ljuser_buyout

 Hey guys,
I spoke to the attorneys that I know and none of them know any corporate attorneys.... at least not well enough that I could get services for free.  So if any of you are still interested in pursuing this, we're still looking for corporate legal advice.

Link 1

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it may not be as bad as it all seems...

Many months ago I came up with a similar idea to this.

http://community.livejournal.com/ljbuyback/

I hope we can work together on this project.

My pledge from that community still stands.

If you have experience setting up 501(c)3 corporations and want to help with the organization of this effort, please post here with your experience and interest.

EDIT:

We need ideas about the following:

1. Structure
2. Venue/Jurisdiction

And people with the following:

1. Legal expertise (esp. corporate and tax law, but contracts too)
2. Management expertise & experience
3. Finance and Tax Accounting expertise

Once upon a time, Brad Fitz sold LJ to SixApart, which then promptly sold it again to Sup for $30 million.

Sup, in the meantime, has had difficulty making a profit on LJ and now seems to think the whole deal was a loser. They recently fired 20 of LJ's 28 employees, leaving only a caretaker financial staff with little or no technical expertise. It turns out to be very difficult to make money on a network and blog site like LJ.

Which means LJ will languish and wither for lack of support, or be sold off to somebody else to see if they can make a go of it.

But what if a million or two LJ users got together and pitched in to create a not-for-profit foundation to buy LJ back and run it for the benefit of its users?

This community now exists as a rallying point for the organization of exactly such an effort, and the exploration of alternate ideas for how to keep LJ strong.

Welcome. If you are interested in joining us in planning, organizing, and effecting a user buyout of LiveJournal, please join us.