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Naveen K. Jain (born 6 September 1959) is a business executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder of InfoSpace, Intelius, and Moon Express. In 2000, Forbes ranked Jain 121 on their list of 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of 2.2 billion dollars.

Background

Jain grew up in villages throughout Uttar Pradesh, one of India's most populated provinces, known for it's low level of literacy, and in New Delhi, India. Later moving to Roorkee where in 1979 he earned an engineering degree from Indian Institutes of Technology and then moving to Jamshedpur where in 1982 he earned his MBA at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources

Professional background

Early professional life

Jain left India in 1983 after being accepted to Burroughs via a business-exchange program to explore the emerging U.S. high-technology market. He worked at companies that included Convergent Technologies and Tandon Computer Corporation.

Microsoft and MSN

In 1989, Jain joined Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, working in the capacity of Program Manager. He initially began working on OS/2 and then moved on to several of Microsoft's flagship products, including MS-DOS, Windows NT, and Windows 95. Jain is listed on three patents from his time with Microsoft.). He later moved to the development of the Microsoft Network. Jain left Microsoft in 1996 to form InfoSpace.

InfoSpace

Jain founded InfoSpace in March 1996 and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2000. InfoSpace provides metasearch and private-label Internet search services for consumers and businesses. While CEO, Jain was featured in several business publications with topics ranging from his personal worth (almost one billion dollars in 1999) to his manic demeanor and personality quirks. By 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Naveen was ranked 121 on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, with a net worth of USD$2.2 billion. He resumed the role of CEO in 2001, but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December 2002. In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing. In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.

Intelius

In 2003, Jain co-founded Intelius, a Bellevue, Washington-based Web security firm with annual revenues of $150 million and more than 350 employees. Intelius specializes in public records information and offers service to consumers and businesses which include background checks and identity theft protection. Co-founders include John Arnold, Ed Petersen, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, and Chandan Chauhan.

The company has been subject to significant criticism and lawsuits relating to their marketing practices.

Moon Express

In April 2011, Jain, Barney Pell, and Robert “Bob” Richards, co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California based company that plans to mine the moon for its rare minerals, "such as Yttrium, Dysprosium, Nyobium and others". The company was awarded a contract by NASA that "could be worth up to $10 million" and is a competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

Litigation related to Infospace stock trading

In May 2002, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman made a landmark $247 million ruling in favor of Thomas Dreiling, a small shareholder of InfoSpace who brought a lawsuit against Jain under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 for purchasing shares of Infospace in violation of six month short swing insider trading rules. The case centered on Jain taking control of stock he had given to trust funds for his children in 1998 and 1999. He later gave the shares back to the trusts. The judge ruled that Jain has in essence "purchased" the stock for nothing. During that same period, Jain sold $202 million worth of stock. Jain argued that he didn't intend to take control of the trusts and blamed J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., among others, for the mistake.

While the case was in appeal, attorneys at the Securities and Exchange Commission urged the appeals court to reverse the ruling. Under that unusual pressure, attorneys representing InfoSpace shareholders agreed to settle the case, with the judgment against Jain reduced to $65 million, adjusted to $83 million, and finally settled at $105 million as of March 2009.

Following the settlement, Jain unsuccessfully sued J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc.; its lawyer, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., and Perkins Coie — which jointly represented Jain and Bellevue, Washington-based InfoSpace from 1998 to mid-2003. Jain accused the securities professionals of negligence, but lower courts dismissed Jain's complaints, citing federal law which prohibits lawsuits blaming security companies for risky trades. The Supreme Court in March 2009 refused to hear an appeal from Jain of a decision against him from the Washington state Court of Appeals. Jain and his wife Anuradha had accused the defendants of being responsible for language in InfoSpace's initial public offering prospectus that contained errors, which ultimately played a part in the $247 million judgment against Jain.

Philanthropy

In 2009 Jain helped raise over $200,000 at a luncheon benefitting Overlake Service League. He and his wife Anu were co-chairs of the event.

Board Memberships

As of 2011 Jain was on the board of trustees of Singularity University

Jain co-chairs the education and global development initiative of the X Prize Foundation, as well as serving on the Board of Trustees.

