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Capitol Hill startup sells out to MySpace for $20 million

We would have reported on this minor Capitol Hill business deal earlier but we were busy with more weighty neighborhood topics. Now that we have time, here are the details. Boylston Ave headquartered iLike has a deal in place to be acquired by social networking giant MySpace for $13.5 million in upfront cash and another $6 million in ‘talent retention’ money to keep iLike’s key employees on the team. More from the Wall Street Journal:


CHS’s Facebook iLike box has some bitchin tunes

What’s also been unclear is the actual price the social networking giant is paying for iLike, which has been reported as about $20 million.

In fact, only $13.5 million will be paid upfront in cash, with about $8 million of that money likely going to one of its major shareholders, Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM), due to its preferred shares.

Another $6 million has been promised by MySpace in forward payments to retain some key employees–including iLike co-founders and twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi.

Although those employees can remain in Seattle, where iLike has its HQ, they must stay employed at Beverly Hills, Calif.-based MySpace for two and a half years to get their money.

Sounds like iLike will be sticking around Capitol Hill. You can tour iLike’s Boylston Ave office in this video:


View Larger Map

I worked for Hadi Partovi when he was still at Microsoft as part of the team that managed the MSN.com homepage way back in the day so I’m thinking CHS must be worth a million or two. But I’m a little disappointed in him because it sounds like CHS could have been worth $4 or $5 million:

The company was once valued at $53 million, back when Ticketmaster bought a 25 percent stake in late 2006, according to the Seattle Times. iLike amassed a total of $17 million from Ticketmaster and other investors like Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and former AOL exec Bob Pittman.

If you see a glum millionaire wandering Pike/Pine, give him a hug. At least nobody has to move to Beverly Hills.

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some dude
some dude
14 years ago

“funky” is up there in the running for world’s worst adjective

jseattle
jseattle
14 years ago

How about Northwesty?

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14 years ago

I guess everyone should start bashing them now that they are no longer “local.”