How Friendster Blew It.

[zengrifter]

Wallflower at the Web Party

By GARY RIVLIN
Published: October 15, 2006

JONATHAN ABRAMS was in a spot. He could take the safe bet and accept the $30 million that Google was offering him for Friendster, the social networking Web start-up he began only a year earlier, in 2002. Saying yes to Google would provide a quick and stunning payout for relatively little work and instantly place the Friendster Web site in front of hundreds of millions of users across the globe.

But at the same time, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley were lobbying Mr. Abrams, a computer programmer, to reject Google’s offer. America Online had offered the two founders of Yahoo a few million dollars each in the mid-90’s for their Web site — and both became billionaires because they said no. Sell us a stake in your company for $13 million, the advisers told Mr. Abrams, and we will help build Friendster into an online powerhouse worth hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars.

“It really didn’t take much persuading,” said Russell L. Siegelman, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has poured around $10 million into Friendster since November 2003. “Jonathan clearly wanted to go for it.”

Go for it, he did. Mr. Abrams spurned Google’s advances and charted his own course. In retrospect, he should have taken the $30 million. If Google had paid him in stock, Mr. Abrams would easily be worth $1 billion today, according to one person close to Google. And with Google’s ample resources, Friendster might have solidified its position as the pioneering front-runner in social networking. Instead, Mr. Abrams has the distinction of founding a company that is shorthand for potential unmet.

...more - http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/bu...gewanted=print