Personal life and Recognitions

On April 25th, the Times Group has awarded Jain the “Light of India Business Leadership Award” for “visionary entrepreneurship”.

Jain is married and lives in Medina, Washington.

References

1. ^ Forbes 400, 2000 "World's Business Leaders - Forbes 400". Forbes. Retrieved June 7, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
2. ^ "Intelius' Naveen Jain Turns to Moon Mining, Philanthropy". IndiaWest.com. May 9, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
3. ^ "Dot-con Job: Part 1: Dubious Deals". The Seattle Times. March 8, 2005. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
4. ^ Smarter than Bill "Smarter than Bill". Red Herring. June 30, 1997. Retrieved June 7, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
5. "Intelius, Inc. Executive Profile: Naveen Jain". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
6. US patent 6357000  US patent 5655154  US patent 5434776 
7. "Skill Shop". The Financial Express. Oct 26, 1999. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
8. "Techno-poet who is smarter than Bill Gates". Sunday Business - via Highbeam. May 28, 2000. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
9. "Jain, Naveen on Forbes 400 (2000)". Forbes. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
10. "INFOSPACE INC (Form: 8-K, Received: 01/23/2001 17:15:42". google.brand.edgar-online.com. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
11. ^ "InfoSpace severs final ties with founder Jain". Puget Sound Business Journal. April 28, 2003. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
12. "Former InfoSpace CEO faces $200 million fine". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. May 16, 2003. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
13. "Intelius, Inc". Retrieved June 7, 2011.
14. "Intelius Says it's Capable of Conducting a Full Background Check on Anyone". Seattle Weekly. April 11, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
15. "Internet Wizard Loses His Magic: Intelius Hit with Two Class Action Suits". Seattle Weekly. October 27, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
16. "Intelius and the Dubious Art of "Post-Transaction Marketing"". Seattle Weekly. March 19, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
17. "'Deceptive' Intelius cheated thousands of people". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. August 9, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
18. "Moving the heaven to get some rare earth". The Hindu. June 2, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
19. Hennigan, W.J. (2011-04-08). "MoonEx aims to scour moon for rare materials". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-04-10. MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles. ... The company is among several teams hoping to someday win the Google Lunar X Prize competition, a $30-million race to the moon in which a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface and have it explore at least 1/3 of a mile. It also must transmit high definition video and images back to Earth before 2016. ... should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013
20. "Ex-InfoSpace chief ordered to pay $247 million penalty". The Seattle Times. August 23, 2003. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
21. "Medina millionaire's rep takes another hit with $1.3 million Intelius settlement". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. August 10, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
22. "Unusual ally came to Jain's rescue: SEC". The Seattle Times. March 8, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
23. "Settlement agreement reached in Infospace derivative case, section 16(b) case, and certain related cases brought by the Jains - InfoSpace Press Release". www.sec.gov/Archives. December 22, 2004. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
24. "Court turns down appeal from Infospace founder". The Street. September 3, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
25. "Supreme Court Refuses To Hear InfoSpace Founder's Insider-Trading Appeal". mocoNews.net. March 10, 2009. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
26. "Overlake Service League sets benefit luncheon March 19". pnwlocalnews.com - Bellevuereporter. March 19, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
27. Bellevue LifeSpring (formerly Overlake Service League): Board - Recently renamed Bellevue Life Spring, the over 100 year old charity "administers five youth and three education programs, and a range of emergency assistance to help struggling families and individuals with rent, utilities, food, clothing, daycare, car repair and more."
28. "Singularity University - List of trustees". singularityu.org. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
29. "Education & Global Development Prize Group". X Prize Foundation. Retrieved June 7, 2011. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
30. "From the exec suite: Q&A with X PRIZE's Naveen Jain". The First Post. May 29, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.

External links

• Official website of Naveen Jain

Template:Persondata

• 1959 births
• Businesspeople in software
• American computer businesspeople
• American chief executives
• People from Seattle, Washington
• Living people
• People from Uttar Pradesh
• Indian Institutes of Technology alumni
• American people of Indian descent
• American philanthropists
• American billionaires