Samir Arora

Samir Arora

Samir Arora in 2013
Born (1965-11-05) November 5, 1965
Alma mater INSEAD, London Business School, Harvard Business School, BITS.
Occupation Chairman of Information Capital
Known for Apple Computer, Co-founder & former CEO NetObjects, Founder & former CEO of Mode Media

Samir Arora (born November 5, 1965) is an American businessman and former Apple Computer veteran, former CEO and Chairman of the web design company NetObjects, Inc. and former CEO of Mode Media from 2003 to March 2016. He is listed as one of the Top 100 Internet Pioneers.

Education

Samir Arora was born in New Delhi, India. He studied electrical and electronic engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Science.[1] Arora has an EMP from INSEAD, attended Executive Education at Harvard Business School, and holds a diploma in Sales and Marketing from the London Business School.[2]

Career

Samir Arora worked at Apple[1] in Software and New Media from 1982 to 1991. Arora wrote a white paper called "Information Navigation: The Future of Computing" in late 1986[1] while working directly for the Chairman & CEO of Apple, John Sculley.[3] He left Apple to found the spin-off Rae Technology from Apple.[4][5]

At Apple, Arora was involved in R&D on application navigation and what was then called hypermedia. He built the technology to show fluid access to linked data displayed in a friendly manner that helped develop the Knowledge Navigator video which showcased one of the first Artificial Intelligence personal assistants 25 years before Siri.[6]

From 1992 to 1995, Arora was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rae Technology. In 1995 Samir Arora co-founded NetObjects, Inc. and together with a design and development team including David Kleinberg, Clement Mok and his brother, Sal Arora, created NetObjects Fusion, one of the first Web design products that allowed Web sites to be designed, structured and created without programming.[7]

In 1997, after the launch of NetObjects Fusion, IBM invested approximately $100 million in a share exchange to buy 80% of NetObjects, corresponding to a valuation of around $150 million.[8] NetObjects, Inc. went public on NASDAQ in 1999 with IBM staying the majority shareholder.[9] From June 2003 to February 2004, Arora served as Chairman of the Board of Tickle, Inc.,[10] one of the first social networking sites founded in 1999.[11] Tickle was acquired by Monster.com in May 2004.

In 2003, Mode Media (formerly Project Y and then Glam Media), Inc. was formed by a number of people including Arora.[12] The company originally was founded as a website to offer fashion and beauty content and blog content.[13] Mode Media was a digital lifestyle media company where content could be produced by anyone but was reviewed by professional editors prior to publishing.

Arora was the interim CEO of Glam Media from 2003 to 2005, and CEO from 2006 to March 2016.[14] For his work at Mode Media, Arora was included by MIN Magazine in the The Digital Hot List 2008[15] and was named Web 2.0's Don Draper as one of the 30 men shaping our digital future by GQ Magazine [16] Mode Media grew from zero to $100 Million in revenue in its first 10 years and while preparing for its IPO, 2016 faced a power struggle between Hubert Burda Media against the group of Mode's Silicon Valley Investors Accel, DFJ, Marc Andreessen and founder Samir Arora in 2015 which resulted in Marc Andreessen and Samir Arora leaving the company. [17] On 15 September 2016, while company was controlled by investor Hubert Burda Media,[18] Mode Media US abruptly shut down its operations.[19] Mode Media continued its operations in Japan and Asia and in January, 2017 announced that an investment group Montaro purchased Mode Media in Japan.[20] On March, 2017, shareholders unanimously appointed Samir Arora as the Chairman of Mode Media Japan to help with it's turnaround, resulting in a successful six-week period of rebuilding Mode's technology and operations.[18]

In 2011, Arora at Mode Media purchased Ning, an online social networking platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks, Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini and had 90,000 social networks running on the Platform.[21]

Since 2016, Samir Arora has been working on his Woodside Incubator and on a stealth startup.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Davidson, Andrew (June 22, 2008). "Glam.com Samir Arora boss is in the pink". Times Online. London: Times Newspapers Ltd. Archived from the original on June 12, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
  2. ↑ "FACE TO FACE - NET LUMINARY - vnunet.com". 2007-09-30. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  3. ↑ Menuez, Doug (2014-06-03). Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985-2000. Page 53. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781476752730.
  4. ↑ Inc, InfoWorld Media Group (1994-01-17). InfoWorld. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
  5. ↑ Inc, InfoWorld Media Group (1993-02-22). InfoWorld. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
  6. ↑ "Spirit of Siri".
  7. ↑ "Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) Winners 1995–1999". Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). Archived from the original on 1998-05-19. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
  8. ↑ Sreenivas, I. Satya (May 18, 1997). "NetObjects chooses Big Blue fusion". Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
  9. ↑ "February 5, 1999 Form S-1 Filing". SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. Retrieved June 23, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Emode Names Samir Arora Chairman of the Board, Enters Media Metrix Top 50". ADVFN PLC. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  11. ↑ Juan Carlos Perez. "Social networking site Emode tickles Ringo". Infoworld. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Leadership - Mode Media". Mode Media. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Glam.com Launches the First Fashion Blog Network". Glam Media Inc. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  14. ↑ Ha, Anthony. "Samir Arora is stepping down as CEO of Mode Media". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  15. ↑ "min magazine 2008 The Digital Hot List: Samir Arora". min Online. Access Intelligence, LLC. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Digital Top 30". GQ Magazine.
  17. ↑ Zerega, Blaise (2017-03-29). "Mode Media: An IPO that never happened and a company that won’t die". VentureBeat.
  18. 1 2 3 Ha, Anthony (2017-03-21). "Mode Media Japan lives on, with founder Samir Arora as chairman". TechCrunch.
  19. ↑ Gage, Deborah (2016-09-15). "Billion Dollar-Valued Mode Media Shuts Down". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  20. ↑ "Newly Formed Investment Group Company has Purchased Mode Media Japan".
  21. ↑ Swisher, Kara. "Glam Buys Ning for $200 Million, Mostly in Stock". recode.
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