- Chris DeWolfe
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Chris DeWolfe 
Alma mater University of Washington Occupation CEO of MindJolt Chris DeWolfe (born 1966) is an American entrepreneur, and one of the creators of Myspace (along with Tom Anderson), of which he is also the former CEO. He has the sixth account ever made on the site. During DeWolfe's tenure, MySpace became the top social network, with over 135 million worldwide unique visitors a month [1]. Under DeWolfe, music became a defining feature of MySpace, which was credited with challenging and reinventing the music label industry [2] with the MySpace Music section, which allowed unsigned artists to post their music for free and launched the careers of several famous musicians, among them Lily Allen and Sean Kingston.
DeWolfe was integral to the sale of MySpace to News Corporation in 2005 for $580 million and remained as its CEO until March of 2009, at which point, MySpace was larger than its competitor, Facebook. [3][4][5] On April 22, 2009, News Corp. announced DeWolfe would step down as CEO and will be a strategic adviser to Myspace and serve on the board of MySpace China. The former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta replaced him.[6]
In 2010, DeWolfe won backing from Austin Ventures to purchase MindJolt, a social gaming platform, with former MySpace colleagues Aber Whitcomb and Colin Digiaro. In 2011, MindJolt became one of the few multi platform game developers when it acquired two additional companies--SGN, a mobile games company, and Hallpass Media, a free online gaming network. [7]
DeWolfe went to Lincoln High School,[8] then graduated from the University of Washington in 1988, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. He has been profiled in many major publications such as The New York Times,[9] USA Today,[10] Fortune, [11], and BusinessWeek, [12] and also is an investor in the travel site, GoGoBot.
References
- ^ Szalai, Georg (2007-02-23). "FIM makes Strategic acquisition". Hollywoodreporter.com. The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fim-makes-strategic-acquisition-130743. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ Levine, Robert (2006-09-04). "MySpace Music Store Is New Challenge for Big Labels". nytimes.com. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/04/technology/04myspace.html. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (2009-04-22). "It's Official: MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe Steps Down". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/confirmed-myspace-ceo-chris-dewolfe-steps-down/. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ Schonfeld, Erick (2009-06-25). "Facebook Finally Catches Up To MySpace In The U.S.". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/15/facebook-finally-catches-up-to-myspace-in-the-us/. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ "News Corp in $580m internet buy". http://news.bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 2005-07-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4695495.stm. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
- ^ Garrahan, Matthew (2009-10-22). "MySpace abandons race with Facebook". FT.com. The Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/743f63c6-bea1-11de-b4ab-00144feab49a.html. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
- ^ Rao, Leena (2011-04-18). [techcrunch.com/2011/04/18/chris-dewolfes-mindjolt-expands-gaming-empire-buys-sgn-and-hallpass-media/ "Chris DeWolfe's MindJolt Expands Gaming Empire; Buys SGN And Hallpass Media"]. techcrunch.com. TechCrunch. techcrunch.com/2011/04/18/chris-dewolfes-mindjolt-expands-gaming-empire-buys-sgn-and-hallpass-media/. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
- ^ Angwin, Julia (2009). Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. Random House. ISBN 1400066948.
- ^ Rusli, Evelyn (2011). "A Myspace Founder Builds Again, Buying Game Companies |". New York Times. New York Times. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/a-myspace-founder-is-building-again-with-online-games/. Retrieved 2011-11-07.
- ^ Swartz, Jon (2010). "Life after MySpace: the next project for social network's co-founder |". USA Today. USA Today. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/07/life-after-myspace/1. Retrieved 2011-11-07.
- ^ "Portraits of power | Chris DeWolfe". Fortune. Cable News Network. 2006. http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fortune/portraitsofpower/17.html. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
- ^ Bartiromo, Maria (2008-05-21). "Facetime with Chris DeWolfe". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086025019774.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
External links
Categories:- 1966 births
- People from Los Angeles, California
- People from Portland, Oregon
- Living people
- Myspace
- University of Washington alumni
- University of Southern California alumni
- American business biography, 1960s birth stubs
- American computer specialist stubs
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
