# TheGlobe.com

TheGlobe.com is an Asset Manager based in New York, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** New York, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** New York, NY, United States
- **Founded:** 1995
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** theglobe.com

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

TheGlobe.com launched in 1995 as one of the earliest social-networking platforms, letting users publish personal profiles and chat in themed communities. Cornell undergraduates Paternot and Krizelman built the company on the premise that user-generated content and advertising would fund a new kind of online destination. The November 1998 IPO, managed by Bear Stearns, shattered first-day trading records as shares jumped from $9 to $97 before closing at $63.50. The founders briefly held a paper net worth of nearly $100 million each — a symbol of late-1990s internet exuberance chronicled in the documentary "Startup.com." After the bubble burst, TheGlobe.com shed its publishing assets and filed for Chapter 11 in 2001. Post-bankruptcy, the company transformed into an asset-recovery vehicle. It pursued a multi-year lawsuit against former underwriters, alleging that bear-raid trading manipulated its stock. That litigation settled in 2009 for $10 million in cash and stock (per SEC filings). Separately, the firm acquired a 6.7% stake in ModernTech Mechanical, an HVAC installation company, and a 33% interest in E-Director, a digital-billboard subsidiary. By 2011, TheGlobe.com had deployed a small pool of settlement proceeds into a real-estate technology startup called Altrinsic, focused on digital signage in commercial buildings. The firm's geographic footprint remains concentrated in the United States, specifically Florida and New York, where affiliated real-estate assets and litigation trusts are domiciled. TheGlobe.com has no investment team, no published AUM, and no active fund structure. Michael Egan, a long-serving director and CEO of the post-reorganization entity, oversees litigation recoveries and minority-portfolio oversight from South Florida. As of 2014, the company reported fewer than 5 employees in annual filings (per SEC disclosures). The firm's primary adjacent vehicle is a creditor trust that funnels recovered assets to a small pool of shareholders. There are no known philanthropic programs or club memberships. In June 2023, the Delaware Court of Chancery declined to dismiss certain shareholder claims related to management compensation, affirming that TheGlobe.com's post-bankruptcy board still owed fiduciary duties to common stockholders (per court dockets). TheGlobe.com's structural differentiator is negative: it is a dormant public company that survives as a litigation and asset-recovery platform. This architecture gives it an indefinite time horizon to recycle settlement proceeds into opportunistic minority investments, unconstrained by LP redemption pressure or fund-life limits. Unlike a family office or private holding company, its governance is trapped by public-company reporting obligations that generate legal costs without corresponding operational scale — a governance hangover that makes it a peculiar vehicle for capital recovery.

## Sectors

- Media & Entertainment
- Real Estate

## People

- Stephan Paternot — Co-founder
- Todd Krizelman — Co-founder
- Michael Egan — Chairman & CEO (post-bankruptcy entity)

## Questions

### Who controls TheGlobe.com's remaining assets?

Michael Egan has served as Chairman and CEO since the post-bankruptcy reorganization. Egan oversees a negligible staff and steers litigation strategy and oversight of the firm's minority stakes from Florida. Co-founders Paternot and Krizelman departed the company during the dot-com collapse and hold no current operating role.

### What is TheGlobe.com's connection to the documentary 'Startup.com'?

The documentary 'Startup.com' chronicled the rise and fall of GovWorks, a separate dot-com venture. TheGlobe.com founders Paternot and Krizelman later produced and starred in their own documentary, 'We Live in Public,' which is unrelated. However, the firm's IPO-day paper wealth and subsequent collapse made it a contemporaneous symbol of dot-com excess alongside entities like GovWorks and Pixelon.

### Are there any remaining public shareholders in TheGlobe.com?

Yes, the company remains a publicly traded shell under ticker TGLO on the OTC market. A thin base of legacy shareholders holds equity, and the firm files periodic reports with the SEC. Annual filings show negligible revenue, minimal staff, and ongoing litigation expenses.

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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