, an attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, was hired a few years later. When it was time to go public they brought on Mark Cuban; Wagner's college roommate. In January 1998, just prior to the IPO, the name was changed from AudioNet to Broadcast.com. Broadcast.com set (at the time) a one-day record for IPOs by rising almost 250% percent from its opening price. The stock closed up at $62.75 per share from their initial trading at $18 per share.
The record IPO made instant financial successes out of the company's employees through stock options, making 100 employees millionaires on paper (although most of them were unable to exercise their options and sell their shares before the stock price dropped) and founders Cuban and Wagner billionaires.
In April 1999, Yahoo! acquired the company for $5.7 billion in stock and renamed it Yahoo! Broadcast Solutions. Over the next few years Yahoo! split the services previously offered by Broadcast.com into separate services, Yahoo! Launchcast for music and Yahoo! Platinum for video entertainment. Yahoo! Platinum has since been discontinued, its functionality being offered as part of two pay services, AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and Yahoo! Plus.
As of 2007, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses; both simply redirect to yahoo.com.
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