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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 We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.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)

crystalsky
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 12:26pm
By the way you should look up the word. Rested Case. You go rush.

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crystalsky
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:36am
I Love Rush,Glen, Sean, Savage, And Even Andy Dean. Smile

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CALABASH72
Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:53pm
He did not think about his actions. Who listens to Rush? Conservative minded people who have enough money to own a computer or laptop and value the contents of both. Politically correct BS does not fly with the listeners of his show. The board of directors should ask for his resignation for making such a bad call in haste.

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libsaredangerous
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 3:55pm
Wake up fool…..you are going down. I canceled my service and I will never do business with them again. Nor will I see or allow my children to play with any Muppets. This should be a warning to all–Shut you g/d mouth and do what you do. Taking stances on these political fights will alienate at least 50% of you customer base and you should never mess with Limbaugh’s audience.

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vthockeydad
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:53pm
I will not be renewing my subscription with them. Neither will my son and daughter who I purchased a yearly membership. They guessed wrong taking on talk radio

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zorro
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:21pm
Everyone keep an eye on that last statement…

“I think things would have been worse had we not done that.” It’s the statement we’ll hear a lot from the establishment folks that pushed a progressive like Romney down our throats. I can hear Coulter now that another candidate would have gotten beaten worse.

I know this story isn’t about that it’s just this is the comment most people use when they refuse to admit they are wrong.

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65Plus
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:20pm
Carbonite is run by a Progressive. Beck should dump him as well. Other, less toxic alternatives available.

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HuskerDave
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:00pm
Taking on Limbaugh never works, because there are 20,000,000+ of us who have his back.

I still don’t think Rush was even out of line. A little more provacative than usual, but still far tamer than “entertainers” from the left encampment.

TEA

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altops
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:54am
I deleted them too.

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hctulc
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:06am
This story apparently centers around the Carbonite annual stockholders meeting and the therein normal recollection theme of ‘how we got where we are today’. I suspect that this rehash will cause yet another dip in the company stock price for this year and for the CEO, another setback for any credibility of his marketing expertise or of his tenacity to protect the stockholders long term interests. And further, the CEO can likely look forward to this same reminder at each future stockholders meeting! He may as well have posted a YOU TUBE VIDEO of him berating some female Carbonite stockholder while she is listening to Rush! HA HA HA.

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AppleAnnie
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 11:06am
I was a subscriber of Carbonite. One day after this mess I noticed a charge on my credit card for a renewal. Did not authorize a renewal. Called and cancelled the subscription.

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- 65Plus
  Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:21pm
  Hurray for you.
  
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hctulc
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:57am
To those who say Beck should drop Carbonite, I ask why should he? Carbonite is paying Beck, and, we are still not using Carbonite! I think that result is perfect!

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- HuskerDave
  Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:01pm
  A fine point.
  
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okredstate
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 9:30am
This is a center right country, and always will be. If you cave to the liberal mindset, then you have no one to blame but yourself. I don’t buy from General Motors or GE. I don’t go to the movies to fund the hollywood life style. I don’t patronize any company that pulls their advertising because something was said on a conservative talk show. I do support those companies that stand up against the filth of the left, and will go out of my way to do it.

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CatherineAnn
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:39am
Since they do not support free speech. I will never support them and here is my free speech…I hope you go out of business.

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JustPeachy
Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:21am
For crying out loud, Mr. Friend- – - have you never read – or at least HEARD – - that pride goes before a fall?!? Even now, you cannot admit you were wrong–that you made a terrible business decision! Instead, pride is having you cling to some even dumber idea that it would have been WORSE had you not dropped Limbaugh from your marketing strategy! Are you truly that PRIDEFUL or STUPID?!?

And guess what?!? Your continued stubborn pride may cost your company even more–and it’s not just about you! There are plenty of employees this could affect and my guess is it already has!

To admit when one makes a mistake is NOT weak, Mr. Friend–and in fact it is just the opposite and can even be therapeutic. We cannot learn from our mistakes if we refuse to own up to them–and in fact, will likely repeat them.

Get over yourself!

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- 65Plus
  Posted on August 6, 2012 at 12:22pm
  Neither Prideful nor Stupid. Progressive.
  
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