We hear that Facebook has purchased Social.im, the instant messaging application built on top of Facebook. This jibes with Michael Arrington's report that Facebook is about to launch an IM service. Mogad, the company behind Social.im, also took investment from Facebook backer Peter Thiel. Update: "If we're being…
Facebook investor Peter Thiel plans to pay someone who adheres to a "specific strain of Christian philosophy" $100,000 to $200,000 a year to give away his money. A tipster tell us that the strain is Stanford professor Rene Girard's. Girard's big idea is something he calls mimetic desire, which posits that the only…
Want to work for Peter Thiel, the Facebook board member, hot-shot venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager? Thiel's personal assistant at Clarium Capital, Robertson George Morrow III — call him Trey — is sending around an email looking for the "right kind of conservative" to give away Thiel's money from his New…
Every vote counts, people. Even if like Peter Thiel, you plan to vote for a loon like Ron Paul. It still sends a message. It says: I am a crazy person who opposes the FDA. Which is cool, because this is a democracy and the majority rules. And you wackos — you lovely, lovely pageview-generating wackos — are never…
PayPal cofounder, early Facebook investor and noted Objectivist Peter Thiel endorsed Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate, late last month, according to the candidate's website. Ron Paul, you'll recall, is the candidate known for his taste in blimps as well as for his plans to withdraw troops from Iraq…
Why on earth is Silicon Valley's fastest-rising venture capitalist moving to New York? In the Valley, Peter Thiel is best known for his prescient investment in Facebook. His $500,000 grubstake is now worth $750 million on paper. And his Founders Fund may well revolutionize the venture-capital industry. But in real…
The first gold-rush miners to make any money during the 1840s were the ones who stopped digging and started selling shovels, according to Timesman Brad Stone. Today a similar operation from Mark Pincus, Tribe.net founder and early Facebook investor, announced $10 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Peter…
Facebook funder Peter Thiel is a "neocon" who is trying to "destroy the real world." So says British journalist Tom Hodgkinson in a feature-length screed for The Guardian. You really don't want to miss a word of this one — it's a classic Cassandra piece — but OK, I'll 100-word it after the jump.
Whither Powerset, the once-hot search engine backed by a heavenly set of angel investors, including Facebook board member Peter Thiel? Little has been heard from the startup since COO Steve Newcomb left amid rumors of a C-suite love triangle. Cofounder Barney Pell — another leg in the whispered-about tryst — is so…
It's curious that rumors of a Plaxo sale exploded at the same time that Robert Scoble got his Facebook account suspended using a secret, unreleased tool for extracting data from Facebook. Curious, too, that Plaxo is so eager to milk the incident for good PR. While a battle of words takes place in public, we hear that…
Early Facebook investor and openly Objectivist Peter Thiel tells the Wall Street Journal that Silicon Valley VCs are too quick to fire startup founders. They also meddle too much in their companies. He blames a cultural divide.
Our article about Peter Thiel, the Facebook investor and rare gay venture capitalist, drew much response. Many noted that gay and lesbian entrepreneurs are not the only ones shut out by the old boys' network of Sand HIll Road. One correspondent, though, captured the experience of being gay in technology's heartland.…
You know that old story about how the English and German soldiers sang carols to each other from the trenches on Christmas Eve? Then the next day they went back to killing each other? The Valleywag staff dipped into the eggnog and got all feel-nicey about five people we've picked on all year. Each of them, we…
By now, you've likely read how Peter Thiel is gay. There'll be a crush of coverage on his sexual preference. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is an Objectivist.
By now, you've likely heard how Peter Thiel parlayed a $500,000 investment in Facebook to a stake now worth $750 million. There's been a crush of coverage on his $220 million Founders Fund, which may well change the way entrepreneurs get paid in the Valley. We know about his mansion (he rents it — clever!), his…
Founders Fund, Peter Thiel's venture-capital vehicle for overturning Sand Hill Road's staid ways, has raised a war chest of $220 million. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of that has come from college endowments, including Stanford's, but there are whispers that some of it also came from overseas investors…
At the start of this video on the newly launched Big Think blog, Facebook investor Peter Thiel is utterly adorkable as he muses on the future. And then, all of a sudden, he gets heavy on us, predicting two or three decades of turmoil before we enter an age of incredible prosperity. Peter, dude, haven't you read "The…
Venture capital's ancien régime is on the verge of being overturned. We hear Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, may have cashed out — before an IPO, before a sale, and before his investors. In the company's recent financing round, insiders believe, he sold about $40 million worth of stock. A tiny portion of…
Peter Thiel has a butler, and we're not the only ones who are jealous. The former PayPal CEO turned venture capitalist has, it seems, inspired his colleagues at the Founders Fund to get a bit more household help. Ken Howery, one of Thiel's partners at the fund, is seeking a personal assistant. You won't find the job…
