William A. Jacobson @ Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
Carbonite famously dropped Rush Limbaugh on a Saturday Night at the height of the Sandra Fluke controversy. Carbonite became the poster child for the Rush boycott movement organized by Media Matters, which coordinated the effort with so-called independent groups.
At the time I examined Carbonite’s SEC filings, and how Carbonite had built its business model based on high growth driven, in significant part, by the promotion of Carbonite by Limbaugh. I predicted that Carbonite had shot itself in the foot, and put political correctness before the interests of its shareholders.
Since that time the Stop Rush effort has imploded, with backstabbing and accusations among the participants. Limbaugh has had better numbers than ever, and the hype surrounding Mike Huckabee as a Limbaugh replacement has gone flat.
Yet what became of Carbonite?
On August 1 Carbonite released its 2d Quarter 2012 results, the first full quarter after dropping Limbaugh in March. The results shocked Wall Street, as Carbonite did not meet its growth targets, causing multiple analysts to drop the target price. The stock dropped 15% in a day. (h/t reader W)
Who was it who first said it is foolish to attack those who buy their ink by the barrel?
Carbonite says: ” I think things would have been worse had we not done that.”
I vehemently disagree with that statement. They based that decision on things like the amount of tweets they got on twitter, for example. It has been stated by the “stop rush” people that they had “hundreds” of sock puppet twitter accounts. If Carbonite had not left Rush, I believe there would have been NO consequence to them whatsoever. Maybe a little blip from a few markets where Huckabee replaced Rush (such as San Francisco), but that is it. And even in San Francisco there is a Fresno station that carries clear enough to listen to Rush in the morning (Rush comes on at 9am in California).
Carbonite was stupid.
Who cares about tweets by twits? Far too much value has been placed on twitter messages.
the smart like RUSH ARE SAYING CUT SPENDING, DON’T RAISE TAX,
WHILE OBAMA JUST SIGN A NEW LAW FOR THE BLACKS TO GET THEIR OWN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY, HE WILL HIRE OVER 30 NEW EMPLOYEES FOR THAT PROJECT AND MORE SUB HELPERS,
THEY EACH WILL HIRED, THAT IS PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ON THE TAXPAYERS MONEY,
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE BLACKS GOING TO THE ALREADY IN PLACE SCHOOLS?
IF THEY DON’T START THE PROBLEMS THEMSELVES. THEN BLAME THE WHITES STUDENTS FOR IT.
They chose… “poorly”!
@Ditto:
So glad you said that.
I feel the same way.
But Twitter thinks so much of itself that we are going to see a twitter political poll based on how many tweeted for this one VS how many tweeted for that one.
Ho Hum.
A popularity contest where you can ”vote” as much as you want.
Political correctness is never going to carry the day. Only truth will!
Randy
hi,
I was watching HUCKABEE AND HIS GUESS WAS AN COMPANY OWNER of 50 years, from DENVER, HE EXPLAIN THAT THE GOVERNMENT force him to provide pill for preventing pregnancy
or face fines for millions of dollars of fines,
he is CATHOLIC and decided to stand his right and and refuse to do it.
it’s a family busyness and he want to give a good example to his family and employees,
is in it terrible of OBAMA TO SCARE THE BUSYNESS LIKE A THUG ON THE UNIONS HE HAS PROBABLY HIRED TO DO HIS DIRTY JOB, THEY ALL ARE FROM THE UNIONS,
THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT, THIS WHITE HOUSE IS ANOTHER MAFIA,
DESPICABLE