Ross Levinsohn (former President of Fox Interactive) and Jonathan Miller (former Chairman and CEO of America Online) launched Velocity Investment Group earlier this year with the goal of acquiring and investing in digital media startups. Today they are announcing a merger with ComVentures, a venture fund with around $1 billion under management.
This sounds like a bit of a coup. The new entity is taking Velocity’s name and will be called Velocity Interactive Group. Two ComVentures partners – Michael Rolnick and Jeb Miller, will be “pursing other interests,” which is probably just a nice way of saying they were booted from the fund.
This is a rare move for a venture fund, and from what we hear ComVentures has been doing well in its investments. But a series of events, such as the FilmLoop debacle, may have left the brand somewhat tarnished. The fund was also ridiculed for stealing Sequoia’s web site look and feel.
A fresh start for ComVentures isn’t a bad idea, and getting talent like Levinsohn and Miller doesn’t hurt, either. The fund will be opening new offices in Santa Monica and New York, adding to existing offices in Palo Alto, India and China.
The fund is also announcing a few investments, including NDTV Networks, IndiaTV, Fabrik, Doppelganger and Mixercast.