Hoosiers Fans UniteBy the time Yahoo! acquired it in April 1999, Internet broadcasting pioneer Broadcast.com had grown from a two-employee company with an office in a spare bedroom to an organization with a staff of 335 and a 28,000-square foot headquarters. Co-founders Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, who started Broadcast.com with $4,000 in equipment in 1995, had what industry observers termed the "perfect Internet IPO" in July 1998. Rumors of a takeover deal became reality the following April, when Yahoo! agreed to purchase the company for a reported $6.1 billion. Not bad for two entrepreneurs who originally just wanted to be able to listen to Indiana University basketball games over the Web.
In the years after their initial transmission, Cuban and Wagner expanded aggressively into different types of Internet broadcasting. They were among the first to anticipate the explosion in high-speed bandwidth and the potential for downloadable music and video files. By integrating entertainment content, they were able to gain legitimacy, as well as much-needed revenue. Broadcast.com's services - such as on-demand audio and video hosting, pay-per-view webcasting, and Intranet broadcasting - quickly drew dozens of corporate clients. Today, with a client list that includes companies such as Dell, General Motors, and Sony Music, Broadcast.com's Business Services division is its most profitable.
With broadcasts of events such as President Clinton's grand jury testimony in the Whitewater investigation however, the Streaming Media Content division now grabs most of the headlines. Currently, the company provides live broadcasts of 65 television stations and nearly 500 radio stations and networks. It also features thousands of on-demand CDs, audiobooks, and movies. And true to its roots, the company broadcasts the games of more than 450 college and professional sports teams.
Post-Yahoo!
Since the acquisition, Yahoo! had planned on renaming the operation Yahoo! Broadcast Services. Since then, however, Broadcast.com has become so tightly integrated in the mammoth Web portal corporation, it is best known as the Dallas operation of Yahoo!, representing Yahoo!'s push into audio and video, and text and graphics. The Dallas office has the second highest number of employees behind Yahoo!'s main headquarters in Santa Clara. Renovations on the Dallas office began in mid-2000, which will make the space resemble something more like a college dorm with room for game tables and a large atrium for company meetings or for concerts.
After selling to a company like Yahoo!, no one could expect the Broadcast.com to run independently for long. Broadcast.com lasted almost a year before the co-founders headed out the door and left operations for Kevin Parke, a current Yahoo! VP, to handle. Cuban and Wagner left in April 2000, Cuban to handle affairs with his newly purchased NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, while Wagner plans to pursue more philanthropic interests. It seems that Mr. Parke has unofficially been in charge for some time, making day-to-day decisions, but now his position is more clearly defined. Whether or not this will change Broadcast.com significantly remains to be seen.
