Tag Archives: Revolution Money

5 years ago this week I retired from AOL

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I was concerned that I would have nothing to do – I was terrified of leaving the company that employed me for almost 14 years.

In that 5 years since I retired from AOL I have:

Acquired the Washington Wizards and Verizon Center; and spent more time with the Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics;

Made 3 films; “Nanking”;” Kicking It”; and ” A Fighting Chance”; I am working on a 4th film now too;

Founded SnagFilms; and acquired indieWIRE;

Helped to start Revolution Money- served as its chairman; sold the company to American Express; now I serve on board of directors of American Express;

Authored a book – “The Business of Happiness”;

Invested in and became Chairman of Clearspring Technologies; still serve on their board;

Invested in and serve on board and as Vice Chairman of Groupon; the company went public last month; it has a $14 billion market cap;

Made 15 angel investments in some great start ups; all told; these startups and the companies that we sold have a combined value approaching a billion dollars;

Became a partner in Revolution Growth Fund 2 – a $ 450 million ” speed up capital” fund ; focused on East Coast startups; partnered with Steve Case and Donn Davis on this NEW fund;

Bought a house – sold 2 houses;

Worked with more than 400 charities via my Family Foundation; and Monumental Sports and Entertainment Foundations and SnagFilms;

Serve on the board of directors of Georgetown University.

It has been a nonstop hectic 5 years – some of the best and most productive and enjoyable years of my career and life.

Retirement from a corporate career is nothing to be afraid of. Onward. Thank you.

Tony — You Forgot to Mention…

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Peter Barris of NEA and Harry Weller of NEA. They rock. They build great value.

You forgot to mention Steve Case and his team at Revolution. Who is hotter right now? Revolution Money, Exclusive Resorts, Living Social, Clearspring, Zipcar…and on and on.

You forgot to mention Phil Bronner at Novak Biddle. He supports the region so well. He picks early and often and well.

You didn’t mention me — Revolution Money, Groupon, Clearspring, SnagFilms, Mahalo, SBNation… and on and on.

Or Miles Gilburne, or Nigel Morris — best local angel investors out there with a great portfolio.

This is a good list but an incomplete list. There are a lot of great investors out there.

Revolution Money and American Express – Merger is Closed

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Our deal was blessed by all relevant parties and it closed today. So it is official. Revolution Money is now part of the American Express Company. I so look forward to helping Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express, and his talented team to become more of a digital payments company and to helping to drive Revolution Money to meet its higher calling. The social payments space is red hot. We will move fast now to provide great and compelling services to consumers that focus on online money transfer.

I am psyched. We are all excited and we are raring to go! Congratulations to the Revolution Money team. You earned your success but we are just getting started…

A Lot to be Grateful for – A Lot to Mourn and Miss

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It is the heart of the holiday season, the festive week of Christmas to New Year’s. It is time to reflect and be grateful for what we have and not miss what we don’t have.

Last year this time we all were feeling doom and gloom. The market was down. There were no loans to be had. People were losing jobs left and right and the aura and psychology of the market and the overall economy was really bad.

As we close on 2009, I must confess that the year was one of goodness and counter intuitive wins mixed with sadness.

I am most grateful for the health of my family and friends.

And the Washington Capitals had a magnificent twelve months on the ice and off the ice. We had a really great record. We finished last year strong and won our first playoff series in 10 years and we are now well positioned for this next year. We also sell out all of our games. We have a backlog of people awaiting season tickets. We were able to raise our prices and we have very happy customer satisfaction levels. Who would have thought we could be that successful in this economy? I am very grateful to you all.

The Washington Mystics also grew quite fast and became one of the best performing teams in the WNBA and turned their on court performance around as well as we qualified for the playoffs.

Revolution Money grew fast; built out its platform; and – as was reported in November – was acquired by American Express at a healthy return to investors. We await final approval by the government but I believe this deal will close sometime in Q1 of 2010. This was the third largest acquisition of a new media payments platform ever behind PayPal and Bill Me Later (both by eBay) so it was a big win for us all and I am very excited about helping the American Express Company in the future as we roll out this platform into a new series of great consumer beneficial products and services.

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Excited and Grateful

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Since our announcement that American Express is acquiring Revolution Money, I have received more than 500 congratulatory emails and seen more than 300 articles on the web. Many partners have reached out to us to do work together.

I must communicate that this merger is NOT completed. We await regulatory approvals and until then we are operating Revolution Money as an independent and stand alone company.

We did make positive news though. This proposed combination of talent and infrastructure will focus on making the online payments space much more competitive.

I also truly believe that we are seeing a gigantic switch in consumer habits. Older consumers got a piece of plastic - a charge card or a credit card - and then were pushed to websites to transact, check balances, manage reward programs and connect with their money. For the most part each of these applications was based on stand alone systems.

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More Competition Online is Good and Welcomed

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Here is a thoughtful article on online payments and the lay of the land.

It also discusses the American Express acquisition of Revolution Money.

The Washington Post did a good job here in describing how the new consumer is living his/her life online and how the nature of money transfer is about to change for the good.

As an aside, I will add that the reporter of the piece contacted me on Facebook to connect. How cool is that?

