funding and 150 employees from CNET. The decision to create a search engine was "universally booed" and caused CNET's stock to decline. However, two years later Minor sold a 60% interest in Snap to NBC for $500 million. Similarly, investors widely criticized Minor in 1999, when he increased marketing spending from $400,000 to $100 million. However, in hindsight the campaign was later believed to have dramatically increased website traffic and recognition of the CNET brand. Minor also sold some of CNET's technology rights to a company called Vignette, and he was earning revenue from CNET's advertising sales as the website grew in popularity. CNET joined the NASDAQ 100 and held interests in Vignette, Beyond.com, and others. By 1997, Minor's estimated net worth was $180.2 million. By 2000, his 11 percent interest in CNET alone was worth $495 million. In March 2000, Minor retired from his CEO position. Minor remained on the CNET board as Chairman, while cofounder Shelby Bonnie took over as CEO. Post CNET According to Minor, he left CNET to focus on expanding Salesforce.com, where he was the second-largest shareholder when the company went public. Minor was a co-founder of the company and had made an early investment of $19.5 million from his personal wealth in 1999. He was also an early investor in Rhapsody. Minor started a venture capital firm called 12 Entrepreneuring in February 2000, but it quickly dissolved due to internal discord and the decline of the tech-sector after the dot-com bubble. He created another venture capital firm focused on software-as-a-service companies in 2004, called Minor Ventures. Minor Ventures did well and invested in Grand Central Communications, which was sold to Google in 2007 for $65 million and later became Google Voice. It installed OpenDNS at its San Francisco office, providing coaching, investments, and administrative support to get the company started. Bankruptcy Minor said he wanted to focus more on philanthropy and venture capitalism, rather than being a CEO. He eventually lost his wealth on real-estate, horse-breeding, legal disputes, and artwork, culminating in a bankruptcy filing in June 2013. Business Insider depicted the decline in Minor's wealth as "most likely due to his expensive taste in real estate, art, and horses." The Washington Post said it was a "post-divorce spending spree." Minor said it was a mix of the overall recession and banking crisis, as well as being depressed after his divorce and his father's