Arik Czerniak and Ofer Adler, the two founders of Metacafe that are no longer involved in the day to day operations of the “Israeli Youtube”, have cashed out their shares. Each one of them made $2.5 million as reported by TheMarker, NewTeevee and TechCrunch.
Amir and Ofer had fully vested 10% of Metacafe, or 5% each (see correction in Techcrunch). which was recently valued at $5o million. I’m not sure what their motivations are for cashing out the chips, but it seems like since the $700 million Yahoo acquisition rumors back in Dec 2006, it started to look like the company was running out of exit options. Last summer Metacafe was back in the headlines following a $30 million venture capital injectio, that also brought on board CEO Erick Hachenburg, who replaced Arik Czerniak as part of the round.
I’m sure that Metacafe’s leadership would kill to have Yahoo’s offer back on the table. Do you think that Yahoo will feel the same way about Microsoft’s offer in a few years if the Microhoo deal doesn’t move forward?
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
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