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Company That Dumped Limbaugh Over ‘Flukegate’ Admits: Yeah, That Hurt us More Than we Expected it Would

Aug. 3, 2012 8:01pm Becket Adams

Remember when the mainstream media and leftists everywhere flew into a rage because Rush Limbaugh associated 30-year-old Georgetown student Sandra Fluke with a rude word?

Do you also remember when the CEO of long-time Limbaugh sponsor Carbonite announced that his company could no longer associate itself with the EIB Network? Sure you do:

No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency.

Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.

Well, despite losing a few sponsors and having Media Matters lead a campaign to have him removed from the airwaves, Limbaugh is still here and he’s still annoying the left.

Oh, yeah, and it appears Carbonite’s decision to drop the EIB Network hasn’t worked out so well for them.

“On August 1 Carbonite released its 2d Quarter 2012 results, the first full quarter after dropping Limbaugh in March. The results shocked Wall Street, as Carbonite did not meet its growth targets, causing multiple analysts to drop the target price,” William A. Jacobson writes for Legal Insurrection.

“The stock dropped 15 [percent] in a day,” he adds.

But the most interesting part about all of this is the fact that Carbonite CEO David Friend may have admitted on Wednesday that dropping Limbaugh hurt the company.

Here’s a transcript of Friend’s admission [via Legal Insurrection, emphasis added]:

Friend: “There were four factor that contributed to this slower growth. First, in March we stopped working with one of our top producing radio endorsers. While we recently contracted with three new radio personalities, it takes 3-6 months to ramp up new radio hosts so we probably won’t see the full effect of this for another quarter or two.”

Q: “I guess I’m a little surprised that you were caught by surprise by the radio host change ’cause I know we’ve talked and I guess my impression was that it wouldn’t be that impactful but I guess it was quite impactful.

Friend: “Yeah, I’d say it turned out to be a bigger issue than we had anticipated. Because you know at the time there was a lot of noise, I mean we had a huge spike in web traffic around that time just because of all the interest in the whole subject. And it took close to a month for that to sort of die down. And meanwhile our metrics were, we really couldn’t see what was going because there was so much noise around the website that we had no idea what the ultimate impact was going to be. It turned out to be a bigger hole in our revenue than we had thought when we initially did this. However, I don’t think there was any, I’m not regretful of the decision, I think things would have been worse had we not done that.

“The last statement by Friend, that the damage would have been worse had Carbonite not dropped Limbaugh is laughable. Friend has been caught doing serious damage to shareholders based on a political decision which was taken precipitously on a Saturday night,” Jacobson writes.

“It’s too convenient now to say things would have been worse, when Friend completely misjudged the impact of dropping Limbaugh,” he adds.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Click here to read Jacobson’s full report, this story has been updated.

(H/T: Washington Examiner)

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Comments (352)

UnifiedSerenity
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:34pm
All they need to do is come out on highly liberal stations, hip hop and give away some stuff there, and pander the excessively liberal crowd….. maybe not, they don’t like to pay for anything… it’s all freebies or nuthin. Carbonite is screwed.

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Hickory
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:22pm
They ‘re done.

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eegor
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:20pm
It comes down to a matter of trust. Carbonite bailed on Limbaugh as the political situation heated up. What will they do with their customer’s files when the politicians lean on them later on? Do you believe your data is “safe” with Carbonite? Really?

Trust is hard to obtain, and much harder to get back after you’ve broken it.

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- Beckaj
  Posted on August 4, 2012 at 11:39am
  Excellent point.
  
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TOM SAWYER
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:20pm
“Things could have been worse…..” is all that the story needs to be read. Carbonite did the right thing.

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Michigander
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:18pm
Isn’t it funny that the left didn’t come to their rescue and do a Carbonite appreciation day.

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- Beckaj
  Posted on August 4, 2012 at 11:39am
  LOL! Love it.
  
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KingCoal59
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:17pm
I wasn’t a customer of Carbonite and now I will never be, but I had bought from Proflowers, sherries berries, and red envelope I will NEVER buy from them again even if he takes them back. The same goes for my husband and family.

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Dakota2k
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:15pm
Guess who is going to drop Carbonite?

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wing_n_it
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:11pm
Right after the Fluke incident I emailed Carbonite and told them I’d not use their service and emailed ProFlowers (or whatever their name is) and told them to take me off their mailing list. I’ll not be a customer of either of theirs. I purposely do business in states that tend to be Conservative when doing internet ordering as well. I do all I can to support like-minded companies/people.

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Inlandmar2
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:08pm
I dropped Carbonite and went to Mozy. Can’t say I’m sorry for doing it. Screw Carbonite!

