Sometimes, I enjoy “looking back” on past projects and accomplishments. Here’s a forgotten story about an earlier example of “social networking” — well before the term was even coined — and the outcome of when community and a global network collide to accomplish a common goal or voice — in this case — disgruntled shareholders battling a multi-billion dollar empire
If you followed the stock market or tech companies in 2001, you should recall what happened with CLEC provider XO Communications (XOXO) back in November 2001. Prior to news breaking that they’d halt trading of their stock for an unspecified reason (which I’ll explain why later), I decided to make my first ever stock investment (at 22) in the company: $100.
Within two weeks, I saw my paltry investment increase to $300. It was an impulsive hunch that their stock (which was trading around a $1 or so) would improve based on some indicators I was following and some assumption. Needless to say, I was proud of myself for netting such a return — and wishing I had more money at the time to invest.
Just days before the news about their intent of accepting a leveraged buyout deal (whereby shareholders’ existing equity would be wiped out), I was contemplating selling off my paltry stake, and using the proceeds to buy into something else — as an experiment, of course. Unfortunately, it was too late, and the sky came crashing down — unknown to myself and thousands of other stakeholders.
With the clouds of despair looming above after the news, and feeling duped, I immediately started engaging in online forums where other XO investors were present. Sure, I didn’t have much at stake, but afterall, it was my money that netted me a paltry 105 shares in the company. Soon, there was talk of “doing something” for a community of hopeless and distraught investors.
Enter XOShareholders.com (archived pages courtesy of web.archive.org). After some quick brainstorming, I joined forces with two other guys to launch one of the most effective grassroots shareholder campaigns of its time. I took ownership of designing the site, while another guy built the database and other back-end components to accept data from XO shareholders.
Within hours of announcing the site online (after the domain went live, of course), we became inundated with traffic from shareholders, the media, and curious onlookers. Our quick thinking — coupled with hard work — allowed us to develop a portal which would become the “campaign headquarters” for XO’s shareholders and their revolt against the company for ignoring their rights as stakeholders.
As news spread about the web site via forums, The Washington Post, and other media, the site would become home to 2,623 shareholders representing some 23,394,959.66 million shares outstanding in the company. As you can see, we achieved our goal of establishing a voice for the common shareholder, thanks to a combination of community and the Internet. It was certainly the best and most creative example of “social networking” for its time.
If I could do something like this again, I’d jump at the opportunity in a heartbeat.
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