How much did Omidyar really invest in Rappler? Ressa says you have to have ‘good business mind’ to figure it out
Rappler CEO Maria Ressa has created fresh controversy on media oligarch Pierre Omidyar’s illegal investments in her website.
During the Omidyar-funded “Defend Media Freedom Conference” in London, Ressa revealed that the Ebay founder accounted for only five percent of the $4.5 million invested in Rappler since it was founded in 2012.
“Only four and a half million dollars. Only. And we’ve been able, that seven years of doing hard hitting investigative reporting … Of that, probably less than five percent came from Omidyar,” said Ressa who was adamant that Rappler was fully owned by Filipinos.
2. @mariaressa
jumped in to defend her boss, saying she “only” took $4.5
million from Omidyar! That made me laugh.— Ezra Levant 🍁
(@ezralevant) July
10, 2019
A twitizen, however, questioned Ressa’s figures by citing an Inquirer report that Omidyar “donated” $1.5 million to Ressa and 13 others in a desperate bid to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing its decision to revoke its registration for violating the constitutional ban on foreign ownership in mass media.
If $4.5M is total investments of all shareholders and ON is
only 5%, that means they invested only $0.225M. But wait, they
admitted donating $1.5M. I think you should check ur facts first. pic.twitter.com/0vxj7QBb1u—
jay pe (@jaype_007) July
13, 2019
But Ressa insisted that it was wrong to assume that Omidyar invested only $225,000 but did not give exact figures or documents to show how much her “boss” really owned in Rappler.
“My facts are right. A good business mind can figure that out. Obviously, your assumption here is wrong: ‘that means they invested only $0.225M’ We are – as always – transparent,” said Ressa.
My facts are right. A good business mind can figure that
out. Obviously, your assumption here is wrong: “that means they
invested only $0.225M” We are – as always –
transparent.— Maria Ressa (@mariaressa) July
13, 2019
