Brock Pierce

Brock Pierce (born November 14, 1980 in Minnesota) is an American entrepreneur and former child actor. As a child actor, he was in Disney films The Mighty Ducks (1992), D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) and First Kid (1996).

Pierce has been involved in the establishment of digital currencies and virtual goods. He "played an early role in the development of virtual goods, founding Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE) in 2001 and Zam in 2003".^[1] Many of Pierce's companies have operated in this virtual space.

Entrepreneurship

Digital Entertainment Network

In 1999, Pierce was listed as an executive vice-president of the Digital Entertainment Network, a company that created four- to six-minute streaming-video series, having raised $88m dollars from blue chip investors. As an 18 year old, Pierce was making $250,000 a year and held 1% of the company's shares, a board member describing him as "the guy who could tell us what Gen Yers were likely to think".^[2] Pierce resigned from DEN in October 1999, along with the site's founders, after a scandal in which those associated with the company were accused of sex trafficking.^[3]

IMI Exchange

Pierce founded IMI Exchange (originally Internet Gaming Entertainment) in 2001 and resigned from his CEO position on June 26, 2007, but remained an adviser and vice-chairman of the board of the company.^[4] Under Pierce’s leadership, IMI Exchange nurtured DAX, the largest virtual goods exchanges in South Korea and the US/Europe market with sites, such as ItemMania and Player Auctions, respectively. IMI Exchange raised over $100 million from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners.

Pierce worked at ZAM, a network of websites oriented around massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG), such as World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rift, EverQuest, etc.^[5] The ZAM.com network included gaming websites such as ZAM.com, Wowhead, Thottbot, Torhead, and D3DB.

Internet Gaming Entertainment

In 2001, Pierce founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), a company which pioneered the MMORPG currency-selling services industry that link virtual economies with the real one. In 2004, CNN Money reported that IGE brought in more than $1 million USD each month. Between 2004 and 2005, IGE spent more than $25 million buying out seven smaller competitors, including four auction platforms and a number of fan and content sites.^[6] In 2005, Pierce estimated that IGE accounted for about 50% of this online market in the U.S., which has about $500 million in annual volume.^[6][7]

Titan Gaming/Playsino

In 2010, Titan Gaming recruited Pierce to sit on its board along with EA Executive Keith McCurdy.^[8] Pierce joined other Southern California angel investors, including MP3.com’s Michael Robertson, SOA Software’s Eric Pulier and William Quigley and Jim Armstrong of Clearstone Ventures.^[9] During the same summer, Titan Gaming purchased the rising online gaming network, Xfire from Viacom.^[10] In October 2011, after Xfire received over $4 million in fresh funding from Intel Capital, Titan Gaming and Xfire cut ties and went their own ways. Titan Gaming and Xfire now operate independently from each other.^[11] In late April 2012, Titan Gaming announced that it would be rebranded as Playsino to embark in a complete makeover, with Pierce as the new CEO and $1.5 million of new funding.^[12]

Controversy

On Nov. 15, 1999, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that DEN's co-founder, chairman and controlling shareholder, Marc Collins-Rector, co-founder and executive vice president Chad Shackley, and co-founder and executive vice president Pierce had resigned. The resignations followed a lawsuit settled by Collins-Rector in which it was alleged he had a sexual relationship with a minor for three years. Collins-Rector denied the allegations and the case was settled and dismissed. Neither Shackley nor Pierce were named in the suit.^[13]

On May 18, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that Collins-Rector, who was facing charges of transporting a minor between state lines with the intent of engaging in sexual activity, had been apprehended in Spain. Shackley and Pierce were also in Spain but never charged with a crime.^[14]

Acting career

He appeared in commercials as a toddler.^[3] His first major role was playing a young Emilio Estevez in The Mighty Ducks (1992). Pierce reprised the role again in D2: The Mighty Ducks. He also starred as Luke Davenport in First Kid(1996).

From 1994, Pierce had small roles in Little Big League (1994), Ripper Man (1995), Problem Child 3: Junior in Love (1995), Three Wishes (1995), and Earth Minus Zero (1996)

References

External links

• Official website
• Brock Pierce at the Internet Movie Database
• "How a Visionary Venture on the Web Unraveled" from the LA Times