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J. Michael Arrington | |
|---|---|
 Arrington at theWorld Economic Forum | |
| Born | Jack Michael Arrington[1] (1970-03-13)March 13, 1970 (age 55)[1] Orange, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Blogger, entrepreneur |
J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970) is the American founder and former co-editor ofTechCrunch, a blog covering theSilicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in America and elsewhere. Magazines such asWired andForbes have named Arrington one of the most powerful people on the Internet.[2][3]In 2008, he was selected byTIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.[4]
Born inHuntington Beach, California, Arrington grew up in Huntington Beach andSurrey, England. He attended theUniversity of California, Berkeley for his freshman year and graduated fromClaremont McKenna College with a major ineconomics.[5] He went on toStanford Law School and graduated in 1995. He practiced corporate and securities law atO'Melveny & Myers andWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.[citation needed]
Arrington left the practice of law to joinRealNames, which failed after raising $100 million.[3] Arrington was co-founder of Achex, an internet payments company, which was sold toFirst Data Corp forUS$32 million and is now the back end ofWestern Union online. "I made enough to buy a Porsche. Not much more," he said in 2007.[3]
His other entrepreneurial endeavors include co-foundingZip.ca and Pool.com, acting as chief operating officer for Razorgator, and founding Edgeio. He has also served on the board of directors at the startup Foldera, which was designing asoftware as a service organizational tool.[6]
He identifies as alibertarian, saying, "I just see government as this thing that stops us from doing things."[7]
In 2013, he was accused of physical abuse by an ex-girlfriend. Arrington sued the woman for defamation and she agreed to retract her accusations against him and apologize.[5][8]
Arrington rose to internet prominence with his Silicon Valley blog,TechCrunch. TechCrunch covers internet startups and news. In early September 2011, Arrington was reported to be no longer employed by TechCrunch but associated with a new investment company, AOL Ventures.[9] Within days, it was being reported that he was no longer associated with AOL Ventures.[10]
In October 2012, Arrington returned to writing for the Tech Crunch blog.[11]
In 2011, Arrington founded a venture capital firm called CrunchFund along withM. G. Siegler and Patrick Gallagher.[citation needed] In 2014, CrunchFund invested in BlueFly, an online retailer, which was bought, in May 2013, by affiliates ofClearlake Capital for US$13 million.[12] As a result of CrunchFund's investment, former BlueFly CEO Melissa Payner returned to BlueFly.[13]
In July 2008, Arrington started a project called theCrunchpad, over a year before theiPad was released. The Crunchpad was meant to be an affordable tablet computer that catered to a niche between desktop computers and laptops. However, disputes arose between Arrington and the developers he had chosen for the Crunchpad. The developers broke off from Arrington and released the device on their own but it received few sales,[14] and the developers later went bankrupt.[15]
In November 2017, Michael Arrington announced he was starting a $100 million hedge fund. The fund would be denominated in the cryptocurrencyXRP, also known as Ripple. It was reported to be the first fund denominated in acryptocurrency, rather than US dollars or Euros at the time.[16] The fund has invested in more than 50 crypto startups.[17]
PayPal documents discovered today as part of the ongoing TechCrunch lawsuit against Fusion Garage have revealed that just 90 pre-orders were submitted before the JooJoo tablet began shipping last week. ... The actual honored pre-orders were even lower as 15 of the orders were cancelled and refunded, although this didn't include pre-orders for the last few weeks before the March 25th ship date.
