Ozy

[Alma]

The cautionary tale of at least one media startup, which lied about how many people consumed their videos.

What They Saw in Ozy

 

[The Big Ragu]

Carlos Watson is on CNBC in their studio right now as I type this.

He's getting killed. I wanted to give him props for having the guts to face this head on. ... but he would have been better off listening to what his lawyers are probably telling him right now. He came off really badly. Trying to deflect, no admission of anything, just crap.

You are going to see this same story over and over again in the coming years because of the environment we have been in, not just with regard to crappy media companies.

1) Cheap money creates a lot of malinvestment. People buying into unproven concepts and story companies at ridiculous valuations.
2) Most of those people not doing any due diligence. In the case of Ozy, some supposedly smart people. I suspect most of them saw who else gave them money and rather than doing any due diligence it was, "Oh, Marc Lasry is involved. If he's investing, it must be a great opportunity." It's the same story as Theranos.
3) Company attracts all of that money. ... and then has to justify the invesment and the high valuation, and when the business doesn't take off. ... they try to fudge things.
4) With Ozy, a small scheme to inflate page views, then turn around and sell those views to advertisers at inflated rates, which in the moment didn't seem that dishonest, but in hindsight looks like a fraud to everyone else.

 

[Azrael]

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said —“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”



Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley | Poetry Foundation

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

4) With Ozy, a small scheme to inflate page views, then turn around and sell those views to advertisers at inflated rates, which in the moment didn't seem that dishonest, but in hindsight looks like a fraud to everyone else.

My old newspaper did this for years. Real estate agencies and a big auto dealer finally sued over excessive classified ad rates. We looked pretty damn bad.

 

[Screwball]

Megan Greenwell, in her farewell to Deadspin, put it best:

"A metastasizing swath of media is controlled by private-equity vultures and capricious billionaires and other people who genuinely believe that they are rich because they are smart and that they are smart because they are rich, and that anyone less rich is by definition less smart. They know what they know, and they don’t need to know anything else."

The Adults In The Room

 

[wicked]

2) Most of those people not doing any due diligence. In the case of Ozy, some supposedly smart people. I suspect most of them saw who else gave them money and rather than doing any due diligence it was, "Oh, Marc Lasry is involved. If he's investing, it must be a great opportunity." It's the same story as Theranos.

The money, sure, but I think the bigger thing with Theranos was how she hoodwinked a lot of prominent people — George Schultz, Jim Mattis, many more — into singing her praises.

It's hard for Watson to plead ignorance when he was the guy saying his show would be on A&E when it wasn't.

 

[tapintoamerica]

The cautionary tale of at least one media startup, which lied about how many people consumed their videos.

What They Saw in Ozy

Sounds like they went running off the rails on a Crazy Train.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said —“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”



Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley | Poetry Foundation

 

[SixToe]

I try to keep up with what's going on but to be honest, I never heard of Ozy until last week. Didn't know or care then, still don't.

 

[garrow]

I saw Ozy open for Deep Purple once.

 

[TigerVols]

I try to keep up with what's going on but to be honest, I never heard of Ozy until last week. Didn't know or care then, still don't.

Funny. A friend in the biz reached out the other day and mentioned it in detail and I finally had to admit I knew nothing about it. Media equivalent of inside the beltway.

 

[SixToe]

Funny. A friend in the biz reached out the other day and mentioned it in detail and I finally had to admit I knew nothing about it. Media equivalent of inside the beltway.

In the NYT, this gent said after four years at Ozy the employees still were explaining to people who they were and what they did.

Opinion | Let Me Tell You What It Was Like to Work at Ozy

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I saw Ozy open for Deep Purple once.

I saw Michael Bolton open for Ozy once.

(I didn't, but he did)