Last night I was out for drinks with Danny Choaflux, Trevor Blake, and Crawford, and we got on the subject of Richard Metzger’s corporate cash grabs.

Metzger’s well known for having bamboozled TCI into funding the site’s creation. Once they saw the actual product, they dropped it and gave him the rights to the site. Then he and Gary Baddeley sold the site to RazorFish, who later gave it back to them after the dot-com bubble burst. Then he was able to get the sci-fi channel to pay for the Disinfo TV show, and keep the rights after they decided not to air it.

I drew the comparison to demonology… Metzger was essentially working with assorted demons and imps and other malevolent actors to manifest his will. I’m not talking so much about the more remote corporate magical tactics people like Chris Arkenberg and Wes Unruh have been working on. Instead, Metzger has worked directly with these forces through their flesh and blood representatives, sleazy businessmen with bad intentions. And so far gotten what he wanted out of them.

Or has he?

(I decided to go through and tag all my corporate magic related posts for easier reference… I found some stuff I’d nearly forgotten about).