Sling Media, Inc. (acquired by EchoStar, Nasdaq: DISH) San Mateo, CA “Having worked with several VC firms over the years, I was pretty blown away by the teamwork exhibited by the entire DCM organization — from partners and associates providing help on three continents, to the finance organization and admin team, everyone was always ready, willing and able to help Sling out. All I had to do was pick up the phone or fire off one email. They were always there for us when we needed them.” - Blake Krikorian, CEO, Sling Media, Inc.

Founded in 2004, Sling Media, Inc. is a different kind of consumer electronics company. The focus of Sling Media is to embrace — not replace — existing products and standards by enhancing them with hardware and software that make divergent technologies compatible and greatly improve the consumer experience. Sling Media pioneered “place shifting” with its first product, internationally acclaimed, Emmy award-winning Slingbox™, which turns any Internet-connected PC or laptop, Mac or smartphone into your home television. That means you can watch TV virtually anywhere in the world.

DCM’s opportunity to invest in Sling Media arose from David Chao’s personal relationship with Judy David, a former DCM I portfolio company CFO and David’s former colleague at Apple. Sling is an example of multiple DCM team members working to make a portfolio company a success — whether helping to recruit senior talent, acting as liaison for business development in Japan, or advising the company on corporate debt structures — the entire DCM team helped to grow the company. David Chao served on the board, with Tom Blaisdell and Gen Isayama acting as seconds.

DCM’s investment in Sling Media was centered on the emerging digital media market and the need for tools to enable the convergence of existing products. It was also a demonstration of our international business development capabilities by assisting Sling Media establish global distribution. Within two years of the initial launch of Slingbox™, it was already distributed in over 5,000 retail stores in 11 countries.

On September 25, 2007 EchoStar (Nasdaq: DISH) announced the acquisition of Sling Media (official closing on October 19, 2007) for approximately $380 million in cash proceeds. This transaction represented one of the first successful exits for a company in the relatively new digital media-related consumer electronics sector.