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Sky’s limit at EarthLink
After some recent business setbacks and failures, Sky Dayton, the 1990s technology wunderkind who founded Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc., is leaving the company’s board of directors, EarthLink just announced.
Dayton, a California millionaire, hasn’t really been too involved with the day-to-day business of EarthLink for some time, of course.
But it was Dayton who who created Helio, the cell phone company forged in a deal between EarthLink and Korea’s SK Telecom that fizzled in June. Helio announced in June it was selling out to Virgin Mobile for a fraction of what the two companies had invested in the venture.
Dayton also was a big supporter of EarthLink’s push into municipal wireless Internet access, another venture that flopped.
None of that takes away from the roaring success Dayton had in 1994 when he started EarthLink back when he was 23 years old and dial-up Internet access was still booming. EarthLink merged with Atlanta-based Internet service provider MindSpring in 1999.
In a statement, Dayton indicated he might try another startup.
“After 14 years, I believe it is the right time for me to return full time to my entrepreneurial roots,” he said.
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