Monitor110 is over. The company web site displays the company's statement on the decision to cease operations and shut down the company in the wake of its failure to arrange additional funding.
Clients, employees, and investors:
I regret to inform you that, effective July 15, Monitor110 has decided to cease operations and shut down the business...
Regards,
W. Brennan Carley, CEO
See the
full statement on the company site.
Interesting space, little information
In the process of writing the second edition of the Guide to Social Media Analysis, I've talked to several companies who are mining media content—social and otherwise—for investment purposes. I've found almost as many strategies and analytical approaches as companies, so it's an interesting specialty.
Several competitors I talked to thought that M110 either wasn't selling their services or wasn't finding success in the market. Nobody likes to talk about their revenue, so I never know what to believe absent win announcements or customer references. In the financial space, that's especially sensitive, so there's no real information. I'm going to work on that.
Brown pastures?
Some blog comments (discussion on paidContent, SAI) have made the point that, if it really worked so well, M110 would have started their own hedge fund. Given some of the backgrounds at M110, that's an interesting point and a possible outcome. The company's announcement doesn't mention anything about liquidating assets, but I assume that they're thinking about how to extract the value from the development work they've done.
M110 isn't the first company to abandon the financial services market. Others have started with similar goals, only to switch focus to the broader corporate marketing and communications market. M110's failure suggests that the others may have made the right decision. I am, however, hearing from competitors who contrast M110's trial customers with their own paying customers. It's too soon to declare the financial market dead.
Going deeper
At the moment, I'm closing in on the completion of the second edition of the Guide, which should be out by the end of the month. Now, there's one less company to include, but others focused on financial applications are included.
Once the Guide is completed, I plan to take a closer look at the information arbitrage specialty. As usual, even the companies in the space tend not to realize who else is in their market, so this should be fun.
Related posts:
and co-author of 
, 9 July at 2:00 PM EDT (GMT -4).
