How Web 2.0 Meetups Displaced the New York Software Industry
Has the man that is “legally prohibited from offering investment advice to specific individuals, and yet marketing advice to mass audiences about the very industry that barred him for life”(NYT) really brought Silicon Alley “back,” as the seemingly soon to be defunct New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA) incredulously asserts in a shameless co-promotion of Henry Blodget’s most recent attempt at grabbing the media spotlight via self-serving hyperbole.
The New York Times’ Harry Hurt on the Blodget hypocrisy case and an underwhelming Blodget book: “Most, if not all, of the promotional value is based on his career in white-collar deception”:
During his three years at Merrill, he earned upwards of $18 million in salary. The fine he paid was $4 million. That leaves him a whopping $14 million ahead of the game, not counting taxes and the legal fees attendant to his settlement agreement. As luck and some high-priced lawyers would have it, Mr. Blodget wound up negotiating a settlement in which he neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.
Ought a “career in white collar deception” really be celebrated by the trade organisation with the mission to “grow the software industry” in downstate New York? NO!
I am a card carrying, dues paying member of NYSIA and have been for many, many years, even while Henry Blodget actively ”aided and abetted Merrill Lynch’s fraudulent research on GoTo.com” (SEC):
Further, Merrill Lynch and Blodget published research on five other companies [24/7 Media, Inc.; LifeMinders, Inc.; Homestore.com, Inc.; Excite@Home; and Internet Capital Group, Inc.] that were not based on principles of fair dealing and good faith and did not provide a sound basis for evaluating facts, contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims, and/or contained opinions for which there was no reasonable basis.
Blodget continues his “exaggarated and unwarranted” media ways, as I have been chronicling here at Insider Chatter, in the heart of Manhattan. SEE: Henry Blodget Braces For ‘Harder Times’: Silicon Alley Insider ‘Screwed’? and
Henry Blodget: Mary Meeker Pulls a Blodget on Google
Blodget & Ryan: Cool, or Suck? WHAT Silicon Alley ‘Insider’!
Henry Blodget Has Internet Boom Lessons For NBC
It is a sad day indeed for NYSIA, and the industry it seeks to represent, in more ways than one.
NYSIA did not hold its annual member holiday party in December, it did not hold its traditional, prestigious state of the New York software industry panel in January and no technology SIG meetings are scheduled for 2008. NYSIA will be “shuttering its lower Manhattan incubator for local tech start-ups at the end of the month and the 16-year-old trade association’s board of directors will be meeting to discuss a restructuring plan for the 500-member organization” (Crain’s).
Monday may be the saddest day of all, when NYSIA opens its doors to its public for the first time in 2008 by opening its doors to the SEC fined Henry Blodget, the sole speaker and apparent raison d’etre of what NYSIA bills as its “February Meeting.”
How has NYSIA fallen so hard, so fast? The organization’s unfortunate 2008 selection of an opening keynote is self-inflicted and indicitave of a continuously growing detachment from what is really transpiring in a transpired New York technology scene.
Who does get the real Silicon Alley? Real New York technologists, of course, and they are meeting up on their own, thanks to Web 2.0 Meetups! NY Tech Meetup, NY Video 2.0, NY Ad Club…
The official NYSIA restructuring line is that is no longer able to procure sufficient funding, from both public or private sources. NYSIA’s “February Meeting” on Monday will NOT bolster NYSIA’s restructuring case or strengthen the cause of the New York software industry.
MORE: Why Silicon Alley VCs Should Do Blogging Due Diligence, Too and Is Union Square Ventures Changing Exit Strategies?
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