The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.Find sources: "Criterion Capital Partners" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Criterion Capital Partners LLC.
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet
Founded2002
Defunct2018 (2018)
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Area served
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Key people
Christopher Lord
(co-founder)

David Riley
(co-founder)
Tomoko Fortune
Louis Chang
Matt Perona
(director of finance)
Jeffrey Pisani
(director of operations)
Sara Parr
(director of investor relations)
Adam Levin (Bebo)
(CEO)

[1]
N/A
Number of employees
3 (2010)
Websitecriterioncp.com

Criterion Capital Partners LLC, also known as simply Criterion, was a private equity fund based in Los Angeles, California.[2] It was best known for being the owner of Bebo, from 2010 to 2013.

History

Christopher Lord co-founded the company in 2002.[3][4] Criterion acquired social networking service Bebo in 2010. Bebo was previously owned by AOL, who originally purchased the service for $850 million in 2008.[5] The acquisition had failed as Bebo's business was declining. AOL sold the company for less than $10 million to Criterion.[6][7] Following the acquisition, Bebo's business did not improve. In April 2012, the minority shareholders filed a $5 million suit against Criterion for “destroying the site". Then in May, TechCrunch reported that Bebo filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[8][9]

In 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was shutting down.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Criterion Capital Management, LLC: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  2. ^ "Criterion Capital Partners LLC - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  3. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (2017-10-04). "Criterion Capital founder likes Mercado Libre but is short iRobot". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  4. ^ "Christopher Hawkins Lord: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  5. ^ "The incredible life of Mike Birch, the Brit who sold Bebo for $850 million before buying it back for $1 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  6. ^ Wauters, Robin. "Confirmed: Criterion Capital Partners Acquires Bebo From AOL". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  7. ^ Helft, Miguel (2010-06-17). "AOL Sells Bebo Site to Criterion Capital Partners". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  8. ^ Grant, Rebecca. "Bebo bargain: After selling to AOL for $850M in 2008, founders buy it back for ... $1M | VentureBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  9. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (May 10, 2013). "Social Network Bebo Has Filed A Voluntary Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Petition". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  10. ^ Copeland, Rachael Levy and Rob. "Hedge Fund Criterion Capital to Shut Down After 16 Years". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-01-20.


Categories