The peculiar genius of Next Media’s animation team has reduced the TechCrunch situation into one of the company’s characteristically simplified videos at NMA.TV, “All the news that’s fit to animate.”
All of the major players are included: Michael Arrington, as a green-robed wizard with a glowing AOL-logo amulet; dot-coms abasing themselves for benediction; Arianna Huffington, who gets literally inflamed with anger, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong; New York Times’s David Carr and AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher; and venture capitalists with wads of cash.
Here’s the entire saga, according to the NMA.tv subtitles, “Blogger Michael Arrington has a reputation as a Silicon Valley kingmaker. He sold his TechCrunch blog to AOL for $25 million. Arrington started CrunchFund, a venture fund for tech companies. Big name investors lined up, hoping to catch some ‘deal flow.’ He was called out by journalists for investing in companies TechCrunch writes about. They cried ‘conflict of interest.’ AOL’s Tim Armstrong initially defended Arrington, but Arianna Huffington said he is definitely out. Despite already being fired, Arrington has given AOL an ultimatum … stop messing with TechCrunch, or he’ll leave.”
That was a great vid!