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Gator Files for IPO to Raise $150 Million
michalas writes "Wired reports on the IPO filing of adware/spyware kings Claria who have recently changed their name from Gator.
Claria on Thursday filed for an initial public offering to raise $150 million to continue developing its 'behavioral marketing platform.' Claria had a net income of $35 million on revenues of $90 million in 2003. In addition, Claria said it has 43 million active users and 425 advertisers."
The good thing about Gator going public is that their Financial Statements will tell us what advertisers are funding them. Makes for a nice boycott list.
The sad fact is that most people don't read _any_ text in any box that pops up on the screen. They just zero in on the "yes" "no" "cancel" boxes and randomly pick whichever one they think will make the pop-up go away the quickest.
You have an excellent point. I was going to post asking if Gator and other adware were really still extremely common. It's been a long time since I had Gator (Claria?)-ware on my computer. But you're right most people don't read anything they are asked on a computer. The only reason I have not gotten this stuff is because I have taken steps to prevent it. (Using ad-aware, using pop-up blockers, the obvious stuff) I guess many, many people have not took the 'obvious' steps.
I know most people here are laughing at the thought of anyone stupid enough to buy into this IPO. But all it takes are a few ignorant or greedy fund managers to pump this stock. This is why I generally invest in blue-chip stocks or market index mutual funds over standard funds, which these days seem to be corrupt.
I think there's maybe six or seven financial investment companies that haven't been sanctioned by the SEC in the last two years for unethical activity. You can't trust the American media to even let you know when your investment company has been fined $200M for insider trading. The best source for really finding out how sleazy Wall Street is is through England's Financial Times, which doesn't pull any punches. If you have an IRA or any money in funds, keep a close eye on it. These rich fund managers are making a fortune off the pennies most working people scrounge up and think will be there for them in the future.
I never really dabbled much in the market until recently when I had a broker "friend" make recommendations for me. After I lost a bundle, I set up my own account on E*Trade and started doing my own investing - I beat my broker's ROI by 14% within six months. I'm pretty convinced these days most people in the financial community don't know anything, but that doesn't mean a bunch of people won't make money in this Gator IPO, but it will probably be at mutual fund holders' expense.
My advice to people is take control of your finances and invest in companies you believe in. Pull your money out of funds so you're not unwittingly financing SCO or Gator -- you'd be surprised how often you're in bed with the devil through your IRA.
Your post reminds me of a trust certificate that came up on my screen today.
"Always trust content from 'Click Yes To Enter LTD'?"
And in the blurb:
"By clicking yes you agree to have software installed on your computer that will dial up a premium rate phone line at a cost of 1.50 GBP a minute. You can disconnect by clicking on the Disconnect button or the connection will automatically disconnect after 13.33 minutes."
Oh yeah and the source of this was a popup for some flash game site that said 'When the certificate pops up click yes to be able to play our huge selection of games! It came up when I was on www.cooking.com looking for a recipe for good roast potatoes. Obviously I prevented myself from downloading this crapware, but I still won't be visiting that site again.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Most all browsers have these same features built-in now. I'd guess people running Gator do so because it either came bundled with something else they installed, or they clicked the wrong button closing a drive-by-download dialog.
Such programs are really only a shade away from being a legalized virus. Unfortunately there's already legislation brewing - which, like most recent laws, will either be ineffective, make life more difficult for legitimate developers, or shackle us with even more Draconian copyright laws.
My own solution would be to make the CEO of any spyware/adware company personally come over and remove the software from anyone's PC who didn't want it.
Actually, it looks like Apple of Germany was the only company placing the ads (or having the ads placed on their behalf by an ad agency). All Apple's branches are in charge of advertising within their own countries. I guess Apple of Germany thought it was a nice way to get switchers... annoy the hell out of them for using a PC with Gator :)
No... What they have is a risky business plan that is working well right now. The courts have never decided where to draw the line on the insidious behavior of foistware. I think it's pretty clear that if you download some software and in the clickable EULA you agree to have Gator installed as a payload, they have a right to install their junk on your machine. However, the only time I've been infected with Gator is through an ActiveX exploit. There was nothing that I agreed to, and there was no notification that their stuff was being installed. I didn't even realize it until later on when some of the "utilities" that are supposed to make people like Gator were automatically installed. The "fun" I had cleaning this all up and installing Ad-aware and Spybot S&D is what finally convinced me to never use IE again unless it was on my corporate intranet. And I firmly believe that given a real test in the courts, this will be classified as breaking into a private computer system and/or malicious hacking. Once this happens, you can expect them to die a quick death from the subsequent lawsuits.
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?