PointCast, Inc.

David Dorman's arrival at PointCast was a defining moment in its brief history. Just 21 months earlier, the company had broadcast its first live content over the Internet. The new service wasn't just a success; it was a sensation. PointCast turned idle PC screens into colorful receivers of news and information. The PointCast Network looked like an entirely new medium. The medium went by several names: Webcasting, push technology. Call it what you will, PointCast was at the center. And Dorman - one of the most respected executives in America, a serious candidate to become the CEO-savior of Apple Computer - had left a huge company to join an outfit with 260 employees.

The seeds of Dorman's arrival had been sown months earlier, when PointCast's founders and directors made the decision of a lifetime. They turned down a buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch and renewed their commitment to the dream of becoming a great stand-alone enterprise, a public company. "This is my opportunity to be part of something entrepreneurial," Dorman, 54, said during his speech. "I am interested in running a pure growth company. My job is to build a successful, highly forward-looking organization."

PointCast was, in many respects, yet another in a long line of entrepreneurial fairy tales set in Silicon Valley. The company was founded in July 1992 by Chris and Greg Hassett. Chris, who had just turned 30, was the visionary. He had a born-to-be-wild flair. He rode a Harley; he drove race cars. Greg, then 26, was the hacker. Like Chris, he had worked at Digital Equipment Corp. for several years. Earlier, in his teens, he'd written and sold computer games for the Apple II.

Their original company had a different name (PED Software) and mission (creating personalized newspapers for online services). But as the market changed and as the Net evolved, so did their company's business model - and its name. PointCast attracted $12 million from three of the Valley's best-known venture-capital firms. It launched its Internet-based network. All roads led to an IPO. Then Murdoch called.

"It caught me off guard," says Charles Geschke, 58, cofounder and president of Adobe Systems, and a PointCast board member. "But it validated PointCast as a media company."

It also turned a lot of heads. Rumors valued the offer at between $350 and $450 million worth of stock in News Corp., Murdoch's media company. Valley insiders chose up sides. Some argued that PointCast could become the Net's next great brand, following Yahoo! and Amazon.com - so why sell out? But what about the risks? The president of a hugely successful software company called the offer "a window of opportunity for PointCast to grow and deliver - or risk being obliterated by Microsoft."

The opinions that mattered most were those of PointCast's management team and directors. All along, the company's leaders had been telling anyone who would listen that PointCast was built to pioneer on the Net - and to stand alone as a company. Murdoch's deep pockets and global reach offered strategic benefits. But at what cost?

"It would mean yielding control," says Greg Hassett, PointCast's vice president of engineering and its chief technical officer. "Back then, we were getting - we still are getting - lots of calls from big companies. They would end the conversation with, 'Why don't we just merge?' We don't want to be some acquisition of the month."

On June 2, 1997, PointCast made its choice. It decided to stay the course and to reaffirm its corporate independence. The price of that commitment was the company's cofounder and visionary. Chris Hassett gave up his position as CEO, relinquished all management duties, accepted the title of chairman - and promptly exiled himself to New York City.

It wasn't the first time that a founder had sacrificed himself for the company he had built. But that doesn't make the episode any less poignant. Hassett was on the verge of worldwide visibility - the next in line to join Net celebrities like Netscape's Marc Andreessen and Marimba's Kim Polese. Today he is a virtual nonentity. "Chris's experience had been with a small organization," Geschke says. "Now we were talking about a different level of experience - about long-term prospects, rather than a quick return. We had talked about this before."

Hassett's departure meant that PointCast had to find a new leader, someone with the standing that Chris Hassett lacked. After nearly five months, the search led to Dave Dorman.

"It was amazing how traditional most of the media guys were," says Jaleh Bisharat, 38, PointCast's senior vice president for marketing. "The interviewing process taught us a lot about ourselves. Dave was so intellectually superior to the other candidates. He has the experience to take us from an entrepreneurial company to an ongoing business."