Blogonomics: Wallstrip Goes From $5 Million to Zero

The message on the Wallstrip home page is upbeat:

Happy Birthday to us
That's right, two years of pure web video stock market fun. The market's slowing down, but we're not!

Except, Wallstrip has slowed down all the way to a complete stop. It hasn't updated since December 12, and now PE Week Wire says that it's not going to come back:

A source familiar with the situation says that Wallstrip owner CBS Interactive plans to "take the DNA from WallStrip and apply it" to fellow CBS property BNet. No word on if that DNA includes current WallStrip host Julie Alexandria, or past host Lindsay Campbell (whose subsequent CBS show MobLogic also hasn't published since Dec. 12).
CBS had acquired WallStrip for $5 million in May 2007, from a group of angels that included Fred Wilson.

For these purposes, I think it's fair to assume that "the DNA from WallStrip" is at this point worth zero, which means that CBS has managed to blow not only the $5 million acquisition price but also whatever extra money it's pumped into the property over the past year and a half.

Wallstrip always seemed like a reasonably good way of making money, because it managed to place itself in the sweet spot for web advertising: rich, high-end viewers watching video content -- which has always sold for very high rates compared to banner ads. Its demise is bad news for the secondary market in blogs: it's probably the most expensive blog ever to go all the way to zero. Well done to Fred Wilson et al for getting out at the top: yet again, smart investing has proven to be all about when you sell.

(HT: Kedrosky)