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RightThinking1
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:08pm
Hmmmm. I’m pondering sending some Chick-Fil-A coupons to the CEO. I suppose I ought to send off a few to Adam Smith too.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:07pm
Rush wasn’t his first mistake
Mr Friend has made some other regretful decisions in the last few years.

1. He got caught up in the whole “Hope and Change” and during a drunken spree election night, had the Obama symbol tatooed on the head of his member, and Hope/Change tatooed on each of the “Boys”. Now everytime he thinks he is getting lucky, the women just point and laugh. Kind of a mood killer.

2. He decided last year that his nose had made a lewd comment about a waitress, so he had it cut off. Again, I believe alcohol and prescription drugs were involved.

3. About 8 months ago, he felt his right foot was really being racist and bigoted because it fell asleep during a “Self Pleasuring” event, and he wholly blamed it on the fact his right hand doesn’t like Obama or Hope/Change. Therefore he had that removed and sued it for discrimination. Again, this time I heard it was done while he was “Huffing” paint and drain cleaner.

4. Now on to the Rush incident, he in a sense, castrated his company because of an insult made to a woman he didn’t know. Again, done on a weekend, and probably there was some kind of “Substance” invovled.

So, to summerize, this poor soul seems to have a problem of “Cutting” something off every few months, and soon, I fear for his tongue, sooner or later, he will find out it is the biggest offender of all his body parts. Its days are numbered.

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- Beckaj
  Posted on August 4, 2012 at 11:43am
  That was strange.
  
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TelepromoterNChief
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 10:05pm
Carbon what?

Yeah, you knew what you were getting when you hooked up with Rush.

He can hurt or help you.

You hurt yourselves. Now you can stand your ground while waiting in the unemployment line.

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cassie1655
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:56pm
Sorry about their luck! For every choice there IS a consequence! Now deal with it!

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NEL
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:49pm
I dropped Carbonite the minute I heard the news.

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REVerse
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:45pm
Hey Carbonite- this is for you.

http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=priceiswrong&play=true

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PoochieGirl
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:44pm
I only used Carbonite because they were on Rush’s site. I had just renewed when they dumped him. When it comes time to renew again, it sure won’t be with them. Idgits!

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Diane TX
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:42pm
Isn’t it funny that the “Left” actually believes that the majority of the Country thinks as do? Yes, the Left is politically in power currently, but now that we can all see how much damage their beliefs have done to this Country, it’ll be decades before we’ll trust them again.

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rclay36
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:40pm
I was going to sign up and you their product for my whole family when this happened. I will NEVER use them. You want to make your bed with Liberals who don’t have money or appreciate your company for what it is then fine. You turned your back on 2/3 of America for the sake of one liberal spokeswomen! I hope there is a chapter 13 in your future.

Rick Clay
304-550-7970

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siennasun
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:39pm
I didn’t read all the post..but what about Sleep Number..?

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LittleSmidge
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:36pm
Rush rules!

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Beckaj
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:33pm
Funny, I heard their ad on another conservative host recently and was considering getting them, but now that I have it confirmed that they dropped Rush, I’m no longer considering them.

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EyesOpen2
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:32pm
Even after a significant profit loss, the CEO’s arrogance will not allow him to admit that it was a huge mistake to drop Rush Limbaugh. He should remember that PRIDE can be a very dangerous and damaging emotion. They deserve what they got!!

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Gonzodoggy
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:22pm
Isn’t carbonite a Beck sponsor as well? Or, didn’t it used to be?

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BaltimoreJoe
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:22pm
Rush should pick up SpiderOak or SOS Online Backup. They are both miles ahead of the failing Carbonite.

Frankly the Carbonite CEO’s still not showing signs of business sense…all he has to do is visit tvbythenumbers.com to see that the cable and news outlets he was soo afraid of are all failing….all of them toegether don’t get the viewership of Fox. They had 1-200 weirdo’s barraging them with phone calls from home, work, the 7-11, cell phone, daddies cell phone, all to look bigger than they are.

Yesterday 11+M folks showed up at CFA unannounced and on their own to support a true conservative business. CFA certainly knows who is spending dollars and who isn’t. After Carbonite files for their BR, probably with a shiny new CEO, they will know also.

We’re not going to take kindly to any TR host that carries this turd as a sponsor.

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psadie
Posted on August 3, 2012 at 9:21pm
I think that it will take a WHOLE lot longer than two quarters to get back to where they should be and recoup their losses. These CEO’s don’t get it when they wade into politics and get on the wrong side of the majority of the population. I guess they are just as dumb and blind to things going on around them.

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