[Previous entry: "This is why VCs bring in the MBAs"] [Next entry: "Rich $alz broke his neck"]

05/18/2004: "Cometa shuts down"

Larry Brilliant is apparenlty 0 for 2 on public access WiFi.

First there was Airzone which died because the Li family pulled their investment back out just as Airzone was winning the SFO deal, and now Cometa, funded by AT&T, Intel and IBM is shutting its doors.

Questions abound. Who will pick-up Barnes and Nobel? (Likely T-mobile.)

What about the Toshiba hotspot acquistion?

Why did Nordstrom's get involved again? (The Nordstrom family was an early investor in Larry's Laptop Lane, which became Airzone before Wayport bought out the profitable locations, right before airtravel went to hell on 9/11.)

And why is it that Intel Capital has such a brown thumb when it comes to wifi? Cometa is dead. Blue Sockt's executives are bailing, I've covered Vivato's troubles extensively here. Telesym's VoIP phone for PDAs is now a commodity from Microsoft. Nomadix is on the ropes.