American Express to Acquire Revolution Money

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I am pleased to report that earlier today we announced American Express will acquire Revolution Money.

I have been working as Chairman of Revolution Money since early 2007. Revolution Money was launched by my good friend Steve Case and his Revolution LLC concern and Steve and I are the most significant investors in this enterprise.

We are proud to have built something of great value for our employees and investors but more importantly for consumers and merchants. I am also proud to have mentored a very talented founder, Jason Hogg, as he launched and then scaled this platform and enterprise.

I will continue on with Revolution Money once the deal formally closes as a special assistant to the Chairman of American Express, Kenneth Chenault. I hope to help Ken and his team develop a vibrant and fast growth new set of digital enterprises and applications for American Express.

Here is the official news release for your information.

American Express to Acquire Revolution Money to Develop
Next Generation Payment Products

Deal combines state-of-the-art technology platform with leading global brand

ST PETERSBURG, FL, November 18, 2009 – American Express Company today announced it has agreed to acquire Revolution Money, a Revolution LLC company.

Revolution Money, launched by AOL Co-founder Steve Case’s Revolution LLC in 2007, provides secure payments through an internet based platform.  No names or account numbers appear on Revolution cards and transactions are authorized by using a PIN number.  The company’s online person-to-person payment accounts are FDIC insured and ideally suited for social and instant messaging networks. It also offers a prepaid card linked to those accounts that can be used for offline payments or to withdraw cash from ATMs throughout the United States.

“New payments products and platforms are evolving rapidly and it’s important for us to keep identifying cutting edge technologies that can extend our leadership beyond the traditional payments arena,” said Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express. “While Revolution Money is a young and relatively small company, we believe it has big potential.  This is a smart, nimble business.  It’s run by an accomplished management team who have quickly developed some cutting edge e-payment offerings.  Joining with American Express will help unlock their potential, while allowing us to deliver competitive online payment products more rapidly and efficiently.”  

“Revolution Money has a lot of room to grow as it competes head-to-head with other online and person-to-person payment providers.  We are committed to using our global brand recognition, marketing reach and network expertise to help reach a critical mass of customers,” said Mr. Chenault.  

Jason Hogg, founder and chief executive officer of Revolution Money, will continue as president and chief executive officer.  Ted Leonsis, a Revolution Money angel investor, major shareholder and chairman, will become a special advisor to American Express working with Mr. Chenault on overall digital and online payments strategy.

“We have built a next-generation payments platform that will enable American Express to compete even more effectively, especially against online competitors,” said Mr. Leonsis.  ”Revolution Money’s technology brings together the online and offline worlds in a way that can transform the way consumers securely transact.  And with the low cost structure enabled by internet technology, American Express is now even better positioned to scale their online presence over time.”

“Since our inception our sole goal has been to build a payments platform that can help transform the industry,” said Mr. Hogg. “Becoming part of American Express will enable us to reach that goal by scaling our technology and business and providing even greater consumer benefits.  I, and the Revolution Money employees who helped build our company, are honored to be joining the American Express family and we are excited about what the future holds.”

The transaction, which is subject to regulatory review, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.  The purchase price is expected to be approximately $300 million. Upon closing, Revolution Money would operate as a subsidiary of American Express and be the first component of its recently formed Enterprise Growth organization.  Enterprise Growth was formed to leverage American Express’ existing assets and capabilities to generate incremental fee revenue and to drive the company’s entry into new payment areas and related businesses.    

”We want to preserve the talent and culture that has made Revolution Money successful and we will be working with them to make the most of our respective strengths,” said Mr. Chenault.  He said that the initial areas of focus will include:

  • Developing re-loadable, prepaid products for new segments of the market
  • Introducing new products for cardmembers who currently use other alternative payment systems
  • Creating payment alternatives designed for social media sites and allowing open APIs that can help developers distribute new product innovations
  • Developing mobile payments solutions in the United States

Other opportunities will include expanding Revolution Money payment solutions internationally, extending product offerings to banks that issue cards on the American Express network and creating new forms of PIN-based debit products.
 
Media Conference Call – Live Audio Webcast
A conference call with members of the media will be held today to discuss this announcement at 10:30 AM EST. The call will be hosted by Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express, Jason Hogg, founder and chief executive officer of Revolution Money and Ted Leonsis, Revolution Money’s chairman.

A live audio webcast of the media conference call will be accessible to the general public and investors at http://ir.americanexpress.com. A replay of the call will be available at the same Web site address shortly after the call.

About Revolution Money
Revolution Money, a secure, state-of-the-art technology platform, was created to deliver significant value to both consumers and merchants through two products, RevolutionCard and RevolutionMoneyExchange™. The RevolutionCard provides consumers with enhanced PIN-based security, identity protection and numerous merchant discounts and incentives. MoneyExchange is an online payment service that offers consumers an easy, secure and free way to instantly send and receive money online to and from their friends, family and associates.  St. Petersburg, Florida-based Revolution Money is part of the family of companies within Revolution LLC, which was founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case to drive transformative change by shifting power to consumers.  www.revolutionmoney.com.

About American Express
American Express Company is a leading global payments and travel company founded in 1850.  For more information, visit www.americanexpress.com.