Warren Lee of Canaan Partners Talks Associated Content and Blip.tv
Warren Lee, a venture partner with Canaan Partners, this week is doing the portfolio board two-step. He's moving off the board of Associated Content, due to its acquisition by Yahoo, and moved onto the board of Bit.tv, following Canaan's role as lead investor on a new $10.1 million funding round. I spent a few minutes on the phone with Lee yesterday, just after he touched down at SFO. Here's an edited transcript: Why sell Associated Content now? Canaan's been an investor in the company for three years, and people have constantly been talking about wanting to acquire it. It was kind of annoying -- in a good way -- and we kept having to fend people off. The company continued to grow and some of us wanted to keep building it as a stand-alone, but we decided to take a look at the bunch of strategic acquirers who were buzzing around... Yahoo's financial offer was attractive to both employees and investors. Probably just as important was that we wanted the company to go to a place where it would be well taken care of.
