The New York Times confirms the news, first reported on Valleywag Wednesday, that Google Founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt are buying a Boeing 757 to add to their growing fleet of jetliners. [BITS]

Source:Valleywag

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster took a break from bathing in the millions of dollars he obtained from eBay to make a paranoid-seeming accusation of bias at newspapers:

We’ve been hearing increasingly from newspaper reporters who confide that they are only allowed to write negative stories about Craigslist these days, because we’re viewed as competition by their newspaper’s business managers.

I’m catching a faint whiff of bullshit. It’s a good story for Buckmaster to tell — but is it true?

Given reporters’ propensities for spreading gossip and taking self-righteous stands, I’d think we’d have heard of someone quitting their jobs in protest over such a ham-handed move by a newspaper publisher. Granted, I may be wrong — but if there is, in fact, a reporter brave enough to confess this to Buckmaster but too cowardly to go public, drop me a line. I’ll be glad to protect your anonymity — but as for your integrity, well, probably too late.

The Freakonomics blog is inviting readers to pose questions for Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster to be asked in an upcoming Q&A. The blog’s readers have already started to make pointed suggestions, but none has stepped forward to ask this question: Exactly how much money did Newmark and Buckmaster make when eBay took a stake in their company?

A fascinating tidbit buried in a story about Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin’s allegations of child prostitution on Craigslist: Susan MacTavish Best, Craigslist spokeswoman and girlfriend of CEO Jim Buckmaster, claims that Craig Newmark “is no longer is involved in the company’s daily affairs,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And indeed, Newmark, the company’s founder, though he was listed on the Craigslist management page a week ago, no longer appears there. Newmark has certainly made enough money, thanks to a 2004 stock purchase by eBay, to retire on. And his “team bio,” still online, notes that he’s “embarrassed” that the site is named after him. But for the geeks who still idolize him, the idea of a Craigslist without Craig would be hard to bear.

Everything you know about Craig Newmark is wrong. The tale that Craigslist’s founder and CEO Jim Buckmaster like to tell about how eBay got a stake in their company goes like this: Newmark, the clueless business naif, issued shares to an employee, never thinking they’d be cashed in. That employee turned around and sold the shares right under Newmark’s nose to rapacious auctions giant eBay back in 2004. It’s a good story. But it’s nothing like the truth, according to sources close to the transaction. And the truth? That Newmark and Buckmaster, who love to portray themselves as unpretentious types who care nothing for money, can be bought. For a mere $16 million.

Phillip Knowlton, the employee in question, is believed by friends to be a cofounder of Craigslist, although the company does not recognize that status. He had earned a 25 percent stake in the company. But he held common shares, while Newmark and Buckmaster held preferred stock. That allowed Newmark and Buckmaster to try to squeeze Knowlton out of the company by issuing new shares to dilute his ownership stake.

Desperate to protect his ownership in Craigslist, Knowlton got in touch with people at eBay, who struck a deal for their employer to acquire his stake. Publications as august as Fortune have reported this as a straightforward sale, without Craigslist’s consent. Here’s what Adam Lashinsky wrote in 2005:

The transaction only occurred because Newmark had given a quarter-share to an employee, Phillip Knowlton…. As for the money eBay shelled out, that went to Knowlton, not Craigslist.

I know Lashinsky, who’s a good reporter, and can only conclude that a source — likely one close to Craigslist — led him astray. Because both of those statements are false, according to my sources. (Thanks to valleygurl for the tip left in the comments.)

So what actually happened? eBay, my sources tell me, agreed to pay an amount around $16 million to Knowlton, and an equal amount to Craigslist, bringing the total paid by eBay to more than $30 million. The company, in turn, immediately paid out that $16 million sum as a dividend to Newmark and Buckmaster, according to their stakes in the company. Buckmaster reportedly holds 40 percent, with Newmark owning the rest, which would suggest Buckmaster got about $6 million and Newmark $10 million.

And those amounts, in turn, are dwarfed, insiders believe, by the amounts Newmark and Buckmaster take out of the company in salaries and other forms of pay. With only around 20 employees and an estimated $150 million in revenues, Craigslist is widely thought to be staggeringly profitable.

Remember this whenever you see Craig Newmark pull his “I’m-just-a-customer-service-rep” act. Remember this when Buckmaster says Craigslist only cares about its customers. Because, like the rest of Silicon Valley, they’re all about the money. Unlike the rest of you, they’re just better at hiding it.

Cyberbandits steal 3.2 million Linden dollars from an ATM network in Second Life. Just what the Internet’s red-light district needs: virtual bank robberies. [Reuters]

Source:Valleywag
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, in a fantastic Q&A with Fortune readers, reveals that he’s just as quirky as the site he helms. In his off time, he vacations on an organic farm “with friends and an ostrich named Huey.” Also, he doesn’t predict an exit for the privately financed listing site, instead predicting that they “will go quietly when the nanobots are ready to assume control.” [Fortune]