- Michael Arrington
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J. Michael Arrington 
Arrington at the World Economic ForumBorn Jack Michael Arrington[1]
March 13, 1970 [1]
Orange, CaliforniaNationality American Occupation Blogger, entrepreneur Website TechCrunch , uncrunched.com J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970 in Orange, California) is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere. Magazines such as Wired and Forbes have named Arrington one of the most powerful people on the Internet.[2][3]
In 2008, he was selected by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.[4] Wired magazine also included him in a flowchart of "internet blowhards" citing his obsession with "Web 2.0".[5]
Contents
Biography
Arrington grew up in Huntington Beach, California and Surrey, England, attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a major in economics. He went on to Stanford Law School and graduated in 1995.[6] He practiced corporate and securities law at O’Melveny & Myers, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.[7]
Arrington left the practice of law to join Real Names, which failed after raising $100M.[8] Arrington was co-founder of Achex, an internet payments company, which was sold to First Data Corp for US$32 million and is now the back end of Western Union online. "I made enough to buy a Porsche. Not much more," he says.[8]
His other entrepreneurial endeavors include co-founding Zip.ca and Pool.com, acting as chief operating officer for Razorgator, and founding Edgeio. He was also more recently on the board of directors for the startup Foldera which was designing a software as a service organizational tool.[citation needed]
Michael Arrington with Chamillionaire
TechCrunch
Arrington rose to internet prominence with his Silicon Valley blog, TechCrunch. TechCrunch covers internet startups and news. In early September of 2011 Arrington was reported to be no longer employed by TechCrunch but associated with a new investment company, AOL Ventures.[9] Within days, it was being reported that he was no longer associated with AOL Ventures[10].
Controversies
Dropping out of college
Arrington has been known to advocate dropping out of college,[11] stating at the 2010 UC-Berkeley Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series that “the best thing in the world is to go to Harvard for a year and drop out. Everyone knows you were smart enough to get in”.[12]
Interview with Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!
In May 2010, Arrington was involved in a verbal confrontation with CEO of Yahoo!, Carol Bartz. Arrington started the interview by asking Bartz, "So how the fuck are you?" To which she responded, "Is that appropriate?".[13] Later in the interview, Bartz became perturbed with Arrington's criticism of the Yahoo! business model of conglomeration rather than single revenue source producers. Bartz then responded to Arrington saying, "you are involved in a very tiny company" and ended the exchange by telling him to "fuck off."[14] Bartz received some support from bloggers for her response, including Guy Kawasaki who stated, "I respect Carol Bartz even more now."[15]
See also
- CrunchPad
References
- ^ a b California Births, 1905 - 1995, Jack M. Arrington
- ^ Forbes' 25 Web Celebrities
- ^ Wired 4th Most Powerful Blogger
- ^ Michael Arrington - The 2008 TIME 100
- ^ Wired Magazine's Which Blowhard Are You?
- ^ TechCrunch Bio
- ^ CrunchBase Profile
- ^ a b Arrington can generate buzz
- ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-arrington-no-longer-works-for-techcrunch-2011-9
- ^ CNNMoney, "Arrington out at AOL (For real this time)" by Dan Primack, September 7, 2011
- ^ "Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/25/students-stay-in-school/. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
- ^ Shirin Ghaffary. "Professor Says Michael Arrington Lives In An Ivory Tower". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/22/arrington-ivory-tower/. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
- ^ "Disrupt 2010: Fireside Chat with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartzon Techcrunch Disrupt – live streaming video powered by Livestream". Livestream.com. http://www.livestream.com/disrupt/video?clipId=pla_0a30f6a4-c7c0-4e65-b5da-4363969a0ed5. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ^ "Yahoo! CEO Tells Tech Blogger to ‘F*** Off’". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq4A1uCQ1w0&feature=player_embedded. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ^ "Twitter / Guy Kawasaki -Alltop: If this transcript is accu". Twitter. May 25, 2010. http://twitter.com/gk_minusalltop/status/14737320699. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
External links
- Michael Arrington Personal Weblog
- Profile at CrunchBase
- Index of Michael Arrington's writings on uFollow
- "TechCrunch Site Makes Arrington A Power Broker", Wall Street Journal, 2006-11-03
- "The makings of a media mogul: Michael Arrington", Elias Bizannes's blog, 2008-12-26
Categories:- 1970 births
- American bloggers
- American Internet personalities
- Claremont McKenna College alumni
- Dot-com people
- Living people
- People from Orange County, California
- People from Surrey
- Stanford Law School alumni
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
