Jump to content

Gurbaksh Chahal: Difference between revisions

Page extended-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
ce
Added {{Lead too short}} tag to article (TW)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Lead too short|date=January 2020}}
{{pp-protect|small=yes}}
{{pp-protect|small=yes}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person

Revision as of 18:10, 26 January 2020

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal
Born (1982-07-17) July 17, 1982 (age 42)
Tarn Taran Sahib, Punjab, India
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, writer, philanthropist
Years active1998–present
Known forFounder of ClickAgents, BlueLithium, RadiumOne, Gravity4, Taara Labs, RedLotus
WebsiteGurbakshChahal.com

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian-American internet entrepreneur, noted for founding several internet advertising companies. He has been convicted twice for domestic violence and battery crimes, in 2013 and 2018.[1][2][3][4]

Early life

Chahal was born to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal in Tarn Taran Sahib, a city in India’s Punjab state. In 1985 at age four he moved with his family to the slums of San Jose, California.[3] He has a sister Kamal Kaur, and an elder brother Taj Chahal.[3]

Chahal dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue a career in Internet advertising.[5]

Career

ClickAgents and PlanetBollywood

Chahal started his career buying and reselling printers on eBay, after being turned away from a job at McDonalds.[3] In 1998 Chahal founded ClickAgents, an advertising network focused on performance-based advertising, on the lines of DoubleClick.[3] It was subsequently acquired by ValueClick (now part of Alliance Data) in 2000 in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $40 million, which paid his parents' mortgages lifting them out of poverty and made him an overnight millionaire.[6][3]

In 2002 Chahal along with his elder brother launched a restaurant Planet Bollywood, to cater to Indian movie stars flying into California.[3] However, it burned down soon and was not restarted.[3]

BlueLithium

In 2004, after being rejected from The Apprentice, Chahal co-founded BlueLithium—it specialized in behavioral targeting, a technique whereby web users' habits online are tracked in order to show customized ads[7][8] and went on to be widely hailed in the ad-tech industry.[3] In 2007, Yahoo! bought it for $300 million in cash.[9] He had also launched an associated social network MingleNow, for the socioeconomically affluent populace which was accorded a partnership deal by Anheuser-Busch.[3]

In 2008, he appeared at The Oprah Winfrey Show and then over The Secret Millionaire, as a new billionaire.[10][3] His appearance over talk-shows proliferated, and he was widely noted in the press for his extravagant lifestyle.[3]

RadiumOne

In 2009, Chahal founded RadiumOne, another online ad company[11][12] and remained its CEO before being fired, due to his conviction for domestic violence.[13][14][2] RadiumOne was later acquired by RhythmOne.[15]

Gravity4

In July 2014, Chahal launched Gravity4 (since renamed to DaVinci Marketing Cloud)[16] and soon tried to purchase back RadiumOne, before being rebuffed.[10] Gravity4 failed to be successful, despite an initial hype; it acquired numerous ad-tech companies, over-inflating its valuation in the process but failing to integrate them.[10] Chahal oft-complained about spending his own funds to keep the company running and with the company being subject to a series of litigation on charges of IP infringement, gender-discrimination, corporate intimidation, and wrongful termination, workers started resigning en-masse.[10][17][3] By mid-2016, the company was working from a co-working space and was primarily dependent on its overseas acquisitions.[10] In November 2016, he was again compelled to resign from the CEO roles and surrender his passport, after violations of his probation; his sister took over the company.[10][3]

In 2019, Chahal founded RedLotus in Hong Kong.[18]

Personal life

Chahal is currently in a relation with Punjabi film actress Rubina Bajwa.[19][20]

Domestic violence and battery conviction

In August 2013, Chahal was charged[21][4] by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office (SFDA) in a domestic violence case against his girlfriend[22][23]; the victim though refused to co-operate with the prosecution and later urged for dropping of charges.[24][25][26] Chahal claimed of innocence, describing the episode as a mere loss of 'temper' on learning of adultery, and was subsequently bailed on a sum of $1 million.[21][26] However, upon circumstantial weakening of prosecution defense, Chahal entered into a bargain, and plead guilty to one charge of domestic violence battery and one charge of battery. He was sentenced to three years' probation, a 52-week domestic violence training course, and 25 hours of community service.[27]

Chahal was subsequently fired as CEO of RadiumOne by the company's board of directors on April 27[13]; he has since gone on to re-claim his innocence, and alleges coercion by the board being behind his pleading guilty.[28]

In 2016, he was again charged by SFDA for multiple violations of his probation, including physical assault of his then-girlfriend in September 2014.[29][30] The San Francisco County Superior Court imposed a year of jail-term before staying the order on grounds of a promised appeal, in lieu of a bail-bond of $250,000.[31][32][30] In April 2018, a California state appeals court upheld the ruling[4] and Chahal spent six months in San Francisco County Jail, before being released.[33][34]

Awards and philanthropy

In 2012, after the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, Chahal founded the Chahal Foundation, which creates awareness campaigns to stop future hate crimes, provide scholarships, support disaster relief efforts, and improve schools in third-world countries.[35]

