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Controversial Philip Kaplan Out at AdBrite

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June 1st 2006
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Colorful and controversial dot.com site founder Philip Kaplan stepped down as AdBrite CEO, reported CNET News.com yesterday. Kaplan, 30, told the site his decision was made to hand the business to “professional management.” Kaplan is most noted for running the controversial Web site F***edCompany during the dot-com bust.

“I suggested it, and there was no push back,” Kaplan said. “I really wanted an expert to come in and help run AdBrite.” He founded AdBrite in 2004.

Speculation is that AdBrite will announce Ignacio Fanlo, a former executive at an e-commerce site that was lambasted on F***edCompany.com, is AdBrite’s new CEO. Kaplan said he will stay on to oversee AdBrite’s products.

Kaplan emerged as an unlikely player in Silicon Valley with F***edCompany. But last year, hejumped the fence and became an executive.

“I guess back then I never thought it through from management’s perspective,” Kaplan said of his days writing at F***edCompany. “I wrote purely from the perspective of the employees who were getting lied to and ripped off. It came from the employees. Now, I see how hard it is. I understand how a company works from management’s perspective.”

Kaplan says he is not sorry for anything he penned during his days as “Pud.”

“Much of what executives at dot-coms did back then was wrong. I’ll always think it’s wrong to lie to employees. We’ve never done that here,” he said.

During his 18-month tenure as AdBrite’s head honcho, the company was profitless, but it recently received $8 million in a second round of funding, he told CNET News.com. In the past six months, AdBrite has seen the number of publishers offering space to advertisers grow to 16,000. During that time, the company has upped staff size from 25 to 43.



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Reader Comments.

Pud is a good guy, I’m sure that he will stay busy with his music and the other sites that he runs.

Posted by Wilson | 4:01 pm on June 2, 2006.

Where pud is?

Posted by taluga | 4:32 pm on June 13, 2006.

Fact: Fanlo almost wouldn’t come over to Adbrite once he found out who ran it.

Pure speculation: Shutting down FC was a condition for Iggy to take over.

Posted by dottydotdot | 4:52 pm on June 13, 2006.

At least he’s not leaving Adbrite to spend more time with his family.

Posted by kilosepp | 5:14 pm on June 13, 2006.

He has gone and FC and AdBrite and everythi else Sierra took over will fail. I hope Pud got $ for his work, cause it has all been taken away.

Remember Pud, read the fine print, or let your lawyer do it. Things like this should not happen to a smart guy. FC was your money maker and you lost it

Posted by CHEF | 4:45 pm on June 29, 2006.

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