Yahoo Acquihires Troy Carter’s Bread
Bread, aka bre.ad, was an url shortener that served you an ad between the click on the shortened url and your destination. We're discussing this because Troy Carter, aka Lady Gaga's manager, was the most visible funder behind Bread and initial clients included entertainers like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. Now Bread, Troy Carter and everyone else involved can announce a successful exit with an acquisition by Yahoo. Bread itself is shutting down. Links will die November 11 and users have been advised to move along to bit.ly.
In the fall of 2011 we began to hear about Troy Carter's tech investments and involvement with tech startups. News of white label social network platform Backplane began to catch attention followed by news about Bread.
I described Bread as displaying a "5 second 'billboard' between clicking the link and going to the intended site." It seemed a bit questionable in terms of web clutter but Bread claimed a positive response to the mini-interstitials.
Bread raised $3.5 million that year, from Troy Carter as well as Dr. Luke and Marc Ecko, among others, and then I never heard anything about them again until news of the acquisition.
All news items seem to be referring to the announcement on Bread's homepage. I haven't seen anything official from Yahoo to indicate their intentions but CEO Alan Chan stated:
"We are thrilled to join Yahoo’s advertising team in Sunnyvale where we will be working on developing next-generation solutions for social and mobile publishers and advertisers."
So it sounds like an acquihire, or hiring through acquisition, a frequently used tool for well-funded companies to bring on hot programming talent. But whatever the reason, an exit is an exit. Congratulations to Alan Chan, Troy Carter and all the rest involved with the life of Bread.
More:
- Bre.ad Offers Promotional Url Shortening
- Troy Carter Goes from Managing & Marketing Musicians to Funding & Founding Music Startups
- Backplane Launch "Empowers" Lady Gaga's LittleMonsters Society
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