Publications

  • The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions, Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008) ISBN 0-230-61095-1

References

  1. ^ Hoge, Patrick (April 17, 2014). "Ad mogul Gurbaksh "G" Chahal pleads guilty to two misdemeanors, all others dismissed in domestic violence case". San Francisco Business Times.
  2. ^ a b Weissmann, Jordan (2014-04-24). "Is It OK to Invest in a Company if Its CEO Beats Women?". Slate. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Carson, Biz (August 14, 2016). "The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  4. ^ a b c Ma, Annie (2018-04-28). "Court upholds ruling against SF tech mogul Chahal in domestic violence case". SFGate. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  5. ^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2008). "Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 6, 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "ValueClick acquires Click Agents". AdvertisingAge. Crain Communications. November 3, 2000. Archived from the original on 2017-04-10. Retrieved 2017-04-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ Blakely, Rhys (September 5, 2007). "Yahoo snaps up BlueLithium in $300m deal". Times Online. Archived from the original on 2008-07-06. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  8. ^ Ferenstein, Gregory (2011-03-29). "RadiumOne CEO on His McDonald's Rejection, Social Ads, and Do-Not-Track Legislation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  9. ^ "Yahoo! Acquires Ad Network BlueLithium". TechCrunch. September 4, 2007. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Huet, Ellen (2016-08-13). "Gurbaksh Chahal flew high and fell fast". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  11. ^ Takahashi, Dean (2009-12-01). "gWallet raises $12.5M for more ethical virtual currency/offers system". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  12. ^ McMahan, Ty (October 18, 2010). "New Ad Network RadiumOne Aims To Tap Social 'Mega Trend'". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. ^ a b Swisher, Kara (April 27, 2014). "Exclusive: CEO Gurbaksh Chahal Fired by RadiumOne Board". Recode. Vox Media. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  14. ^ Primack, Dan (2014-04-25). "It's time for RadiumOne's abusive CEO to go". Fortune. CNN Money. Archived from the original on 2014-06-01. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  15. ^ Maytom, Tim (2017-06-28). "RadiumOne acquired by RhythmOne". Mobile Marketing Magazine.
  16. ^ Crowther, Mel; Thomas, Nick (January 31, 2018). "Name Change Marks Renaissance for Gravity4". MrWeb. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  17. ^ Huet, Ellen (April 21, 2015). "Gurbaksh Chahal And Gravity4 Hit With Gender Discrimination, Illegal Surveillance Lawsuit". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  18. ^ Ganguly, Payal (2019-11-12). "Post RadiumOne, Gurbaksh Chahal seeks success again with RedLotus; in talks to raise $50 mn". TechCircle. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
  19. ^ Kaur, Ranpreet (December 10, 2019). "EXCLUSIVE: Rubina Bajwa CONFIRMS her relationship with Gurbaksh Chahal; Says 'He is the centre of my world'". PINKVILLA. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  20. ^ "Rubina Bajwa spends the last few days of 2019 vacationing with beau Gurbaksh Singh Chahal and the pics will make you crave for a holiday! - Times of India". The Times of India. December 27, 2019. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  21. ^ a b "Internet mogul Gurbaksh Chahal back in court Monday". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  22. ^ Sabatini, Joshua (August 9, 2013). "DA: Internet mogul hit girlfriend 117 times over a half-hour period". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  23. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal, former CEO fired after domestic violence plea, settles dispute with RadiumOne". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  24. ^ Lee, Newton (2014). Lee, Newton (ed.). "Personal Total Information Awareness". Facebook Nation. Springer: 305–345. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1740-2_15. ISBN 978-1-4939-1740-2. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  25. ^ "Judge quashes video evidence in Internet mogul's domestic violence case". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  26. ^ a b Alexander, Kurtis; Ho, Vivian (August 8, 2013). "Internet mogul pleads not guilty to assault". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  27. ^ Elder, Jeff (September 10, 2015). "Tech Firm Tried to Save IPO Amid CEO Scandal". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  28. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal, former CEO fired after domestic violence plea, settles dispute with RadiumOne". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  29. ^ "Safety concerns keep ex-girlfriend from SF tech CEO's probation hearing". The San Francisco Examiner. 2016-04-23. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  30. ^ a b "Former tech CEO gets prison time for violating probation in domestic violence case". The San Francisco Examiner. 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  31. ^ Rainey, Libby (12 Aug 2016). "Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case". San Francisco Chroncile. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  32. ^ Conger, Kate (1 September 2016). "Despite looming jail time, Gurbaksh Chahal is back as Gravity4 CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  33. ^ Sernoffsky, Evan (August 31, 2018). "Tearful tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal jailed for probation violation". SF Gate. Retrieved September 1, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  34. ^ Van Derbeken, Jaxon (August 31, 2018). "Silicon Valley Internet Mogul Gurbaksh Chahal Sentenced to 6 Months in Domestic Violence Case". NBC Bay Area.
  35. ^ Evans, Teri (2012-08-21). "Serial Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal Commits $1 Million to Stop Hate Crimes". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gurbaksh Chahal.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gurbaksh_Chahal&oldid=937697801"