Sean Parker

13 Stories

Before It Was Mature Facebook, Infant Facebook Was 'Wild'

'Wired' takes a closer look at Zuckerberg and his team during the social media giant's early days

(Newser) - It's true that Mark Zuckerberg jump-started Facebook in the spring of 2004 while attending Harvard, but it was in the infant firm's new home in Silicon Valley just a few months later where endless hours of frenetic coding, partying, and a "brogrammer 'tude" started to transform...

Sean Parker to Facebook Users: We Exploited You

'God only knows what it's doing to children's brains,' he says of social media

(Newser) - Prepare to feel manipulated. At an Axios forum, Sean Parker explained how he, Mark Zuckerberg, and other social media pioneers made a fortune by deliberately "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology." Parker, the first president of Facebook, says the site set out to hook people into spending as...

Sean Parker Just Made 'Unprecedented' $250M Cancer Move

New institute will bring together leading research centers

(Newser) - Big news in cancer research Wednesday: Sean Parker, the founder of Napster and a co-founder of Facebook, is giving $250 million to six leading cancer centers so they can collaborate on immunotherapy in what Fortune calls "unprecedented" fashion. The nitty gritty:
  • The new Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will
...

Sean Parker's New Play: E-Cigarettes

Investors diving into unregulated industry

(Newser) - The e-cigarette marketplace is an almost totally unregulated frontier, and one that's starting to attract serious interest from investors. Perhaps the biggest name so far: Facebook bad boy (and extravagant wedding planner ) Sean Parker, who, the Wall Street Journal reports today, has put $10 million into NJOY as...

Complaints Drive Cost of Parker's Wedding Up $2.5M

Napster founder pays huge settlement after not getting proper permits

(Newser) - Sean Parker's wedding reportedly cost $9 million (the AP has it at $10 million), but all that money still didn't manage to get Parker the permits he needed. Instead, the California Coastal Commission says, the Napster co-founder and Facebook billionaire just went ahead with building his wedding site...

Napster Founder Parker Throws $9M Wedding

Ties knot with Alexandra Lenas in Big Sur, but no costumes

(Newser) - Napster co-founder Sean Parker married singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas last night, in what was reportedly a $9 million ceremony—one of the priciest to come out of Silicon Valley. Parker and Lenas celebrated "with 300 family and friends in a romantic, magical setting" at Ventana Inn & Spa in Big...

Facebook Co-Founder Plans Unusual Wedding

Sean Parker will marry Alexandra Lenas in medieval-theme party

(Newser) - Sean Parker, the billionaire creator of Napster and co-founder of Facebook, is marrying Alexandra Lenas on June 1 in a somewhat unusual wedding: what the New York Post describes as a "medieval-themed costume party." Parker and Lenas, who have a baby daughter together, will wed in California's...

'Bored' by Facebook, Sean Parker Debuts Airtime

But things don't go smoothly at the NYC launch

(Newser) - Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who became Facebook's first president, launched a new service yesterday, saying he had become "bored" by Facebook. The Airtime service, created with fellow Napster founder Shawn Fanning, allows video chats and file sharing with friends and strangers. Its star-studded NYC launch wasn't boring,...

Sean Parker: It's Tough Being in the 1%

Being rich brings new problems, tech billionaire complains

(Newser) - Billionaire tech investor Sean Parker has taken to Twitter to complain about the downside of being rich. “I have a whole new set of problems to deal with now: security, extortion attempts, kidnapping threats, death threats, etc. Life better b4?" the former Facebook president tweeted, offering his thoughts on...

The Social Network: Where Are They Now?

(Newser) - After seeing the movie The Social Network, viewers may feel the desire to watch a VH1 Special to answer the question, Where are they now? And how did the movie do at showing the true characters of the cast surrounding the rise of Facebook? The VH1 special isn't available (yet)...

Facebook Bigwigs: Legalize Pot!

Dustin Moskowitz, Sean Parker for it, but ads with pot leaves still banned from site

(Newser) - Ads with images of marijuana leaves have been banned from Facebook but two of the site's movers and shakers have made hefty donations to the same cause backed by the ads. Co-founder Dustin Moskowitz has donated $50,000 to support legalizing marijuana in California, and Sean Parker, Facebook's first president,...

Meet Facebook 'Genius' Sean Parker
Meet Facebook 'Genius' Sean Parker
'vanity fair' profile
Sep 8, 2010 7:46 AM CDT

Meet Facebook 'Genius' Sean Parker

Otherwise known as Justin Timberlake in The Social Network

(Newser) - According to Sean Parker, Sean Parker has "helped change the world, at least three times." Two of those times, one assumes, are related to his involvement in the early days of Napster and Facebook: "Two of the most significant companies in the history of the Internet,"...

Facebook Movie Paints Zuckerberg as 'Sex Maniac'

Dramatized account of website's early years depicts founder as 'conniver'

(Newser) - The screenplay for a forthcoming movie about the origins of Facebook depicts founder Mark Zuckerberg as a "borderline-autistic conniver" and "sex maniac," the Times of London reports . The Social Network dates the start of the website to February 2004, when—according to the "highly dramatized" script—...

13 Stories