Couple starts digital media company ‘Teneology’
Islanders Cliff and Lisa Sharples, previous executives at Cheezburger and Allrecipes, are looking to build “the world’s next big digital media company here in Seattle,” according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
They have raised $10 million so far to start Teneology, a new Mercer Island-based acquisition fund. They both left their jobs in 2013 and spent the next year traveling the world with their five children, posting about their adventures on http://www.projectequator.com/.
Teneology has already acquired three media companies — one from Seattle and two from the East Coast — and is looking to close more deals throughout the year. Teneology has not yet announced what companies it has already acquired or how much it has spent.
Islander’s cloud storage company files for IPO
Box, the online storage company founded by Mercer Island High School graduates Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith in 2005, is going public.
According to news sources, Box said that it plans to register as many as 14.4 million shares, expected to price between $11 and $13 a share, and expects to raise as much as $186.9 million — a valuation much smaller than rival Dropbox.
Box’s filing said it has over 44,000 paying corporate customers.
The company will list at the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BOX.
Both Box and Dropbox face competition from Google and Microsoft, which have upped the capacity of their cloud-based data storage services. In its filing, Box said competitors also include IBM, Citrix Systems, EMC and Amazon.com.
The idea for Box originated as a college business project that Levie was working on in 2004 at the University of Southern California.
Levie and Smith operated the company out of Smith’s parents’ house on the Island before moving to Berkeley, Calif. Billionaire Mark Cuban was Box’s first angel investor.
Islander named executive of the year
The Puget Sound Business Journal named Mercer Island resident Greg Johnson, president of Seattle development firm Wright Runstad, as its 2014 Executive of the Year.
Seattle-based Wright Runstad develops, acquires, manages and leases commercial and mixed-use properties throughout the Pacific Northwest. Johnson joined the company in 2001.
The firm is building one of the largest developments on the West Coast, the $2.3 billion Spring District project in Bellevue, in addition to the planned $600 million Rainier Square tower, which will be one of the tallest skyscrapers in Seattle.
Mercer Island in ‘American Tunneling’ book
Mercer Island and Sound Transit’s plans to build the East Link light rail project across I-90 onto Mercer Island to Bellevue as well as plans to build a tunnel in downtown Bellevue are included in the latest edition of “North American Tunneling: 2014 Proceedings.” The book is edited by Gregg Davidson, Alan Howard, Lonnie Jacobs, Robert Pintabona and Brett Zernich.
