Internet Ventures Builds Exec Team
Internet Ventures Inc. of Redondo Beach, one of the first Internet service providers to seek a right-of-way on cable television lines, withdrew its plans to raise as much as $17 million in an initial public offering and bolstered its senior executive team.
Nyhl Henson, a veteran TV programmer who had a hand in creating the Nickelodeon and MTV cable networks, will become the company’s president and chief executive. Hal Martin, a telecommunications expert who previously worked at AT&T; and its spin-off, Lucent Technologies, will become Internet Ventures’ chief operating officer and chief technology officer. The company’s co-founder and former president and CEO, Don Janke, will assume the role of chairman.
Internet Ventures lost its fight for so-called open access to cable lines when a federal appeals court ruled that local governments cannot force cable operators to make their lines available to competitors. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 5-year-old company blamed “current market conditions” for its decision to withdraw its IPO registration statement. Previous SEC documents show that the company, which claims 30,000 customers in the western U.S., lost $3.2 million on revenue of $4.4 million in 1999.
