An IPO for UFO, followed by an LBO?
Henry
Doug Henwood wrote:
> I missed this in the WSJ the first time around, but just picked up on it.
> Firmage's site is at <http://www.thewordistruth.org/>.
>
> Doug
>
> ----
>
> Wall Street Journal - January 11, 1999
>
> Silicon Valley Star Leaves Company
> To Dwell on Other-Worldly Matters
>
> By JIM CARLTON
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
> Joe Firmage, a young star of Silicon Valley, is leaving his company to
> focus on other planets.
>
> Mr. Firmage, 28 years old, said he is resigning as chief strategist of
> USWeb/CKS Corp., a fast-growing Internet-consulting firm, to publicize his
> theories that Earth has been visited by aliens and that many high-tech
> inventions were brought by unidentified flying objects. He had stepped down
> in November as chief executive of the company, which he co-founded.
>
> In an interview, Mr. Firmage said he feared his views about aliens might
> hurt the company's image.
>
> "I don't want to subject the company to any possibility of risk for
> misinterpretations of what I am saying," Mr. Firmage said. "I do expect to
> be a tar baby here, but if I can cause people to wake up and consider there
> might be a bigger picture, then all this will be worth something."
>
> News of the resignation was reported Saturday in the San Francisco
> Chronicle. Company officials expressed regret at Mr. Firmage's departure,
> but said his position wouldn't be filled.
>
> The company, originally known as USWeb, is among the largest of a new breed
> of consulting firms that help businesses set up operations on the Web. The
> firm has grown quickly through acquisitions, including a December merger
> with Internet-marketing firm CKS Group Inc.
>
> Mr. Firmage has estimated he has spent about $3 million so far publicizing
> his UFO theories. In November, Mr. Firmage posted a 700-page book on a Web
> site entitled "The Truth," in which he describes an other-worldly encounter
> at his home in Los Gatos, Calif., about 15 months ago, with a "remarkable
> being, clothed in brilliant white light ..." The site also contains 200
> pages of documents that he says point to a government coverup of
> information about UFO activities that include the purported crash of an
> alien spacecraft near Roswell, N.M., in 1947.
>
> Mr. Firmage, an industry prodigy raised in Utah, founded a software company
> called Serius at the age of 17 and sold it to Novell Inc. six years later
> for $24 million. In 1995, he and other former Novell executives founded
> USWeb.
> He was replaced as CEO in November by Robert Shaw, a 51-year-old former
> Oracle Corp. executive. Although that was about the time Mr. Firmage posted
> his manifesto, both he and Mr. Shaw said the job change was an unrelated
> move to give the young company more management experience.
>
> Mr. Firmage says he notified the firm's top management a week ago that he
> was severing all ties to pursue his extraterrestrial interests. Mr. Shaw
> said there had been no external pressure for Mr. Firmage to do so.
>
> When contacted this weekend, Mr. Firmage expressed little regret at leaving
> his old life behind. "All I ask," he said, "is that people respect what I
> am saying and let history be my judge."